LibreOffice liberation
Have you made the switch to LibreOffice yet? You really should! The project is going from strength to strength, with versions available for all Linux, Mac and Microsoft users. Most big name Linux distributions have alreeady made the switch from OpenOffice.org, and organisations such as Red Hat, Google, SUSE and the Free Software Foundation are throwing their weight behind the project too.
LibreOffice began as a fork of OpenOffice.org after Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems last year. OOo's future was uncertain under Oracle, and the project had been dogged for years by bureaucracy and dithering on the part of Sun. Updates were irregular, developers of even simple patches apparently struggled to get them implemented, and the code was a real dog's breakfast, with many comments (in German) harking back to its earlier incarnation as StarOffice.
All that's changed under management by The Document Foundation. The beta of version 3.3 was released last September. Initially a clone of OOo 3.3, the final release (3.3.3) in June added a number of new features including SVG image import, better import filters for Microsoft Works, Lotus Word Pro and WordPerfect, and an "experimental" mode that lets users test unfinished features.
Version 3.4.2 hit the servers at the beginning of August. Along with a huge code tidy-up (more than 5,000 lines of dead code have been removed), there are memory usage improvements, reduced reliance on Java, the ability to test and reset styles within Writer, improved speed and compatibility with Microsoft Excel, and better text rendering too.
I've been using LibreOffice since its first beta -- principally the Writer component -- and it performs flawlessly. I like to run at least two versions so I can try out the pre-releases and even the nightly builds. But more on how to do that in the next blog ...
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Comments
Geoff,
The distro that I use (PCLinuxOS) no longer has Open Office. Libreoffice is in the repositories and thus can be downloaded and installed very easily. I did see someone complaining about the difficulty of printing in Landscape under LO on the forums but haven't yet tried it.
Jim
Posted by: Jim | August 21, 2011 8:55 PM
I switched to Libreoffice, on Ubuntu Linux. I found it totally stable, and haven't observed a single crash. It formatted the documents I created in OpenOffice 3 on OpenSolaris flawlessly, including table of contents, headers and footers and all custom styles. I was so delighted with it that I have ditched OpenOffice and I am using LibreOffice almost exclusively - which I am sure I'll use for years with no problems.
My advice is don't use OpenOffice, especially if you have any experience with Oracle's products :-)
Posted by: Dave | August 18, 2011 8:19 PM
"You really should". Seriously, why?
Does it have outline view (around 7 years old wish)? No. Does it have "reveal codes"? No.
It is not a major breakthrough, it has some of rusty places painted, that's all.
I use LO actually, but I treat it as next version of OOo, no big deal.
Posted by: macias | August 18, 2011 2:25 AM
Made the move to LibreOffice early on the development of LO both in Linux and M$ Windows. Will not go back to Oo; although it still has some needed improvements, it is vastly superior to Oo.
Toto
Posted by: Toto | August 17, 2011 6:04 PM
Hey Adrian,
Its sad you had problems with LibreOffice (LO).
I've had no problem with LO or OpenOffice (OO) & I use it a lot on Windows & Ubuntu (Linux) for years.
I feel your problems LO but not with OO seems you may have had a LO download that was corrupt. I feel LO & OO are not that different, yet! So I suggest you try LO again.
Also try out the extensions available with LO/OO. Here are some very good extensions for LO / OO:
http://www.languagetool.org/
- helps detect some grammar mistakes
-Requires Java 6.0 or later.
http://code.google.com/p/ooo2gd/downloads/detail?name=ooo2gd_3.0.0.oxt&can=2&q=
that lets you quickly & easily upload to Google Docs
I also recommend "The complete Writer Guide":
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/cgi_img_auth.php/b/ba/0200WG3-WriterGuide.pdf
Posted by: Indian_Art | August 17, 2011 5:32 PM
I switched to Libreoffice, both on Windows and Mac. I found it unstable. It crashed continually. It wouldn't format documents created in Openoffice correctly, especially tables, headers and footers. I got so frustrated with it that I have ditched it and gone back to OpenOffice - which I have used for years with no problems.
My advice is don't use Libreoffice. :-(
Posted by: Adrian | August 17, 2011 11:35 AM