Submitted by “OpenOffice.org 2.0.2 is available today. This release is recommended for everyone. It contains some new features, fixes many small bugs, and resolves numerous issues. The community have further added import filters for Quattro Pro 6 and Microsoft Word 2. As well, other import filters have been improved and it is now easier to use mail merge. Integration with the KDE address book is now possible. The appearance has also been enhanced, and for Linux users, there are new icon sets for KDE and GNOME.”
Seems like Firefox is getting a lot of buzz in the mainstream IT world lately, but the buzz on Open Office is going to be double that very soon.
From the average user’s perspective, it may be difficult to get them to switch from one browser to another when both are free of cost.
However, Open Office’s competition costs $150 for the “Student Teacher Edition”, and functionality is pretty much equal.
Firefox & OpenOffice: Free Software’s One-Two punch at mainstream acceptance.
Well said. With Novell’s work on integrating Visual Basic macro support into OpenOffice.org that will soon be released to the community, that takes away the number one reason for not migrating to OO.o.
Visual Basic Spreadsheet Macro:
http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/img/preview_screenshots/OOoM…
The sad reality, however, Polytechnics and Universities teach people how to ‘use Word’ rather than ‘learn how to word process’, so what you have are legions of computer, business and the likes, who are trained solely to use Microsofts Office products.
So in the end, if students RELY on learning the functionality of Word whilst studying, they NEED the actual word product so that they can learn the step-by-step processes needed to accomplish a task.
If it were just a matter of handing in reports, then sure, but that isn’t the case – until businesses start demanding “OpenOffice.org skills’ and educational providers start giving ‘OpenOffice.org training’, OpenOffice.org, and its commercial bretheren will always be considered the ‘outsider’ in reference to its use in an office and education market.
In my classes at CEU Herning we do learn to use MS-applications, but most software we’re using is FLOSS, actively coerced by our teachers (and those of us who use Linux on daily basis).
Hmm, certainly isn’t the case at Canterbury University, which seems to be the epicentre of Office usage; same goes for government departments and businesses in general in New Zealand.
Well, Microsoft is also big in Denmark, but the movement is clearly heading towards open standards.
I wish that were the case, but even if there is a move to OpenOffice.org, people will still be tied to the Windows platform due to the lack of commercial software for Linux. How, why and when it occurs, the end user doesn’t care, he or she won’t and can’t move until there is the same level of ISV support on Linux and OpenOffice.org as there is on Windows.
If OpenStandards were the driving force, no one would be running a PC, we would be all running SPARC workstations with OpenBoot firmware, running some sort of UNIX varient whilst relying on the OpenMotif toolkit. The reality, however, is some what different, with people putting their priority on productivity rather than well meaning, ultruistic visions of openstandards and opensource.
That doesn’t really matter. OOo is Office-Like to a fault.
Last week, i was in a Database management class where the teacher was teaching Access. I was able to follow his examples identically on my Ubuntu-Dapper Laptop using OOo Base.
There was a native QT/KDE port. At the moment it seems to be ‘copying’ QT – buttons look the same etc, but menus flicker and everything. There is no integration with the KDE open/save dialoge, KDE print system, etc etc
There was a native QT/KDE port. At the moment it seems to be ‘copying’ QT – buttons look the same etc, but menus flicker and everything. There is no integration with the KDE open/save dialoge, KDE print system, etc etc
I doubt you’ll see a port to Qt, that would be a massive undertaking and the resources would probably be better directed to improving KOffice (particularly MS interoperability).
But there is a package that incorporates KDE integration, basically the crystal icon set and the KDE file-picker, which works with all it’s kio goodness. Don’t think you’ll find it on the OOo website but check your distro repos. I know I’ve had it with Suse and Kubuntu. There’s a similar package with Gnome integrations as well.
It’s a stop-gap, but it’s better than nothing.
http://kde.openoffice.org/“>How
Not sure what my version is running… but it uses KDE dialogs wherever applicable, there’s no flicker and if it’s not QT it really does look like it : widget theme, detachable toolbars with hover effect, menus with KDE icons and fancy effects…
I’m running 2.0.1 on gentoo, built with “+kde -gnome -gtk” use flags.
buttons look the same etc, but menus flicker and everything. There is no integration with the KDE open/save dialoge…
What are you talking about? I never saw menu flicker – so that might be a problem with your distro (it works fine of FreeBSD). open/save dialogue:
ftp://hatvani.unideb.hu/pub/personal/screenshots/ooopenfile.png
Oh, and that is with 2.0.1!
I wish it was FAST, like KOffice…
but Koffice is no match for openoffice.org in terms of features and maturity…
“but Koffice is no match for openoffice.org in terms of features and maturity…”
Considering how few people that actually ever use the majority of O.O’s (and MSOffices) features I’m pretty happy KOffice doesnt have that kind of feature bloat.
I really dont see how O.O is more “mature” (whatever the heck that means in this context) than KOffice.
I have been hammering on OOo 2.0 since at least a year ago when it was in the beta phase. It actually seemed pretty stable back then. With this release it’s not even just the “stable” release. This is the second bug fix release with some incremental improvements. For those who won’t touch software until it’s had at least a couple of bug fixes, this is your release.
This is also a great place for new users to jump in. OOo looks and feels much more like MS Office than 1.1 did. Some people don’t like that, but since most people new to the office suite are coming from MS Office, it should minimize the learning curve.
Many people wonder why programs such as Firefox and OOo are able to spark so much interest. IMO it is because they are able to function very well within their core functionality while at the same time extending beyond that. The ODF file format pushed forward by OOo offers the first real hope of completely transparent file compatibility between disparate productivity suites. That is just as wonderful to me as getting OOo at no cost.
I do realize that OOo isn’t yet the best tool for the job in all cases, but I’m grateful that it has become a great tool for the job that works for me and a lot of people I know.
Does this release work in a purt 64-bit GNU/Linux environment?
It’s common to use a 32-bit chroot on AMD64 for OOo.
Nope, but I have seen some posts on fedora-test list that they are already working on x86_64 version (2.0.3 if I remember correctly)
..and here is the post:
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2006-March/msg00263…
I wish OO.o had tabs to browse between documents like in browsers.
Many people feel the same way. The issue has come up many, many times. Here is the current listing for this feature.
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=12686
There was some discussion when the point first came up that it was actually tried unsuccessfully with StarOffice 5.2. I believe that most rational individuals have moved past that to realize that tabs can be a great way to organize documents since it is what a lot of people do on the internet every day.
I would like to know if any (significant) speed enhancements have gotten into this release, if anyone knows, I’d be grateful
I can’t really figure it out in the release notes and I’m lost in OOo’s website.
In my Arch system, it runs a little faster than 2.0.1, but you are warned that may because xorg7. As far as I know there is nowhere mentioning speed improvement. I like this version because it fixs the CJK bold fonts display problem.
2.02 certainly looks nicer in GNOME, with the new GNOME icon set. It still uses the OOo file chooser dialog – but to be honest I prefer it to the GNOME one.
I haven’t tried it out on KDE yet.
You can uncheck “use OpenOffice.org dialogs” in the Options to get OOo to use the Gnome file chooser (and presumably the KDE one if you run it in that environment).
I love OO2 but one thing I really would request is that for widescreen users, is it possible to have 2 pages being displayed side by side say in Writer…kinda like in PDF readers where you can view 2 pages at a time. That way that is a wiser use of the screen estate and for those writing papers and so on you dont need to keep going back and forth…also scrolling will be much faster as well in long documents.
Don’t know what they did with this release, but OMG!!! Start-up speed is greatly improved, the menu’s feel much quicker to open and documents load lightning fast. It’s like OOo has been given a shot of adrenaline. Cool… 🙂
How about a native Mac OS X port using Cocoa?
It’s http://blog.janik.cz/archives/2006/03/05/T13_47_13/“>on .
Edited 2006-03-10 13:59
Hmm…that guy is learning Carbon which is an old API. I really wouldn’t recommend anyone to port a non-OS X application to OS X using Carbon when there’s Cocoa.
Hey, that’s a good idea! Have you started yet?
!!!!
Diversity is good,
Free diversity is better,
Free-Open Source World Class diversity is the best…!!!
OOo is Free-Open Source World Class software already!
I gues 90 per cent of Ms office users could easyly switch to OOo right now, without loosing fucntionalities…
I expect more office suites will come this way soon:
-KDEOffice,
-Gnome Office ( with the excellent G-Numeric, and the good but still away and ever improving Abiword, etc)
– SIAM Office (Quick and cute office suite , that someone should retake, since it seem its not being much developed lately!!!)
-Corel Office And other closed source good office suites too, that ultimately will become Open source, I
bet…
Ms, I predict that in no more than ten years you will have to open the source of your Office suite..
It’s my “word” against your “Word”… Time will tell…
Angel – Fr@gzill@
!!!!
On the download mirrors for OS X X11 version of OOo it still only says OOo 2.0. On the Windows mirrors is says OOo 2.0.2.
Is there a new version for OS X ? – or is Open Office mainly developed for Microsoft customers?
.
!!!
From my experience, OOo is resleased first for English users, and then in the next days, or weeks; the other language versions are being released…
Related to the OS binaries, Windows, Solaris and Linux, are first, generally at the same time, other OSs come later…
All this depends also, on the collaboration and work pace of the comunities, and people working in the different localisation and OS version.
I guess you will have to check for the PPC Mac OSX in the comming weeks!!!
I can add that there are at least two different versions from two differnt comunities, of OOo for PPC OSX Macs. Here is the Link of those Ports:
http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/ooo-osx_downloads.html
For a reliable and stable intel CPU Mac OS X, I guess you have to wait, although it wont be very difficult to base it on the existant intel CPU versions for Linux, windows and BSD…
Angel–Fr@gzill@
.