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Aqua OpenOffice for Mac OS X

Posted by pudge on from the aqua-licious dept.

rhetland writes "An article on O'Reilly network discusses the new port of OpenOffice to Mac OS X. The public beta, due out next week, will be posted on the OpenOffice Mac site. I have been waiting for this for months, and can hardly wait."

12 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I think... by ruiner13 · · Score: 3, Informative
    "What is that dock program that looks like a world? Never seen that before..."

    That's probably OmniWeb, by the Omni Group.

    --

    today is spelling optional day.

  2. A Sweet Suite Situation by Big+Sean+O · · Score: 4, Informative
    Things are looking up for Mac users. Soon we will have three office productivity suites running in Aqua.

    1. Microsoft Office. Probably not coincidentally, it's being sold for 1/2 price when you buy a new Mac.
    2. AppleWorks. Which is almost as free as in beer, since it comes bundled with your new Mac.
    3. and now OpenOffice.org.


    Lots of people would say that having three different suites is a bad thing, but I don't think so anymore:

    1. XML file formats: Both MS Office and Open Office have documented XML-based file specifications. This will make it possible for open source conversion stylesheets. Sure, there will be translation glitches, but the open nature of the file specification will make all types of conversion of content possible.
    2. Variety of Tools. Some people like vi. Some people like emacs. Some people like BBEdit. Same for Office Suites. My wife has AppleWorks and MS Office, but she likes AppleWorks better. Me, I don't care what WP program I use, but I get really fussy when I can't use Excel. Too much finger memory built up.
    3. Evolution. Like the varied Mozilla projects, lots of choices and experimentation is good. The more open code out there, the more new breakthrough projects built on the back of giants.

    --
    My father is a blogger.
    1. Re:A Sweet Suite Situation by goon+america · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, AppleWorks is only bundled with i(Book|Mac)s. Power(Book|Mac)s don't, though they come with other neat goodies like GraphicConverter.

    2. Re:A Sweet Suite Situation by tupps · · Score: 3, Informative

      There is also ThinkFree Office. Haven't used it but it has been getting good reviews: http://www.thinkfree.com/

      --
      Go out and get sailing!
  3. read the weblog more closely... by soullessbastard · · Score: 4, Informative

    X11 is going beta next week, not aqua. the aqua version is still in the planning stages.

    1. Re:read the weblog more closely... by soullessbastard · · Score: 1, Informative

      Here's the annoucement from the OpenOffice.org mailing list, alebit with poor formatting.

    2. Re:read the weblog more closely... by volsung · · Score: 5, Informative
      If you go to the OpenOffice porting site, you find they ARE going to port to Quartz/Appkit:

      http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/

      They are doing the port incrementally.

  4. It's not Aqua yet by l-ascorbic · · Score: 4, Informative
    The article says:
    Next week, public beta of the X11 release for Darwin 6, Mac OS X 10.2.

    This is still the X11 version. Sure, it'll be nice to try it, but it won't have Mac look and feel, and certainly won't obey the Human Interface Guidelines yet. It seems that the Aqua demo was of NeoOffice, which is just a proof of concept for developers, not a real distribution.

    NeoOffice is a mildly functional prototype office suite used for exploring technologies for use in OpenOffice.org. It is not a distribution and not in active development. It is a sandbox for testing out potentially unstable and ugly technologies that are not appropriate for a maintainable source base.

    Looks like there's a lot more work to be done...

  5. dead link! by soullessbastard · · Score: 2, Informative

    The link above should be http://www.neooffice.org.

  6. Re:I think... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    I believe they were asked by Apple to change it because it looked too much like the globe that sits on their "Network" icons.

    Omniweb is great, but I can see Apple's point, they don't want third parties making stuff that people mistake for Apple software.

  7. open source becomes free source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    hmm...interesting subtext: openoffice.org is released under the LGPL and SISSL which allow for closed source extensions to the source base and commercialization. According to the next to last NeoOffice FAQ entry the prototype is under the full GPL license and Sun employees know they can't use its source code directly.

    Is this the first salvo in a free source vs. open source war?

  8. Re:I think... by Channing · · Score: 2, Informative
    There are some nice replacement icons sets for Omniweb over at xicons:
    Omniweb Icon
    Omniweb Replacement

    Chang