On Saturday 30 June 2018 17:40:29 Mike Bird wrote:
> As other people may read this thread I think it is important to add an
> opposing viewpoint.
>
> Unless you are willing to do what Tim and friends did for KDE by taking
> on and actively maintaining the project, I cannot recommend OpenOffice
> to anyone.  Even OpenOffice's own few remaining developers have at times
> recommended against using it.  Those who do use it are recommended to
> install workarounds themselves as OpenOffice does not have the resources
> to produce fixes for known security problems until many months after
> they are reported.  For example, 4.1.3 had a known security problem for
> ten months but did not have the resources to get a fix out.
>
> If you must use OpenOffice do not download from third party sites as
> there are lots of infected OpenOffice downloads out there.  But even
> after downloading OpenOffice from the master site your work is not done.
> You have to follow the project and install workarounds yourself for
> security holes that OpenOffice knows about when they can't get the
> releases out to fix them.
>
> Unlike KDE 4 versus KDE 3 (or systemd versus sysvinit) LibreOffice is
> a good and compatible replacement for OpenOffice.  Indeed, none of our
> users reported any problems or complaints when we switched from
> OpenOffice to LibreOffice.  Thus there is little reason to maintain
> OpenOffice and I do not foresee a long future for it.
>
> I also recommend installing LibreOffice from your distro rather than
> from LibreOffice upstream unless you need bleeding edge functionality.
>
> --Mike

As you say, it is good to have other viewpoints, and I certainly don't 
recommend downloading from third-party sites, etc. I am also aware that there 
aren't many people maintaining OpenOffice, and all that other stuff. 

However, you missed what are, for me, the most important points: 
1. LibreOffice messes up my documents, so that I would have to redo thousands 
of pages of layout. Usually the pages are only off by a couple lines between 
my OpenOffice version and the LibreOffice, but over the the length of an 
entire document, everything gets screwed-up, and I would be forced to begin 
all over again, almost from scratch. 

2. LibreOffice often refuses to open my own documents; even after I change 
permissions, remove lock files, etc. 

3. When I did complain about my problems with LibreOffice, I was basically 
told just to "get over it"; sort of like when KDE3 died. When people started 
mentioning the possibility of reviving the old KDE3 as TDE, we were told that 
it wouldn't work, that it couldn't work, that there were problems with Qt3, 
Qt4, etc. And anyway, anybody who didn't just give up and "get with it" and 
stop complaining and just use KDE4 Plasma must be old fogies, and nobody 
cares about them anyway. 

4. I don't like LibreOffice. I do like OpenOffice. (See #8 below.) 

5. I didn't recommend "OpenOffice for Everybody!"; I only said that some few 
might prefer it (for example, myself and deloptes, to start); and others 
might find that it suits their needs. I don't feel that I must take on the 
responsibility of maintaining OpenOffice merely because I have made a 
qualified and limited recommendation. 

6. I do not doubt that OpenOffice has some security holes; most stuff out 
there as some problems, and some have more than others. Please direct me 
towards some software that has absolutely no security holes, as I've never 
encountered a virgin in the real world. 

7. LibreOffice tends to do a lot of stuff that takes control out of my own 
hands. (I haven't used it for a while, so no, I don't have a list handy, but 
perhaps others can help there.) 

8. I do like OpenOffice. I don't like LibreOffice. (See #4 above.) 

As I said, it might not be for everybody, but maybe for a few people it is 
still useful. You seem to be saying that nobody ought to use it, and that I 
am wrong even to bring it up. So much for WORLD PEACE. 

Bill