02-18-2011, 01:15 PM

Has anyone given LibreOffice a try? Supposedly most of the folks who were working on OpenOffice are now working on the LibreOffice project.

I'm going to download a copy later on and give it a spin, but would be interested in hearing what some of you who have given it try have to say.

BTW, it's free.

Download LINK

02-18-2011, 03:24 PM

MIght give it a look as well

Why have they forked off from Open Office?

02-18-2011, 03:35 PM

Probably because no one likes Oracle.

02-18-2011, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by chscag

Has anyone given LibreOffice a try? Supposedly most of the folks who were working on OpenOffice are now working on the LibreOffice project.

Gave it a quick try. As far as I could tell (and again, this was after a quick trial), there is little yet that differentiates it from OOo. Given that it's the first release, I'd expect that I'm not far off the mark here.

Originally Posted by louishen

MIght give it a look as well

Why have they forked off from Open Office?

Because Oracle bought Sun and has managed to just about screw up each piece of OSS that Sun managed.

02-18-2011, 09:20 PM

I just got through testing the word processor and presentation software. So far I like what I see. As Van points out it resembles OO but it does seem a bit more polished. (I noticed that the version number is 3.0 same as the latest OO.)

It did well with several MS Office documents I threw at it but like OO it mangled some graphics and borders. But that's to be expected.

The suite is quite large as it includes a word processor, presentation, spreadsheet, data base, drawing, and formula programs. The download expands to around 500 MB when installed.

I would definitely recommend this to someone who needed a suite and on a budget. However, for university work and business applications I would have to say go with MS Office 2011 and 2010 (for Win).

02-19-2011, 06:54 AM

Originally Posted by chscag

Has anyone given LibreOffice a try?

Yes, I tried it soon after the first non-beta was released, which was only a few weeks ago. I really only played with the word processor because that's the only component that I really need.

It is an impressive first effort. However, it crashes several times a day (without warning), which is completely unacceptable. I'd say that it isn't yet ready for prime-time, but that it is worth keeping a close eye on. Unlike all the other projects porting the OpenOffice code to the Mac, it is being backed by some big names with a lot of money and resources, such as BROffice, Google, Novell and Red Hat. I expect this project to soon eclipse all of the other OpenOffice projects.

For now, the OpenOffice product that I would most recommend is:

NeoOffice (free)
http://www.neooffice.org

NeoOffice has implemented more features for the Macintosh:
NeoOffice 3.1.1 Feature Comparison - NeoWiki

...and in many instances is faster.
NeoOffice Performance Comparison - NeoWiki

I'm looking forward to the day when none of us have to purchase Microsoft Office ever again. (Yes, I know that there are other very nice word processors and office suites for the Macintosh. But some of us need the extra features that only Office offers.)

___________________________________________

Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
OS X Maintenance And Troubleshooting
___________________________________________

02-19-2011, 08:16 PM

Thanks Randy for the comments.

Here's an interesting article that was given to me by a friend. It's from the on line version of InfoWorld. LINK

It does a comparison between LibreOffice and Open Office.

02-19-2011, 10:04 PM

Originally Posted by chscag

I would definitely recommend this to someone who needed a suite and on a budget. However, for university work and business applications I would have to say go with MS Office 2011 and 2010 (for Win).

I agree but I managed to get through undergrad using OOo. I only mention this to note that it's possible but I would recommend that students stick with Office given the support and the range of options in terms of pricing (you can frequently get it quite cheap).

Nice article chscag. I think the following is worth noting:

Otherwise, the choice between OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice weighs largely on two factors: support and future development.

Given Oracle's apparent lack of interest in Sun's open source projects, I expect LibreOffice to have a much brighter future. On top of that, many of the major Linux distributors are migrating to LibreOffice and although Linux holds a small market share, the OOo project will lose those developers.

02-19-2011, 10:09 PM

Originally Posted by Randy B. Singer

I'm looking forward to the day when none of us have to purchase Microsoft Office ever again.

I like MS Office on the Mac. For me, the open source alternatives are just too fugly. If I wanted fugly, I'd have kept using Windows.

So that's really a major shortcoming in general with open source. They've got some great technical people contributing but they really need some good UI designers.

02-19-2011, 11:09 PM

The problem with a significant number of cross-platform apps is the need to use a toolkit that works across platforms. Many of these look terrible on the Mac or at best, look like nothing more than a superficial theme. Take Firefox for example - it works on the Mac but it looks absolutely terrible. There are exceptions of course. Chromium, a fully open source and cross-platform app, is built with Cocoa and works/operates like a great Mac app should.

I have no idea what toolkit OpenOffice and LibreOffice use but it looks horrible on the Mac. It's not bad on Windows and looks great in a GTK environment (with some assistance).

02-20-2011, 03:10 AM

Originally Posted by chscag

Here's an interesting article that was given to me by a friend. It's from the on line version of InfoWorld. LINK

It does a comparison between LibreOffice and Open Office.

It's important to note that that comparison is between two versions for Windows, not the Macintosh. The Mac versions aren't exactly the same. For instance, the translators harped upon in the article are not the same ones used for the Macintosh. I wouldn't be surprised if the Mac version of LibreOffice has gotten a lot less attention than the Windows version. In any case, from reading the project blogs, LibreOffice has been rushed out the door and is in its infancy.

Also, it should be noted that even though OpenOffice/Mac is the best known of the OpenOffice-based ports for the Macintosh, it is the least advanced. It would be more interesting to compare LibreOffice to NeoOffice. GoOO also touts features that none of the other OpenOffice-based Mac ports have yet.

___________________________________________

Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
OS X Maintenance And Troubleshooting
___________________________________________