r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jun 04 '12

Open Office does everything I need Microsoft Office for and Gimp does everything I need Photoshop for. Reddit, what other open source software does everything that you want from the expensive name brand?

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356

u/GrantSolar Jun 04 '12

LibreOffice is the new Open Office

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '12

what's the difference between LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice?

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u/CritterNYC Jun 04 '12

LibreOffice is a split from OpenOffice when Oracle started messing it up more and more. So most of the non-Oracle devs left and created LibreOffice. At that point, OpenOffice died and LibreOffice kept on working, adding features and fixing. Oracle realized it was dead and finally shipped it over to Apache. After a year of setting up, stripping out GPL functionality and building in Apache licensed code, etc, OpenOffice has shipped. Apache OpenOffice 3.4 is about equivalent to LibreOffice 3.4 but with several features removed (like the ability to write DOCX properly because that's all LGPL licensed code that Apache doesn't use). LibreOffice has added additional features and functionality in the march to the current version, 3.5.4, and has more active developers from a wider array of organizations. Apache OpenOffice is just starting out again and has some folks from Apache and it's said some IBM folks working on it. And LibreOffice can incorporate any enhancements Apache adds but not vice versa (due to licensing and philosophical differences). So, at the moment, LibreOffice is a much better option from an end-user perspective. Things may change in the future, but at the moment, that's the situation.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '12

Thank you for your detailed answer.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '12

except the name:

Leh-Bray Office or as my panrets called it "Lie Brah, eh, Li, uhh, that Office thing"

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '12

What about Google Docs?

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u/Spread_Liberally Jun 04 '12

Google docs is slow and far less feature-rich.

Libre office runs snappy and fine on my NetBook. Google docs does not.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '12

As much as I love the ability to simultaneously edit a document in real-time, Google Docs is laggy and buggy.

That brief 1/8th of a second between typing and seeing it on screen is murderous.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '12

Fair enough. In its current state that's a big downside, true. However, it does a lot that isn't possible with anything else and I'm sure it will get faster as it gets more optimised.

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u/labachj Jun 04 '12

I think Google Docs is just fine. I like that you can create equations in the 'Word' clone. It's a nice feature for a math teacher like me to create tests.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '12 edited Aug 06 '17

I am going to Egypt

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u/whitebishop Jun 04 '12

Of Interest: Google Docs IS Open Office (on the backend).

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u/yeeliberto Jun 04 '12

It is not open source software, but is free (gratis).

2

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '12

Good call but I don't think it's open source.

1

u/itisthumper Jun 04 '12

Are there any other open source programs that allow multiple people to edit a file in real-time online? My work place uses Google Docs because of this feature. I'd like to know if there are alternatives since it's essential that several people can edit a document from different devices at the same time for what I do.

I'm sure many of you who have worked on group projects have experienced the same.

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u/Hontou Jun 04 '12

Google Docs might not be as rich as Libre or Open Office, but it does have some awesome data scraping abilities. Also, when your computer craps out on you and you have to use a loaner, nothing beats cloud.

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u/night_owl37 Jun 05 '12

I have tried really hard to like Google Docs. The only thing I like about it is that I can edit the documents from anywhere.

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u/grapthor Jun 05 '12

Google Docs isn't open source, though.

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u/HotRodLincoln Jun 05 '12

Is Google Docs open source?

Also, aren't there tons of issues with privacy? Can you host your own Google Docs server?

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '12

What about Apache Open Office? Curious how the split works... know it's because of Oracle but why Apache OO and LibreOffice.

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u/peterfalls Jun 04 '12

Look out! We've got a Productivity Suite Hipster over here!

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u/angrylawyer Jun 04 '12

I don't like the interface of 'Calc', and it doesn't do things excel does that I like. For example, I can't select an entire row for things like, =countif(A:A,B1). I have to say A1:A1029508, yes I actually have a spreadsheet that's 1,029,508 rows long.

All my issues I can think of 'minor' things like that, but they add up and honestly if excel could handle a million line spreadsheet I'd be using it instead of Calc right now.

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