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A word on OpenOffice.org V 3.0 | Register To Post |
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| cobus.smit | Posted on: 2008/11/4 9:18 |
Moderator   Joined: 2003/1/11 From: Global Posts: 557 |
A word on OpenOffice.org V 3.0 I've been fortunate enough to be exposed to various generations of Microsoft Office platforms and OpenOffice solutions.
The latest version of OpenOffice.org (v 3) has recently been launched and naturally I downloaded it to get a feel for the changes made. The platform is quite functional, but with some not-so-apparent quirks that one tends to get used to in the Microsoft environment. A couple of assumptions need to be validated: 1) OpenOffice NOT EQUAL Microsoft Office 2003. This does not mean you can't get way woth 90% of the functionality, but the way you do it is not copied from the Microsoft platform. Usability is often similar, needs some new exploration to truly get the hang of it. 2) Platform architectures are similar. Office 2003 and 2007 use shared components in their architecture, but there is still a degree of independence with regards to instances of the applications that you are running. E.g. you can run Word, Excel and Powerpoint in parallel (obviously) and when one of them crashes, the incident is isolated to the specific application (e.g. word). My recent encounter with OpenOffice.org has lead me to believe that the .org platform runs in a single instance with Write, Calc and Impress all running in the .org application container. This means...when on application (e.g. Write) crashes, you crash all your applications. I'm not sure why Sun opted for this architecture as it requires an emphasis on stability. Sure v 3 is new, but come on - the independence is really important in an environment where you work on different things at the same time. The crashing is ok, but then you obviously need to recover. The OpenOffice.org platform does this, but removes information that has been previously saved (not only in temprary backups made during normal operation). This is a huge risk and does not support productivity in the least. Overall I think the products are "getting there" but it still has not arrived. Microsoft Office is not without is own stability and recovery problems...so the choice is not so clear cut. Summary - be sure that the one platform does no merely copy the other - each one is independent with selected similarities. Stability is now the issue, not so much functionality.
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