Slashdot Mirror
Apache OpenOffice: We're OK With Not Being Super Cool (theregister.co.uk)
The Register's Thomas Claburn, interviews Jim Jagielski, Apache Software Foundation President and Apache OpenOffice project mentor. From the story: Despite being the subject of a deathwatch -- perhaps mainly by fans of rival LibreOffice -- AOO appears to be rather popular, with the 4.1.4 update racking up at least 1.6 million downloads. [...] While AOO and the ASF formulate a formal statement of direction for the project, Jagielski said more or less that all's well. "AOO is not, and isn't designed to be, the 'super coolest open source office suite with all the latest bells and whistles,'" Jagielski continued. "Our research shows that a 'basic,' functional office suite, which is streamlined with a 'simple' and uncluttered, uncomplicated UI, serves an incredible under-represented community. "Other office suites are focusing on the 'power user' which is a valuable market, for sure, but the real power and range for an open-source office suite alternative is the vast majority which is the 'rest of us. Sometimes we all forget how empowering open source is to the entire world."
I'm also totally OK with not being a billionaire and dating supermodels.
This gives the impression that AOO is all about being small, simple, and stable, but it appears they're having a tough time even getting critical bugfixes deployed.
One of the strengths of open source is the diversity of choice. But that diversity can also be considered a weakness when it spreads valuable developers too thin, to the detriment of the entire community.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
... make it not suck.
But that also means a significant number of people – 77,000-plus, according to SourceForge stats – have downloaded the macOS version which contains a significant bug: if Apache OpenOffice is used to create a diagram in a Calc spreadsheet, the file becomes corrupted when saved.
I don't respond to AC's.
I will let the other guy know too about the article
http://saveie6.com/
Sounds like you should make one of those then.
Nope, and for even more fun for the uninitiated, they no longer roll a JRE package into the installer.
https://www.openoffice.org/download/common/java.html
As far as I can tell, LibreOffice does likewise possess some java-dependent stuff. That being said, it is not a hard dependency for either, but some functionality will be lost (wizards, mostly, it seems).
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
Google docs is pretty bare bones too. But the online collaboration is a pretty big deal.
The UI is so 2003. Not doin' it.
As in, it works and is clear and discoverable?
I am of course being sarcastic, and while I'm not claiming that 2003 was the pinnacle of UI design, I do think a large number of heard learned lessons from the 80s and 90s have been forgotten and/or thrown under the bus in the name of newness.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
...is completely delusional.
Apparently having a safe and functional office suite is for power users, while using a bug ridden obsolete builds of what was years ago basically the same thing is for normal users? WTF is he smoking?
Apache is doing a tremendous disservice to all OpenOffice users, who are still unaware of the actual status of the project, and in this case, to open source community as a whole.
This is really sad to watch and has been for a long time now.
"We're OK With Not Being Super Cool", "We are OK in our niche", "We are OK by only having the smart customers"... this is how fading away starts. OpenOffice is going down the road and they can not feel it while they are on their "1.6 million downloads" comfort zone. This is exactly is happening the Thunderbird, while they are happy with their monthly download rate they don't want to see what others are doing. This is how the begining of the end of the road feels.
It's not called VBA, but yes, both OpenOffice and LibreOffice have supported a VBA compatible scripting environment for decades, as LibreOffice Basic or OpenOffice Basic. They also support Java ("BeanShell"), Javascript, and Python.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I'm not using a product that sounds like a Mexican Wrestler. Sorry.
The actuaries aren't so good at code, other than mostly recorded macros. They are good at creating horrifying Excel formulas, think something longer than 1K characters.
And this is mostly for data production/preparation for loads and such. There are good (meaning expensive) modeling products for both Life and Property lines, which they use (job on the line type of stuff).
Anyway, I was a life actuary for a bit back in the day. Excel is a favorite tool, and it is abused like nothing else.
Excel 2010 was the pinnacle of Excel, before the ribbon and all of the keyboard shortcuts disappearing. Nothing of value has been added since then except for advanced pivot stuff.
BlameBillCosby.com
"... it still has Oracle's foul stench of pure corporate evil on it."
Don't you hate it when people are overly positive about Oracle?
after the main devs bailed on the project and forked it, oracle soon after donated the code and name to apache foundation. had those wusses waited just a few months, we'd all be using the combined efforts of those devs + apache instead of having 'yet another fork'. ibm also donated code to apache.
apache then stripped out all code not compatible with apache license, rewriting what needed to be.. and it is now, and has been for quite some time, completely free and clear of oracle. it is also completely free of libreoffice. which i consider to be a bonus. apache openoffice is stable, it works, and it has a long shelf life between releases - which is also a huge bonus.
libreoffice shills and anti apache trolls will -1 this, but fact is: apache > 'document foundation'. libreoffice was 'started' by a bunch of fucking shortsighted traitors, who at the first sign of discontent have proven they'll jump ship. apache foundation is solid, and has a much longer history of service to the open source community.
As a user when I found out Oracle was sponsoring OpenOffice I jumped ship to LibreOffice - like many people. The fork was a reaction to Oracle, much like Android. I don't see Libre aa traitors, if anything they're hereos. What we need now is a gradual merging from both parties.
I tried to switch to Libreoffice but then I discovered a that paragraph borders look terrible. Filed a bug and they responded with some jargon about not being their fault but rather "Cairo" is the one to blame, and they set it to FIXED. Whatever. Still their text borders look like a joke and anyone can test my claims, just type some text, select it, create a thick border around it and look how it appears awful and prints with jaggies on the edges.
AOO works for me. I've been using Writer and Calc for many years without any issues.
When I was a kid my mom use to put this disinfectant on cuts that stung like crazy. Years later I learned that the actual active ingredient didn't sting at all, but the manufacturer added alcohol for the sole purpose of making the stuff hurt: without the sting, people doubted whether the disinfectant was actually doing anything.
There really haven't been any compelling reasons to update Office's UI in the last twenty years. Security fixes? Sure. Updates to help Microsoft pitch whatever products they were using the leverage of the Office monopoly to promote? Yep -- although people would be hacked off about paying for either of those things, even though security is a legitimate need.
So Microsoft added the sting of having to regularly re-learn one of your most used tools, so you know you're getting something new for the upgrade money you send them every few years.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I wanted to use LibreOffice, but couldn't. Having already lots of Excel spreasheets filled with information and formulas, I needed something compatible. Opening the .xls files with LO (Libre Office) would break the formulas because there's a function incompatibility (Indirect's syntax), where OpenOffice would open them just fine.
Actually the incompatibility is this one:
https://superuser.com/question...
Why would they do that?? Can't understand. Even if there were a simple solution, I already have lots of macros written for OO and adapting them to LO would be a total waste of time.
I'm not that sure about LO, STABLE software is really appreciated and OO is just fine. We need stuff that works fine for years, so we can get stuff done.
Seems like a huge waste of development effort to maintain both projects. TBH, the only thing that The Document Foundation needs from AOO is the name. OpenOffice is a much better name than LibreOffice. It's also more well known.
Every time I open something from the file browser in MS Office, I marvel at the sheer number of clicks it now takes to do what used to be a single menu choice. We're 10 years in and I still hate the ribbon.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
When LibreOffice forked from OpenOffice the latter was not being well maintained. Important bugs had been left unfixed for years, it was locked to Java and there wasn't much development happening. Since then the LO team has done a tremendous amount of work improving the underlying code. The result is a faster and more stable office platform.
OpenOffice burnt it's brand through neglect. Now LibreOffice is better known and it's earning a good reputation. However odd the name might be that fades away when people get used to it. I now see LO being installed side by side with MS Office in business environments and that was not happening with OpenOffice.
I do not block ads. I do block third party scripts.