OpenOffice 3.3.0 GB is out

metalmackey · 5 Feb 2011 at 12:57

Dont think this has been posted yet. The GB version of the new Openoffice is out.

http://www.openoffice.org/

Raumarik · 5 Feb 2011 at 13:59

Cool, thanks for the heads up

dbmzk1 · 5 Feb 2011 at 14:07

I've never really got on very well with OpenOffice, just doesn't feel right somehow. Much prefer MS Office.

Fillado · 5 Feb 2011 at 14:33

http://www.libreoffice.org/

SiriusB · 5 Feb 2011 at 14:35

Fillado said:
http://www.libreoffice.org/

Agreed.

metalmackey · 5 Feb 2011 at 14:41

Fillado said:
http://www.libreoffice.org/

May I ask why you think its better than Openoffice? I haven't tried it yet.

Fillado · 5 Feb 2011 at 16:53

Oracle doesn't have a say in it.

More detail

metalmackey · 5 Feb 2011 at 22:09

Ah right. Thanks for the info, have swapped to LibreOffice.

ShakenNstirred · 5 Feb 2011 at 22:25

Fillado said:
http://www.libreoffice.org/

is there any real difference?

opethdisciple · 6 Feb 2011 at 12:45

Yea swap to Libre Office.

Open Office is driven by Oracle now, so its not so open.

Thats why all the devs created a new branch to keep the project open!

In short:

Libre = Open Source
Open office = Oracle

mrk · 6 Feb 2011 at 12:54

So it should be renamed, ClosedOffice

chaosophy · 6 Feb 2011 at 13:02

Khaaan! said:
So it should be renamed, ClosedOffice

Or ClosedOraffice! :eek:

Fillado · 6 Feb 2011 at 13:18

ShakenNstirred said:
is there any real difference?

At the moment there isn't a massive amount of difference. LibreOffice probably just wanted to get a stable version out with some indication as to the direction they are heading in.

Considering they've been up and running for all of 4 months they've managed to create a slightly better version 3.3. And the fact they managed to release it a day ahead of OpenOffice is quite frankly amazing.

In the future what will most likely happen is anything of note that gets added to OpenOffice will just get put in LibreOffice. But LibreOffice will also contain everything else that the community, not Oracle, has wanted to put in.

Therefore LibreOffice will always be better than OpenOffice. Since it will be OpenOffice + X years of independent steering and development.

I should add that obviously the community is involved in OpenOffice. But Oracle have ultimate say in everything. I imagine most people will move to LibreOffice eventually.

Saying that there are many sources detailing some differences (LibreOffice always seems to come out better):

OpenOffice.org offers the ability to read Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 documents, to access them, but not to save documents in these formats. LibreOffice does offer the added ability to save documents in these formats. However, OpenOffice.org does have the same ability; but so far, it has been deactivated from the software. We believe it is only a matter of time before such a feature gets reactivated.
The other difference is that LibreOffice embeds specific patches that improve the filters for Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010. These patches are easily identifiable in our code repository (see our technical FAQ) and their author is Novell.

http://www.libreoffice.org/download/new-features-and-fixes/

metalmackey · 6 Feb 2011 at 14:52

So now that Oracle own Openoffice, could they put a copyright on the code and stop the LibreOffice team from using it so they would have to start from scratch?

Fillado · 6 Feb 2011 at 17:39

OpenOffice code is released under the GNU LGPL 3 license (as is LibreOffice). Oracle owns certain copyrights to the finised product such as the OpenOffice name and those quite nice new icons I'm guessing.

So no. The existing code is available for anyone to use.

To put the Open Source natures in perspective:

Android - Totally closed development. Only Open Sourced once stable release is made.

OpenOffice - Community involved but Oracle calls the shots.

LibreOffice - Community driven throughout with no single company deciding what should happen.