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http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/index.php

Mac sucks. Mac users suck. Especally OSX posers.

That said, I've heard NeoOffice is OpenOffice, but uses Java to replace the X11 parts or something like that, and that it works well on Macs since it doesn't require X11.

Enjoy ;)

The Mac support for OOo1.1.2 is great although it requires X11 to be running. Not that big a deal, since it's on the Panther XCode install CDs. And if you don't want that running, NeoOffice/J allows you to run OpenOffice.org1.1.2 without X11: http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/index.php/

I also love the Forrest support:
http://forrest.apache.org/docs/oowriter.html/

(but beware that if you delete a style from the sample OOoWriter file, you can't get it back...)

OOo 2.0 should work natively in Aqua sometime in 2006. Until then you need X11 to use it. It works, but it looks alot like running Windows/Linux on your Mac. There's also NeoOffice/J which runs a bit better, and is based on (I think) a Java implementation of OpenOffice.org1.1.2: http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/index.php/.

Agreed. I do a lot of writing (mostly articles) on my Macintosh, and I've found it more pleasant by far to use NeoOfficeJ instead of Microsoft Word v.X. Microsoft's software *looks* better on the outset, but NeoOfficeJ is actually more readable, faster responding, more usable, etc. The anti-aliased fonts are wonderful, and I've *never* had a NeoOfficeJ crash that caused me to lose work. (The Java layer they added to OOo traps the error and forces a save before close.)

The only compatibility problem I've ever had was with a mismatched font. Apparently I had accidentally used a Mac Font that my editor didn't have. It was no big deal for him to fix, and he only mentioned it in passing.

Even the OOo spreadsheet program is better. I recently did some rough calculations on the cost of doing a Moon Shot today and found NeoOfficeJ SpreadSheet to be WAY more usable than Microsoft's. I've got to hand it to the OOo & NeoOfficeJ guys. They're doing amazing work. :-)

From the article:

Our Mac OS X build is fantastic, and I use it every day, for articles, presentations, spreadsheets. It never crashes, and it allows me to work with my Linux and Solaris colleagues while maintaining my Mac glow of happiness. It's entirely community built, the work of Ed Peterlin, Dan Williams, Kevin Hendricks, Eric Hoch, Terry Teague, Patrick Luby, and many others (all of whom have day jobs). It runs in X11, in a way that is very elegant and very pleasing to the eye. The job they have done is truly brilliant. The next step is to make the build run natively in Aqua. However, moving to the Aqua interface is an enormous undertaking.

It sure is. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the openoffice.org team, but also to invite OS X developers (and users) to take a look at NeoOffice/J, an effort to port OO.o to OS X-- and make it look good, blue buttons and all.

The project basically has only three developers, but so far they have created an extremely stable office replacement that does NOT require X11. The latest addition-- Native menus.

Although the project is technically still in alpha mode, I know many people who use Neooffice/J for day-to-day use, including myself. (I'm probably not supposed to be saying that yet.. but it's true.) The project needs your support-- if you've got the skills and the resources, please come and help.

(For anyone who has used the OS X version of OO.o, Neooffice/J does not require X11 to be running.)

Download NeoOfficeJ, and the next time you put MS Word into the trash it won't be an accident. :-D

I think the best implemntation of OOo for OS X at this thimr is NeoOffice/J

It still does not really look like a mac app, but it does behave like one. In comparison to the X11 version it has:

- quartz text rendering
- native key commands (like cmd-s and so on)
- one application package
- double clicking files works normally
- no seperate launchers
- no extra software required
- native printer and font support ...etc

neooffice/j makes a lot of Marc's suggestions obsolete. The only drawback of /j is that you need a few hundred mhz tor run it.

I'd like to point out that there is a semi-native hack for OpenOffice called NeoOffice. It wraps OpenOffice in Java, which means you don't need to run X11 first, you can use native key bindings for everything, the system clipboard works properly, and (best of all) the native OS X print system is used.

Sure, the UI is still an ugly Windows-esque menu-in-the-window scheme, but it's better than nothing. :) I've been using it for my work and school papers, and found it to be as stable as an official OpenOffice build for OS X. It also seems to be a lot faster... initial startup time (because of Java) is as crappy as ever, but once it's running, it's a lot smoother.

Sounds strange, but it works well!

I wrote a blog entry in NeoOffice/J.

-Mark

I've been using NeoOffice/J for a little while, and it's far better than the "Official" X11 version. The only down side is that it's an older version that lacks PDF export support. :-( (Of course, the X11 version doesn't have that either.)

Hear, hear. I don't think most people have any appreciation for what Apple has managed to do with this new OS. 10.0-10.1 was still kind of a joke, but 10.2 was faster and had nearly all the necessary features for a desktop OS. 10.3 blows 10.2 out of the water for speed and features. The list of applications that I install after upgrading a computer to Panther is very short. And you don't need a G5 machine or even a G4 to run Panther because of the amazing amount of optimization that Apple has accomplished since 10.0 came out.

OS X Panther is now speed-comparable to OS 9 running natively on the same hardware, to the point where I can be sitting here typing this in Firefox on what would be considered an ancient Mac, an old 350MHz blue gumdrop slot-loading iMac. I upgraded this machine from OS 9.2, and in many ways I can't tell much of a responsiveness difference between this machine and my dual-867 G4 at work. This old hardware has been revitalized and brought into the modern world with a simple OS upgrade. That, my friends, is a miracle.

(Caveat: don't try to install OS X or even boot any OS X based boot CD on a Mac this old without making absolutely certain that you've applied the latest firmware updates. We used to have two of these iMacs but one died after I booted an OS X install CD on it. Something goes wrong in the logic board or video board. Same thing happened to this one but I managed to find and apply the proper firmware update before it died. Scary, but now we have a computer that will probably still be usable 5 or even 10 years from now, with an OS that isn't stuck in AppleTalk land anymore.)

If you say OS 7/8/9 and 10.0/10.1 were all crap, I would generally agree with you. But you can't deny that OS X has definitely gotten faster and better with each release, and after using 10.3 you won't be able to deny that it is a kickass operating system for actually getting things done.

Just put me on that ever-growing list of people who still run Linux on a PC (I've even run Debian and compiled a few kernels in my time), but for my main machine I wouldn't have anything but a Mac running the latest OS X. Sometimes you just want to use a computer to do actual work. Or play. And for either of those, the new Mac rocks the house. ;)

I'm the computer tech for an organization with 7 people and 9 computers... All new Macs, and all now running Panther. I consider myself to be one of the luckiest sysadmins in the world. The only Microsoft crap I have to deal with is Office, and that's only because OpenOffice isn't up to par on the Mac yet. (But for those who are interested in a MS Office alternative for the Mac, check out NeoOffice/J, a Java-based version of OpenOffice. It's still under heavy development but it seems to work OK. Oh, and download Firefox, IMO it looks and acts nicer than either IE/Mac or Safari.)

Nothin' perfect, yet. NeoOffice and NeoOffice/J are two projects trying to Mac OS X-ize OpenOffice. NeoOffice/J is largely usable, but also very large (~500MB, memory usage typically runs above 100MB) and slow. It's also ugly as sin.
I haven't been following it much, but someone is also in the processing of using Qt's cross-compatibility to port KOffice to OS X.

it's great if you're a programmer and want to tinker, or you just want to see what Open Office for OSX will look like in a year or two, fine, but if you actually have to use Office to, I don't know, prepare documents or something, you're better off sticking with the X11 version.

I know they have that disclaimer, but I've used Neooffice/J (the Java version) for work-related purposes for about three months now. The newest version is really stable and has a lot of Mac-specific bells and whistles including Mac fonts, traditional apple-key commands and shortcuts, the OS X mac print dialog, and much, much faster reaction time than the x11 version (in my experience).

I'd recommend giving it a try. For actual use. Really.

W

The people at NeoOffice.org are working on two parallel OOo ports. The first, NeoOffice, attempts to port OOo to Aqua. It seems to have stagnated, but the very promising NeoOffice/J is rapidly approaching 1.0!

NeoOffice/J replaces the dependency on X with a dependency on Java, which is treated as a native toolkit in OSX. NeoOffice/J may not look like an Aqua app yet, but it does integrate nicely with the AA fonts and can use OSX's copy and paste. It takes a good 30 seconds to launch on my G3 iBook 700/640MB RAM but once it's up and running it is quite fast. I recently removed the OOo X11 port from my machine, as NeoOffice/J works more consistently for me.

NeoOffice/J is based on OOo 1.0 but it's still much better than nothing, not to mention much better than the X11 port. It's very easily installed with a DMG file and the standard Apple installer, once installed it behaves like any other OSX app, setting up the MIME types properly, etc.

I've installed 0.82 in the Mac lab here at work, as we didn't purchase MSO with the machines and students were trying to open PPT lectures. Anyway, I'd take NeoOffice/J over AppleWorks any day of the week. I even prefer it to MS Office on OSX. (Sorry, it may look Aqua-ish, but it's an odd duck too.)

----------------------

From the NeoOffice/J site:

No X11 software required

NeoOffice/J uses the JavaTM technology that is built into Mac OS X. By using Java, there is no need to download and install the X11 software that OpenOffice.org requires.

Integrated with Finder and Mail

The Mac OS X Finder will automatically launch NeoOffice/J and open OpenOffice.org and MicrosoftTM Office documents that you double-click on. Also the Mac OS X Mail application will open OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office attachments in NeoOffice/J.

Uses Mac OS X fonts

Unlike OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice/J uses the same fonts that all of your other Mac OS X applications use. This means that NeoOffice/J will handle reading and writing of Western European characters (e.g. characters with accents, umlauts, circumflexes, cedillas, etc.) and some fonts will even handle Japanese, Chinese, and Korean ideographs. Also, NeoOffice/J is able to use any fonts that you install in your Library/Fonts subfolder or the /Library/Fonts folder.

Handles international keyboards

Unlike OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice/J will use an keyboard layout that you use. I routinely switch to a Spanish keyboard without a problem. Also, if you switch your keyboard layout while NeoOffice/J is running, NeoOffice/J will automatically switch as well.

Native printing support

NeoOffice/J supports printing using Mac OS X's native printing functionality. Like other Mac OS X applications, you can use NeoOffice/J to print, preview, or save a document to a PDF file.

Native copy and paste support

NeoOffice/J supports copying and pasting using Mac OS X's native clipboard so you can copy and paste text and images between NeoOffice/J and other Mac OS X applications.

NeoOffice -> Download -> one of the NeoOffice/J mirror sites -> NeoOfficeJ-0.8.2.dmg

The site states that it doesn't have any binaries though - anywhere you can get builds of this? Or will I have to set up CVS?

I thought it was going to be something cooler like the Java port of OpenOffice.