But i don't want LibreOffice..!

[mzsade]

Hi, I hadn't updated in some time and so wanted to check whether there were any recent issues related to that, luckily i came upon this topic; viewtopic.php?f=141&t=67502&hilit=LMDE+update and would like to thank zerozero for starting it (In fact i suggest that a link to it be included in LMDE manuals). After going through the pages, and from what i have experienced, i concluded that upgrading from synaptic was the best way for me, i mean what could be more convenient for somebody as bash challenged as me..your system telling you, as you plod along marking the packages for upgrade one by one, exactly what you need to install/remove, even if you didn't have a clue as to what most of those libraries did or meant..Sorry for rambling, my point is, i was particularly concerned about the vlc and libva1 conflict, but from synaptic i see now that it has been fixed, and i can have both after upgrading vlc packages.
My only remaining doubt is regarding this office suite issue, i don't care how lightweight, how amazing, LibreOffice is, i want to keep OpenOffice without being stuck with two office suites at the same time as is indicated by Synaptic when marking OpenOffice packages for upgrade. Can this be done? If not i would rather not upgrade the Office packages and libraries.

[kwevej]

I've uninstalled open/libre office completely and use abiword & gnumeric

[randomizer]

Debian Squeeze is the last version of Debian to use OpenOffice. Wheezy and everything newer will use LibreOffice. Thus Debian Testing is also removing OO. In fact, OO packages in Testing are currently just transitional packages which depend on their LibreOffice counterparts and contain no data themselves. If you install OO, you will be installing LO. The only reason they are keeping the OO-branded packages for now is because people recognise them, whereas they don't all know about LO. Can you imagine the pummelling that the Debian forums would get if OO simply vanished without a trace? There would be questions about its whereabouts for months

[viking777]

A very interesting question mzsade, very interesting indeed. I am sure that most people will try to point out the advantages of the 'libre' package and perhaps the doubtful future of the 'open' package but I won't because I don't use either of them so I don't care about either, but I do care that you should be given the choice to use whatever you want and it seems to me you are quite right here, you aren't being given that choice. I simulated an install of openoffice myself and it refused to install any single part of openoffice and purely installed libreoffice - why?

One thing you definitely have right is this. If you want to keep open office then don't attempt to upgrade it through any means linked to Mint/Ubuntu/Debian repositories because you will get libre whether you like it or not.

I think your only way to upgrade openoffice now is to go to the openoffice.org download site get a new package from there (assuming it is any newer than the one you have already got).

If you wish to hold the existing version of openoffice (so that libreoffice updates will not be continually presented to you). Open Synaptic, highlight the already installed openoffice.org then go to the 'package' menu at the top of the page and select 'lock version'.

Or the alternative is to do what I do and just use Abiword and Gnumeric.

[mzsade]

Thanks a lot guys, i had no idea Debian was going to do away with OpenOffice altogether, i was under the impression that it was a more feature laden suite and the closest thing to MS Office and it's much touted features, that was the only reason i wanted to stick with it. Also, i know my limitations, so i am not one to make any of that noise about choice, etc. Now that you have explained how things stand, and will be in future, it's clear that all i can do is stay with an outdated version of OO or upgrade to LO, i think i will go with the flow and choose the latter, albeit with a little whimper.

[jeffreyC]

LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice and at this point mostly the same thing.

[DrHu]

Thanks a lot guys, i had no idea Debian was going to do away with OpenOffice altogether, i was under the impression that it was a more feature laden suite and the closest thing to MS Office and it's much touted features, that was the only reason i wanted to stick with it.

..that it was a more feature laden suite and the closest thing to MS Office and it's much touted features
Those much touted features of any of these office suites are probably only used by less than 5% of all office suite users

Just ask yourself, how many people know enough of the advanced features of Excel to really use them
--or how many fonts/effects and other extras do you need to pump out memos or email messages (if you used Office word to create an email message..)

That's the application and OS problem for most users, they are paying more for things they don't really need or even understand (how to use!)

Probably is (OpenOffice) and will be while Sun maintains it..

http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/feat ... index.html

I'll be honest here...
Most people only really need a text editor for memos, emails and even regular letters
--and most can do RTF formats, so that you can get some font effects and include tables.
http://www.nllgg.nl/Ted/
What else will a regular correspondence user need to include ?

[mzsade]

You are absolutely right, and as i have already admitted my leaning towards OO was only for frivolous purposes, just to keep up with the Jones of Windows..the illusion of it that is..a mere talking point, have never used Excel or a spreadsheet, on the rare occasions that i have used a table it has been from the option in the writer. Darn, now i am absolutely overwhelmed and abashed by all the responses, i was only asking...

[randomizer]

Libre Office is, in essence, a merge of Open Office and the Go-oo project (which did several OO optimisations that never made it upstream). It is obviously building on that and will evolve into something different later on, but for now that's basically what it is. In fact its initial beta release was just a change of splash screen and branding.