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Where Do I Go Now That Oracle Owns OpenOffice.org?
eldavojohn writes "So I noted that there was better support for my processor in the latest BIOS for my mainboard. After downloading the update, there was a .doc file containing flashing instructions. No matter, I have OpenOffice.org installed on this machine and just opened it up. And, as should be no surprise, there was an Oracle logo splash screen while OpenOffice.org 3.2 started up. At my job, I've had a less than favorable history with Oracle that I'm not going to get into — rather let's just say I never want anything to do with them again. Including installing any of their software on my machine. So I'm facing a dilemma. I've looked into the forked LIbreOffice but that's still in beta and I'm a little wary of depending on that. Has anyone used LibreOffice (it's installing as I type this) extensively? Does it handle complex Powerpoint files okay? Is there some alternative out there that I'm completely overlooking for open source? Can anyone convince me that there's no reason to fear the Oracle OpenOffice.org? Will it remain the de facto standard? Will it eventually lock me into a commitment with Oracle? If you get by without one of these heavyweight monster editors, what do you use and how do you handle doc, ppt, (etc.) extensions?"
Only on /. this can be moderated funny
OOXML is a documented standard, ISO/IEC 29500. Backwards compatibility ranges from very good to excellent. On the other hand, documents and sheets created with OO.org and forks are regularly known to break when opened from different forks or versions of OO.org. Where Office suites are considered mission critical, some tens of thousands every three years or so seem like a small cost compared to hundreds of thousands of loses in a single day. The corporate market has already chosen the Office suite that suits its needs, and no anti-Microsoft sentiments from FOSS enthusiasts can change that fact.
+5 Insightful?
Slashdot celebrity?
Ah, yes, the glamorous life of the spotlight that is Slashdot. Always putting up with shit like "MrBabyMan of Slashdot." And then for this comment to be modded so highly just really sends that "go somewhere else" message I am so fond of. You write book reviews, you scout news articles and that's the kind of reward you get.
Perhaps I will go somewhere else if you and the moderators detest me so mightily.
P.S. If you think that it's just a splash logo that bothers me, you haven't been reading the news about Java, MYSQL and -- I'd wager -- LibreOffice problems (perhaps even lawsuits) that people are going to start facing as Oracle moves from Open Source to Turn A Profit motives with those software projects. If you think it's just a matter of not seeing the logo, you're MrNaiveRubeMan of Slashdot. But I'm sure I'm alone in my worries and it's just because I'm a celebrity that my bitching gets put up with.
My work here is dung.
You must be one of those whacko religious types who thinks God's going to give us another planet after we thoroughly fuck this one over.