LibreOffice 3.5.4 released with up to 100% performance improvements

http://blog.documentfoundation.org/2012/05/30/the-document-foundation-announces-libreoffice-3-5-4/

by Garbage • 14 years ago

130 74 14 years ago

blog.documentfoundation.org

iwwr• 14 years ago

So how is Apache's new OpenOffice since they got custodianship?

Maakuth• 14 years ago

Most of the community developers have jumped the bandwagon to work with LibreOffice. It seems that the developers still with OpenOffice.org are mostly working for IBM and Oracle. The project just did the first release (http://www.openoffice.org/news/aoo34.html) after two years of silence, but there's still a lot to do before they are featurewise competing with LibreOffice. You can see a feature comparison here: http://people.gnome.org/~michael/blog/2012-04-26-ooo-compari...

mindcrime• 14 years ago

It's going very well, actually. There was just a release a couple of weeks ago, and IBM just donated the source code to their Symphony product - which was derived from OOo. Symphony apparently has some really nice UI features which will hopefully make it into the mainline of Apache OO.

There is talk on oo-dev about starting the process of graduating from the Apache Incubator, which is an encouraging sign.

dmboyd• 14 years ago

100%? so now instead of taking X amount of time to do something, it takes 0 time (X-X*100) to do something? Or have I completely misunderstood what a % performance improvement is?

dan85• 14 years ago

Now it's taking half, because it's twice as fast.

obiterdictum• 14 years ago

Or you can interpret it the other way: before the code could complete X units of work (whatever the metric), now it can complete X + X in the same time (2X).

ryankirkman• 14 years ago

I think you're looking for an inverse relationship.

e.g. My car has 200hp and can do a quarter mile in 20 seconds. If I then increase my car to 400hp (a 100% increase), let's pretend I can now do a quarter mile in 10 seconds.

Thus, a 100% increase in performance drops cuts my quarter mile (or in this case processing) time in half.

dsrguru• 14 years ago

If we assume "100% improvement" means "100% increase," the most common definition of the latter is simply 2x the former amount. So a 100% improvement in performance likely means 2x the former speed.

dbaupp3• 14 years ago

100% performance improvement? That seems a little ridiculous (and impossible). I can't find the data that this claim comes from, so I have a feeling they might mean 50% performance improvement (i.e. 1s => 0.5s). Is there more detail anywhere?

(Edit: would it be possible to have an explanation for why this was downvoted? If I've said something stupid/wrong, I'd like to be corrected please.)

mtgx2• 14 years ago

100% performance improvement = 2x as fast as before

dbaupp3• 14 years ago

Thanks! I just had the terminology backwards: performance is number of ops in a given time, not the amount of time for some number of ops.

(It seems every time performance comes up I manage to get it wrong.)

koide• 14 years ago

To begin with, it's perfectly possible to increase several orders of magnitude the performance of a piece of code, you can Google for plenty of examples. In addition, going from 1 sec to 0.5 sec is indeed 100% improvement.

Given 0.5 sec = 1 ; 1 sec = x, then x = 2

ars• 14 years ago

Going from 1s to 0.5s is not a 100% improvement, it's a 50% decrease (in time).

i.e.: 100% increase = 50% decrease.

Percents are weird to calculate.

dbaupp3• 14 years ago

I know that going from 1 to 0.5 is a 50% decrease rather than a 100% improvement. (I actually said this in the parent comment.)

But it's alright, I've got my definitions sorted out now.

av5002• 14 years ago

Does it import Microsoft document formats 100% better? That' the biggest issue that Open/LibreOffice has and until that one is solved for good, the rest does not matter much...

EDIT: not wanting to contribute further to the fall of HN, I edited M$ into Microsoft

cowmix• 14 years ago

I love Open/LibreOffice but you are 100% correct.

AlexFromBelgium2• 14 years ago

I would argue that's a Microsoft problem... I don't think office files are even compatible with their own standard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML .

DeepDuh• 14 years ago

It IS the user's problem as he will be forced to use MS Office for most documents where there are other people involved.

Note: Both google docs and iWorks handle this significantly better.

av5002• 14 years ago

A problem for Microsoft? or one by Microsoft? Yes, sure it's caused by Microsoft, but it has to be fixed on the LibreOffice side, since I am sure Microsoft won't do anything about it.

recoiledsnake• 14 years ago

M$? Wow, HN has fallen.

rickmb• 14 years ago

Does his comment contribute something? I think it does. Does yours? I don't think so.

So which one you think lowers the standards of HN?

viraptor• 14 years ago

I thought about it, but no... When we're talking about office file formats, it was Micro$oft at its best. the last big case of them acting like compete jerks with lots of money that I can remember.

scscsc• 14 years ago

The problem started to haunt Microsoft as well -- there are (simple) cases where their files don't open up correctly in slightly different versions of Office. In fact, I've recently had to open some .doc files with LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office (on Mac) because of this.

wazoox• 14 years ago

It's hardly news. In fact I switched from MS Office to StarOffice 5 in 2000 precisely because of never ending problems with documents. I even had trouble with doc files that one of my colleague made on the very same version (MS Office 2000) running on the same OS (Win98SE), apparently because we had different default printers.

gcb3• 14 years ago

Solution: email who sent you the file "hi, my Microsoft word 2011 can't open the file. Can you send it back saved (insert format you can open)"

timClicks• 14 years ago

I see that as a workaround rather than a solution. Solutions solve problems.

sciurus• 14 years ago

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

ssmall• 14 years ago

I just downloaded it because its been bogging down my machine. Its running notably smoother and quicker but I've got a regression on how its rendering the document I'm working from. Whats really stinks, its an internal document so I can't send it upstream so they can fix the issue.

The rendering bugs with Microsoft formats are understandable but still extremely frustrating.

eliben2• 14 years ago

I really dislike the term "up to N%" - this reminds me of sleazy commercials reporting "up to 80% discount". 0.2% is also "up to 100%". Can't more accurate figures be reported?

mtgx2• 14 years ago

It could mean it's 100% faster for some tasks. So it could be 100% faster in loading docx or whatever, and only 20% faster in loading .doc. Are you looking for something like an average speed improvement? That probably wouldn't be very accurate, either. But they could say the new LibreOffice is 20%-100% faster, I suppose.

d0ugal• 14 years ago

Since somethings are bound to have not changed at all in terms of speed it would probably have to be 0%-100% (Or, well, up to 100%.)

eliben2• 14 years ago

How can it be 100% faster at anything? This is mathematically impossible. If a task used to take 100 seconds, 1 second (an unlikely improvement!) is just 99% faster.

JVerstry• 14 years ago

I have just installed LibreOffice 3.5.4 and yes, there is a drastic performance improvement. Documents and application do load much much faster (I am on Windows 7). A real improvement here, but I am not sure 'accurate' figures can be reported. I am impressed by the boost.

velodrome2• 14 years ago

Your right, they should give more details on how they came to this conclusion.

I rather use average improvement rather than best case improvement - that way users don't feel duped.

kaffeinecoma• 14 years ago

I've always had a problem with this too. If a product is 80% off, you pay 20% of the original price; 100% off and it's free. If a product is 80% faster, it runs in 20% of the original time. If it's 100% faster, it runs in zero time.

freehunter• 14 years ago

Generally 100% is used in terms of an increase, where 50% would be used in terms of the same decrease. Since it's twice as fast, it's 100% faster. Which also means it takes 50% less time to do the same task. If it had gotten slower, it would be 50% slower, which means it takes 100% more time to do the same task.

It's all in how it's worded. Instead of being worded as "100% improvement", it could have been worded "50% decrease in how long it takes to complete the operation". One of these rolls off the tongue nicer, but both are valid and mean the same thing.

In your example, both the sales prices are worded as a negative value. "50% off" could be worded as a positive value as "100% more". In this case, LibreOffice has 100% more than the original amount of speed. Twice as fast.

samet2• 14 years ago

I can run new libre from /opt/libreoffice3.5/program only, without Gnome or KDE. Old versions add softlinks to runnable paths. This new version doesn't.

erkin_unlu3• 14 years ago

use gnome-do

erkin_unlu3• 14 years ago

oh really, can they open docx files on ubuntu 11.10 now? or do we just have to watch libreoffice crash everytime trying opening one of those?

samet2• 14 years ago

openoffice/libreoffice family can open docx for a long time.

erkin_unlu3• 14 years ago

i know, but on a fresh ubuntu 11.10, it chooses to crash, now i updated to 3.5.4, it's finally OK with it. i hope at least.

sgt• 14 years ago

Whether it's 100% or 40%, I'm very happy with this. The problem with OpenOffice for many years was that it was very slow, and it's even a problem today (e.g. if your machine is heavily loaded and you find yourself having to start an office suite, you usually regret it).

lloeki3• 14 years ago

Not just when under load. Up until now, it was a pain watching the UI match up the information around caret position (e.g toolbar like bold, italic, font, etc... and in the style window) full seconds after it moved there.

gcb3• 14 years ago

Just fished helping the wife with a paper on libreoffice... Heck latex is the ultimate user friendliness. But mostly because i can write in vim.

openoffice is a joke. Don't know if it's because i still can't find how to fine tune key shortcuts but all the "speed" problems were me hunting down the same 3 items in a menu over and over.

They should move all the focus on maintaining a non-word clone interface.

antidoh• 14 years ago

Yes exactly. I use LO because I use Linux and don't want to pay for Office on Windows until/unless I have a requirement. But I detest using LO, and your menu example characterizes my overall experience.

Chasing Office compatibility is a losing bet. I think they'd do much better tracking Office at somwhere between 50 and 80%, with sensible default/fallbacks, and spending the bulk of their time making LO the absolute best office solution on Earth.

tl;dr If you try your hardest to be like Office, you're going to suck worse than Office.

avallark• 14 years ago

100% performance increase!! thats a bit too much of a statement.

I am wondering if a product can have an 100% performance increase, then it must be pretty badly built the first time around. isnt it? I like openoffice, and didnt really think it needed a 100% performance upgrade, but hey more is better.

olaf• 14 years ago

On Ubuntu 10.04 compared to Open Office Writer 3.2, storage of a 209 pages document with Libre Office Writer 3.5.4.2 is even slower.

Program startup of Libre Office Writer is also slower.

Minor detail: after unpacking "LibO_3.5.4_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US.tar.gz" I got a directory "LibO_3.5.4rc2_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US", the "rc2" lets me doubt, that this is the release version.

velodrome2• 14 years ago

In general, I think vendors should be more transparent about performance and reliability:

Microsoft Office 2011....Now using up to 30% less bugs, 20% faster load times, and you get X amount of features.

At least performance/reliability would be considered a feature. It would be better than a lot of the bloatware that comes out these days. Users should be conditioned to ask about performance and reliability of a product rather than how many features they added. You clearly see this from Apple but not Microsoft.

noveltyaccount2• 14 years ago

If Libre Office or Open Office really want to get ahead, they need to innovate on their user interface. Being libre/free isn't enough of a reason for some of us, what we need is ease of use and productivity. The Ribbon has been a great step forward IMO and I'd love to see the Libre team challenge it with something even better. Traditional menu bars feel so... 90s.

kfk• 14 years ago

Ribbon is just stealing screen estate.

acheron• 14 years ago

You are literally the first person (not counting Microsoft press releases) that I have ever heard praise the ribbon UI. If you like it, great, but I'm pretty sure you're in the minority.

Wartz• 14 years ago

I like the ribbon.

noveltyaccount2• 14 years ago

Literally every person I've talked to in the corporate world enjoys the ribbon. Only geeks dislike it. It's like saying GUIs are stupid because a geek can be proficient on a command line.

fidz• 14 years ago

This is good news actually, we always want improvement in every new software version.

But, i need a better, truly far better, presentation software. If we compare between Ms Office, iWork, and Libre, the only thing i don't like with Libre is the Impress. Impress do presentation like 10 years ago. No keynote-like (just like MS do in Office 2k10) 3D animation, no simple color picker, no shadow effects, no gradient,..

jcurbo• 14 years ago

So what makes it so much faster? Did they fix a major bug causing it to slow down?

dminor• 14 years ago

Great. Now how about getting around to outline view, which just celebrated its 10th birthday in the OO bug database?

kinleyd• 14 years ago

I won't get into the nitty gritty of how much faster it is, or how that kind of speed improvement should be calibrated. All I can say is it loads a heck-of-a-lot faster than it did previously - and also add a big thank you to the folks at LibreOffice.

LibreOffice 3.5.4 released with up to 100% performance improvements

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