Ask HN: OpenOffice or LibreOffice?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2140516

by gsivil • 16 years ago

4 6 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Which platform is more viable? Have you used any of these programs extensively? Is LibreOffice any better than OpenOffice in terms of equations handling? My experience with OpenOffice with respect to equations was at best terrible. I wish there was an open platform to replace Word but it seems that we are still far from that( with the respect to the developers of OO and LO).

Please do not suggest LaTeX as alternative for practical purposes(file sharing with colleagues that do not use it)

Mithrandir• 16 years ago

LibreOffice feels somewhat more fast than OpenOffice. Of course, I never had much of a problem with OO (except for speed.)

brudgers2• 16 years ago

If you need the features of Office, a couple of hundred dollars is probably money well spent. Particularly when your colleagues rely on your formatting.

gsivil2• 16 years ago

I agree with that. But imagine having to buy licenses for a group of people and at the same time giving up some of the advantages in using Linux. On top of that having 2-3 machines and getting Office for all of them is not the most trivial of expenses. I am a recent convert to Linux and the only thing that keeps my connections to MS is Word.

brudgers2• 16 years ago

Free is the price, not the cost. It's easy to burn through $1000 in lost productivity - with a team of three it will take less than a day.

Gentleman_Ryan• 16 years ago

As of now, LibreOffice is equal to, if not better, then OpenOffice as it was only forked off of it about 4 months ago. If you're already using OO.o then switching to LibreOffice will be a snap and you won't have to worry about Oracle.

gsivil2• 16 years ago

Do you have any idea about the future of these products?

Ask HN: OpenOffice or LibreOffice?

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