Is Apache OpenOffice Finally On the Way Out? (apache.org) 137
Reader JImbob0i0 writes: After almost another year without a release and another major CVE leaving users vulnerable for that year the Chairman of the Project Management Committee has started public discussions on what it will entail to retire the project, following the Apache Board showing concern at the poor showing.
It's been a long battle which would have been avoided if Oracle had not been so petty. Did this behaviour actually help get momentum in the community underway though? What ifs are always hard to properly answer. Hopefully this long drawn out death rattle will finally come to a close and the wounds with LibreOffice can heal with the last few contributors to AOO joining the rest of the community.
It's been a long battle which would have been avoided if Oracle had not been so petty. Did this behaviour actually help get momentum in the community underway though? What ifs are always hard to properly answer. Hopefully this long drawn out death rattle will finally come to a close and the wounds with LibreOffice can heal with the last few contributors to AOO joining the rest of the community.
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MS Office will always be superior. Why use a crappy clone when the best is readily available?
sincerely I prefer the traditional UI of OO rather than the obnoxious ribbon of MS, not to mention many problems I had nn the past with MS office which I could resolve only with OOo
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Hi AC who apparently does not know that letters can be capitalized.
I use LibreOffice and OpenOffice because I don't want to buy into Microsoft's current subscription model or pay full price for the last offline release. Why do I use both? Because they both work wrong in various ways, but usually not overlapping.
Basic features work in either, but most of those work just fine in a plaintext format anyway, so that isn't saying a whole lot. I've had complex tables in text documents work in one but fail to sa
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*best* is debatable. Vendor lock-in is a bigger risk with the potential for suddenly losing access to your data.
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Re: RIP OpenOffice (Score:2)
What software and OS would you use to work with those files 20 years from now if Microsoft went away?
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assuming you can write the code, had time to write the code, yes
and assuming you'd have working hardware that could run the ancient os and code. even virtualization then might not support certain device drivers the ancient os needs
I've worked at places that had media nothing could read. like those 8.25" 10MB Iomega disks....there's two dual drive sets on eBay right now but they're non-working. can't remember what cable and card those needed, 8 bit scsi I think
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and another thing, you'll have the "activation codes" when Microsoft is going to monthly subscription model and 20 years from now they'll laugh in your face when you want to activate your ancient windows?
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you're assumings some things about the virtualization software in the future
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Granted, it hasn't actually happened yet, but Microsoft clearly would love nothing better than to force you to an Office 365 subscription and to store all your data on OneDrive.
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If you mean MS-Office is more compatible with MS-Office documents (glitch-for-glitch), well, that should be obvious.
Microsoft needs competition. Without competition they get slimier and slimier, and more expensive.
And yes, MS-Office is feature-rich I will agree, but that's because they want users to get used to those features so that they don't switch brands.
The MS-Office UI is a mess in my opinion, but once you get
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If you mean MS-Office is more compatible with MS-Office documents (glitch-for-glitch), well, that should be obvious.
That's only true in general within the same release of MS-Office. If you include legacy documents, LibreOffice will open more of them, and more formats overall.
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LibreOffice is great, and some of its tools (I'm thinking of the change history) are in some ways better imho than MS Office.
But I wish it was more reliable. I had to subscribe to MS Office recently because LibreOffice (even the latest versions) was corrupting images in documents and screwing format around them (unrecoverable once saved), and mis-displaying basic highlighting in even very simple documents wth nothing obviously fancy. As these were contracts and things like that, some of my colleages were ge
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The MS-Office UI is a mess in my opinion, but once you get used to where everything is, you tend to want to stick with the same brand: the devil you know.
MS doesn't give a damn about users being comfortable with their software.
If they did, they wouldn't change the location of functions from one version to the next. Instead, they would just introduce new functions, and leave the old ones where they were previously.
They have to revamp the UI regularly or users won't buy into the idea that the new version is any better than the old version, and therefore be willing to pay for the new version.
Re:RIP OpenOffice (Score:4, Insightful)
"They have to revamp the UI regularly or users won't buy into the idea that the new version is any better than the old version, and therefore be willing to pay for the new version."
Google (Android) and Mozilla (Firefox) have the same philosophy it seems.
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Other than "the ribbon", They've been mostly the same from one version to the next in my observation.
I don't know their rational for the ribbon, but that change sure ticked off many. I saw many prior-version how-to books in the trash shortly after. Maybe they figure it's okay to do a complete overhaul of the UI every 15 years, and live with short-term grumbling.
nothing to see here (Score:1)
just open source licenses functioning as intended.
Switched from Open to Libre... (Score:5, Interesting)
Oracle's antics caused me to switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice, not from any "GPL Purity" reasons (which I care little about) but from a reasonable suspicion that Oracle, being Evil, would soon do something I did not like.
When it was given to Apache, I'd basically consider it a toss-up between the two, but I was already on LibreOffice, and didn't have any particular reason to go back. Since then, Libre seems to be a more active project than Open, so I prefer it on that basis.
I suspect that's a lot of the issue -- People left "because Oracle" (makes Signs against Evil) they're very close to the same software, one is getting more work done on it than the other, no particular reason to prefer OpenOffice.
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Oracle's antics caused me to switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice, not from any "GPL Purity" reasons (which I care little about) but from a reasonable suspicion that Oracle, being Evil, would soon do something I did not like.
Same here. It makes me think that the Java community would be better served if Oracle turned over stewardship of Java to ASF or even a new organization. I use OpenJDK for *nix, but as far as I can tell, support for OpenJDK on Windows is sorely lacking.
In fact, when I have to work on Windows, Oracle's ridiculousness with forcing the Java control panel to always turn on automatic checks for updates is maddening. I mean, I'm a programmer. I have to maintain control over the configuration of my development
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Same Java problem here. I actually modified the hosts file on my dev machine to blackhole the java update domains.
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The only reason that Abiword is not having any windows releases is the lack of windows developers. Learn to code and help out. It is Opensource.
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But somebody has to spend the time. That is the thing about FOSS. It is not really free. Developing is hard work and all too many people just do not seem to get that. If you love those programs and can code then for goodness sake contribute. Maybe you could find enough Abiword users to do a gofundme and pay someone to work on the Windows version.
AbiWord is a good project and I hate to see it starve for developers.
I am thinking about doing some work on joe myself.
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> I am thinking about doing some work on joe myself.
--Any new work on ' jstar ' would be welcome, it's my favorite text editor. ;-) Especially documenting how to turn off Word Wrap and Auto Indent by default in the config file... It's been a while since I tried googling stuff like that, but it seems like there are some broken features in Joe's jstar.
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Of course being open source there is nothing stopping developers porting elements from package to package. Forking is the core of FOSS, it allows the public trialling of all sorts of stuff.
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Unfortunately, that's not quite true in this case. Any porting/sharing of code between AOO and LO is one way (from AOO -> LO) and had been one way. AOO cannot consume LO code unless specifically relicensed.
MySQLs Next (Score:4, Insightful)
Oracle (for whatever reason) has no community trust. MariaDB and other forks are getting common use and will likely see the same shift.
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Look for essential LO dependencies on systemd coming soon, and gradual death of LO on Windows.
I can completely understand these fears, but do they have a basis? What makes you think -- especially -- that LO will drop Windows?
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Dead, Just Didn't Know It (Score:3)
OpenOffice died the moment LibreOffice forked it. The ghost of OpenOffice.org just didn't know it was dead. When most of your major developers leave to carry on a competing project, the prior project dies.
Re:Dead, Just Didn't Know It (Score:5, Insightful)
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VIable financial models versus Oracle (Score:2)
Oh, wait. Oracle apparently and unfortunately seems to have a highly viable financial model. The current problem is merely that OpenOffice is NOT a part of those profits.
So how about considering SOLUTIONS. At least LibreOffice got mentioned in a couple of posts, but the underlying problem remains unaddressed: Is the financial model viable? I don't know enough about LibreOffice to say, but if the economic model is as fundamentally broken, then it doesn't really matter, does it?
What about a BETTER financial m
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Getting rid of Java completely is the long term plan. You can already (thanks to Debian) tell it to build without Java, and it will compile everything but Base, which is the only component left using Java.
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What's The Difference? (Score:3)
Re:What's The Difference? (Score:4, Informative)
Well, LibreOffice was able to incorporate BROffice and other forks of OpenOffice.org. Even when Sun was around, OOo did not want to accept certain compatibility patches, so a bunch of forks came about. When Oracle bought Sun and the LibreOffice suite was created, they accepted most of the patches, causing everyone to converge on LibreOffice. A lot of the new features were licensed under GPL, which Sun, and then Oracle, did not want to accept.
As of right now, LibreOffice is more compatible with MS Office documents than OpenOffice.org and has a lot more features, too.
Re: What's The Difference? (Score:2)
Major distros provide the one and not the other. Then when our friends and family ask for free office software for Windows we slap what we know on there
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LibreOffice is much further ahead; This is partly because of the fork, but also because the licences are only compatible in one direction; LibreOffice can copy code from OpenOffice but OpenOffice can't copy code from LibreOffice, so LibreOffice effectively became a superset of OpenOffice.
.
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So it's just openoffice with a lot of patches and improvements that were implemented from the long list that accumulated in the years when openoffice was mostly idle before the fork.
In my workplace we jumped from a very old version of openoffice to the current libreoffice of the time because they added back in a feature that had been missing for more than three years (relating to seamless pasting of new images of identical sizes into presentations for reuse).
Meh (Score:2)
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That's probably McAfee scanning a Java library EVERYtime the app uses a single method from one. McAfee's default settings hate Java, and the security group doesn't understand enough to fix it. Drives people bats at work.
They will just rebrand (Score:2)
Names they are trying:
Old Yeller
Titanic
Spartacus
McMurphy
Hopefuly: Trademark handover to LibreOffice (Score:1)
I hope that OpenOffice will hand over their trade mark to LibreOffice. Especially many Windows users do not seem to know that LibreOffice exists, and are still using the now outdated OpenOffice. It would be great if the OpenOffice sites would point to LibreOffice, a worthy successor of them.
Appeal to Slashdot: a new name for LibreOffice (Score:1)
There seems to be hope that OpenOffice will disappear and leave the field to LibreOffice.
However, LibreOffice has a terrible name and is not alone, you will see occasionally LibreThis and LibreThat.
The issue is that 'free' in Engish may point to free as in beer and free as in freedom.
Please, Slashdot, collect suggestions from readers for a new name. Methinks LibreOffice should morph to FreedomOffice.
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Sounds even worse IMHO.
Stupid names and software go together - "powerpoint" sounds nothing like a slideshow presentation and there are many with worse names. At a guess what do you think "ProMAX R5000" is about?
LibreOffice (Score:2)
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Source? That sounds like you made it up. Are these companies who don't retain attorneys?
Re:GPL (Score:5, Funny)
I didn't make it up. I was told that by my Microsoft rep, and so I listened to him. Have you heard of the company, ArseKicks Software? I bet you haven't. They had to release all of their macros and document data to the public as GPL, and now they are no longer around because of it. In fact, if you Google it, ever trace of them has been wiped off of history, due to the GPL viral license.
Re:GPL (Score:5, Insightful)
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That said, there are some compatibility issues with Microsoft Office, especially around PowerPoint, although these issues seem to be being addressed with each release. However, for personal use, I find it more than adequate.
Perhaps give it a try - it's free (gratis) as
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I selected and use wps from wps.com There is a free wps Linux version. You can contribute if you think it is great. In my view it does many formatting tasks much better than LO. wps claims it has a much larger install base than does LO.
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Whoosh!
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God Lord, you're REALLY a sucker if you believe ANYthing a "Microsoft rep" tells you.... Of course, you're an AC, therefore a troll, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised at your comment...
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This is why we need a "-20 million: stupid beyond belief" mod.
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Not to mention the name.... LibreOffice.... God, I wish I could have met the guy who first suggested that name and kick him in the balls, hard! Stupid asshole!
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Hello! I am here. I am Johann, and I am recommend naming of LibreOffice at our conference of 2009.
I wonder why you wish harm on me! Perhaps you are the ass hole.
Officey McOfficeface (Score:2)
Don't blame me. I wanted it called Officey McOfficeface.
Re:GPL (Score:4, Funny)
What if a chick suggested it?
Stupid names are how open-source gains street-cred. It's why we have Gimp, PostreSql, Mozilla, and Ogg Vorbis. The more un-corporate it sounds, the better.
It's gotta sound alien, commie, and/or like medical symptoms. Extra kudo points if you cover all three.
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Red
Asteroid
Pussball
FTW!
Re:GPL (Score:5, Insightful)
There are multiple large companies that straight out ban LibreOffice on their premises because of the risk that macros and document data will have to be released as GPL.
Then they deserve to have higher costs for retaining idiotic lawyers. I hope they keep it up, it'll make my company more competitive.
Re:GPL (Score:5, Insightful)
Completely agree. If the management there is so under-educated and stupid to think that everything done in LibreOffice must be GPL released then they absolutely deserve it.
It utterly amazes me how people that pass themselves off as leaders and higher educated are typically some of the stupidest people out there.
Re:GPL (Score:4, Funny)
There are multiple large companies that straight out ban LibreOffice on their premises because of the risk that macros and document data will have to be released as GPL.
Then they deserve to have higher costs for retaining idiotic lawyers. I hope they keep it up, it'll make my company more competitive.
I interviewed for a SysAdmin position at a government contractor way back in 1998 and asked about flexible working hours. The manager said their lawyers said it wasn't allowed. I said my current company, also a contractor at the same facility, had flexible hours. The manager said, "I don't know how they can do that." and I replied, "Perhaps we have better lawyers." They offered me a job, but I (obviously) didn't accept. Besides that stupidity, they only had 1 computer with Internet access, on a desk in a common area.
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There was that going on at an electricity company I was working for in 1996 - for "quality" reasons (everything was for "quality" reasons) there was only one machine with WEB access on a desk in a common area and a booking sheet to use it.
As for NET access, we had email, and in those days ftpmail was a thing so cunning employees with email only access could send requests to an ftpmail server out on the net to e
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Can someone explain to me what the joke was? Or maybe the funny mod doesn't mean anything? Or perhaps I also lost my sense of humor when my vote was removed?
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Re:GPL (Score:4, Insightful)
What business exactly gives a damn about the licensing the product is under? Unless it's a development shop looking at making and distributing modifications, and wants to be able to control whether it has to make those changes available, no business just using the software gives a rat's ass whether it's an Apache license, GPL, BSD License, or proprietary closed license. They just want the software to work and be supported.
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The Lawyers may actually be worried about macros and such, which they might believe would be covered under the license and require that those be put back out into the community as well. Not sure if this is an actual fact, but I could see lawyers worrying about this kind of thing and if something similar is available at the same cost that completely does away with any confusion for me on that topic, I might be a bad enough lawyer to do t
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If the GPL applied, then yes, that's right, but you don't need to put your documents under the GPL just to edit them with a GPLed piece of software. The only way they'd end up GPLed is if you deliberately licensed them as such for some reason (at which point you have only yourself to blame if you decide you didn't want to do that).
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That would be akin to saying that every web page served from a server using GPLv2 licensed Linux kernel would automatically be licensed under the same license. Or that every program compiled using a GPL licensed compilers would automatically be licensed under GPL, too. The makers of many popular GPL-licensed programs also alleviate "license scaremongering" by the use of additional permissions.
Your comment was an obvious joke, but it's not to say that many people *do*, erroneously, think like that.
Re:GPL (Score:5, Funny)
That would be akin to saying that every web page served from a server using GPLv2 licensed Linux kernel would automatically be licensed under the same license.
Yeah screw that. I'm not sharing the source code of my website with anyone!
Re: GPL (Score:2)
Ha! I've already got the source code of your website.
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When you serve a web page, the HTML markup and JavaScript is only part of the output the server generates. This output, including the markup and actual text/image content, is served to the people visiting a website, not the code that generates the output.
By having to license the output, everyone visiting a web page would have full commercial rights to the web page's content. Imagine your web page contained a novel text: anyone visiting that page could grab that novel and sell it under a GPL license. This wa