Apache Talks Up More Than 333 Million OpenOffice Downloads

[RahulSundaram]

Oh absolutely ! But then comes the question: does an office suite need to have such a development pace that it breaks compatibility with older documents?

This isn't the usual tradeoff here. Most development hasn't nothing to do with file formats and won't break them but end up adding features that commercial customers of the organization driving most of the development of LibreOffice is asking for. A few that may end up breaking compatibility are bugs that needs to be reported but even these changes are done largely with the goal of improving things for users. The problem with using Apache OpenOffice for "stability" is that this comes from lack of development resources allotted to the project and not because it is an explicit goal of the project, so all the major bugs or even security issues addressed in Libreoffice aren't seen by OpenOffice users. If you want good alternatives, pick an actively developed and maintained one like say OnlyOffice.

[Lord_of_Noob]

I find it interesting that the blog post got interest by Michael Larabel. Well lets look at some points.

and just 4.7 million downloads by Linux users... Well, presumably the Linux users are better educated and going straight for the modern and more maintained LibreOffice.

Question: How does the common Linux user install software?
a) Use Distribution method
2) Go to download.OpenOffice.org
2.1) Select Language
2.2) head to the downloadfolder
2.3) unpack the tar.gz
2.4) install multiple RPM files or deb files by hand.

Do you believe that any Linux user is unaware of LibreOffice (or other choices) on his Distro?

Arch Users and Gentoo users still integrate the binary package in User repos. This cost work too.

While Apache OpenOffice development is rather stagnant, many of the original OpenOffice.org developers left for LibreOffice long ago, and LibreOffice has been delivering far more modern features and functionality, people continue to download OpenOffice

A lot of OpenOffice.org Developers did quit. Some of them Stopped doing OpenSource at all.
Also you compare a Volunteer project against a corporate project with volunteers. (Most Volunteers on Linux side I presume)

The brand OpenOffice is still very strong in the Windows community, I know a great deal of people who have never heard of LibreOffice but who have tried OpenOffice (most of the time many years ago, but since the project is pretty much stalled that should not make much of a difference) and were very disappointed by its appearance, speed and functionality.

this is something I often hear. If you google OpenOffice you get a LibreOffice article that rants on Apache OpenOffice. I find it hard to believe that this does not destroy a market name. (Which you do also participate in. BTW.)
So for me it is unbelievable that people have not heard about alternatives. Especially if they know someone who uses an alternative and is very vocal about it on the net.
This is just not very logical.

I hope this helps a bit to resolve so many misconceptions. But then again I think no one interested in this. And believing to be on the winning team is so much easier. So I think nobody realy cares. I still hope that one or the other thinks a bit. And maybe asks different questions next time.

[karolherbst]

mhhhhh...

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[JPFSanders]

To this day I when I think about it I call it OpenOffice in my head even though I'm using LibreOffice. Brand names, what you cut your teeth on, and what's familiar can be hard to drop, change, or even feel a need to seek an alternative.

It makes you wonder how many people discovered it in high school 17 years ago and never felt the need to look for an alternative while continuing to suggest it to all their friends who suggest it to their friends leaving us with a closed loop of OpenOffice users who simply can't be bothered to look for a FOSS alternative. The prevalence of Google Docs shows that they occasionally look for or take suggestions for alternatives, just not in the FOSS realm it seems.

Big LO fan here, I use it almost daily. OpenOffice is a very good name. LibreOffice is a terrible name. I would have gone with something like SuperOffice, MegaOffice EfficientOffice, GoodOffice, BetterOffice etc. Anyway I'm very happy with LO and if the worst thing of a project I can complain about is the name... that is a very good damn project.

[cl333r]

Big LO fan here, I use it almost daily. OpenOffice is a very good name. LibreOffice is a terrible name. I would have gone with something like SuperOffice, MegaOffice EfficientOffice, GoodOffice, BetterOffice etc. Anyway I'm very happy with LO and if the worst thing of a project I can complain about is the name... that is a very good damn project.

Good names but some might be offensive to others, like "better office" (kinda racist). So I would suggest something that isn't divisive and is universally seen as a good thing, e.g. "TrumpOffice2024" which would suggest that this office "trumps" your problems and "2024" as a friendly reminder that this will be a leap year in the Gregorian Calendar.

[mirmirmir]

Big LO fan here, I use it almost daily. OpenOffice is a very good name. LibreOffice is a terrible name. I would have gone with something like SuperOffice, MegaOffice EfficientOffice, GoodOffice, BetterOffice etc. Anyway I'm very happy with LO and if the worst thing of a project I can complain about is the name... that is a very good damn project.

Definitely not with "office" name if you want a good matketing. I mean, Microsoft has office, google has doc, we gotta come up with something else, simple yet easy to remember. Like LibreOffice© Productivity™ Writer, but just name it "writer"

Or just use The Document Foundation writer, I mean ditch the name of the office suite altogether. That sounds cool.

[luisbandalap]

Big LO fan here, I use it almost daily. OpenOffice is a very good name. LibreOffice is a terrible name. I would have gone with something like SuperOffice, MegaOffice EfficientOffice, GoodOffice, BetterOffice etc. Anyway I'm very happy with LO and if the worst thing of a project I can complain about is the name... that is a very good damn project.

What's wrong with Libre? It's the spanish analogue of Open.* Apparently The Document Foundation wanted to maintain some similarity in names when they forked from OpenOffice.

* analogue with some nuances

[rabcor]

To this day I when I think about it I call it OpenOffice in my head even though I'm using LibreOffice. Brand names, what you cut your teeth on, and what's familiar can be hard to drop, change, or even feel a need to seek an alternative.

It makes you wonder how many people discovered it in high school 17 years ago and never felt the need to look for an alternative while continuing to suggest it to all their friends who suggest it to their friends leaving us with a closed loop of OpenOffice users who simply can't be bothered to look for a FOSS alternative. The prevalence of Google Docs shows that they occasionally look for or take suggestions for alternatives, just not in the FOSS realm it seems.

Not to mention,, openoffice rolls off the tongue better than libreoffice, it's a better name.

[BingoNightly]

Maybe I'm old but man, I remember when choices were a good thing.

[partcyborg]

The rover will land on Mars is 10....9....oh fuck, that was sooner than expected.

Sir, you have a call from the ESA.

The fuck is a Metric?

This legit happened and caused the loss of a satellite: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-...288-story.html