RSSOpenOffice.org 2.0 Final Launches
By Nate Mook | Published October 20, 2005, 10:40 AM
After over two years in development, the final version of OpenOffice.org 2.0 has been made available for download. The productivity suite offers a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation builder and a database -- all for free and available in 36 languages for Windows and Unix based platforms.
Perhaps the most notable addition in OpenOffice.org 2.0 is support for the OASIS OpenDocument format, which could prove to be the first true rival to Microsoft's proprietary Office formats. OpenDocument is a completely open standard that has been chosen for use by several countries and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
OpenOffice.org Base, a new database component for creating self-contained cross-platform database applications based on Java, also makes its first appearance in OpenOffice.org 2.0. The Calc spreadsheet component of the suite has been upgraded to support up to 65,536 rows of data.
Other major features in version 2.0 include a completely redesigned interface that provides multi-pane views, floating toolbars and native desktop integration, all which mirror elements of Microsoft Office. PDF support has also been vastly improved to offer new export options.
Although OpenOffice.org is open source and built by a community of developers, its progress has been backed by Sun Microsystems, which sells a version of the suite as StarOffice, Red Hat, Intel and Novell.
"OpenOffice.org is on a path toward being the most popular office suite the world has ever seen; providing users with safety, choice, and an opportunity to participate in one of the broadest community efforts the Internet has ever seen. As a member of that community, I'd like to offer my heartiest congratulations," commented Sun's President Jonathan Schwartz.
But trying to convert Microsoft Office users will be a gargantuan task for new OpenOffice.org, even with better compatibility and lack of a price tag. The 2.0 release does, however, improve the office suite filters used for importing Microsoft documents and adds support for Corel WordPerfect documents.
Even with a long road ahead, developers are celebrating today's accomplishment.
"OpenOffice.org 2.0 is the culmination of a collaborative process involving thousands working in dozens of languages everywhere in the world," said OpenOffice.org community manager Louis Suárez-Potts. "It shows that open source can produce software of the highest quality and assure the robustness, usability and security that users expect in their office suite."
Download OpenOffice.org 2.0 for Windows or Linux, and tell us what you think!
Great program, and you cant beat the price!
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Ya, it's painless. Unlike to their programmers. Check out the "We Share Your Pain" video... they apparently love pain at Microsoft...
http://cityofrain.com
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I assume it will install on a system with MS Office already installed without causing issues?
I.E. it won't mess with MS Office!
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sure, just don't associate ms file types with OO and there should be no messing. I think it is default not to associate the files, but i forget.
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woo yay!
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Remember it is not perfect. there are some bugs and problems.
so if you find, please report it so we can get better OpenOffice.org in the future.
you can report it here
http://qa.openoffice.org...ing/pre_submission.html
Lets make it better. Thanks
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So, is it a 'Final' or is it buggy and needs further testing?
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If you seriously think that final = bug-free you must be new to computers :)
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Very cool, been waiting for this.
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Wahoo! :) I am very glad to see this...
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Simply an awesome piece of software.
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As a free full package with everything you usually need at home.
Nothing can beat openoffice.
Problem for me is that i use office at work and there is no reason to use openoffice.
But if you dont work 100% with office at work.
It would be stupid to pay for something you can get for free without using warez.
And openoffice do support office format enough so you can cross share your documents.
Openoffice has good community so gettin support is not a big problem.
Of course the open doucment discussion you can pretty much ignore atm.
And finally openoffice is even easier to learn then office.
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So when is version 3.0 due, 2019? ...Other major features in version 2.0 include a completely redesigned interface that provides multi-pane views, floating toolbars and native desktop integration, all which mirrors elements of Microsoft Office.
Wait, I thought the idea is to be NOT like Microsoft Office! WTF, mate?
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I don't think that the idea of OOo is to not be like Office. That's like saying that Firefox's idea is to not be like IE (or vice-versa since we can argue that IE was trying to be like Netscape for the longest time).
MS Office has several great ideas. One of the ideas that is not good about MS Office is the price tag and the closed file formats currently present in the software.
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No. The idea was to provide a viable alternative to Microsoft Office; not to necessarily be unlike it.
They have accomplished their mission with flying colors IMO.
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let's admit, ms has a nice product, to be like it IS good. But at the same time, the licensing isn't in public's best interest, to be different IS good.
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to wincement : a positive comment .a first, not defending Microsoft, somewhat sarcastically, however it is a beginning. I might convert to Apple and Open Source. BTW I do enjoy your incisive comments. Most others are somewhat vapid if not childish
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Honestly--never used it...may try it as soon as I have time to waste at home (too bad I can't try it here at work instead of wasting time at betanews.com)
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Halleluja!
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Wooooo!
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YAY!!!
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Wow..
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FINALLY! (yay)
But I wanna know who's gonna use 65,536 rows of data.
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get a life you slavering Microsoftphile
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come again?
This isn't Microsoft's software. It's open-source.
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If you import data from a database or use spreadsheets as your database (not recommended) you can easily get over 65,536 rows.
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Which is why I asked the question lol. I know they *could* be used, but what I want to know is who actually *would*.
Anyway, it was just a joke, and a stupid one. I'm not very good at this humor thing.
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That's actually pretty easy to do LOL I've had CSV files that I've scripted to import into databases that were 50x that large.
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>But I wanna know who's gonna use 65,536 rows of >data.
Well surely somebody must, but the real benefit is that it will improve OpenOffice to Excel Compatiblity since Excel does already have 65K rows of data.
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Out of all the replies to my question, this one made the most sense.
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I wonder why they don't just make it OS X native?
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No clue.
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Resources. They just don't have the capability right now. A year or so ago, OOo developers announced the Aqua-native OpenOffice would be pushed back to focus on Windows and Unix. And since the Unix builds can be easily ported to run under X11 on a Mac, they got the priority.
Too bad though, would be great to have an Aqua-native version of OpenOffice. At least Microsoft Office on the Mac is better than its Windows counterpart by leaps and bounds.
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You're joking right? Office on the mac is a joke. There is no space for anything and you constantly have to move things out the way when you open new "toolbars." It even has less features than the windows version.
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"There is no space for anything"
Huh? There is more than enough space for my documents.
"you constantly have to move things out the way"
Why would you need to open new toolbars? You can have them all across the top, or docked in a box next to the document. Office on Mac lets you choose how you want your toolbars displayed, which is very convenient.
"less features than the windows version."
Maybe so. But I've never run into any features I needed that weren't available. Part of the problem with Office 2003 is that there are too many features. That's specifically the reason Microsoft is redesigning the user interface, because it has become too cluttered.
Still, I should clarify. When I said "leaps and bounds" I meant interface-wise and organizationally. It just seems to work better, as many users will tell you. Obviously Office 2003 blows it away feature-wise, which may be needed if you spend your days using it for work.
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MS Office on the Mac is certainly more optimized and cleaner than the PC counterpart. If only Apple could follow the same rules with QT & iTunes and make very clean, stripped down versions for 'doze.
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>At least Microsoft Office on the Mac is better >than its Windows counterpart by leaps and bounds.
Okay that's just idiotic Microsoft has openly admitted that office 2004 for a Mac DOESN'T have as many features as Office 2003 for windows.
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Too bad there isn't an OS X version--not even an X11 build. (Not that X11 is that great, either, because you have ugliness and font issues, but at least it's something. NeoOffice/J is at least decent, but they're still based on 1.x.)
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There will be an X11 build for Mac OS X shortly, I imagine. Its development was closely aligned to the Windows and Linux builds.
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