OpenOffice.org Volunteers Cut Ties with Oracle

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It looks as though OpenOffice.org has, for the most part, severed ties with Oracle and formed an independent group called The Document Foundation.

OpenOffice.org successfully grew under the Sun Microsystems banner for a decade, but the volunteers believe a new ecosystem will generate more competition and choice for customers, as well as drive innovation in office-productivity software. The group also hopes to lower the barrier of adoption for users and developers. In essence, the group wasn't happy under Oracle.
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never liked java, still don't. Slow and unstable for the end user. Freezes all the time.
 
stockwiz said:
never liked java, still don't. Slow and unstable for the end user. Freezes all the time.
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Not to mention no true update feature, therefore users end up with 15 version installed on their PC's
 
LibreOffice? LIBREOFFICE? WHAT?

That's so ugly. In fact, as ugly as "OpenOffice" may be, "LibreOffice" just takes the cake.
 
Oracle strikes me more as a parasite than a company that actually creates things. Consider when they released a Linux version which was nothing more than RedHat rebranded. Oracle gets the tech support money while RedHat does the creative work for free.

When Oracle acquires open-source software, the open-source products are left to languish while Oracle milks the work already done without reinvesting to improve the products.

OpenOffice.org was once an exciting product. I don't use it anymore. Other products have passed it by. Maybe this forked branch will make it exciting again. Of course, Oracle will cut-and-paste the improvements to their product.

BTW, OOo makes only limited use of Java and works without Java, minus a few unimportant (to most people) functions. OOo is not based on Java.
 
Cerulean said:
LibreOffice? LIBREOFFICE? WHAT?

That's so ugly. In fact, as ugly as "OpenOffice" may be, "LibreOffice" just takes the cake.
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THANK YOU!!! I was wondering if anyone else caught that. That alone is enough reason never to use it.
 
OpenOffice had lost it's way LONG before the Oracle acquisition. Microsoft Office is such an entrenched and capable platform that it's simply difficult to compete
 
It probably has more to do with Oracle becoming pretty anti Open Source and trying to grab the rights to open source projects it has supported in the past (as well as its acquired Sun)
 
heatlesssun said:
OpenOffice had lost it's way LONG before the Oracle acquisition. Microsoft Office is such an entrenched and capable platform that it's simply difficult to compete
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It's difficult to compete, but Oo_Org has never been more then the poor mans attempt at MS Office. The only people who believe otherwise are the anti-MS zealots that think it's the devil. Even the mac crap alternatives with millions behind them can't hold a candle to Word, Excell, etc.
 
DarkStryke said:
It's difficult to compete, but Oo_Org has never been more then the poor mans attempt at MS Office. The only people who believe otherwise are the anti-MS zealots that think it's the devil. Even the mac crap alternatives with millions behind them can't hold a candle to Word, Excell, etc.
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Eh. OOo used to be a pretty workable alternative to Office. Well at least OOo's document program was. It used to be updated well and they used to do a lot of work to at least try and be a good enough free option. I used it for quite a while since the cost of Office was way more than it was worth to me. I do use Office now though, since OOo ended up becoming a very poor option as support for it dwindled.
 
Is there any alternative or do I need to purchase a copy of Office now?
 
I myself like MS Office just fine. But:

1. I don't want to pay for it.

2. It's annoying how much HD space it takes up, The time it takes to install and all the registry entries it adds is crazy. Uninstalling it doesn't clean things up very well and MS Office can easily break windows.

3. I don't need any of the features I can't get in OpenOffice.

Given the above, OpenOffice is pretty awesome in my book. It's unfortunate though that a lot of people think they *need* MS Office when they really don't. Some do really need MS Office though and that's fine.

I've changed the shortcuts for Writer, Calc and Impress to have MS Office names and set the default save types to ms office types. Users don't even know the difference when using the program. But, soon as I tell them they're not user MS Office and are using OpenOffice, they refuse to use OpenOffice. It's all in the name for many of these people, which is why "LibreOffice" (if it's used) will totally suck.

As for Java, I use OpenOffice without Java installed. Works fine for me. I haven't touched the features that require Java apparently.
 
I like OOo, but I like MS Office better. That's the way it is. Office is much more complete, it's got a richer feature set, and the Ribbon has really grown on me. The equation editor of OOo is a lot better from my experience though, that's the only reason I'd keep an OOo install on my hard drive.

OpenOffice is Java based AFAIK, so I don't think he was off topic.
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Saying Openoffice is Java-based is like saying milk is sugar-based.
 
Shadow2531 said:
've changed the shortcuts for Writer, Calc and Impress to have MS Office names and set the default save types to ms office types. Users don't even know the difference when using the program. But, soon as I tell them they're not user MS Office and are using OpenOffice, they refuse to use OpenOffice. It's all in the name for many of these people, which is why "LibreOffice" (if it's used) will totally suck.
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That's BS, at least if you're on Office 2007 or 2010, there is this thing called the Ribbon, kind of obvious if you're using something else. If you don't need the power of MS Office then sure use something else. But if you really DO need Office it pays for itself like that. And in the business world its almost impossible to not need it and in most cases if you get it from work you don't have to pay for it to use at home.

As for harddrive space really, it's 2010 now. I've got a full install of Office 2010, tons of smaller games, Visual Studio 2010, my email, some music and video, not a lot and I still have close 10GB free on my Libretto W100's 62GB SSD which it's not exactly a lot of space, peoples mp3 player have more space now.

Mr. Pedantic said:
I like OOo, but I like MS Office better. That's the way it is. Office is much more complete, it's got a richer feature set, and the Ribbon has really grown on me. The equation editor of OOo is a lot better from my experience though, that's the only reason I'd keep an OOo install on my hard drive.
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The Math Input Panel on when used on a Tablet PC is actually pretty damn sweet. When it's trained is actually pretty good, faster than typing in most cases.
 
ChairmanMiau said:
Oh? Do tell.
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Tons of integration with 3rd party software, works great on a touch screen and Tablet PC and there's OneNote, nothing does what it does especially if you need to take hand written notes. Office 2010 simply has no analog if you use it's higher end capabilities which I do everyday.
 
heatlesssun said:
and there's OneNote, nothing does what it does especially if you need to take hand written notes.
[...]
Office 2010 simply has no analog if you use it's higher end capabilities which I do everyday.
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Surely you can't be serious!
heatlesssun said:
But if you really DO need Office it pays for itself like that.
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The ability to open files in the pointless lol-forced-obsolence-and-who-needs-interoperability-anyway .docx format is well worth the money! Oh wait, that's not an Office-exclusive ability anymore.
heatlesssun said:
in the business world its almost impossible to not need it
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bs
heatlesssun said:
As for harddrive space really, it's 2010 now.
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What's your point? It's 2010 so it's okay to be bloated?
 
heatlesssun said:
That's BS, at least if you're on Office 2007 or 2010, there is this thing called the Ribbon, kind of obvious if you're using something else.
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I just tell them that they changed things a bit. Bought easily. Regular users don't care about this.

As for harddrive space really, it's 2010 now.
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Yikes.

It being 2010 does not mean everyone (or even the majority) are using 2010 hardware and operating systems. Also, certain hardware being cheap doesn't mean the full cost of upgrading is cheap either. Even if the full cost is cheap, that still doesn't mean one can afford it.

Also, it being 2010 and hard drives being bigger is no excuse for being inefficient. (Of course, OpenOffice could even improve in this area some.)
 
ChairmanMiau said:
Surely you can't be serious!
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Yes I am. No of another application other than OneNote that can search HAND WIRTING as though it were text, no need to convert to text first?

ChairmanMiau said:
The ability to open files in the pointless lol-forced-obsolence-and-who-needs-interoperability-anyway .docx format is well worth the money! Oh wait, that's not an Office-exclusive ability anymore.
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That's right. But there's a BIG difference bewtween mearly opening a file and actually manipulating it.

ChairmanMiau said:
bs
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Obviously you've not worked much in the business world. I've worked at around a dozen Forutne 500 and many more smaller companies. EVERY SINGLE ONE used MS Office.

ChairmanMiau said:
What's your point? It's 2010 so it's okay to be bloated?
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So bloated that most of the Office apps open in 2-3 seconds from a cold boot on my mechanical HD Atom netbook.
 
Shadow2531 said:
I just tell them that they changed things a bit. Bought easily. Regular users don't care about this.
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And what do you tell them when there existing documents start not working? Your users must not do much, where I work they'd know instantly. Just for my own edification I test documents that we use from time to time in OO, last did it about 4 months ago. These are large and complex documents, pretty normal for my environment, none opened without serious issues.


Shadow2531 said:
Yikes.

It being 2010 does not mean everyone (or even the majority) are using 2010 hardware and operating systems. Also, certain hardware being cheap doesn't mean the full cost of upgrading is cheap either. Even if the full cost is cheap, that still doesn't mean one can afford it.

Also, it being 2010 and hard drives being bigger is no excuse for being inefficient. (Of course, OpenOffice could even improve in this area some.)
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As I said above, so inefficent that it flies on netbooks. Faster than OO overall last time I tested.

Look, there's nothing wrong with OO but people that really think that's its ANYWHERE near MS Office simply don't deal with high-end business environments, that's all. Office is more than an application suite, its an application PLATFORM. I couldn't begin to count all of the extensions and applications we have running inside of Word and Excel.
 
I have to agree. Office 2010 applications open pretty much instantly from my mechanical hard disk. Feels very light and snappy.
 
heatlesssun said:
So bloated that most of the Office apps open in 2-3 seconds from a cold boot on my mechanical HD Atom netbook.
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So up to, say, 5,000,000,000 clock cycles on a typical Atom processor? Good grief. I wonder how many cache misses and pointless disk writes it takes to fill all that time.

Please also note that bloat and speed aren't often intrinsically linked.
heatlesssun said:
I've worked at around a dozen Forutne 500 and many more smaller companies. EVERY SINGLE ONE used MS Office.
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That's evidence of demand, not need. You could install some Office alternative (try 'LibreOffice') on one of the machines at any of those Forutne 500 [sic] or smaller companies and it'd inter-operate just fine. I guarantee it.
heatlesssun said:
there's a BIG difference bewtween mearly opening a file and actually manipulating it.
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Would you also run to buy the latest version of Photoshop if you wanted to add funny text to a cat picture? Clearly alternatives are insuffient for your very specific requirements. I'm sure what you're doing is that special.
heatlesssun said:
Just for my own edification I test documents that we use from time to time in OO, last did it about 4 months ago.
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A lot can improve in 4 months, and a lot has happened to LibreOffice (formerly known as OpenOffice) over the last 4 months.
Shadow2531 said:
Also, it being 2010 and hard drives being bigger is no excuse for being inefficient. (Of course, OpenOffice could even improve in this area some.)
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A++++ comment, would agree again.
 
ChairmanMiau said:
So up to, say, 5,000,000,000 clock cycles on a typical Atom processor? Good grief. I wonder how many cache misses and pointless disk writes it takes to fill all that time.

Please also note that bloat and speed aren't often intrinsically linked.
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And you know Office 2010 is bloated how now? And if OO is slower like everyone here that's used both is saying that means OO is less bloated but slower? Good grief your bias is showing. Don’t you think most people don’t care about your efficiency standards of a product that you’ve not touched in favor of more performance? You’ve not worked much in the real world.

ChairmanMiau said:
That's evidence of demand, not need. You could install some Office alternative (try 'LibreOffice') on one of the machines at any of those Forutne 500 [sic] or smaller companies and it'd inter-operate just fine. I guarantee it.
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I never said that some wouldn't. If they are just typing up simple documents sure. A lot of peoples' needs go well beyond your experience.

ChairmanMiau said:
Would you also run to buy the latest version of Photoshop if you wanted to add funny text to a cat picture? Clearly alternatives are insuffient for your very specific requirements. I'm sure what you're doing is that special.
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Huh? Office 2010 adds a web version, web based PowerPoint presentations, more performance, 64 bit versions, etc.

ChairmanMiau said:
A lot can improve in 4 months, and a lot has happened to LibreOffice (formerly known as OpenOffice) over the last 4 months.
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That hasn't changed in ten years, sure but unlikely. I just don't have the time to test an app that no one serious about complex productive work gave up long ago.
 
My biggest knock on OO (at least on Windows) is that it takes so long to open documents. On 4 different modern systems OO would take 10-20 seconds to open a doc (networked docs seem even slower to open much of the time) whereas MSO takes but a mere few.
 
unfortunateson said:
My biggest knock on OO (at least on Windows) is that it takes so long to open documents. On 4 different modern systems OO would take 10-20 seconds to open a doc (networked docs seem even slower to open much of the time) whereas MSO takes but a mere few.
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And yet Chairman is saying that MS Office is bloated. But wait, bloat doesn't mean that it can't be fast. So in order to save a few gig of space that most people want even notice people would prefer that everything load slower?

Amazing how bias blinds people to reality. No one is going to give a rats about 10 cents worth of disk space if shift is loading five times faster.
 
come on, you're treating this thread like you're standing in line at the supermarket

you really expect us to believe that these "Fortune 500" companies adopted Office 2010 in a few months, you've worked at a bunch of them, and everyone involved has checked out the alternatives and found they can't possibly compare?


seems more likely they're using 2007, don't care at all about looking at alternatives, use MS Office as a function of always had it always working rather than worrying about what works best, and you haven't been cycling through a hundred different companies per week...
 
mope54 said:
come on, you're treating this thread like you're standing in line at the supermarket

you really expect us to believe that these "Fortune 500" companies adopted Office 2010 in a few months, you've worked at a bunch of them, and everyone involved has checked out the alternatives and found they can't possibly compare?


seems more likely they're using 2007, don't care at all about looking at alternatives, use MS Office as a function of always had it always working rather than worrying about what works best, and you haven't been cycling through a hundred different companies per week...
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I never said Office 2010 specifically in reference to business deployments, I just said Office.
 
Mavvok said:
"standard" does not mean good.

your opinion is now = '\0';
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In this case standard does mean good. I can list capability after capability after capability that Office provides that's unmatched and the best you guys can come up with is stale programming jokes? LOL!:D
 
I use OO. It's free and it's not bad. I also very much hate the new MS Office layout... ugh.
 
pothb said:
I use OO. It's free and it's not bad. I also very much hate the new MS Office layout... ugh.
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The new layout is one of the best parts... The old menu-driven system was completely overloaded. It was so inefficient that it actually had to hide features from users to keep the drop-down menus from scrolling off-screen.

The ribbons solved that completely, and brought a lot of powerful functionality to the surface. nothing needs to be hidden, and there are fewer levels to click through to get to just about everything.

That's one of the biggest reasons I don't use OpenOffice (besides how slow it is). It's not using a ribbon.
 
heatlesssun said:
Good grief your bias is showing.
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Speak for yourself. I am responding to someone who posts along the lines of "Nothing will ever hold a candle to Office; anyone who claims otherwise is delusional!" and I can't really argue against it without showing some sort of bias, can I.
heatlesssun said:
Don’t you think most people don’t care about your efficiency standards of a product that you’ve not touched in favor of more performance?
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What are you trying to say here? I can't parse that.
heatlesssun said:
You’ve not worked much in the real world.[...]
A lot of peoples' needs go well beyond your experience.
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Yeah, you've pulled this strawman out with every response.
 
Unknown-One said:
The new layout is one of the best parts... The old menu-driven system was completely overloaded. It was so inefficient that it actually had to hide features from users to keep the drop-down menus from scrolling off-screen.

The ribbons solved that completely, and brought a lot of powerful functionality to the surface. nothing needs to be hidden, and there are fewer levels to click through to get to just about everything.

That's one of the biggest reasons I don't use OpenOffice (besides how slow it is). It's not using a ribbon.
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To each their own I guess. I personally like the menu. The ribbons just don't work for me. I can barely find anything like I can before. Takes me forever, I guess I could eventually adapt but I prefer not to at this point.
 
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