I'm curious about the, what, finer points: do the template packs port? Do documents port cleanly? Are there gotcha's to watch out for?

Only asking because I've grown rather fond of the Sun ODF Template Packs along with a couple of others plus a book template I did for an historical novel (and, believe me, I do not want to have to reedit that chapter by chapter!) along with a couple of large (book-sized) transcriptions I've done.

I understand that LibreOffice.org is a fork of OpenOffice.org (and, yeah, it's probably better to switch than fight) but I'm wondering how much effort it's going to take to do that.

I don't plan on keeping OpenOffice.org running alongside LibraOffice.org -- going to be one or the other, I'll just remove the OpenOffice.org package -- I'm just curious about perils and oops, didn't know about that.

Any advice from experienced porters?

Nothing to worry about, Libre is OpenOffice, just the name is different. It's got some newer stuff, because OpenOffice (and I was just as fond of it) had a stand-still in its development.

None, you'll never notice the difference, save from the looks - that could use a polishing-up, but that's just me...

I was just a "worried" but it turned out okay...

I guess your "updater" will take care of that, mine (pacman, I use Arch) just made the swap, no more OpenOffice, but just Libre instead, it did ask, but in the end you have to allow it, unless you plan on ending up with some antique software...

Ehrm...before I forget: it never hurts to back up your docs, even if nothing is supposed to happen...it's better to have one more backup than just that one backup too short...

Thor

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It has been transparent here. Some machines haven't been updated, some have and both can work on the document collection without hassle.

I've made the switch to LibreOffice and have not looked back. I was not inconvenienced by the switch.

Thanks, good to know.

Removing a package in Slackware is just removepkg openoffice.org-3.2.1_en_US-x86_64-1_SBo and it's gone (and putting it back is just the reverse -- if you've hung on to the original downloaded file anyway).

And backed up, oh, yeah, every single file having anything to do with OpenOffice has been saved off where it won't get touched by anything before anything gets done. Ya never know...

Thanks again.

Just out of interest, why doesn't slackware ship with either? I only have the KDE office apps...

Slackware doesn't generally ship with things that aren't necessary; e.g., if you're going to use Slackware to run a web server or a file server or a print server or something along those lines, you have no use whatsoever for, well, pretty much anything beyond whatever it takes to do what you want to do (and you can choose what to install during installation or go for "full").

Slackware doesn't fool around with "branding;" i.e., you get Firefox, Thunderbird and other things as released by Mozilla, not abbreviated versions with distribution logos and names plastered all the place. I suppose the basic rule of thumb is, if you want it, you can get it, but we're not going to clutter up your disk drive with a lot of stuff you'll probably never need or use anyway.

This is not to say that a full installation of Slackware is limited in any way -- it's full-boat, no adding of basic tools (like compilers), they're all there and ready to go. There isn't much that needs adding to a full installation... except, well, OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice.org if you actually want them/it.

There is a large community that maintains a plethora of applications, libraries, tools other things at SlackBuilds.org http://slackbuilds.org/ (which is where LibraOffice.org is found), Slacky.eu http://www.slacky.eu/ and other sources for Slackware -- not much that's not available if you're in need or want.

Anyway, it has never bothered me that I might need to download something if I need it or want it and either build it myself or obtain one of the prebuilt packages from SlackBuilds.org; it would, however, annoy the heck of me if I had to sit through hours of downloads just to write a C program, compile it and execute it.

Hope this helps some.

Arch and Slackware...pretty much the same. I like it...

Well did it:

• log in as root, shut down X, in the console
• removepkg openoffice.org-3.2.1_en_US-x86_64-1_SBo (this is Slackware, that's how it's done)
• rm -r /opt/openoff* (get rid of the corpses; probably not absolutely necessary but what the heck)
• rm -r .openoffice.org (in /root and all user home directories)
• installpkg libreoffice-3.3.2_en_US-x86_64-1_SBo.tgz (again, this is Slackware, that's a package)
• startx
• select Word Processor on the KDE Office menu
• set various options (like name, address, all that)
• install extensions (the German dictionary) and templates (the two Sun ODF template packs)
• try the templates -- work fine
• open an existing document file containing text and images, viola!
• select Printer Administration on the KDE menu
• do some minor twiddling, test both printers -- works fine

Happy camper.

Thanks to all for the hints.

You're welcome!

And ... it's always better to be VERY sure beforehand, than VERY sorry too late...

Thor