LibreOffice Released

[Plexx]

LibreOffice 3.5.4 has been released.

LibreOffice is a fork of the well known OpenOffice.org suite.

Note that there has been more updates on LibreOffice than OpenOffice.

LibreOffice contains:

*Writer which is the word processor
*Calc which is the equivalent to Excel
*Impress which is the equivalent to Powerpoint
*Base which is the equivalent to Access
*Draw (never really tried)
*Math which is for creating and editing mathematical formulas.

Homepage

Changelog source

This release is bit-for-bit identical to the 3.5.4 Release Candidate 2, so you don't need to download or reinstall if you have that version already.
The distribution for Windows is an international build, so you can choose the user interface language that you prefer. Help content is available via an online service, or alternatively as a separate install.
Our Windows binaries are digitally signed by The Document Foundation.
For Windows users that have LibreOffice prior to version 3.4.5 installed, either uninstall that beforehand, or upgrade to 3.4.5. Otherwise, the upgrade to 3.5.4 may fail.
For Windows users that have OpenOffice.org installed, we advise uninstalling that beforehand, because it registers the same file type associations.
If you run Windows 2000, you may require this update before being able to install LibreOffice.
If you run Linux, the GCJ Java variant has known issues with LibreOffice, we advise to e.g. use OpenJDK instead.
LibreOffice contains all the security fixes from OpenOffice.org in 3.3.0, and perhaps more as a side-effect of the code clean-ups.
Microsoft Office 2010 will complain that ODF 1.2 and extended documents written by LibreOffice 3.5 are invalid (but opens them still). This is a shortcoming in MSO2010 only supporting ODF 1.1, please see here for further details.

 

[Ink]

What's it like updating LibreOffice? Do you have to download the whole package again, or just apply updates?

Or I might wait for the new MS Office beta, set for Summer (I think).

 

[Plexx]

Unfortunately, the only way is to download the whole package, but its not that big.

I do have MS but on my spare computer I use LO since we didn't buy MS Office 2010.

Compared to OpenOffice, I prefer LibreOffice, but thats just me.

 

[McLovin]

What is the difference between LibreOffice and OpenOffice?

 

[HeffeD]

Libre started as a fork from OpenOffice when Oracle bought Sun Microsystems. Some of the original OO developers thought Oracle would either abandon OO, (which turned out to be true) or restrict its open source nature, so they forked the code and started LibreOffice.

OpenOffice was out of development for well over a year because Oracle didn't know what to do with it, and finally just 'donated' ownership of the project to Apache. Apache has just finally made a new release of OpenOffice on May 8th, its first since OO 3.3 was released in January 2011. The Libre developers say that really, there isn't much difference between the Apache release and the old 3.3. Mainly just transferring licenses...

LibreOffice is basically what OpenOffice would be now if Oracle hadn't discontinued development.

 

[McLovin]

I see I used to use OpenOffice, but it was not as advanced as Microsoft Office, I found. If they are basically the same then there would be no difference from using LibreOffice to OpenOffice. Might have to have a look at LibreOffice.

Thanks for that HeffeD.

 

[Plexx]

If not mistaken LO is more up to date than OO, but don't quote on me. I haven't really used OO since it was bought by Oracle.

For day to day usage, LO or MS Office are basically the same, but when it comes to formulas in spreadsheets etc for work, I tend to use MS Office.

 

[HeffeD]

If not mistaken LO is more up to date than OO, but don't quote on me.

Yes, it is. It was in development the entire time OO was on hiatus.

And this is the reason why many Linux distros dropped OO in their bundle in favor of Libre. Libre was being actively developed, while releases on OO stopped. I'm not sure if any of them will switch back now that Apache is in control, but I kind of doubt it.

 

[Plexx]

Unfortunately, the only way is to download the whole package, but its not that big.

I do have MS but on my spare computer I use LO since we didn't buy MS Office 2010.

Compared to OpenOffice, I prefer LibreOffice, but thats just me.

My apologies for the misinformation above provided. You can set to check for updates automatically.

I must have missed out on the options, since I just now went into it to change some settings for my partner and realized.

Once again, apologies.

 

[McLovin]

- Picture background setting ignored
- rework handling the case of recursive ooxml shapes again
- section break and page style conversion problem
- import vmlshape 'hidden' style attribute and apply to controls
- SwLineLayout::CalcLine: improve line height calculation
- dmapper: import NS_ooxml::LN_CT_FFCheckBox_default
- Bad transitions if "use hardware acceleration" is enabled
- Small size icon setting is ignored.
- FILESAVE as .doc destroys frame border properties
- Toolbar item clipped
- toolbars may become irrevocably locked in place
- FILEOPEN: Frame borders not shown in .doc file
- VIEWING: legacy report designer wizard improperly formats dates
- Words and Character excluding spaces Word Count incorrect with Record Changes enabled
- LibreOffice crashed when accessing Options / Internet / Proxy or Browser Plug-in settings
- FILEOPEN: Open Visio's file with bitmap's blocks
- ugly hairline double border drawing
- CRASH when FILEOPEN particular RTF
- TABLES: drawing layer doesn't paint thin borders in Writer if anti-aliasing disabled
- rtf header, tables, pagenumber are wrong
- Update filters for file selector's file type categories
- FILEOPEN properties Title, Subject, Comments (File>Properties ..> Description) no longer imported in rtf document
- Word Count Characters (with spaces) incorrect with Numbering on
- Unable to update LibreOffice without resetting user profile
- EDITING: Copying cell(s) with conditional formatting CRASH when paste
- Libvisio: Draw Crash/Freeze on loading MS Lync Server 2010 Topology Sample Visio Files
- Draw Crash/Freeze on loading MS Lync Server 2010 Topology Sample Visio Files
- Writer crash when applying an AutoFormat to a table
- Fix PresenterConsole - missing all images...
- Draw crashes on loading MS Logical Design Diagram example viso file.
- ODFF: implement missing imaginary functions
- New about dialog - pressing left or right arrow focuses wrong button
- Get rid of -fsigned-char
- opening urls fails with error 403 on picky servers
- smoketest fails on ppc64
- fix smoketest on ppc[64] and s390[x]

Read more.

 

[Moose]

With LibreOffice, how does compare to Kingsoft Office Suite? Pro's & Con's?

 

[McLovin]

* resize controls on Solver dialog of Calc
* make ctrl-8 and 9 increase/decrease font size in Swedish
* objects having line thickness misplaced while pasting.
* related: stale gdi font handles apparently still used
* revert "attempt fix of hang on base close, due to solarmutex deadlock on join"
* data Form dialog layout fix
* revert "fix excel row height export problems ( I hope ) "
* populate composedCommandNames ASAP, not at call of getFromClause
* do not wrap CannotActivateFactoryException as DeploymentException
* refresh row lazily (when data is requested)
* make reportbuilder work again
* FormatNumber can handle sal_uInt32 values after all...
* use correct value to check for min and max
* disable edit field for min and max type
* temporary, band-aid fix.
* show comments in the navigator
* -1 is small while STRING_NOTFOUND was great
* take website url from configuration
* use vector::insert instead
* ICU breakiterator not used for Khmer
* update Danish dictionaries (2.1)
* prevent double delete in calc's html parser
* use Unicode functions for QuickStarter tooltip
* fix presenter console display switching
* objects having line thickness misplaced while pasting.

Sources.

 

[Moose]

Thank you for the information!

 

[McLovin]

Thank you for the information!

Glad that I could help I guess

 

[McLovin]

- LO cannot start (reports runtime error with Visual C++ Runtime Library)
- FILEOPEN 3.5.x spreadsheet with wrong row height
- ODF import: Page Borders handling broken
- TABLE borders do not terminate where they should with merged cells
- EDITING: Connectors cannot be selected
- Many crashes when accessibility enabled on MacOS X
- torn off color popups cause interaction difficulties in other windows
- Vertical rulers completely unreadable on MacOS X
- 3.6.0b1: Segfault when accessing the LO About dialog with librsvg ˜ 2.16
- LO cannot start (reports runtime error with Visual C++ Runtime Library)
- general I/O error when opening a RTF file
- On MacOS X, the progress bar and the new splash screen graphics are mis-aligned
- OSX: Text color setting is broken
- EDITING: Regression: reference to CSV becomes a string, not an integer
- Hidden MediaWiki options page
- [Task] EDITING: Incomplete Date values are no longer detected
- Numbered bibliographies no longer work with more than a few entries
- LO cannot start (reports runtime error with Visual C++ Runtime Library)
- EDITING: CRASH when Copy+Paste row with conditional formatting to other sheet and back to inserted row
- FILEOPEN 3.5.x spreadsheet with wrong row height
- EDITING: Report-Builder does not show any properties
- UI of Database Report Builder mostly without translations

Link.

 

[Moose]

Hello McLovin!

Topic: LibreOffice

Only with this update version?
And/or early versions?

 

[Ink]

Changelog appears to be for LibreOffice 3.6.0 RC 4. Not sure why it wasn't stated in the post.

 

[Ramblin]

Ramblin

 

[McLovin]

Hello McLovin!

Topic: LibreOffice

Only with this update version?
And/or early versions?

It will more than likely be this version.

 

[Ink]

Glad you found something you like.

If you want something simple, you could always try MSO 2010 Starter
http://malwaretips.com/Thread-Get-Microsoft-Office-2010-Starter-for-free
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_2010#Starter_Edition

I was looking for something like MS Office for my new W7 laptop, then when I saw this thread 3 days ago I decided to give LibreOffice a try. I am using Version 3.5.5 portable. If someone likes to try it, you can get it by using the 140 MB.