OpenOffice separating itself from Oracle and going it's separate way

I have used LibreOffice and it is fine. I run Office 2007 because I like Outlook. If I could find an email client that I liked, I would use it and LibreOffice.

fseal said:

Office 10 is still way too new for much penetration.

Comments about using a simple office suite and OO being a perfect fit are true if you are merely using it by yourself.

But if you are required to submit documents in any MS office formats like docx etc then you are better off having compatible software rather than put up with the formatting glitches of conversions between suites.

So anyone needing wide ranging compatibility would be better served by MS office (regardless of price).

If you were merely writing stuff for yourself or to print out at home and work out simple finances in a spreadsheet OR if you happen to work somplace that has standardized on OpenOffice.org then that makes more sense...

In my circles I see about 95% MS office use at work and at home. Unless you are a starving student, the low cost suites for MS office are as resonable as anything assuming your not someone that doen;t belive that software should ever cost money :)

The other alternative it to use OpenOffice suit included with a Linux system, set default to Office 2007 XML and poof your docs save as .docx, .xlsx, etc. With Windows you will have to settle for the doc and xls formats....but, any Office 2007 and 2010 can open .doc and .xls's

If however your company requires 2007/2010 xml format (docx, xlsx) I'm sure they will be glad to provide the copy at no charge to you. I however consider $150 is a bit steep just to save as docx/xlsx instead of doc/xls for which there are free viewers if the client does not have Microsoft office installed and Office 2007/2010 will save a doc or xls to docx or xlsx meaning that this is not really an issue for a home machine in my book.

blackroseMD1 said:

BCXtreme said:

Ah. If Oracle has any sense left, they'd give them the name.

Oracle and sense really do not belong in the same sentence anymore.

+1 :)

si8mon said:

BCXtreme said:

but maybe at least now they'll be able to make a product that can realistically compete with MS Office, if even just a better GUI.

IMO ever since Office 2007, Open Office GUI has looked old and in need of an overhaul. Because the software suite has most of the features of Microsoft Office, except it is missing a modern GUI.

+1. Whether or not anyone wants to consider the ribbon specifically an "improvement", most programs have moved on from menu-submenu-subsubmenu, and are now using more visually-attractive ways to organize commands. Windows 7 itself has done away with the menu bar (at least as a default), most browsers have as well.

There are most likely a lot of different approaches that LibreOffice could use to make their GUI more modern without copying the ribbon. So it's not just a choice between ribbon or menu bar.

madtownidiot said:

I guess it's a matter of opinion, the ribbon UI may be more visually attractive, but it makes features more difficult to find and adds a lot of unnecessary bloat to programs. Personally, if there were a way to update office xp to current file formats, I would use that instead.

That was interesting. You confirmed it was a matter of opinion, and then stated yours as fact.

I can't imagine why you would want Office XP's GUI, it wouldn't blend into the look of Windows 7 at all... unless of course you use the Windows Classic theme (which I know some do, incredibly)...