OpenOffice, After Years Of Neglect, Could Shut Down

[Megalith]

It sounds like there may be one less Office alternative in the future. Recent thoughts from the vice president of Apache OpenOffice would suggest that "retirement of the project is a serious possibility," due to the lack of interested developers.

Many developers have abandoned OpenOffice to work on LibreOffice, a fork that got its first release in January 2011. While LibreOffice issues frequent updates, OpenOffice's most recent version update was 4.1.2 in October 2015. That was the only OpenOffice release in 2015, and there were only two updates in all of 2014. LibreOffice got 14 version updates in 2015 alone. In July, OpenOffice issued an advisory about a security vulnerability that had no fix. The problem could let attackers craft denial-of-service attacks and execute arbitrary code. One of the workarounds suggested by the OpenOffice project was to use LibreOffice or Microsoft Office instead.

 

[Lord of Shadows]

Libre office is much better, I was using abiword for a while until I had Libre installed on work computers, much nicer and has office, excel, powerpoint equivalents for free. I do have the microsoft office suite for free from my old university account for windows though

 

[CVNet1]

Not a huge loss to the community since most of it left years ago. On another note, this article appears to have been a good prediction back in 2011.

 

[Saist]

It's probably worth posting to the actual mailing list host rather than the ArsTechnica take on the story: openoffice-dev mailing list archives

Apache's mailing system does not lend itself all that well towards direct linking of messages or threads; so if it works the opening email should be this one: http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/openoffice-dev/201609.mbox/ajax/<[email protected]>

It's probably also worth noting that many of those with a long history involving OpenOffice have been predicting the eventual failure ever since Oracle took over and the vast majority of developers and interested parties fled to form LibreOffice. Currently 100% of the Linux Distribution in-roads and Corporate Roll-outs won by the Sun Microsystems OpenOffice have moved to LibreOffice. There are zero, that I am aware of, remaining roll-outs of OpenOffice in a commercial or business setting. Which is not surprising; all but 6 of the OpenOffice contributors involved with the project before Oracle realized that particular relationship was going to be toxic. I use the number 6 because that's about how many developers are left defending OpenOffice under Apache management.

What those remaining developers appear to fail to realize is that the Apache hand-off was Oracle's way of getting rid of a project Oracle did not want to support without having to openly admit that everyone who had left for LibreOffice were correct in their assessments. Oracle did not want to hand over the branding, the websites, the social accounts, or anything else of value to LibreOffice developers; acts of spite that the Oracle already had a reputation for performing. Apache stewardship was just a means for Oracle to try and look like a Good Corporate Citizen while still being a complete jerk.

One particularly toxic reply from a remaining developer under the Apache management in that thread claims credit for a patches of significant value that LibreOffice merged. It is true that the licensing terms of OpenOffice under Oracle did prevent various bits of code written by Sun Microsystems engineers from being re-used directly in LibreOffice. It is also true that the re-licensing of the OpenOffice codebase under Apache terms did allow some of the original Sun Microsystems developers to merge their original code sections without having to re-write from scratch. For a single developer hostile to the LibreOffice project to make sweeping claims of code credit reeks of the egotism that kept OpenOffice from dying when it should have. For developer(s) to also claim that OpenOffice is of higher quality code than LibreOffice despite having a vastly lower internal development power pool that has rendered an inability to address security issues is just flat ludicrous.

So; let's be honest; OpenOffice has been a zombie.

Which makes the claims of millions of downloads on Windows and Mac a tad bit disingenuous. Oracle did their best job to prevent LibreOffice from positioning itself as the heir to OpenOffice. Oracle went to great lengths to ensure that the OpenOffice materials in no way mentioned LibreOffice. That has left a metric ton of Windows and Mac users who simply don't care about open source applications or the background uninformed that there was an upgrade path. LibreOffice has done a bangup job courting those users who witnessed OpenOffice drop off the release map; but there's still a non-insignificant number of users out there who simply don't know of anything beyond the branding that Sun Microsystems worked so hard on.

Openly talking of retirement is not some self-fulfilling prophecy. It's accepting that Oracle murdered the OpenOffice project; and giving back to the original developers everything they worked so hard to achieve.

The path Apache needs to take is one of turning over all of the OpenOffice assets; ALL OF THEM; to LibreOffice.

 

[Twisted Kidney]

If only Libre Office was stable enough to use. Any document over 75 pages and it shits the bed. I have to use MS Office or Open Office, Microsoft Office is vastly superior to both.

I suppose I could use Wordperfect...

 

[Jim Kim]

If only Libre Office was stable enough to use. Any document over 75 pages and it shits the bed.

Libre Office is contually updated, that rare issue has been fixed.

 

[Dekoth-E-]

I mean I usually am on here commenting that we need more competition and not less. Unfortunately the free office alternatives have utterly and completely failed to be competitive for any except the most basic users who are still likely better off having basic office just due to compatibility and the fact that at $70 for the basic version that can easily last 10+ years. Honestly Open and Libre just aren't worth the very little they save you for a just flatly superior platform.

 

[FrgMstr]

I tried my best to use Open Office and then when it started its downward spiral I tired to go fully Google Docs, but they just could not do what I needed those to. I am an Office 365 subscriber now.

 

[lolfail9001]

I mean I usually am on here commenting that we need more competition and not less. Unfortunately the free office alternatives have utterly and completely failed to be competitive for any except the most basic users who are still likely better off having basic office just due to compatibility and the fact that at $70 for the basic version that can easily last 10+ years. Honestly Open and Libre just aren't worth the very little they save you for a just flatly superior platform.

The best thing LibreOffice accomplished is moving myself to using TeX and org-mode for actual office needs, while doing away with VM running Win 10+Office when i badly need it (pirated because i am not going to pay more than my laptop costs for software i use once in a full moon).

 

[pxc]

Libre Office is contually updated, that rare issue has been fixed.

I think Libre Office is a great alternative to Office for casual usage. But it has so many bugs and annoyances that using it for anything more is just an exercise in frustration. The last bug I ran into this week was pasting a fairly simple HTML page into the word processor. I wish it has just crashed, but it was just working incredibly slowly at parsing the page (after 10 minutes, I killed it in task manager), something that has been a bug since the earliest days of OpenOffice. Libre Office isn't competitive with MS Office, it's a slightly less stable competitor to the old MS Works suite.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I didn't even realize OpenOffice was still around. I thought it had already been completely replaced by LibreOffice.

 

[ChadD]

If only Libre Office was stable enough to use. Any document over 75 pages and it shits the bed. I have to use MS Office or Open Office, Microsoft Office is vastly superior to both.

I suppose I could use Wordperfect...

If you running a linux machine, use a distro that keeps Libre up to date. If your a windows user be sure to do it yourself at least every few weeks. I have plenty of 100+ page documents and have zero issues... I do remember a bug that may be the one your referencing. I seem to remember it getting reported and fixed with in a week or two.

 

[deaedius]

Open office needed to fade away years ago. I agree with Kyle, I tried to use it but when it really counted it failed me in terms of functionality and compatibility. MS Office just works, and YAY for HUP!

 

[FrgMstr]

Give Libre a try at some point. Libre was forked 5 years back now from open office when the licence changed on OO. Libre gets more solid all the time. There are 2 versions of Libre at all times, Fresh and Still. If you want the most stable version Still is the way to go, I mostly install the Still version for business. In general most people that complain about the odd show stopper like the large file bug that was mentioned in this thread have found those in the fresh release. Bugs rarely make it through the fresh version to the still release.

Can I graph over 100,000 data points in LibreOffice?

 

[heatlesssun]

In all fairness, Microsoft has a put billions into in Microsoft Office. There's just simply no one that comes close to that level of investment because few will pay for anything Microsoft Office. Google has had limited success in getting paying customers with Google Docs but Docs is just so far behind Office.

 

[ChadD]

That is something I had never tried before. I thought I was a power user, crunching my manufacturing and R&D data, but apparently not

After a brief test with random data, it appears to be possible, but not practical.

It pins one core for A WHILE while working on the plot, and does so again when resizing, moving, etc.

This is with version 5.1.4.2, which is the current shipping version with Mint 18. Not sure if there are more recent versions that might work better.

5.2 is the latest in the fresh line. I don't think much would have changed in that regard though.

 

[Exavior]

I didn't even realize OpenOffice was still around. I thought it had already been completely replaced by LibreOffice.

Same here. I thought that was what caused LibreOffice to become a thing. I thought that Open Office was being disconnected so the dev team working on it forked it to be LibreOffice.

Although I haven't looked at it in some time as MS Office is the best choice in all cases that I have.

 

[bman212121]

It's almost like the fact that MS has Billions of revenue in Office might alter the fact that a free alternative simply can't keep pace. If you just need to put data into a spreadsheet Google Docs is probably the simplest solution, if you need something more robust I don't think anyone is going to take that crown away any time soon.

 

[steakman1971]

Libre is pretty good. Google Docs works for most. However, I do use Office 365 the most (although its my employers license). The Office 365 avoids conflicts at work. It's also pretty nice now - I hope they don't screw it up as they work on it. Some of the updates really sucked (ribbons??).

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I've noticed that a lot of you use Office 365. That's the online version right?

Why do you pick that over a traditional locally installed version of office?

 

[heatlesssun]

I've noticed that a lot of you use Office 365. That's the online version right?

Why do you pick that over a traditional locally installed version of office?

Office 365 refers to the Office subscription that allows access to all of the Office clients, PC desktop and Windows 10 store apps, iPad, Android and Mac.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Office 365 refers to the Office subscription that allows access to all of the Office clients, PC desktop and Windows 10 store apps, iPad, Android and Mac.

Hmm. So in practical use, how is this different from having a traditional Ms Office license key and local install?

 

[heatlesssun]

Hmm. So in practical use, how is this different from having a traditional Ms Office license key and local install?

The subscription allows for use of all of the clients and you always have the latest version. In basically works out to be the same price as a retail price for a single Professional copy if you bought it every three years.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

The subscription allows for use of all of the clients and you always have the latest version. In basically works out to be the same price as a retail price for a single Professional copy if you bought it every three years.

Ahh, OK. Do you need to have a Microsoft Account and use the Microsoft Store for it? Because I insist on running all my machines on local accounts only, and don't tie anything to Microsoft online services.

 

[heatlesssun]

Ahh, OK. Do you need to have a Microsoft Account and use the Microsoft Store for it? Because I insist on running all my machines on local accounts only, and don't tie anything to Microsoft online services.

You have you have to have a Microsoft Account to obtain Office 365. You don't have to sign into it to use the desktop versions.

 

[Deleted whining member 223597]

I've noticed that a lot of you use Office 365. That's the online version right?

Why do you pick that over a traditional locally installed version of office?

I get it free through my university and I assume there are many that will get it in a similar way.

In all fairness, Microsoft has a put billions into in Microsoft Office. There's just simply no one that comes close to that level of investment because few will pay for anything Microsoft Office. Google has had limited success in getting paying customers with Google Docs but Docs is just so far behind Office.

I use Google docs when working on a project with multiple people so we can each edit it in real time and without any issues. But the final product is always copy/pasted into a word/excel file. I don't see Google docs ever being a real competitor.

 

[ChadD]

I use Google docs when working on a project with multiple people so we can each edit it in real time and without any issues. But the final product is always copy/pasted into a word/excel file. I don't see Google docs ever being a real competitor.

Not sure I would say ever. I remember hearing that chrome would never best the install base of IE. I think many of us dinosaur people are going to have to admit that hard drives and local anythings aren't all that important anymore. At some point Google is going to start pushing the chrome os or whatever they replace it with in more and more business settings, and things like their docs are going to have to expand to attract that market. If or perhaps more to the point when, Google decides its time to go for the MS juggler... I would have to imagine they will throw insane amounts of money into those divisions.

I'm sure MS fears google docs far more then Libre, Libre is predictable and it will progress at the pace of any GPL project. Google however could one day decide they want it all, and I'm sure when they feel they are in the right position, they will spend the money and go for it.

 

[AK0tA]

I did at one time use open office and it worked very well, however I tried to get my wife and daughter onboard and that was not an honorable situation. They lacked the desire to twiddle with a product to understand how it integrated with the rest of the world that used office.

 

[naib]

While I loath how MS have acted over the years to lock people in & aspects of Windows.

Office however... 2nd to none, especially Excel. The things I do with excel scares some people (I have a motor controller modeled in Excel, type2 resolver tracking loop etc... ) This is more abuse of a tool when most of the time I should either be using a circuit simulator or Python/Matlab.

OpenOffice was a deadman walking once Oracle bought Sun & fears of Oracles attitude drove the LibreOffice fork (which has been steadily improving).
Comparing MS-Office to Openoffice is a low blow. Comparing MS-Office to LibreOffice is a more reasonable comparison but this is like comparing GIMP to PhotoShop (a better comparison would be GIMP to PhotoShop-Elements)

Unique features of LibreOffice
A detailed 60-page report in June 2015 compared the progress of the LibreOffice project with its cousin project Apache OpenOffice. It showed that "OpenOffice received about 10% of the improvements LibreOffice did in the period of time studied.

LibreOffice has come a very long way, especially considering the roots was in StarOffice and the state that was in when Sun opensourced that (I remember trying to use StarOffice on a sun workstation decades ago...) BUT it still has a long way to go but for the vast majority of things Libreoffice is a perfect replacement BUT it isn't for everyone ... yet

 

[atom]

These Open source office programs are unwieldy, are missing features and buggy. Microsoft Office is bloaty, expensive, and has become disorganized since Windows 8. I put down the cash for an Office license and the license only allows me to install the whole suite, or none of it. My budget netbook can not run thanks to some of the services that Office installs. Customer support was no help. Had to go to Libre.

 

[Dekoth-E-]

These Open source office programs are unwieldy, are missing features and buggy. Microsoft Office is bloaty, expensive, and has become disorganized since Windows 8. I put down the cash for an Office license and the license only allows me to install the whole suite, or none of it. My budget netbook can not run thanks to some of the services that Office installs. Customer support was no help. Had to go to Libre.

I've installed just about every sku of office since office 2000 imaginable and I've never once encountered one that didn't allow picking and choosing what you installed on a device.

 

[753951]

I've installed just about every sku of office since office 2000 imaginable and I've never once encountered one that didn't allow picking and choosing what you installed on a device.

How do you install individual applications in Office 2016 without playing with XML and command line parameters? Unless you can just click on checkbox in UI during install, everything else is outside of capability of normal Windows user.

 

[Dekoth-E-]

How do you install individual applications in Office 2016 without playing with XML and command line parameters? Unless you can just click on checkbox in UI during install, everything else is outside of capability of normal Windows user.

Go to microsofts website and download the "offline" installer. It is the web installer that attempts to auto default to your C drive and install everything. Never use Web installers..not even ones from MS.

 

[753951]

Go to microsofts website and download the "offline" installer. It is the web installer that attempts to auto default to your C drive and install everything. Never use Web installers..not even ones from MS.

And that is the problem. It installs everything. You can't choose just Word and Excel. It installs all other apps in the suite, want them or not.

 

[Dekoth-E-]

And that is the problem. It installs everything. You can't choose just Word and Excel. It installs all other apps in the suite, want them or not.

Which is why I said..Download the "Offline Installer". It lets you pick your drive as well as pick and choose what options to install or not. I literally gave you the answer to the problem of it installing everything.

Offline installer = Lets you pick what to or not to install.

Web installer = Moron tool that auto installs everything and I'm pretty sure is the idea of some spawn of satan.

 

[atom]

I've installed just about every sku of office since office 2000 imaginable and I've never once encountered one that didn't allow picking and choosing what you installed on a device.

I guess I am a liar then. You caught me, I am here to undermine Microsoft and their Office software. I hope this doesn't affect my job at Google.

 

[Gorankar]

I guess I am a liar then. You caught me, I am here to undermine Microsoft and their Office software. I hope this doesn't affect my job at Google.

Umm, the offline installer allows you to install what/where you want, the web installer does not. You were not being called a liar, Dekoth-E was informing you how to do what you wanted.

Which is why I said..Download the "Offline Installer". It lets you pick your drive as well as pick and choose what options to install or not. I literally gave you the answer to the problem of it installing everything.

Offline installer = Lets you pick what to or not to install.

Web installer = Moron tool that auto installs everything and I'm pretty sure is the idea of some spawn of satan.

 

[FrgMstr]

Can you graph 1,000,000 + data points in Office x64? National Instruments Diadem is what you absolutely want if you are graphing huge numbers of data points.

It is exponentially faster than Excel and can process data sets that Excel cannot even begin to open.

I do not know and I don't need to graph 1M data points. Have looked at Diadem and it simply was too much for what we need to do. Also, all our current spreadsheets and graphs are already created in Office. Cut and paste to move to software with better capabilities than what we had.

 

[auntjemima]

And that is the problem. It installs everything. You can't choose just Word and Excel. It installs all other apps in the suite, want them or not.

With the offline installer, you can.

 

[Dekoth-E-]

I guess I am a liar then. You caught me, I am here to undermine Microsoft and their Office software. I hope this doesn't affect my job at Google.

See below

Umm, the offline installer allows you to install what/where you want, the web installer does not. You were not being called a liar, Dekoth-E was informing you how to do what you wanted.

Thank you.