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Apache OpenOffice 4.0 Released With Major New Features
An anonymous reader writes "Still the most popular open source office suite, Apache OpenOffice 4 has been released, with many new enhancements and a new sidebar, based on IBM Symphony's implementation but with many improvements. The code still has comments in German but as long as real new features keep coming and can be shared with other office suites no one is complaining." The sidebar mentioned brings frequently used controls down and beside the actual area of a word-processing doc, say, which makes some sense given how wide many displays have become. This release comes with some major improvements to graphics handling, too; anti-aliasing makes for smoother bitmaps. In conjunction with this release, SourceForge (also under the Slashdot Media umbrella) has announced the launch of an extensions collection for OO. Extensions mean that Open Office can gain capabilities from outside contributors, rather than being wrapped up in large, all-or-nothing updates. You can download the latest version of Apache OpenOffice here.
Why haven't the two codebases been merged?
For IBM, Open Source == Out Sourcing.
Cheaper than employing programmers in faraway places is to get them to volunteer for free to maintain their code.
Not new really... They have been doing that for years.
No sig. Move along - nothing to see here.
I'm a Dutchman, my native language is dutch, and I use english for all comments because using my native language seems to screw with the industry-standard english terminology in programming.
Anybody here who comments his/her code in his native language? How do you deal with the jargon and what are the benefits of using your native language, apart from being able to type TL;DR-size comments with ease?
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Yes a few years ago some who did not like OO.org structure created an alternative which some prefer, and there is an issue with Oracle buying OO.org, but now Apache has it.
So before we start modded up the MS shills who want to promote the OO.org versus Libreoffice battle, remember that OSS is about choice, and MS is about the destruction of choice.
Thanks to all the people who have put work into OO.org. It is very appreciated. I have downloaded the new version and will look at it as I need it.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Despite all the PR libreoffice gets it looks like the main advances are coming from the Apache guys. Sure, the ASF has no interest in removing Java or translating comments but the sidebar, the new galeries and palette along with the enhanced draw tool and SVG support look very nice.
My PC is not a tablet. Stop putting stuff on the sides. I don't care if you think it looks better or "ought to be" more efficient. I don't want your newfangled sidebar. You may put it on the top or the bottom, but leave the sides alone.
Does this mean that I now have to switch back to OpenOffice instead of using LibreOffice? Oh, the problems and expense of Open Source, is it worth it? /sarcasm
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
LibreOffice 4.1 is out later this week and they already imported all the bug fixes from Apache Office. According to https://www.libreoffice.org/download/4-1-new-features-and-fixes/ they picked up at least these improvements:
"A very large number of bugs have been fixed at an estimate of around 3000 bugs, of which 400 came from authors with apache.org mail addresses."
and
"Sidebar (Apache OpenOffice/IBM Symphony) with resizeable layout (LibreOffice team)"
I wonder when apache office will merge fully with LibreOffice.
Finally, somthing that makes sense on 16x9 monitors, instead of the idiotic idea of taking up vertical space in a "ribbon"
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
And we don't need more extensible frameworks.
We want something that installs and works smoothly from the get-go.
Don't worry, LibreOffice already has all the improvements imported from Apache, see https://www.libreoffice.org/download/4-1-new-features-and-fixes/
Then it's NFG (No Fucking Good)
*Two* open source offerings competing against each other instead of against Microsoft.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
Does it yet support easy alternate key binding configurations, like emacs style editing keys? Firefox has had it for many years via the gtk config, and some of us have been asking for it in OO for close to ten years.
It seems each OO release breaks the past support for custom keybindings, and my old config files become useless. I am forced again and again to manually re-create basic emacs editing shortcuts (go to start of line, end of line, forward char, etc).
Why does that config api *always* change?
What's it gonna take for an easy to use option to do this?
Anyone else remember Applixware? I remember buying a shrink-wrapped copy in CompUSA in their Linux section back in the day.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Tried to save to HTML, doesn't work, only PDF. Not good for what I need!?!?!
Well since they laud the new sidebar so much for better use of widescreen monitors they should love the fact that LibreOffice will have it within a few days...
4.1 is due in a matter of days which has an improved sidebar that's resizeable and not just a static part of the screen.
I really question what the point of AOO is at this juncture given that LO is clearly the more active project and has two years of code clean up and development over AOO due to the way Oracle let it stagnate for so long.
If you want to try 4.1 now it is on the pre-releases page and it's the final RC there ... ie the same that will be released as final GA in a few days.
I now use LaTeX because I just get the job done and done well.
WISYWIG is evil, we need to go back to WRITING our documents rather than dicking about with font sizes and colours.
Start time has been slow for me on OS X
Does it have a WordPerfect-like Reveal Codes feature?
No?
No dice.
Here we go again with all the ranting about the mexican wrestler version. *sigh*
even on older hardware. And an extension language (ELF), and it could
pull from databases into a spreadsheet if you tweaked it a bit.
I think I plunked down a couple of hundred dollars for the initial RedHat release
as my contribution to the escape from microsoft.
I don't know about you, I feel like exposing my erotic story I write to NSA. If openoffice does not have a back door to NSA, it will not cut it for me. Just saying.
As opposed to AOO, whose project lead spends his time writing juvenile insults and lies on Slashdot and LWN?
Nice try, Rob Weir.
i did not know that Apache develops OpenOffice. I always thought Sun Microsystems developed OpenOffice. I learned something new. i don't follow news related to OpenOffice. lol
Does it yet support easy alternate key binding configurations, like emacs style editing keys? Firefox has had it for many years via the gtk config, and some of us have been asking for it in OO for close to ten years. It seems each OO release breaks the past support for custom keybindings, and my old config files become useless. I am forced again and again to manually re-create basic emacs editing shortcuts (go to start of line, end of line, forward char, etc). Why does that config api *always* change? What's it gonna take for an easy to use option to do this?
Do you have a source?
Apache claims it's more "interoperable" with OOXML. This is a lie: it doesn't *write* OOXML at all. LO does that.
So what this claim means is "we don't read OOXML files as hideously badly as we used to, though still not as well as LO does. And we can't write them so you can't just use AOO at work, you'd still have to use LO."
Linux users do not appreciate how terrible AOO is to use - because for years Linux users were really running the Go-OO fork of OOO, which has written OOXML for years, and all those changes went to LO. OOO basic never had them and AOO never got them.
tl;dr AOO doesn't write OOXML, can't slot into your actual office work, LO can.
and reduce bugs.
My point was entirely relevant and you're just trying to weasel out of it with a false dilemma. Then you attempt to sweep inconvenient facts under the rug as "irrelevant," and you have the bombast to attempt to portray your willingness to do so as generosity. Such an argument is worthy of Schopenhauer's Art of Being Right; for you to argue in such a fashion and then perpetually loudly claim that everything anybody else says is fallacious is pretty laughable.
You were saying there are tons of LO contributions being dual-licensed for AOO inclusion because all those who "don't care about the license bullshit" are "happy to work with both projects." I countered that the dual-license contributors are not that numerous, and that an absence of philosophical objections to the Apache license does not entail a willingness to license LO related work for use by AOO-- in particular, some people have become unwilling to do so because of the caustic, acerbic, and rude behavior that has been exhibited on the AOO dev list and elsewhere.
Any search for your posts here, at lwn, or on the Apache mailing lists will turn up this kind of stuff. From the security list debacle two years ago to the present, just about any time you've opened your mouth you've alienated people, including many who might otherwise have contributed in some way to AOO's success. I haven't been following aoo-dev for a while, and I'm not on top enough of all the drama you generate to give an itemized list here, but it doesn't take much looking to find you behaving like an adolescent and people being disgusted by it.
In any case, I too am done talking with you. Maybe once you've driven AOO into the dirt with your toxic "leadership" and been let go by IBM you'll rethink your ways of dealing with people.
First, I never said *tons* of LibreOffice contributions. So you are trying to rebut something I never said. I was merely rebutting the categorical statement that *no* contributions could flow the other way because of license differences. This is false, because the license is chosen by the author, not the project, and the author can pick more than one. This is not merely a theoretical possibility but is happening in reality, as I stated.
As far as your stated, but unargued, proposition that I personally am an impediment to this kind of sharing, I can't rebut an argument you don't make. But I will say that I am aware of several examples of such sharing where the LibreOffice contributor contributed to Apache very quietly, behind the scenes, out of fear of repercussions from the LibreOffice hierarchy. So the truth is a bit more complicated than you make it out to be. We also have several contributors who left LibreOffice to work with OpenOffice out of dissatisfaction with the decision making process at LibreOffice.
The community moved on to LibreOffice after Oracle bought Sun and gained control of OpenOffice. The motivating fears were later confirmed by subsequent actions.
2 products. both open. use either one. support either one..
...than either AOO and LO. Much more optimized for OS X. And its engineering team of two is supported by their user base, not by IBM or Oracle or whosever, so that they can work full-time on improvements. Still open source, of course (GPL). It's a real success story. See http://www.neooffice.org./
The sidebar mentioned brings frequently used controls down and beside the actual area of a word-processing doc, say, which makes some sense given how wide many displays have become.
My 16:10 aspect screens run in portrait mode, you insensitive clod!