Open Office vs Libre Office vs Microsoft Office

[noname2020x]

Or other.

What do you use and why?

I am pretty much stuck with an .odt managed software of some kind because I have been using open + libre for so long. Otherwise I would use Microsoft Office.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

I use Libre Office.

It's my understanding that OpenOffice development was more or less killed by Oracle, leaving LibreOffice as the path forward.

I use MS office as well. Either is really fine for my needs, but LibreOffice runs native rather than virtualized on my machine so I prefer that for most things. I typically always open the documents in MS office to confirm what people will see when I send them my docs, to ensure the formatting or layout isn't screwed up.

 

[freakdiablo]

I use Libre Office.

It's my understanding that OpenOffice development was more or less killed by Oracle, leaving LibreOffice as the path forward.

I didn't know that. I use OpenOffice, simply because I started using it several years ago because it was free. But if they stopped updating it, might change soon.

 

[Robert17]

I understood that the OpenOffice development was more or less turned over to open source full-time without the Oracle oversight/blessings; it simply had to be renamed and LibreOffice became the moniker. I remember this transition took place only a very few years ago. I couldn't tell any difference when I performed an upgrade, i.e., the first one from Open to Libre. But I have noticed that new releases come out more frequently.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

I didn't know that. I use OpenOffice, simply because I started using it several years ago because it was free. But if they stopped updating it, might change soon.

I don't know all the details, but basically they forked to libreoffice because they were afraid of what Oracle would do when they acquired Sun. Then shortly there after, Oracle pitched all the developers assigned to OOo because the community left.

On 28 September 2010, several members of the OpenOffice.org project formed a new group called "The Document Foundation". The Document Foundation created LibreOffice from their former project in response to Oracle Corporation's purchasing of Sun Microsystems over concerns that Oracle would either discontinue OpenOffice.org, or place restrictions on it as an open source project, as it had on Sun's OpenSolaris.[33][34][35][36]
It was originally hoped that the LibreOffice name would be provisional, as Oracle was invited to become a member of The Document Foundation. Oracle rejected requests to donate the OpenOffice.org brand to the project[37] and demanded that all members of the OpenOffice.org Community Council involved with The Document Foundation step down from the OOo Community Council, citing a conflict of interest.[38]
The Go-oo project was discontinued in favour of LibreOffice.[39] Improvements made by the project were merged into LibreOffice.[citation needed] Also underway is the reduction of Java dependency.[40]
As a result of the fork of OpenOffice.org into LibreOffice, Oracle announced in April 2011 that it was terminating the commercial development of OpenOffice.org, therefore releasing the majority of the paid developers.[41] In June 2011, Oracle announced[42] that it would contribute the OpenOffice.org code and trademark to the Apache Software Foundation, where the project was accepted for a project incubation process within the foundation.
In June 2011 Google, SUSE, Red Hat, Freies Office Deutschland e.V., SPI and the Free Software Foundation each contributed one employee to The Document Foundation's Advisory Board to serve for an initial term of one year.[43]

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice#History

I understood that the OpenOffice development was more or less turned over to open source full-time without the Oracle oversight/blessings; it simply had to be renamed and LibreOffice became the moniker. I remember this transition took place only a very few years ago. I couldn't tell any difference when I performed an upgrade, i.e., the first one from Open to Libre. But I have noticed that new releases come out more frequently.

That isn't exactly how it happened, though Oracle may explain it that way. Oracle did not turn over development to the community - the community forked a new project from the source code so they would no longer contribute to Oracle's codebase, then Oracle fired their development staff previously dedicated to OOo. The new community asked Oracle to allow them to continue using the name, but Oracle said no. At this point, OOo was dead to Oracle without the community, and without their in house development staff - so Oracle gave it to the Apache foundation. I don't know anything about developments right now, but I think its languishing, in light of strong community support for LibreOffice.

 

[ihrsetrdr]

Or other.

What do you use and why?

I am pretty much stuck with an .odt managed software of some kind because I have been using open + libre for so long. Otherwise I would use Microsoft Office.

I'm running LibreOffice on my Linux machines; I think that I put OpenOffice on my wife's Win7 laptop.

Why? Mostly economics, but also I prefer open-source software, rather than propitiatory.

 

[trekky]

i use Microsoft Office my dad works for a IT company (not naming it) and they give it to us for free so why not

 

[ssjwizard]

I have MS Office 07 on my rig because I needed it for school. My linux installs all run Libre so I cross back and fourth alot. Both are quite good.

 

[TeknoBug]

Back in the days I used to swear by OpenOffice, but LibraOffice is much better nowadays, and for school/work/business you basically NEED MS Office.

I use LibraOffice for my resumes, personal docs/sheets, etc. MS Office for work related stuff, too bad they're not completely cross compatible.

One flaw I found between the 3, is if you password protect a .docx or .odt then vice versa can open it without a password prompt, use with caution- I found out the hard way and I'm glad some of my sensitive docs didn't fall into the wrnog hands.

 

[hafa]

Since we need Outlook for business, we use MS Office. Currently using 2013 and syncing to Android with local sync.

 

[JeremyCT]

When I was working and only needed the products for leisure stuff, I used LibreOffice and was very happy with it. When I went back to school and was constantly porting files and projects from school labs to home and back, I found it much easier to work with MS Office exclusively due to having a constant interface (I dislike the ribbon, but all the school computers use it) and no formatting hassles. Every once in a while a file created in LibreOffice will open completely differently in Office. I had a spreadsheet graph whose axes values got reversed from ascending order to descending order once for no apparent reason.

My Linux installs get LibreOffice.