OpenOffice.org Volunteers Cut Ties with Oracle

I've just moved to IBM's Lotus Symphony 3 Beta 4. I set it to use high performance optimization, Memory Graphics Cache to 128mb, mem per object to 20mb, and it works phenomenally well on Windows. Only takes a couple seconds to load anything up after the initial load into memory, even on older hardware. Funny that it runs so much better, even though it uses much of the same code as OO,

Just throwing this out there in case the others frustrated in long loading times of OO want to find a better alternative. Post results if LS3 works better for you

I prefer Open Office.

small footprint, fast enough, all the features I need, without all the added MS bloat.


I use both every single day. Office isn't the same thing as Open Office though. As others have alluded to, MS office is a platform with a ridiculous amount of very very useful add-ons to the people that need them. Productivity can soar if you know how to and need to use all the tricks with MS office.

I would say though, for 90 percent of regular people, Open office would be more than enough.

i too am not a fan of ribbon, i admit i prolly just didnt give it a fair chance but i simply dont use Office enough to care to get used to it

k1pp3r said:

Not to mention no true update feature, therefore users end up with 15 version installed on their PC's

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Actually they changed that now. The last 6 or so releases have removed the previous version and upgraded to the new one.

Shadow2531 said:

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.

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I wish i could say the same about users not noticing the difference. I've tried that on a few computers. Somebody needed office every now and then so i just put openoffice on their computers. Things just didn't come out how they expected, they couldn't share documents very well with people using MS Office and have them look the same. Their productivity dropped, so i went ahead and got them a copy of Office and they were able to do things as they were expecting. Not sure if it was just problem with them being use to using Office and having trouble addapting or what. I will say in one case it was just OpenOffice being buggy. They would format stuff one way, it would look one way on the screen but when they would print it would come out completely different. I spent awhile and found some work arounds but that of course just added more time needed to do what should have been a simple task. I haven't found any employee that was happy having OpenOffice and this was with people that wouldn't know the what i was talking about in regards to what OpenOffice was compared to Office. The type of people that think that Office 2000 only works on Windows 2000, Office XP only on Windows XP...

But yeah, if you can get away with using OpenOffice in your environment, then great.

You can save in formats compatible with MS office from within open office, you just change the setting for what type of document it saves as.


I have to say that is a lame excuse. Just tell the stupid people how to do it instead of writing off a program as too hard to implement.


by the way, I gave my dad a copy of 2010 and never told him how much different it was, he won't use it.

I doubt the transition to the newer versions of MS office aren't easy to implement anyways.

*are

stealthy123 said:

I have to say that is a lame excuse. Just tell the stupid people how to do it instead of writing off a program as too hard to implement.

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Anyone who makes a statement like that has never worked in a large production environment. There are some users that are just to dumb to explain things to, much less change the way they do something.

If a user has not learned office, then they could probably switch to open office with few issues. Problem is, MS Office is really entrenched in some peoples minds and they refuse change

the difference between office 2010 and office 2000 is enough of a difference to scare people off.

It doesn't matter the transition.

I guess am tired of companies bowing to the retards who work there because they are retards. Stop hiring retards. ( I mean no offense to the actual handicapped people who post here)

k1pp3r said:

Anyone who makes a statement like that has never worked in a large production environment. There are some users that are just to dumb to explain things to, much less change the way they do something.

If a user has not learned office, then they could probably switch to open office with few issues. Problem is, MS Office is really entrenched in some peoples minds and they refuse change

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Yeah pretty much. When I moved the company from 2003 to 2007, the amount of complaining was outrageous. You'd think you're working for a fucking nursery. I just ignore them saying I'll get around putting back 2003 when I have time. I never followed up though. Nobody's been complaining for over a year now, thankfully.

I used to use Open Office for a long time and it was alright. I switched over to Office 2007 and would never go back to Open Office. It's minor but Office 2007 loads up faster. Excel is also a heck of lot better than Calc for me since I do use functions and macros a lot.

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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I don't see them as competing, Everyone knows Microsoft Office is defiantly better, but OpenOffice is free.

I don't see a competition as appose to sales anyways.