1 Jul
2018
1 Jul
'18
6:30 a.m.
On Saturday 30 June 2018 20:17:07 Felmon Davis wrote:
On Sat, 30 Jun 2018, William Morder wrote:
There is a pun involved, about twice-removed. Anybody whose mind works in the
same way as mine might have got it already, so I won't spell it out.
In any case, I don't use macros, don't load external references like active
hyperlinks, and don't use my Office programs for anything online.
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.
in case people don't know, there is also a libreoffice mailing list
for users, which is quite active. and I get the impression reading it
that it is very helpful.
4. I don't like LibreOffice. I do like
OpenOffice. (See #8 below.)
I have limited experience with Libreoffice but I do much prefer
OpenOffice.
with OO on a yearly basis I have put together 60-page volumes with
footnotes (numbering beginning at each 'chapter'), table of contents
and modest use of paragraph styling (chapter headers, footnotes,
indented paragraphs for extended quotes, bibliography). so, for me, it
works.
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.
"virgin" is not the same as bug-free (in this context).
I can't judge the security issues. documents I
send or receive are
.doc, .docx or .pdf since most people I correspond with use Word. but
looking at the CVE site, I haven't figured out an effective way to
compare vulnerabilities <https://www.cvedetails.com/>. the few I've
read there would likely not affect me.
I would never have brought up OpenOffice at all, except for a remark, now lost
in an earlier thread, about how LibreOffice didn't work in dep's situation.
World Peace (or Word Peace) requires only that we can get along. I made an
offer to try to help somebody else, and was told that it was irresponsible of
me to recommend a program, the security of which is perhaps dubious, when I
did not take on the work of maintaining the repository and bug fixes myself.
To me that sounds absurd; all we need is a warning to use at our own risk.
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.)
LO is too 'busy', I find the interface distracting and need to master
the very fluid update system: "fresh", "still" and so on. but like
with almost anything on a computer, I'd get used to it if I had to.
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.
the objections seemed appropriate and fair warning but I find them
hard to assess. in any case, I hope world peace does not require
agreement.
f.
Thanks for your voice. It is good to know that there are others who still
prefer OpenOffice to LibreOffice. My own hope is that either OO or LO, or
both, will get it together, and then maybe in another 20 years, we will have
Office software that actually works for writers who create very long
documents. If one writes only short pieces for newspapers or blogs, then I am
sure that LibreOffice works okay.
I am playing end-game here. I don't have time to wait until something comes
out that will satisfy everybody everywhere. I only need something that
is "good enough" for here and now, that will allow me to finish a long
project while I am still alive to see it in print.
Bill