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LibreOffice 5.3 Released, Touted As 'One of the Most Feature-Rich Releases' Ever (omgubuntu.co.uk)

Posted by msmash on from the anything-but-Microsoft-Office dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: A new month, and a brand new version of open-source office suite LibreOffice is now available to download. And what a release it is. LibreOffice 5.3 introduces a number of key new features and continues work on improving the look and feel of the app across all major platforms. The Document Foundation describes LibreOffice 5.3 as "one of the most feature-rich releases in the history of the application." One of the headline features is called MUFFIN interface, a new toolbar design similar to the Microsoft Office Ribbon UI.

13 of 224 comments (clear)

  1. Just like MS Word ... by perpenso · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Touted As 'One of the Most Feature-Rich Releases' Ever

    That is a very Microsoft like statement, "goodness" defined by feature count, and probably not a good path to go down.

  2. Feature-rich by arth1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In my experience, there's a direct correlation between "feature rich" and "buggy" for any new release.

    In other words, I'll presume it to be the most buggy release ever, until I hear otherwise.

  3. A ribbon clone? by rnturn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Was there serious demand for this? I suspect one of the features that many -- if not most -- users of LibreOffice enjoyed was that it didn't have the damned ribbon.

    I do more writing using Emacs/LaTeX than I do with any word processor but when I do need to create a Word-compatible document I do resort to Writer (and save as ".doc"). Thanks guys for bringing the Office ribbon hassles to Writer. I'm sure everyone's tickled pink to now be able to experience Word's ribbon headaches on Linux.

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    CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
    1. Re:A ribbon clone? by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Was there serious demand for this? I suspect one of the features that many -- if not most -- users of LibreOffice enjoyed was that it didn't have the damned ribbon.

      Yes, I rarely pay much attention to this, but on the few occasions I've checked in with LibreOffice's forums, I've definitely seen people complain about the lack of a ribbon OPTION. Like it or not, MS Office has had that interface for about a decade now, and many younger users have never used anything else.

      [Personally, I dislike the ribbon and have never gotten used to it. The only reason I am able to use MS Office at work in a reasonable fashion is because I have a Mac that still has actual menus. But I also know a lot of people who LIKE the ribbon, or at least grew to like it over the years.]

      Thanks guys for bringing the Office ribbon hassles to Writer. I'm sure everyone's tickled pink to now be able to experience Word's ribbon headaches on Linux.

      It's an OPTION. Apparently one of FOUR possible ways to organize your UI. If you don't want it, don't use it.

      But if LibreOffice actually still wants to sell itself as a competitor to MS Office, it needs to present a UI that isn't a shock to new users... many of whom have been using a "ribbon" in MS Office for years.

      You're correct that there was a big upsurge in use of LibreOffice (back then, OpenOffice) with the introduction of the ribbon interface. The issue is that users didn't want to learn a new interface, so OpenOffice was a good alternative. Now LibreOffice has to adapt to a new public, whose default experience is WITH the ribbon.

    2. Re:A ribbon clone? by rahvin112 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I hated the ribbon as much as you do. But after using it for a while I see why it's better and also easier for new users to learn. MS was right about this UI change, in fact I'd argue it was their most researched and tested UI changes that they've ever implemented. The one problem was it made learning it for existing users harder but the trade off in usability was worth it IMO.

  4. Re: Multicore for spreadsheets..? by jonnyj · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's easy to sneer at big spreadsheets but, if you used them yourself, you'd realise that sometimes they really are the best tool for the job. If you were to try building flexible financial forecasts across a group of companies with fast-changing assumptions and a wide range of scenarios, you'd understand what I mean.

    But there are other legitimate reasons for big spreadsheets. We have complex financial models that are coded in C# for production use but which also exist in spreadsheets for the purposes of documentation and independent model validation. Some models would take an age to refresh on a single core machine, which would seriously undermine our ability to test the production systems. How else would you suggest that we test the end to end results coming out of C#?

  5. Re:Multicore for spreadsheets..? by Lehk228 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    when the job needs to be done and you can't get approval to get the proper tools installed, you sometimes need to use improper tools.

    --
    Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  6. When are they fixing the spell checker by ukoda · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's great software but I do wonder when they will fix the spell checker so you can change the language from US English to the local language without the need to read help pages every time.

  7. New version? BAD by Merk42 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    New version of {thing} came out. We all know {thing} is bad because it is new. MY issue wasn't fixed, therefore nothing the latest version of {thing} has to offer counts.

  8. Re:finally, Ribbon in LibreOffice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I've been holding on LibreOffice because I FUCKING HATE RIBBON but now it looks like I have to find something else. So, any suggestion? And do not even think of mentioning Google.

  9. Re: Ribbon...?!?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    People still complain about this? Seriously, you get used to it, and its not nearly as horrible as slashtards keeping going on about. You going to make fun of systemd next? How about throwing around an M$ insult?

  10. Re:Ribbon...?!?!?! by mmell · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Yes, ribbon.

    Libre Office (previously: Star Office) was intended as a drop-in replacement for Microsoft Office. It was designed from the beginning to provide file-format compatibility as a free and open-source alternative to the costly (if powerful) suite of tools marketed by Microsoft.

    Making it function as identically as possible to MS-Office (ironically, even replicating bugs and security exploits) has been an intentional choice, not an accident. The presence of the ribbon in Libre Office assures that users accustomed to MS-Office will benefit from greater familiarity with the software. It'll facilitate migration from paid software to free software for users and organizations which may not want to expend the time, effort and expense to learn to use a different software package from the one they've become accustomed to.

  11. Please reread. by mmell · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Libre Office (previously: Star Office) was intended as a drop-in replacement for Microsoft Office.