1 Jul
2018
1 Jul
'18
1:16 a.m.
On Saturday 30 June 2018 17:40:29 Mike Bird wrote:
As other people may read this thread I think it is
important to add an
opposing viewpoint.
Unless you are willing to do what Tim and friends did for KDE by taking
on and actively maintaining the project, I cannot recommend OpenOffice
to anyone. Even OpenOffice's own few remaining developers have at times
recommended against using it. Those who do use it are recommended to
install workarounds themselves as OpenOffice does not have the resources
to produce fixes for known security problems until many months after
they are reported. For example, 4.1.3 had a known security problem for
ten months but did not have the resources to get a fix out.
If you must use OpenOffice do not download from third party sites as
there are lots of infected OpenOffice downloads out there. But even
after downloading OpenOffice from the master site your work is not done.
You have to follow the project and install workarounds yourself for
security holes that OpenOffice knows about when they can't get the
releases out to fix them.
Unlike KDE 4 versus KDE 3 (or systemd versus sysvinit) LibreOffice is
a good and compatible replacement for OpenOffice. Indeed, none of our
users reported any problems or complaints when we switched from
OpenOffice to LibreOffice. Thus there is little reason to maintain
OpenOffice and I do not foresee a long future for it.
I also recommend installing LibreOffice from your distro rather than
from LibreOffice upstream unless you need bleeding edge functionality.
--Mike
As you say, it is good to have other viewpoints, and I certainly don't
recommend downloading from third-party sites, etc. I am also aware that there
aren't many people maintaining OpenOffice, and all that other stuff.
However, you missed what are, for me, the most important points:
1. LibreOffice messes up my documents, so that I would have to redo thousands
of pages of layout. Usually the pages are only off by a couple lines between
my OpenOffice version and the LibreOffice, but over the the length of an
entire document, everything gets screwed-up, and I would be forced to begin
all over again, almost from scratch.
2. LibreOffice often refuses to open my own documents; even after I change
permissions, remove lock files, etc.
3. When I did complain about my problems with LibreOffice, I was basically
told just to "get over it"; sort of like when KDE3 died. When people started
mentioning the possibility of reviving the old KDE3 as TDE, we were told that
it wouldn't work, that it couldn't work, that there were problems with Qt3,
Qt4, etc. And anyway, anybody who didn't just give up and "get with it" and
stop complaining and just use KDE4 Plasma must be old fogies, and nobody
cares about them anyway.
4. I don't like LibreOffice. I do like OpenOffice. (See #8 below.)
5. I didn't recommend "OpenOffice for Everybody!"; I only said that some few
might prefer it (for example, myself and deloptes, to start); and others
might find that it suits their needs. I don't feel that I must take on the
responsibility of maintaining OpenOffice merely because I have made a
qualified and limited recommendation.
6. I do not doubt that OpenOffice has some security holes; most stuff out
there as some problems, and some have more than others. Please direct me
towards some software that has absolutely no security holes, as I've never
encountered a virgin in the real world.
7. LibreOffice tends to do a lot of stuff that takes control out of my own
hands. (I haven't used it for a while, so no, I don't have a list handy, but
perhaps others can help there.)
8. I do like OpenOffice. I don't like LibreOffice. (See #4 above.)
As I said, it might not be for everybody, but maybe for a few people it is
still useful. You seem to be saying that nobody ought to use it, and that I
am wrong even to bring it up. So much for WORLD PEACE.
Bill