LibreOffice

Any idea if this is the "stable" version or a beta?

This gives me the impression that "conservative" users may want to wait at least for 3.4.1:

(emphasis added)
Source: http://blog.documentfoundation.org/2011/06/03/the-document-foundation-announces-libreoffice-3-4-0/

 

From whatever I've read so far, I've not got the feeling that this was the best outcome. For those, like IBM, opposed to "copyleft", maybe it is.

At a functional level, I have no clue as to which is superior. The feeling I got is that LibreOffice has more features. (I haven't done any actual feature or performance comparison.)

 

Here's a PC World article which offers a little more insight as far new improvements.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/229353/despite_oracles_antics_libreoffice_gets_a_big_update.html#tk.rss_news

I'm a long-time OO user, but I'm definitely going to check out Libre Office, based on some of the comments here, and various other reviews.

 

For KNOS, the most urgent need is stability and reliability since our OS is intended primarily for institutional users and the non-technical. Anything that is the least bit unstable is therefore an anathema to our design philosophy. We ARE keeping an eye on Libre since it's the old OO team primarily, but like Chromium, too many bumps in the night at this time to take it seriously at least for our customers.

But we're always willing to go with anything that's rock solid and it's too early to make that call ...

 

Thanks, going to update soon. Interesting that they slimmed down the installer.

Nothing on Natty repository yet.

 

Thanks for the reply. I guess other than testers not too many folks would want instability.

If you don't mind, would you mind explaining this bit to me?

Why do you and a whole bunch of Linux distros want to provide an office suite as part of the package? I'm asking for a few reasons:
office suites don't come small
I might prefer another office suite
I might not want an office suite
including the office suite increases the download size by 10% at least (my rough guess)
I can't give you a specific link to back this up, but I've read (often enough) over here (http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum) that it's better to download O from the (then) Sun/Oracle site rather than use the version packed with a distro. This answer was provided by a moderator in response to issues using O on a Linux distro. So again, double work.

My guess is that "market research" favors bundling, but I still had to ask

Apologies in advance if the question is inappropriate in any way!

 

No such thing as an "inappropriate question" in my book.

The answer however is a bit complicated with KNOS. First off, we're not Linux in any way shape or form. KNOS is based on BSD, same heritage as Macintosh's OSX. However, OSX branched from a much older and inherently less secure version of BSD. KNOS is intended for use by ordinary people with nothing to install, nothing to configure, and we can build a custom version to the exact specifications of any group which wishes to distribute a custom version to their own users without any additional effort on their part. So each KNOS build is, by design, a complete system on a bootable disk be it a DVD, USB stick, or installed onto hard drives by computer builders. KNOS is a completely locked-down and problem-free system, the dream of admins everywhere. And we exceed the wet dreams of the professionally paranoid too.

Our "retail" version for the general public was one of these custom builds based on our experience with corporate customers as to what a typical computer user needs in order to not require Windows or Mac. KNOS can actually replace the existing computer's contents although we designed it to be an alternative, leaving the original system completely alone and intact. A browser with flash, java and additional multimedia support, VOIP support (Skype and our SIP client), two good password managers, graphics capability for both photoshop-like graphics manipulation as well as vector graphics, a chat client, remote desktop clients, a video editor, audio recorder, bittorrents, and of course the ability to view and edit documents, make PDF's, presentation software, pretty much a completely portable whatever you find on your typical office computer or businessperson's travelling laptop along with all of the necessary security measures to keep the user absolutely safe and uninfected. That was the design criteria for our public release. Custom builds of course can be anything that the client wants us to build for them and include or not include. In our design, these were the various things that people asked for during our two year beta process and so they all found their way into what we offer as a "general public" release and those who helped us design it were satisfied with the end product. So it wasn't so much a desire to "bundle" as it was to be as inclusive as possible since custom builds require additional construction costs.

So in our design, we simply went with what proved to be the best environment ordinary folks wanted. For custom builds, we can put together anything the customer wants. We can even provide emulation of Windows, Linux, Solaris, even MS-DOS if that's what the corporate customer wants us to build for them. If you've ever heard of China's work on a secure OS called "Kylin" or "NeoKylin" that's what KNOS is, but we delivered a long time ago and I dare say, we're what the Chinese promised their own military and still haven't gotten done as yet. If I've made you curious, drop by our site and check the "about" stuff ... you might find it interesting. But no, we're not Linux or anything like it. Our stuff is for people who DON'T want to mess with their computer, just use it without any hassle or having to read the manual.

 

This link may be useful to know about LibreOffice's versioning:
http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/LibreOffice-clarifies-version-numbering-1243446.html

 

After reading about the recent events, my heart is on the side of TDF and LibreOffice.

 

The portableapps.com package of LibreOffice 3.3.3 is coming soon.

Version 3.3.3 is the latest stable version. 3.4 is still the equivalent of a beta.

 

Thanks for that info vasa1.

 

Sure one's more stable than the other, but how can you prove that? 3.4.0 has already gone through the beta and RC phase.

 

It's not my claim. I don't have to (and am not in a position to) prove anything.
http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/LibreOffice-clarifies-version-numbering-1243446.html

 

Doesn't say anything about being equivalent to a beta, which is your claim.

 

And it doesn't say anything about it being an RC either.

 

I prefer not to provide large quotes but from the article cited:

 

Source:
http://blog.documentfoundation.org/2011/05/13/announcing-a-new-beta-release/

What else is needed? I'll try and hunt it down if it's important.

 

Seriously, why are you linking to outdated sources? 3.4.0 RC was released at the end of May. Then 3.4.0 final at the beginning of June.

 

Please read the entry dated 16 June 2011:
http://blog.documentfoundation.org/category/announcements/

The older links were to explain their versioning policy.

 

I'm with vasa1 on this. The 3.4.0 Final release is essentially a beta.

! LibreOffice 3.4.0 Final (2011-06-03)
For early adopters

The 'early adopters' & the exclamation mark (!) sort of gives it away. I had a look at 3.4 & thought it had some stability issues. I have since replaced it with 3.3.3. Which is working fine. I really do need a good reliable word processor & although I greatly admire beta testers (especially of freeware), I can't quite afford to be a test pilot at the moment.

 

Debian 6 offers LibreOffice

Source: http://ostatic.com/blog/debian-dumps-openoffice-for-libreoffice dated June 23 2011

http://ostatic.com/blog/libreoffice-3-3-3-released-for-the-cautious dated Jun 16 2011

 

What do you guys call a beta of a "beta" then? To be honest, I simply don't agree.

 

An early adopter version?

 

I'd call it a MajorGeeks Final.

 

These were my words:

Let's leave semantics at the door and try to contribute useful information.