openoffice 3.2.0

Hi :)

The company that produce OpenOffice is vast but has been acquired by an even larger company in the last month or so. I imagine (and hope) that this will set new goals and a change-of-pace for OpenOffice. This seems to have coincided with OpenOffice being so readily accepted in mainstream society that it needs to re-evaluate it's recent position as a large corporate challenger to MS Office rather than it's original position as a rapidly growing but minor player battling for a tiny share against the leading giants.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hello,

Thanks for your prompt reply. Since 2007, I'm under Openoffice and sine 2008 under Ubuntu. Then I discovered the Ubuntu version of Openoffice. Since the, I have always prefered this version. I'm actually under Lucid Lynx with the official Openoffice version sine the Ubuntu version is buggy especially concerning deleting and insertion colomn or row. Since April I have been awaiting for the new version of Openoffice under Lucid. I wrote to Cheney Chris but I did get any reply. That's why I wish to now if the Maverick version will be available for Lucid.

Best regards

Bunty

Hi :)

I'm not certain but i guess you already know that OpenOffice is developed completely independently of Ubuntu. It should be possible to install a more recent version of OpenOffice if it is available. I just assumed the OpenOffice team would take a breath after the merger or whatever to explore where thy are aiming for next. It sounds like you already knew a lot more about this than me as i thought the insert rows thing was just a different way of thinking about it.

There is a guide for forcing a certain version number of a package to install
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto#How%20to%20force%20the%20installation%20of%20a%20package%20version
but this does depend on it being in the repos, i assume. Downloading and installing directly from the packages own website is completely legitimate way of approaching this type of thing tho

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hello Tom,

Thanks again for your kind reply. I'll try to follow the evolution concerning the development of Openoffice under Oracle. How that Openoffice will remain free so as to continue to chalenge MSOffice.

Take care

Bunty

Hi Bunty

As Tom says, it is possible to install the latest version of OOo direct from www.openoffice.org. If you want to do that, I suggest you ask for further help. However, the version that comes with Ubuntu isn't quite the same as the version you will get from www.openoffice.org. It has some extra features and some adaptations to integrate with Ubuntu and is based on the Go-OO branch of OOo. In terms of features, Go-OO never lags more that a few days behind the official OOo, but even Go-OO does not have the adaptations for Ubuntu. For more information about Go-OO, see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-oo

So my own policy is always to wait for the next Ubuntu release to get an update of OOo. It will never be more that six or seven months out of date, of course.

Tony

Hello Tony,

Actually I have the official OOo 3.2.1 RC2 version installed in my laptop. Nevertheless I prefer the Go-oo version for several reasons. The OOo official version works well, so I think that I'll continue t use it while keeping an eye on the development of the Go-o version. I do think the merge of Sun into Oracle may in some way the version development lateness. Let's wait to see

Bunty

Hi :)

Increasing market share in the difficult to penetrate desktop market is definitely a large bonus for whoever owns OpenOffice. Is it my imagination or did the logo change on the splash-screen when starting OOo?

I think MicroSquish make their product flaky so that people are afraid to try anything slightly new due to fears of their existing system falling over. Not being able to open a ".docx" unless you buy the ultra latest version is like some car charging up too fast behind you with it's lights on and horn blaring. Most people would naturally feel the need to go faster to prevent collision but there are better strategies for dealing with that sort of thing. I think we can still join forces with older Windows users and insist on ".docx"s being re-sent in a format everyone can use, sadly that is still ".doc" at the moment

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi Tom,

You are right, the splash sreen has changed from Sun to Oracle. I'm of the same opinion concerning the fear of people to change to newer software as they have been so much brainwashed with MS products. I do think that GPL will continue to take market share as MS will be always a commercial product and people can't eternally pas for buggy softwares or those which force them to be always updating their existing softwares so as to be able to use them.

As for me, I have always try to advise people to go to GPL softwares. Afterward it's up to them to choose.

Best regards

Bunty

Hi :)

I feel it's almost rude not to reply but i think this thread is resolved with a big "don't know". Hopefully people will begin to recognise the Oracle logo in more places and be as ready to use their products as they are to stick with MicroSquish. For me i mostly saw Oracle on old tele-text screens and am left with an impression that is unfair to Oracle. I vaguely know of them producing some big old databasing thing but again that is old stuff. "Sun" always struck me as new, innovative, fast & light servers. So i preferred it when the Sun logo was there. Hopefully other people will soon have a completely different impression of what Oracle means. Anyway, it is great to see different logos getting out there onto people's screens

Regards and best wishes from
Tom :)