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StarOffice 8 in July
McSpew writes "Sun Microsystems plans to release StarOffice 8 in July. Can this mean that OpenOffice.org 2.0 will be ready in the same timeframe?"
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Aren't Staroffice and OO.org practically the same thing?
Just because YOU have a Mac and don't care, doesn't mean that noone else cares.
I do care, myself. I try to use OO, but the exporting/importing from MS Office in 1.x has some problems.
I'm also primarily a Windows user (learning Linux on the side. I'll switch when I'm ready) and the 2.x betas are not provided as binaries. The sooner 2.x goes official the sooner I get my Windows OO binary, the sooner I can stop using MS Office.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Doesn't that line of reasoning assume that OO.org 2.x will have useable import and export filters? I have yet to see any competing office app that will even useably import or export any Microsoft Office format.
learning Linux on the side. I'll switch when I'm ready
If all people who "try" to switch from windows, would do the same, user helping forums and such would be a lot nicer!
How many people just try to switch out of anger or even good faith, but are disappointed to be on foreign land without a clue as what to do next and then blame the os.
Thank you.
They will never be released during the same amount of time. Not within a month. As you will notice they have always released products weeks apart the majority of the time even if they have it completed. Just like in a relationship they are holding back some cards to keep your interest high without showing you what they've got and you leaving sooner.
I'm also primarily a Windows user (learning Linux on the side. I'll switch when I'm ready) and the 2.x betas are not provided as binaries.
The 2.x binaries are available as binaries. I've been using them on various Windows machines for several months.
http://download.openoffice.org/680/index.html/
They are a great way to port a word doc to PDF or readable-HTML. I can use OOo to fix broken Word Documents when Word itself cannot read the document.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
...then it'll probably be based off a pre-release of OOo 2. Remember Netscape 6 was based off one of the 0.6 versions of Mozilla, and Mozilla 1.0 became a point release for Netscape.
Then again, from what I've heard (and I don't keep track of the OOo project like I should), 2.0 is supposed to be out around the June? timeframe. A month will be plenty of time for the Sun developers to rebrand it and work out a few of the bugs. Or who knows, maybe history will repeat itself and StarOffice won't really be ready until the 8.x releases.
The World is Yours.
You obviously haven't looked very hard, they are all released in binary format on their mirror sites.
Damien
In this day and age, we routinely import and export MS Office documents with OpenOffice.org 1.x many times a day; we also routinely rescue damaged MS Office docs for MS Office users who can't do that using MS Office.
Amongst other things, I'm a technical writer, submit all of my OOo writing in MS-Word DOC format, and have never had a glitch as a result. I have also done several PowerPoint presentations on provided equipment, the presentations were of course created in OOImpress (all six of the machines running in this house run Linux), and they have all worked OOtB.
So far the only big disappointment has been OOCalc's importation of Excel macros, which I'm sure you will be delighted to know is on the table for radical improvement as I type. The few documents that don't import perfectly generally feature the same baroque style which causes problems going between versions of MS Office, or (on MS Office, anyway) if you try to print it to a different printer than the original was connected to.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
= a rush for OO 2.1 plus pirate add-ins. This will put the Irate in Pirate if anything will. Let's just hope that stable means stable this time.
I'm sure my employer is just sitting on the edge of their chair wondering this same question...
You're welcome. Often when I stop in a forum (rare) or in IRC (often) I end up helping other people with the things I have worked through already, or try to help with things I'm not so sure about. I always make sure they know that I could be talking out of my posterior, though.
Long story short, I have tried a bunch of unsuccesful knee-jerk switches (I now have Redhat, Fedora 2 & 3, Debian Woody & Sarge, Gentoo, and Ubuntu lying around my desk...) and I have realized that it's not the way to do things.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
For those not in the know, OO.org/StarOffice are instrumental in unseating Microsoft's monopoly regarding Office. Microsoft Office literally costs hundreds of dollars, and for what? A so-so word processor, an often misused presentation program, an awful calendar program, a weak database, and probably the real star of Office is Excel.
Given the expense of MS Office, OO.org and StarOffice offer a _real_ alternative for an insignificant faction of the cost. StarOffice is now integrated at no cost into Solaris 10. OO.org is the de facto office suite on Novell and Red Hat. Millions of people use OO.org. One by one whole companies are switching over.
Everyone should at least try the next major versions of OO.org/StarOffice. I've found that they really are an adequate replacement for Office. I even use StarOffice to make simple web pages, resumes, mailing labels, etc. Odds are, if you haven't tried it, that you could start using it as a drop in replacement for Office right away.
The sore losers in all this, of course, are the people who used Microsoft's proprietary automation system, Visual Basic. You should probably stick with Office, then, because that's what lock-in is all about.
Interesting... this post is from The Department. Or is that the '' (null) department? The HTML source does have two spaces between "the" and "department", so perhaps that's the case...
There are 11 types of people in the world: those who can count in binary, and those who can't.
Will Base replace Adabase in this release?
You might find a better experience with Slackware. The relevant forums, particularly Dropline's tend to be very civilised and helpful.
I do care, myself. I try to use OO, but the exporting/importing from MS Office in 1.x has some problems.
I always feel that I need to count to 10 and calm down before refelecting on such statements. The main reasons I would never embrace anything from and related to Microsoft is that today there are very many people that really think that everything out there should be Microsoft-compatible, and _never_ the other way around. No matter if the others have genuine standards compliance, great open formats, etc. For them it's the MS way or the highway. That said, I do think OpenOffice.org does a very great job at importing and exporting Word documents, in spite the fact that the whole damn format is burried hundred feet deep under Everglades among rotting animal corpses.
and the 2.x betas are not provided as binaries
I honestly don't know what you are talking about.
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.