LibreOffice VS OpenOffice

[Brahim Salem]

I have installed OpenOffice on Linux Mint 16 Cinnamon and it rocks! It has better support for Arabic language and all! I think it is better than LibreOffice when it comes to that and I'm wondering why doesn't Mint include it by default! Am I missing something guys :roll:Which one do you recommend???

[RacerBG]

I haven't got idea about this but I will be glad to read the answers.

[Neil Edmond]

No need to wonder....it's all been convered before:

http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications ... office-716

[Orbmiser]

No need to wonder....it's all been convered before:

http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications ... office-716

Not really as of Feb of this year the article will be 3 years old. And a lot can happen in 3 years to app capabilities and fixes to compatibility.
.

[Brahim Salem]

OpenOffice can be downloaded almost in every language but liboffice supports more languages https://www.openoffice.org/projects/native-lang.html and compare it to http://www.libreoffice.org/download-more/
LibreOffice supports 135 languagues

Openoffice supports 97 languages

that's a big margin guys But in terms of ease of use OpenOffice is better and it supports pdf without the need for an extension like on Libreoffice. It exports and imports PDF files alike

[Previous1]

There was a recent article about this in the german c't magazine. Basically they both take from and contribute to eachother, but OpenOffice is more conservative in its features (ie has higher standards for stability). That alone is enough for me to pick OpenOffice. FYI it's also more popular on google searches.

And a lot can happen in 3 years to app capabilities and fixes to compatibility.

In that time Oracle released the source to Apache, amongst others.

[Brahim Salem]

There was a recent article about this in the german c't magazine. Basically they both take from and contribute to eachother, but OpenOffice is more conservative in its features (ie has higher standards for stability). That alone is enough for me to pick OpenOffice. FYI it's also more popular on google searches.

And a lot can happen in 3 years to app capabilities and fixes to compatibility.

In that time Oracle released the source to Apache, amongst others.

Thanks for the info bro! I think I made the wise choice! It is true that OpenOffice is more stable! LibreOfffice is jumpy on Linux Mint16

[DeMus]

I don't know where you get this info from but I have been using Libreoffice from the moment it appeared on the Linux platform and loved it from the start. Never had any problems with it, it simply does what it is supposed to do, it comes pre-installed with Mint so no installations afterwards, all very convenient.
Just hope Libreoffice will remain the default office suite for Mint. It is a great replacement from the far too expensive MS Office suite.

[bobafetthotmail]

I made the switch to LibreOffice when they appeared, because most devs switched sides (back then) and I wanted to use a office suite that had a future.

The situation atm seems to be more or less the same. LibreOffice is still running strong with new features and stuff being added while they DON'T touch the interface (*cough*MS Office and its ribbons*cough*), Open Office development is much slower.

The only thing that I usually do when installing Mint is pulling down all Libreoffice icon packages from Synaptic so I can switch to whatever is the default one (because It makes me feel more at home and makes the interface consistent with the Windows and Mac LibreOffice most people see and use).

I also tend to disable the LibreOffice's java integration. Never understood what purpose has that, and I have never known Java for being stable and/or safe. It's also lighter running it this way.

[GuyMoloch]

as far as i know Oracle bought open office and made it a proprietary software, causing the open software community to start and support a fork project which is know libre office. some time ago i was searching about this and what to expect from it as an end user and the most reliable info i could get was that libre office tended to keep getting improvements while open office tended to be "killed" as apparently happened with other former open software oracle had bought in the past (i don't know what other software were that). so since then i've been using libre office, which became the default or packaged office suite in many (if not all) linux distros. it seems the libre office project is a solution to keep the development of a decent opensource office suite, otherwise oracle could simply decided to make open office paid leaving end users as us with no other (decent) options.

[rek]

Type in your subject into google and you will have pages explaining the reason. The Ubuntu explanation is quite good.

[DrHu]

I have no idea, if you find a version that seems to work best for you, that is the package to use (libreoffice or openOffice )
--I usually switch whenever a previously or vendor supplied oss package is under new owneraship: an example might be mysql (owned by Oracle) or even Skype now owned by Microsoft..

At the moment I use libreoffice and for me that is just fine
--being of the opinion that most users including myself do not need too many special features: in fact all I really need from a text format program is some insert capability, some spell-checking, and a few minor format options (to highlight text)

• Possibly any RTF editor would be sufficient, such as wordpad (windows) or some equivalent
  --that is of course the main part of an office suite i use, apart from the spreadsheet package, and as long as it works for my data, I am OK with it and them: components of a suite..))

http://www.howtogeek.com/112385/the-bes ... and-linux/
http://genscriber.com/genappsd/rtf-editor-85.html
--sometext and rtf editor programs...

[TechGuyAndrew]

The office suite that I have recently started using is Kingsoft Office (WPS Office) that is currently in beta testing. It is not open source, but it is as close as you can get to MS Office for free. Although it lacks some advanced features, I think that it is a better alternative to both LibreOffice and OpenOffice. I mainly like it because it has the modern look, with a ribbon toolbar and everything. Has anyone else used Kingsoft Office and what were their thoughts about it?

[bobafetthotmail]

I use Kingsoft Office on Android, because it laughs at any other android office suite. (and LO is not available on Android)

But I'm not exactly enthusiastic of using closed source software using yet another proprietary document format (WPS), especially one that exists mainly because of backing from a government.

I do like a lot its interface though.

I also like that there is a UI-conscious and relatively friendly (for now) contender to MS's own Office that is degenerating into yearly extortion bs with the Office 365 licenses.

I'm not sure I understand how KO is better than either LO or OO. It has a ribbon UI, but that's it.

[TechGuyAndrew]

I think that is better in the fact of formatting issues if you collaborate with people using MS Office. It allows you to save things in the common MS office extensions and doesn't have as many formatting issues as say LO or OO. I use it for school so I have to use the common MS office formats. It is really disappointing though that such a great program isn't open source.

[bobafetthotmail]

Now that's interesting.

LO gets docx formatting consistently wrong and its compatibility with Excel formulas is not exactly reliable.

I'll do some tests. Decent MS Office compatibility would boost sales of linux rigs here.

[TechGuyAndrew]

You just have to keep in mind that it is not yet stable for Linux. I was only able to find a .deb package online in beta testing. The developers have only recently transisitioned it from alpha into beta testing. I would post the link, but I don't remember now where I got it.

[/dev/urandom]

Which one do you recommend???

Softmaker Office. Not free but fast and great.
Also, best MS Office compatibility available.

[AndyPandy]

I so agree. LibreOffice is really not ready for prime time--it locks up on the simplest documents (and freezes my computer). The formatting interface is not at all intuitive. If this is the best the linux world can offer--as thousands of people are going to be streaming off of their windowsXP boxes--then we a looking at a massive and lost opportunity to switch folks over to linux.
And I'm one of those people--formerly a Mac person, then Windows (including 7), who decided to try Linux because my favorite computer was running WindowsXP.
So all of this mess with reinstalling and doing workarounds just makes no sense.
Granted, "free is a very good price," but not when it leads to massive and regular workflow interruptions.
I'm now trying out SoftMaker; if I like it, I'll buy the full version.

[RacerBG]

I so agree. LibreOffice is really not ready for prime time--it locks up on the simplest documents (and freezes my computer). The formatting interface is not at all intuitive. If this is the best the linux world can offer--as thousands of people are going to be streaming off of their windowsXP boxes--then we a looking at a massive and lost opportunity to switch folks over to linux.
And I'm one of those people--formerly a Mac person, then Windows (including 7), who decided to try Linux because my favorite computer was running WindowsXP.
So all of this mess with reinstalling and doing workarounds just makes no sense.
Granted, "free is a very good price," but not when it leads to massive and regular workflow interruptions.
I'm now trying out SoftMaker; if I like it, I'll buy the full version.

I'm working with Libre Office more than 1 year now and I had never experienced such things. Of course LO have got problems when you are saving your heavy formated document/presentation/database/workbook in M$ Office format but that's all really. If you are trying just to rant about LO - this is not the place. Go elsewhere.