OpenOffice vs LibreOffice

MensaWater · 10-09-2017, 08:52 AM

I know LibreOffice was originally forked from OpenOffice mainly because Oracle had bought Sun who owned OpenOffice. Also Oracle got rid of their staff for OpenOffice not long after the Sun acquisition.

However, given that Oracle gave OpenOffice to Apache.org to maintain instead so no longer "own" it, I'm wondering if folks still think LibreOffice is the way to go vs OpenOffice?

If you prefer one to the other can you give reasons (especially technical distinctions)?

If you were going to install on MS Windows or MacOS which would you choose and why?

Shadow_7 · 10-09-2017, 09:09 AM

LibreOffice, because it's been actively developed versus going stale from uncertainty. API, ABI, and other things change. More so these days with systemd, and other kernel sub-systems. Even the compiler is changing. Stand still for too long and your code base might not even compile anymore. Like trying to learn modern java by reading a java 1 book.

As far as those other OSes, neither. I like all my devices to run the same OS, and that's just not possible with those others. With arm, mips, x86, powerpc, risc-v, and other architectures plus blessed versus not hardware. I just don't want to rid myself of ALL the things to choose someone elses thing. Or to ONLY be able to use the networking and storage features of the hardware I do own.

MensaWater · 10-09-2017, 09:41 AM

Thanks.

Note that I asked

Quote:

If you were going to install on MS Windows or MacOS which would you choose and why?

i.e. I didn't ask whether TO install MS Windows or MacOS themselves but rather which OpenOffice/LibreOffice product you would install if you were installing on those. Sometimes others have made the OS choice for themselves and ask me what to install on top of them.

Quote:

LibreOffice, because it's been actively developed

Good point. On checking just now it appears OpenOffice 4.1.3 was last updated in Oct 2016 whereas it appears LibreOffice has moved on to version 6.0 and the wiki for latter was updated as recently as today.

DavidMcCann · 10-09-2017, 11:43 AM

I've stuck with OpenOffice because I dislike changes! The fact that LO is altered more often is not a bonus for me.

cwizardone · 10-09-2017, 11:54 AM

Well.... according to Wikipedia,

Quote:

OpenOffice.org (OOo), commonly known as OpenOffice, is a discontinued open-source office suite. It was an open-sourced version of the earlier StarOffice, which Sun Microsystems acquired in 1999, for internal use.

OpenOffice included a word processor (Writer), a spreadsheet (Calc), a presentation application (Impress), a drawing application (Draw), a formula editor (Math), and a database management application (Base).[9] Its default file format was the OpenDocument Format (ODF), an ISO/IEC standard, which originated with OpenOffice.org. It could also read a wide variety of other file formats, with particular attention to those from Microsoft Office.

Sun open-sourced the OpenOffice in July 2000 as a competitor to Microsoft Office,[10][11] releasing version 1.0 on 1 May 2002.[1]

In 2011 Oracle Corporation, the then-owner of Sun, announced that it would no longer offer a commercial version of the suite[12] and soon after donated the project to the Apache Foundation.[13][14]

Apache renamed the software Apache OpenOffice.[15] Other active successor projects include LibreOffice (the most actively developed[16][17][18]) and NeoOffice (commercial, only for macOS).

OpenOffice.org was primarily developed for Linux, Microsoft Windows and Solaris, and later for OS X, with ports to other operating systems. It was distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3 (LGPL); early versions were also available under the Sun Industry Standards Source License (SISSL).......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org

MensaWater · 10-09-2017, 02:11 PM

Although it starts out saying it is "discontinued" it doesn't say what they base that assertion upon. Since Apache has a page for it and still provides downloads (even if they're not doing updates) I challenge the "discontinued" statement.

However, detail in the Wiki alludes to things I already said and goes on about who won:

Quote:

Sun had stated in the original OpenOffice.org announcement in 2000 that the project would be run by a neutral foundation,[10] and put forward a more detailed proposal in 2001.[234] There were many calls to put this into effect over the ensuing years.[36][235][236][237] On 28 September 2010, in frustration at years of perceived neglect of the codebase and community by Sun and then Oracle,[69] members of the OpenOffice.org community announced a non-profit called The Document Foundation and a fork of OpenOffice.org named LibreOffice. Go-oo improvements were merged, and that project was retired in favour of LibreOffice.[238] The goal was to produce a vendor-independent office suite with ODF support and without any copyright assignment requirements.[239]

Oracle was invited to become a member of the Document Foundation and was asked to donate the OpenOffice.org brand.[239][240] Oracle instead demanded that all members of the OpenOffice.org Community Council involved with the Document Foundation step down,[70] leaving the Council composed only of Oracle employees.[71]

Most Linux distributions promptly replaced OpenOffice.org with LibreOffice;[54][55][56][57] Oracle Linux 6 also features LibreOffice rather than OpenOffice.org or Apache OpenOffice.[241][242][243] The project rapidly accumulated developers, development effort[244][245][246] and added features,[247] the majority of outside OpenOffice.org developers having moved to LibreOffice.[44][45][48] In March 2015, an LWN.net development comparison of LibreOffice with Apache OpenOffice concluded that "LibreOffice has won the battle for developer participation".[248]

I love the fact that Oracle demanded the council only have their employees. That didn't seem to work out for them given that they did later donate it to Apache.

The above though does suggest there's little reason to use OpenOffice (unless maybe LibreOffice doesn't support your older OS - I noticed for MacOS LibreOffice mentions only 10.8 and higher in latest release notes.

Timothy Miller · 10-09-2017, 02:33 PM

LibreOffice, it's still actively developed.

frankbell · 10-09-2017, 08:20 PM

I've been using LO since a few months after it was forked from OOo.

I have no regrets.

DavidMcCann · 10-10-2017, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cwizardone

Well.... according to Wikipedia,

I wish I had just £1 for every piece of nonsense I've read there! Apache have a web page, updated this year, calling for developers and providing orientation modules for volunteers.

Timothy Miller · 10-10-2017, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMcCann

I wish I had just £1 for every piece of nonsense I've read there! Apache have a web page, updated this year, calling for developers and providing orientation modules for volunteers.

While it's not officially dead, it's all but. No developers want to help with it because all the developers who have the skills and desire are already coding for LibreOffice. Supposedly they were going to have a release back in May (5 months ago) to address a known security vulnerability since 12 months ago. This hasn't happened.

While OpenOffice might still be officially alive, it's a soulless carcass that's on a breathing machine, that is just waiting to have the plug pulled so it can finally be allowed to rest in peace.

I loved OpenOffice when it was first released, but at this point, the Apache foundation should just start working with The Document Foundation and improving LibreOffice, and just shutter OpenOffice.

MensaWater · 10-11-2017, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timothy Miller

at this point, the Apache foundation should just start working with The Document Foundation and improving LibreOffice, and just shutter OpenOffice.

It's conceivable when Oracle "donated" it they made a proviso that Apache at least keep the existing version available for some period of time. Of course that assumes Oracle actually gave a damn about what happened to existing OpenOffice users. Maybe there are folks who actively pay for OpenOffice support so they couldn't be abandoned quickly no matter how much Oracle might want to do so.

Timothy Miller · 10-11-2017, 11:07 AM

If there are, they're not getting a very good ROI. There's been that major security vulnerability open now for an entire year, and while they finally announced in April it would be patched in May, here it is 6 months later and it hasn't been patched.

YesItsMe · 10-12-2017, 09:21 AM

I stopped using LibreOffice and OpenOffice all along when LibreOffice failed to render an OpenOffice-generated OpenDocument file correctly. I am not interested in software which can't even parse its homebrew format correctly.

MensaWater · 10-12-2017, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YesItsMe

I stopped using LibreOffice and OpenOffice

So what do you use instead?

By the way: Your signature actually made me laugh out loud.

YesItsMe · 10-12-2017, 12:24 PM

Sorry for that!

At work I am forced to use Microsoft Office which is not really as good to use as it was ten years ago anymore. Privately, I mainly use LaTeX for letters and other documents these days. For the rare occasions where I need an actual office suite, SoftMaker Office is my weapon of choice. The price (there are random discounts available) is fine for me as long as I get my stuff done with it.