Open source 'Office' options keep Microsoft running faster than ever
- Reference: 1655137809
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/06/13/open_source_office_suites/
- Source link:
LibreOffice is the highest profile of them, and the project recently put out [1]version 7.3.4 , the latest release in the Community version of the suite.
The Document Foundation maintains two versions of LibreOffice; the other is the [2]Enterprise branch.
[3]
Both versions are free. The difference is that the Community version is the faster-moving development branch. It's comparable to a free Linux distro, or a short-term Ubuntu release: there's no commercial support, but you may be able to get assistance from other users – in other words, the [4]Community .
[Collabera's] Android app was able to open password-protected files directly from Dropbox, which neither the Dropbox app nor Google Docs can do
The Enterprise version has a slower release cycle, but it's available with commercial support. One of the significant partners behind LibreOffice is Collabora, which has just released Collabora Office [5]version 22.05 .
Collabora is one of the leading developers of LibreOffice, making about one-third of the [6]commits to the codebase. Alongside conventional desktop-oriented versions, Collabora offers a web-based version, [7]Collabora Online , which works alongside various cloud storage providers, including both NextCloud and OwnCloud along with many [8]others .
[9]openSUSE Leap 15.4: The best desktop on the RPM side of the Linux world
[10]Linux Lite 6.0: It's quite pretty, but 'lite' it is not
[11]Minimal, systemd-free Alpine Linux releases version 3.16
[12]Fancy a remix? Ubuntu Unity and Ubuntu Cinnamon have also hit 22.04
The company also offers mobile [13]versions for both iOS and Android. The mobile apps have matured noticeably from [14]when we looked at LibreOffice 7.1 . They are still a little clunky, but they're useful, especially as viewers. For instance, we can confirm that the Android app was able to open password-protected files directly from Dropbox, which neither the Dropbox app nor Google Docs can do.
The KDE Project also recently [15]announced a new release of KDE Gear. Version 22.04.2 is the second bugfix to the bigger [16]version 22.04 earlier this year.
[17]
Although some KDE-centric distributions, such as Kubuntu, tend to bundle the more mainstream Firefox and LibreOffice applications rather than the KDE-specific equivalents, the KDE applications haven't gone anywhere.
KDE Gear is the new name for what was formerly described as the [18]KDE Applications Bundle . There are more than 120 components, including a wide range of accessories and full rich applications. A subset of the KDE Apps comprise the [19]Calligra office suite: Words, Sheets, Stage, Carbon (for vector drawing), Plan (project management), and KEXI (for visual database apps).
[20]
The apps integrate well with the KDE desktop, but they are self-contained programs, and KDE Gear also supports BSD, Windows and Apple macOS. ®
Get our [21]Tech Resources
[1] https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2022/06/09/libreoffice-7-3-4-community/
[2] https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/saas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YqezgWxeEeQZ-qAn-N9@vgAAAMk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/community-support/
[5] https://www.collaboraoffice.com/press-releases/collabora-office-22-05-introduces-new-features-and-performance-enhancements-combined-with-excellent-interoperability/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=collabora-office-22-05-announce
[6] https://dashboard.documentfoundation.org/app/kibana#/dashboard/Overview?_g=()
[7] https://www.collaboraoffice.com/collabora-online/
[8] https://www.collaboraoffice.com/partners-main/partners/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/10/review_opensuse_leap_154/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/01/linux_lite_60/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/26/alpine_linux_316_released/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/26/ubuntu_unity_and_ubuntu_cinnamon/
[13] https://www.collaboraoffice.com/solutions/collabora-office-android-ios/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/03/libreoffice_71_beta/
[15] https://kde.org/announcements/gear/22.04.2/
[16] https://kde.org/announcements/gear/22.04.0/
[17] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/saas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YqezgWxeEeQZ-qAn-N9@vgAAAMk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://apps.kde.org/
[19] https://calligra.org/
[20] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/saas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YqezgWxeEeQZ-qAn-N9@vgAAAMk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Options are always good
I have yet to find anything that's actually better than Office, for all of its flaws, except maybe specific use-cases, but it's always nice to know that there are other options if I ever want/need to use them for whatever reason.
Re: Options are always good
I think that's a function of the environment you work in. We banned Microsoft and Adobe products quite a while back (let's just say we didn't like what Wireshark showed us) and have been perfectly fine since. From what I have seen elsewhere I think the last decent version of Office was 2006 at least as far as UI is concerned.
It's not so much the money saved, it's the higher levels of security we thus enjoy by default, and fewer, far less interrupting updates. It means we control our infrastructure instead of a third party, but I'm the first to admit that that is not exactly a luxury that everyone can enjoy. There's also the fact that LibreOffice updates and improvements tend to leave the UX alone which saves a lot of learning time - here too, the impact of an update is far lower on productivity.
I hope we can keep it this way.
Re: Options are always good
My mother uses Libre Office on her Fruity Airtop quite happily. However my sister when she visited her for the weekend had a problem. She uses Word at work and opened one of her documents on mum's Airtop. She said she couldn't use Libre Office as the formatting wasn't exactly the same and needed to be so for her work. Also issues once formatting corrected on Airtop but saved and reopened at work on Word.
She has resorted to taking her own laptop down there when she goes to see our parents.
When a mate of mine who is a lawyer visited me we had the same problem. She asked to borrow my laptop as she had to do something urgently. She asked what weird version of Windows I had when Mint booted up. Then asked where my copy of Office was and was unhappy with the reply.
Re: Options are always good
"She said she couldn't use Libre Office as the formatting wasn't exactly the same and needed to be so for her work. Also issues once formatting corrected on Airtop but saved and reopened at work on Word."
I take it that what she means be that is that the layout, pagination etc. isn't exactly the same. So if the plan is to take it back to the office and open it on Word just ignore the differences whilst you're using LibreOffice.
In any case don't try to keep the layout just so whilst you're creating the document - a character change on the first page can, if you're unlucky, cascade a long way through the document changing pagination. From past experience I wouldn't trust a different version of Word on different H/W to repeat formatting exactly. Exact formatting should be the last thing you do to a document before you save it as a PDF.
I take it she was using styles? Tabs instead of spaces? Flowing text round images instead of relying on spaces and/or tabs? Tables instead of spaces and/or tabs? It's surprising what I've found Word users doing to "format" their work.
The only thing that keeps Microsoft running is Google Docs. I have never seen a company using an opensource office tool, and having tried myself multiple times I always find that things aren't ready for prime time. And all of that is normal because it's a big undertaking to make a polished opensource office software that works on multiple operating systems without it being a cloud product.
Office schmoffice...
Real typists use Copy Con. =-)p plbplbplblblblblbbbbbbb...