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OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta Released

Sean0michael writes "OpenOffice.org has announced their 3.0 Beta is ready for testing. The new version includes some great enhancements, including MS Office 2007 import filters, an improved notes feature, a built-in Solver component, and an Aqua interface for Macs. The site has a complete list of Beta features. Download your beta release from their site."

14 of 390 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Aqua by Sunshinerat · · Score: 4, Informative

    Anybody spotted the PPC version of this?
    Looks like there is only an Intel version, no universal binary.

    --
    Load New Commander (Y/N)?
  2. Re:Aqua by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'd just get the powerpc version of NeoOffice. It's not 3.0, but it works great.

  3. PDF Import Extension by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, is says:

    " Available Soon... PDF Import Extension
    The PDF Import Extension allows modifying existing PDF files for which the original source files do not exist anymore. "


    However, that was August 2007.

  4. Re:*STILL* no outline mode. by BigJim.fr · · Score: 5, Informative

    Lack of outline mode is bug nÂ3959 and if you had as much as skimmed its content you would know why it is taking longer to develop than you think it should.

    Everyone agrees it is important, everyone is impatient, the developers know all about it, but it is not a trivial hack, so it will take resources and therefore time.

  5. Re:Hang in there guys by sm62704 · · Score: 4, Informative

    You got that backwards there, son. Even though I know you're either trolling or (more likely) astroturfing, I'm going to bite.

    I can open a word document with OO. I cannot open an OO document with Word.
    I can open a Word Perfect document with OO. I cannot open a WP document with Word.
    OO has the cool cachet of the GPL, while Word is just another boring corporate moneymaker.
    OO has fewer bugs and faster bug fixes.
    OO costs nothing, while stupid people pay good cash for Word that could otherwise be spent on more important things like beer, games, and more beer.

    The only thing Word has going for it is that the Uncyclopedia parodies Bill Gates (and even includes a real criminal justice system mug shot of him) but not Scott McNealy. I mean, if Uncyclopedia doesn't make fun of you your software must really suck, right?

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  6. Re:Still low limit on Calc rows? by danaris · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...what does your company do that they need that many rows on a spreadsheet?

    We're querying data out of a database and trying to do simple processing on it (the type that Excel does very well) in the simplest ways we can, and present it to the bosses. Yes, I could write a Java program to subtotal all our payments by type and spit it out in some kind of elegant format, or we could spring for a dozen more Crystal Reports licenses, but the fact is that Excel does this just fine, and now we don't even have to use 6 worksheets within a workbook to hold it all.

    I hate Microsoft, but I just have no way of recommending replacing Office with OpenOffice while this is an issue.

    Oh, and by the way (not directed at you, but at the stuck-up git who wrote that quote, which I read, too): when someone says they have a reason to use more than X of something in your product, and all it would cost you to give it to them is (I think) changing the types of a bunch of variables, and maybe adding a couple of extra converter methods, you don't tell them, "No one should ever need that many! Only an idiot would even ask for that!" You either say, "Well, we don't currently have enough demand for that feature to be worth the trouble," or you just darn well do it!

    Dan Aris

    --
    Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
  7. Re:Aqua by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yeah, but how long is it going to take before some douche bag starts whining about how it doesn't "feel like a 'real' Mac application?" Probably in 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . .

    Ooooh! I want to be that douche bag!

    Seriously, this is a great step forwards, but like most ports it is still seriously lacking in real functionality, especially when it comes to features that OS X offers, but other OS's do not. These include:

    • - spell checking - OO.org claims to support OS X's built in spell checker, but as of the beta still flags words as misspelled that every other application knows are not because I added them. Training two, separate spell checkers to know all the technical terms I use daily are not misspellings is a hassle and is "not native." Hopefully this will be fixed by the time the final version ships.
    • - system services - OO.org cannot use any OS X system services including the built in, universal grammar checker, language translation services, or any of the dozen or so services I use in MS Word, Pages, InDesign, TextEdit, mail.app, etc., etc.
    • - responsiveness - whether it is because it is a port, or just because it is bloated, OO.org is still a dog for performance. I sometimes see visible lag when tying in word processing documents and it really, really hogs resources. MS Word is slow and a hog, but OO.org is really the only application I use regularly that is worse in that regard.
    • - keyboard shortcuts - OO.org does not use the standardized keyboard shortcuts for all functions, but does use them for some. For example, copy and paste uses the standard (cmd-c, and cmd-v) but increasing the font size does not use the same (cmd+) that native apps do. Sticking with one set across all platforms makes sense as a standard. Using the standards on a platform makes sense. Going halfway in between, however, means I have to guess if a given feature will be like a "real Mac application" or like OO.org on Windows or something else entirely.

    Please note. These don't mean OO.org sucks or the developers are lazy or anything else. It just means that there is a real usability and functionality concern when comparing a not quite polished port to a native application. One of the drawbacks of cross-platform applications (especially when they are not designed as cross-platform initially, but try to port to new platforms) is they tend to miss things and also tend to become a least common denominator when it comes to features. Windows and Linux don't have a universal grammar checker, so if you use OO.org on OS X (which does) it is ignored, despite being implemented by default in all native applications.

  8. Re:Don't Hate! by ianare · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm getting tired of this blatant lie. OO is released under the LGPL. There, end of story - it's open source.

    And while sun does have the copyright, the community plays a role in the development process.
    Furthermore, some other projects do use OO code, eg neooffice

  9. Re:Aqua by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    There *are* PPC builds so far:
    http://ooopackages.good-day.net/pub/OpenOffice.org/MacOSX/Dev_BEA300_m2/

  10. Re:Hang in there guys by pavon · · Score: 3, Informative

    I personally think it is because Sun insists on tying OO.o together with the JRE. You can disable the JRE: Tools > Options > Java > disable. Only a few components use it. Doing so does improve the start up time quite a bit, but I haven't seen any difference whatsoever with runtime performance, so I don't think the JRE is to blame there.
  11. Re:Don't Hate! by ianare · · Score: 3, Informative
    From the about page :

    The OpenOffice.org project is primarily sponsored by Sun Microsystems, which is the primary contributor of code to the Project. Our other major corporate contributors include Novell, RedHat, RedFlag CH2000, IBM, and Google. Additonally over 450,000 people from nearly every curve of the globe have joined this Project
    Now, I have never contributed to OOo, so I can't speak for how they actually handle individual contributors. Many open source projects are not always very inviting to individual contributors, especially when their opinions differ from the core devs (see GNOME). But they certainly do accept code from others.
  12. Re:Aqua by je+ne+sais+quoi · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nah... NeoOffice still runs a large part of OOo code. Mostly the differences on the front end are in using native widgets instead of the OOo ones (why reinvent the wheel?). The irony here is that the guys doing NeoOffice tried to work with Sun to do this when they started but the people at Sun weren't cooperative. NeoOffice is running what OpenOffice.org should have done a long, long, long time ago and only now have decided this is necessary.

    --
    Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
  13. OOo Writer 3.0 beta: the same old problems by temcat · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just downloaded the beta to check what has changed since I last tried OOo. Not much as far as I can see.

    1) Bullet/numbered lists.
    - Still cannot quickly (one mouse drag) change spacing between the text and its bullet/number. Something I can do in Abiword.
    - "Clear formatting" does not clear the bullet/number.

    2) Still no Normal mode.

    3) Keyboard Shortcuts
    - Still limited shortcut selection.
    - Still assign a shortcut to a special character without recording a macro.

    4) The new notes implementation is actually a step back.
    - Word compatibility hasn't improved here. You cannot collaborate with people using Word when they use notes. Even if you don't change their notes, not all content is preserved.
    - Now I can only see a note on a special page margin, instead of having it as a special markup in text with an option to read it on demand. Moreover, this margin increases with text zoom in Web Layout mode (WTF?)!
    - Still cannot assign a note to a range of text.

    5) Still cannot search and replace text with a specific named style.

    And all of this is only after a cursory look, there is probably much more.

  14. Re:Aqua - LaunchD, etc... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Simple:

    LaunchD
    Bonjour (Dynamic DNS Stuff (mDNS))
    iCal Server

    Thats just a few