OpenOffice.org Built with KDE and GNOME Support

ks writes "Novell hacker Jan Holesovsky has released a build of OOo 1.1.3 that integrates with either KDE or GNOME depending on the environment it's running in. The build features KDE/GNOME look and feel, KDE/GNOME file dialogs and the Crystal icons. If you're running NLD, you have this already." Update: 11/27 18:13 GMT by T : Also on the OpenOffice.org front, the OO.o front page links to this interview with Debian ARM developer Peter Naulls, who has ported the suite to ARM processors. Hint: they're everywhere.

Comments

I've seen it in action, it's pretty sweet

[Megaweapon]

This should help with either GNOME or KDE adoption in office environments since the user interface looks more streamlined.

Re:NLD?

[Janek Kozicki]

Novell Linux Desktop

Re:First Reply|

[FlipmodePlaya]

You could always use something like MetaTheme, or an equivalent (check kde-look.org), to have GTK widgets drawn with QT. Seems like a convoluted solution, but it really works quite well.

NLD

[Anonymous Coward]

I just started playing with the Novell Linux Desktop and it looks really nice. After having Novell removed for Windows AD at work, it was nice to see the big N on a screen again. ;)

It's basically Suse with some tweaks, but it's got a very professional look and feel about it with everything nicely integrated.

Something similar for Mozilla

[Dreadlord]

Something similar for Mozilla and Linux:
The Mozilla integration project for Linux desktops

Why OpenOffice is important

[Ars-Fartsica]

Microsoft has essentially turned into a replacement parts business for Windows and Office - adoption of new PCs at home and at work has normalized, new business is flat. Many of their new ventures are flat, ROI negative, or true money losers.

Having a drop-in replacement for Office is critical to attacking their core replacement parts business.

Kudos by the way to AbiWord and Gnumeric, two excellent programs that are native GNOME apps today.

Re:Is this the real thing?

[th3w4y]

it is using those... NO simulation

Open Office: your MS Office document repair kit.

[MsGeek]

It also removes macros. Sometimes it is a pain, because those macros are needed in an MS Office document, particularly in Excel. But if those macros are either corrupt or infected with a Macro Virus, losing the macros is actually A Good Thing. (tm)

Last year, the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival sent the band Saccharine Trust an elaborate Excel spreadsheet which provided an overview of the schedule for the entire weekend's performances at Camber Sands in the UK.

Joe Baiza had Office 98 for Mac running on his iMac. No joy opening the spreadsheet. He then sent the spreadsheet to Chris Stein, the band's bassist, (No, not the Blondie guitarist! Same name, different guy...) who tried to open it in Office XP. Again, no joy.

I get the spreadsheet sent to me. I open it in OO.o. Success! I saved the document first as an OO.o native format file, then resaved the native OO.o file as an .XLS. I sent it back to Joe and Chris, and voila! They could open it too!

I'll have you know that NOTHING got screwed up in the formatting. Maybe a few weird calculations used by the ATP folks got messed up, but the guys in ST didn't need them. All they needed was the time that ST needed to go on, and also the times for some of the other bands on the schedule the guys wanted to see. OO.o rules.

screenshots

[sewagemaster]

here and here

Re:What about OS X?

[bjhonermann]

Check out OOo's page on OSX development at http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/timeline.html

Quoting the relevent section

What's holding back the Quartz and Aqua tracks?

To implement Quartz and Aqua, we will need to change APIs that are owned by different projects here at OOo, and the one we really do need to target is undergoing a major revamp (Toolkit2). These changes will affect all platforms, so we are working with gsl to get the hooks we need to complete a native port.

Aside from our compilation efforts, the majority of our work can't be completed until these APIs are in place or at least designed to a point where we can begin figuring out how to marry them to MacOS X. There is no active coding at this time. With limited testing and development resources, it is unwise to spend all of our efforts porting a "dead" API that would not allow our work to be incorporated into newer versions of the software. As such, any delivery estimates here should be considered "relative" to the time the APIs are completed.

All further development of the Quartz and Aqua tracks has been postponed until OpenOffice.org 2.0 due to gsl timeline. Initial delivery of 2.0 for Win32, Solaris, and Linux x86 expected in Q1 2005. Projected OS X X11 port availability expected to be Q2 2005. Projected OS X native availability of OpenOffice.org 2.0 is currently Q1 2006.

In other words, native OSX is coming but right now all the API's are being rewritten so porting the old ones is a waste of time for the developers. Porting the new ones can't really begin until the API's are finished being designed. It's a pain and it's frustrating. I still recommend NeoOffice/J (http://www.neooffice.org/java/) to my OSX using friends if they don't have access to Word. It's native but still pretty ugly. Just saves on having to install X11.

-Brian