Downloaders declare open season on OpenOffice 3.0 servers
By Angela Gunn | Published October 14, 2008, 2:56 PM
Flattened by popular demand: Servers hosting the final version of OpenOffice 3.0, released yesterday, have been struggling to keep up with would-be downloaders.
The much-anticipated final 3.0 version of the open-source productivity suite is now available in nine languages... if you can get a connection. Practically speaking, interested parties are hitting a bare-bones download page on which the developers explain that they're coping with, as the page says, "the unprecedented demand for the new release 3.0 of OpenOffice.org."
Our grab for the OOo 3.0 final for Mac was, happily for us, successful on the first try, as was our attempt to download the latest packages for Windows and the two Linux versions.
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| A report from the OpenOffice.org Web server shows, even with this many links, it's hard to find an open server. |
Versions 3.0.0 of the software are available for Windows, Linux RPM, and Linux DEB in Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Swedish; for Solaris x86 in English, German, Russian and Swedish; for Solaris SPARC in English; for Mac OSX Intel in Danish, English, German, Italian and Swedish; and for Mac OS X PPC in Swedish only.

i installed it, saw how plain and "oldschool" looking the interface was and quickly uninstalled it. My goodness even the font was horrible
Now i know why its free :-)
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|With all the hating on OOo, one might think you all paid for it and you didn't get what you wanted. Sure, OOo looks a little dated, yet it somehow manages to /work/.
The ribbon is overrated. I prefer IBM's Symphony. All the tools are on the right of the interface giving you more vertical space for the document. (They should have moved the file tools to the right also). Compare that to the ribbon which robs you of even more vertical real estate than the old office toolbars did. Who doesn't have a widescreen monitor nowadays. (If you don't you're hardly in a place to complain about OOo looking dated). Symphony's biggest problem is that it was based on version one of OOo, which was painfully slow.
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|You can hide the ribbon.
Frequently accessed tools can be accessed via simply highlighting the area you want to modify.
The right-click menu also gives you access to most of the tools.
Most folks who *needed* all of the various tools a single click away had every toolbar possible up there on the older versions, taking up as much, if not *more* space than the current ribbon.
Which all leads to the question:
Have you actually even *used* office 2007?
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|I grabbed a copy last week.. Huge download when I really would only ever use the Writer element (no need for anything else) - why can't I just download the components I want (or even install just the components I want?)
Surely this would be better for the servers if I was only download what I needed?
Installed v3... new icons, but same old clunky looking interface that reminds me why I was hated Office 95/97.
I can't really explain what's wrong with the interface, but using writer just isn't a pleasant experience. Word is frustrating as hell to use, but using it is kind of nice, same with abiword.
After 10 minutes of realising that version 3 was pretty much the same as version 2.. I uninstalled it all.
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|Huge download? It takes a few minutes on broadband. If you want to only install Writer, you can! Just pick custom installation and uncheck the other items! I agree that interface for Writer is about the same as Word 97, but so is Word 2003 or Abiword. The only different interface I know of is Word 2007, but they made it "different" by making it unusable. More than 3/4 of the people I know who tried Word 2007 begged to go back to the old version.
Score: -1
|I hate to ruin your fantasy world but your perception of the word "broadband" is seriously misguided.
Most of the planet doesn't have access to multi-megabit internet access.
"Broadband" covers everything from 256/64 ADSL and up. Ergo, a 148MB download can be seen as being huge.
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|Ok.... This is an excellent zeitgeist, ("sign of the times"), in which the industry is changing to serve the public in a very good way. and to quote, GunDamBoyZack: "All the more reason to torrent it as a primary release... "
Shawn-Earnest
Madawaska Maine
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|Quite impressed so far. I've been using some mortgage calculators in Calc without any issues (written for Excel), and the Writer is as good as always. Interface is refreshed, but not completely different. While many say it's dated - most of my clients prefer using something they know. It's probably why so many don't like Vista. :p
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|OO 3.0 hung on my third copy and paste attempt!
Must be a new feature to crash after the third copy/paste.
...
Score: -1
|Got mine.
http://afewtips.com
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|Glad I nabbed it yesterday. Full speed, direct from their own servers.
I like it better than the 2.x releases, but it'll take some time to get a real handle on it.
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|toolie, i guess this means you're finally seeing that your MS Office blows "ribbon" chunks? Even an blind idiot can get it right once in a while, huh toolsie?
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|Don't worry, you'll get that GED someday.
Score: 1
|No, not at all. I prefer the ribbon. Always nice to have an option or two when it comes to ignorant whelps such as yourself though.
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|Try a metalink, they work & contain all the mirrors...
http://openoffice.mirrorbrain.org/stable/3.0.0/
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|All the more reason to torrent it as a primary release...
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