ApacheOO and LO

Story: LibreOffice 4.0: An Existential ReleaseTotal Replies: 19
Author Content
Ridcully

Jan 27, 2013
9:11 PM EDT
It may be of little interest but for what it's worth, I find Apache Open Office vastly superior to LO in start-up speed. From a "cold start", Apache OO is up and running in 3 seconds......from a "warm start", it is running within half a second of clicking on the icon.

On the other hand, LO takes about 7-9 seconds to be up and running from a cold start and about 3 seconds with a "warm start".

I have no explanation for the differences other than the software structure of each package. I do however like Apache OO's operation just that tiny bit more.....it seems smoother and more flexible than OO, but perhaps it's just personal wishes rather than actual.

There is however, one definite area in which LO beats Apache OO and that is with respect to the excellent ability to open some of my archival documents that were stored in WordPerfect format....dating from the days when WordPerfect was my principal wordprocessor.....and I still regret the loss of the split screen "Reveal Codes" ability.....That was superb. So for that function alone, LO is worth keeping, but for everyday word processing tasks, Apache OO is my choice.
notbob

Jan 27, 2013
10:41 PM EDT
LO jes seems to work. I don't do much office stuff anymore, but I got a weird email from a friend. It was a bunch digital photos embedded in a PowerPoint document. Now I hated PP even when I usta run Windows, so was a bit alarmed when I realized this group of photos was in a PP format. Well, I opened LO and Presentation (?) and danged if the pictures didn't pop right up. Still don't know how that worked, but got to see the photos jes fine. I got no beef with LO.
tracyanne

Jan 27, 2013
11:00 PM EDT
Apparently the grammar checker doesn't work properly. Mind you I always hated the grammar checker in Microsoft Office, so a non functioning grammar checker in LO means I don't have to turn it off... bonus.
notbob

Jan 28, 2013
9:48 AM EDT
tracyanne wrote:so a non functioning grammar checker in LO means I don't have to turn it off... bonus.


LOL!.....

You mean like the non-functioning spell checkers right her in LXer and most other forums. I notice they all seem to suffer the same affliction, which is, the red squiggle tells you you've misspelled a word, but there's no function to provide the correct spelling. Gee, thanks for nothing. ;)
caitlyn

Jan 28, 2013
11:19 AM EDT
We're an OO shop at work. We use it on thin clients a lot so speed and start time does matter and in that area Ridcully is right, OO is superior. In terms of features the differences seem minor to me. I'm perfectly happy with either one.
gus3

Jan 28, 2013
12:47 PM EDT
@notbob, that red squiggle is a function of the browser. It has nothing to do with the forum.

In Firefox 16, I can right-click on the squiggled word, and get a menu with possible corrections and an option to "Add to Dictionary".
Fettoosh

Jan 28, 2013
2:54 PM EDT
Quoting:that red squiggle is a function of the browser.


It is an option and may be nobob turned it off purposely to avoid all the squiggles due to his preference for slang words and abbreviations. :-)

notbob

Jan 28, 2013
2:58 PM EDT
Thanks, Gus! ;)

I knew I'd get called on being a dummy, but also figured someone would set me straight. I never thought about the right click menu, my being such a CLI freak and relatively new to forums. Sure enough! .....there it is. Seamonkey offers 3-4 alt spellings and the other usual tools. DOH!

Again, thanks. ;)
hughesjr

Jan 28, 2013
3:04 PM EDT
When OO fell under the purview of Oracle, LibreOffice became my default office suite. Now that OO has moved to the Apache Foundation, I would consider using it again ... however since RHEL and Fedora have moved to LibeOffice I see no reason to switch back.
Steven_Rosenber

Jan 28, 2013
6:26 PM EDT
My shop went with ApacheOO, then got Google Apps for Business, so OO and LO are both out (though ApacheOO is still on the Win 7 boxes).
tracyanne

Jan 28, 2013
8:39 PM EDT
Given that LibreOffice has been getting a fairly major overhaul, it should begin to improve faster than AOO
Ridcully

Jan 28, 2013
11:30 PM EDT
I don't doubt you are correct Tracyanne, but what has increasingly come to mind over the past couple of years, is the notion of "So what ?" And I say that without meaning disrespect to you in any way at all....It's a matter of considering a "crossover point" where markedly increasing the software's complexity and ability produces little more improvement for the needs of most of the users.

My present version of Apache OO is 3.4.1 For LibreOffice it's 3.5.....But honestly, dear old Sun's OO3.2 could do anything I wanted to do and also do it well. I admit ApacheOO is much faster, but that aside, nothing I wanted to do in OO3.2 has really changed in ApacheOO3.4.1.......So all that improvement is wasted on me, but I am sure there are some users who let off fireworks with the new improvements and do use them.

I don't in any way challenge the developers of either software suite. My attitude is quite simple: they know what the heck they are doing, I certainly don't - I'm just a very satisfied end-user. I just look at these suites and think to myself: How much more complex do I want ? I'm after something that will do what I want, and have speed, simplicity and an intuitive work space. And each new version seems to be saying: look more buttons to push, more routines to learn, more things to go wrong.

I think all this rain has made me a pessimist. Oh by the way, over the 2-3 days we got 324 mm of rain. Not bad at all. (And for you 19th century Americans, that means 12.96 inches....and having tweaked Uncle Sam's beard, I'll clear out before the tomatoes begin to fly. LOL)
dinotrac

Jan 29, 2013
12:08 AM EDT
@Ridcully --

No need to duck tomatoes. We of the American persuasion are not angered by your mindless conformity to international expectations.

The weak do what the weak do. They deserve compassion, not condemnation.
Ridcully

Jan 29, 2013
12:24 AM EDT
Hey Dinotrac.....great to hear directly from you. Happy New Year. Umm....Do I take it that you are legal counsel for all those pursuing the archaic American way and that your case will be prosecuted in miles, pounds, and pints ? Make mine Guinness please .
dinotrac

Jan 29, 2013
10:35 AM EDT
@rid --

Guinness it is.

Screw the pints, though. I am in the US. Lived in Texas for 10 years and married to a Texan.

Let's talk gallons.
Ridcully

Jan 29, 2013
4:41 PM EDT
@dino-- With considerable laughter........no.....in serious consideration of the Lone Star State......Gallons it is.

Your health my friend and under these circumstances, it never tasted better..
tracyanne

Jan 29, 2013
5:03 PM EDT
Actually Tony I was referring to LO performance, not the addition of features.
Scott_Ruecker

Jan 29, 2013
5:26 PM EDT
You got more rain in 3 days Tony than Arizona has seen in 3 years! And that included the 1.4 inches we got just this past weekend. If it rained 13 inches here in 3 days the whole city of Phoenix would be under water for sure. ;-)
Ridcully

Jan 29, 2013
5:43 PM EDT
@Tracyanne......yeah, I tend to confuse the two.....a holistic approach of "does it do the job better whether with performance or features".....Terrible thing to do I suppose, but it works for me.

@Scott.......do you really want to blanch at rainfall ? Try this. About 150km from me as "the crow flies" is a coastal range called Springbrook. http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/springbrook/ The range is renowned for high rainfall and tropical rainforest and it is absolutely beautiful. They got over 800mm in one day on that range.....and those aren't the best. Up north about 1000km where the cyclone/hurricane originated, one place got over 1000mm in one day........now think about that......it's over 40 inches or over a yard height of water dumped simultaneously over a very wide area......they got enormous floods. Try throwing that at Phoenix. I'm beginning to sound like a Texan...Sorry DIno, mea culpa.........no-one but a Texan could sound like a Texan. :-)
dinotrac

Jan 29, 2013
11:10 PM EDT
@rc --

That's ok. This gosh-darned internet thingie mangles everybody's accent anyway.

It's so bad that 'yard' only has one syllable when it's on the net.

Posting in this forum is limited to members of the group: [ForumMods, SITEADMINS, MEMBERS.]

Becoming a member of LXer is easy and free. Join Us!