OpenOffice.org for Mac Delayed Two Years

Athyra writes "According to their Mac porting page, OpenOffice.org will not release a native version of their software for Mac OS X (not counting the X11 version) until 2006. According to the project timeline, no real development can happen again until OpenOffice.org 2.0 hits Windows, Linux, and Solaris in 2005. Looks like Microsoft's got a cozy ride ahead on the Mac side of things for a while."

Comments

aaaaaaaaaag!!!

[BortQ]

This is a big shame. OpenOffice is often held up as the 'solution' to MS office, but it just can't be without a nice native mac implementation.

With the way that Apple has been swinging recently I wouldn't be surprised if they released an office suite of their own for OSX. They already have a powerpoint replacement in Keynote. In panther you will be able to read/write MS Word files with cocoa text apps. They have a simplistic email client in Mail.app, but it could easily be buffed up into an outlook like app, using iCal for calendars, etc.

Apple has shown that they can make seriously kick-ass software, so wouldn't it make sense for them to make a seriously kick-ass word processor already???

Even if they don't, I think that cocoa's newfound ability to read/write MS word files will probably spurn the development of some nice third party office apps.

Ack, the silly lameness filter says that I have too much repetition, so forsooth fair lassy, may thine future be full of ripe cheese and bountiful eggplants!!! Godamn it! Fuck you you stinking lameness filter, accept my post.

Re:aaaaaaaaaag!!!

[Tumbleweed]

> Keynote PPT
> ??? Word
> ??? Excel
> MySQL + Enterprise Objects Framework or something Access
> Mail+AddressBook Entourage/Outlook

PowerPoint = Keynote
Word = Appleworks wp (rumoured to be under dev)
Excel = Appleworks ss (rumoured to be under dev)
Access = Filemaker Pro (rumoured to be taken back in-house, though that may have been debunked recently)
Outlook = Mail (being upgraded in Panther)

Really, the only 'missing' components are a good word processor and spreadsheet, at this point. We'll see what's missing in the Panther version of Mail as far as how well it compares to Outlook. It may be more of an Outlook Express class app than an Outlook class one.

What happens to Panther with MS Office 2k3?

[Shenkerian]

Cocoa in Panther can handle simple Word document formatting natively, and will be publicly available around September. Various folks (in this thread and others) have pointed to that feature as a precursor to either Apple or 3rd-party Word-compatible apps. But what happens when, one month later, MS Office 2k3 comes out with its new "XML" document format? How quickly can Apple release a Cocoa patch that handles it?

Re:why leave out mac

[BigBir3d]

That "one type of customer" in this case; Mac user, is a strange breed. They are more willing to spend money than your average x86 user. They also have the option to buy MS Office for their platform (unlike linux). Most corporate users (a minority in the Mac niche) will buy MS Office instead of using something less compatible (they have to swap files with MS Office users on the Windows platform in a professional manner). This leaves home and education users to push for OOo. Education users get nice discounts from Apple on software, and most will buy MS Office that way. So we have the home user that is responsible for the push to use OOo. And remember, only about 25% of Mac users today actually use OS X.

The numbers just don't look good. No getting around it. It just makes OOo priorities that much easier to manage.

Sorry.