   #copyright

OpenOffice.org

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Software

   OpenOffice.org
   OpenOffice.org 2.0 Writer editing a text document under Windows XP
   Developer: Sun Microsystems in association with the community
   Latest release: 2.0.4 / October 13, 2006
   OS: Cross-platform
   Use: Office suite
   License: GNU Lesser General Public License
   Website: http://www.openoffice.org/

   OpenOffice.org is a free office suite of applications available for
   many different operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Linux,
   Solaris and Mac OS X. It is intended to be a compatible alternative to
   Microsoft Office. It supports the OpenDocument standard for data
   interchange.

   OpenOffice.org is based on StarOffice, an office suite developed by
   StarDivision and acquired by Sun Microsystems in August 1999. The
   source code of the suite was released in July 2000 with the aim of
   reducing the dominant market share of Microsoft Office by providing a
   free, open and high-quality alternative. OpenOffice.org is free
   software, available under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

   The project and software are informally referred to as "OpenOffice",
   but project organizers report that this term is a trademark held by
   another party, requiring them to adopt "OpenOffice.org" as its formal
   name, and abbreviated as OOo or OO.o.

Overview

   OpenOffice.org 2 for Linux editing an HTML document
   Enlarge
   OpenOffice.org 2 for Linux editing an HTML document

   According to its mission statement, the OpenOffice.org project aims "To
   create, as a community, the leading international office suite that
   will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality
   and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file
   format."

   OpenOffice.org aims to compete with Microsoft Office and emulate its
   look and feel where suitable. It can read and write most of the file
   formats found in Microsoft Office, and many other applications; an
   essential feature of the suite for many users. OpenOffice.org has been
   found to be able to open files of older versions of Microsoft Office
   and damaged files that newer versions of Microsoft Office itself cannot
   open. However, it cannot open older Word for Macintosh (MCW) files.

   The primary development platforms are Microsoft Windows, Linux and
   Solaris. There are also ports available or in progress for Mac OS X,
   OS/2 and many Unix-like operating systems.

   Federal Computer Week issue listed OpenOffice.org as one of the "5
   stars of open-source products." In contrast, OpenOffice.org was used by
   The Guardian newspaper to illustrate what it claims are the limitations
   of open-source software.

   OpenOffice.org is a collection of different applications that work
   together closely to provide the features expected from a modern office
   suite. Many of the components are designed to mirror those available in
   Microsoft Office. The components available include:
     * Writer — a word processor similar in look and feel to Microsoft
       Word and offering a comparable range of functions and tools. It
       also includes the ability to export Portable Document Format (PDF)
       files with no additional software, and can also function as a
       WYSIWYG editor for creating and editing web pages. One important
       difference between Writer and Microsoft Word is that in Writer,
       many functions and number formats from Calc (below) are available
       in Writer's tables. Another difference is that in Writer, automatic
       save is off by default.

     * Calc — a spreadsheet similar to Microsoft Excel with a roughly
       equivalent range of features. Calc provides a number of features
       not present in Excel, including a system which automatically
       defines series for graphing, based on the layout of the user's
       data. Calc is also capable of writing spreadsheets directly as a
       PDF file.

     * Impress — a presentation program similar to Microsoft PowerPoint.
       It can export presentations to Adobe Flash (SWF) files allowing
       them to be played on any computer with the Flash player installed.
       It also includes the ability to create PDF files. Impress suffers
       from a lack of ready-made presentation designs. However, templates
       are readily available on the Internet.

     * Base — a database program similar to Microsoft Access. Base allows
       the creation and manipulation of databases, and the building of
       forms and reports to provide easy access to data for end-users. As
       with Access, Base is able to work as a front-end to a number of
       different database systems, including Access databases (JET), ODBC
       data sources and MySQL/ PostgreSQL. Base became part of the suite
       starting with version 2.0.

     * Draw — a vector graphics editor comparable in features to
       CorelDRAW. It features versatile "connectors" between shapes, which
       are available in a range of line styles and facilitate building
       drawings such as flowcharts.

     * Math — a tool for creating and editing mathematical formulae,
       similar to Microsoft Equation Editor. Formulae can be embedded
       inside other OpenOffice.org documents, such as those created by
       Writer. It supports multiple fonts and can export to PDF.

     * Quickstarter — a small program for Windows and Linux that runs when
       the computer starts for the first time. It loads the core files and
       libraries for OpenOffice.org during computer startup and allows the
       suite applications to start more quickly when selected later. The
       amount of time it takes to open OpenOffice.org applications was a
       common complaint in version 1.0 of the suite, and Quickstarter was
       a solution of sorts. Substantial improvements were made in this
       area for version 2.0.

     * The macro recorder — is used to record user actions and replay them
       later to help with automating tasks, using OpenOffice.org Basic

   It is not possible to download these components individually on
   Windows, though they can be installed separately. Most Linux
   distributions break the components into individual packages which may
   be downloaded and installed separately.

OpenOffice.org Basic

   OpenOffice.org Basic is similar to Microsoft Visual Basic for
   Applications (VBA) and is based on StarOffice Basic. In addition to the
   macros, the upcoming Novell edition of OpenOffice 2.0 supports running
   Microsoft VBA macros, a feature expected to be incorporated into the
   mainstream version soon..

   OpenOffice.org Basic is available in the Writer and Calc applications.

History

   CAPTION: OpenOffice.org versions

      Version               Description               Release Date
   Build 638c    The first milestone release       October 2001
   1.0                                             May 1, 2002
   1.0.3.1       Recommended for windows 95 users  May 2, 2003
   1.1                                             September 2, 2003
   1.1.3                                           October 4, 2004
   1.1.4                                           December 22, 2004
   1.1.5         Last release for 1.x product line September 14, 2005
   1.1.5secpatch Security patch (macros)           July 4, 2006
   2.0           Milestone                         October 20, 2005
   2.0.1                                           December 21, 2005
   2.0.2                                           March 8, 2006
   2.0.3                                           June 29, 2006
   2.0.4         Latest stable release             October 13, 2006

   Originally developed as the proprietary software application suite
   StarOffice by the German company StarDivision, the code was purchased
   in 1999 by Sun Microsystems. In August 1999 version 5.2 of StarOffice
   was made available free of charge.

   On July 19, 2000, Sun Microsystems announced that it was making the
   source code of StarOffice available for download under both the LGPL
   and the Sun Industry Standards Source License (SISSL) with the
   intention of building an open source development community around the
   software. The new project was known as OpenOffice.org, and its website
   went live on October 13, 2000.

   Work on version 2.0 began in early 2003 with the following goals:
   better interoperability with Microsoft Office; better performance, with
   improved speed and lower memory usage; greater scripting capabilities;
   better integration, particularly with GNOME; an easier-to-find and use
   database front-end for creating reports, forms and queries; a new
   built-in SQL database; and improved usability. A beta version was
   released on March 4, 2005.

   On September 2, 2005 Sun announced that it was retiring the SISSL. As a
   consequence, the OpenOffice.org Community Council announced that it
   would no longer dual license the office suite, and future versions
   would use only the LGPL.

   On October 20, 2005, OpenOffice.org 2.0 was formally released to the
   public. Eight weeks after the release of Version 2.0, an update,
   OpenOffice.org 2.0.1, was released. It fixed minor bugs and introduced
   new features.

   As of the 2.0.3 release, OpenOffice.org changed its release cycle from
   18-months to releasing updates, feature enhancements and bug fixes
   every three months.

StarOffice

   Sun subsidizes the development of OpenOffice.org in order to use it as
   a base for its commercial StarOffice application software. Releases of
   StarOffice since version 6.0 have been based on the OpenOffice.org
   source code, with some additional proprietary components, including:
     * Additional bundled fonts (especially East Asian language fonts).
     * Adabas D database.
     * Additional document templates.
     * Clip art.
     * Sorting functionality for Asian versions.
     * Additional file filters.
     * Migration assessment tool (Enterprise Edition).
     * Macro migration tool (Enterprise Edition).
     * Configuration management tool (Enterprise Edition).

   OpenOffice.org, therefore, inherited many features from the original
   StarOffice upon which it was based including the OpenOffice.org XML
   file format which it retained until version 2, when it was replaced by
   OpenDocument.

Development

Overview

   The OpenOffice.org API is based on a component technology known as
   Universal Network Objects (UNO). It consists of a wide range of
   interfaces defined in a CORBA-like interface description language.

   The document file format used is based on XML and several export and
   import filters. All external formats read by OpenOffice.org are
   converted back and forth from an internal XML representation. By using
   compression when saving XML to disk, files are generally smaller than
   the equivalent binary Microsoft Office documents. The native file
   format for storing documents in version 1.0 was used as the basis of
   the OASIS OpenDocument file format standard, which has become the
   default file format in version 2.0.

   Development versions of the suite are released every few weeks on the
   developer zone of the OpenOffice.org website. The releases are meant
   for those who wish to test new features or are simply curious about
   forthcoming changes, they are not suitable for production use.

   The project is still essentially run by StarOffice staff, and getting
   external contributions into the core codebase is generally regarded as
   being more difficult than with other high-profile free software
   projects.

Native desktop integration

   OpenOffice.org 1.0 was criticized for the lack of look and feel of
   native applications when comparing to the platform it is running on.
   Starting from version 2.0, OpenOffice.org uses the native widget
   toolkit, icons and font-rendering libraries across a variety of
   platforms, to better match native applications and provide a smoother
   experience for the user. There are projects underway to further improve
   this integration on both GNOME and KDE.

   OpenOffice.org can also be used on Mac OS X. A version using the Aqua
   interface was planned for OpenOffice.org version 2, but due to
   technical challenges, licensing complications and limited development
   resources, the project was postponed to the OpenOffice.org 3.0 release.
   The application has been made available in two intermediate varieties
   that run on OS X in the meantime:
     * OpenOffice.org Mac OS X (X11). This version requires the
       installation of X11.app or XDarwin, and is a close port of the
       well-tested Unix version. This version is functionally equivalent
       to the Unix version, but its user interface has a significantly
       different look and feel to that of purpose-designed Mac OS X
       applications; the application uses it own menu bar instead of the
       usual Mac OS menu attached to the top of the screen, for example.
       Version 2.0.4 provides the X11 port with the ability to
       conveniently use installed system fonts like other Mac OS X
       applications, the use of cups for printing.

   Current development of the Aqua version of OpenOffice.org : Native
   OpenOffice.org (without X11)

   Last screenshots, and infos about OpenOffice.org port, without X11:
   ericb's blog
     * NeoOffice. A fork (means derivated product) version integrates with
       OS X by using Java, Carbon and (increasingly) Cocoa. NeoOffice
       adheres fairly closely to OS X GUI standards (for example, using
       native pull-down menus), and has full access to OS X's font and
       printing subsystems. It is the work of a very small team. Its
       releases lag slightly behind the official OpenOffice.org releases.

Other projects

   OpenOffice.org 2 for Windows saving a Hello World document
   Enlarge
   OpenOffice.org 2 for Windows saving a Hello World document

   Other projects run alongside the main OpenOffice.org project and are
   easier to contribute to. These include documentation,
   internationalization and localization and the API.

   OpenGroupware.org is a set of extension programs to allow the sharing
   of OpenOffice.org documents, calendars, address books, e-mails, instant
   messaging and blackboards, and provide access to other groupware
   applications.

   There is also an effort to create and share assorted document templates
   and other useful additions at OOExtras.

   A set of Perl extensions is available through the CPAN in order to
   allow OpenOffice.org document processing by external programs. These
   libraries do not use the OpenOffice.org API. They directly read or
   write the OpenOffice.org files using Perl standard file
   compression/uncompression, XML access and UTF-8 encoding modules.

   A distribution of OpenOffice.org called "Portable OpenOffice.org" is
   designed to run the suite from a USB flash drive.

   For version 2.04, OpenOffice.org should, in a manner similar to Mozilla
   Firefox, support extensions.

Security

   As of September 26, 2006, the security site Secunia reports no known
   security flaws for OOo 2.x. Kaspersky Lab has shown a proof of concept
   virus for OpenOffice.org. This shows OOo viruses are possible, but
   there is no known virus "in the wild".

   In a private meeting of the French Ministry of Defense, additional
   macro-related security issues were raised. OpenOffice.org developers
   have responded by noting there has been no published vulnerability, but
   have been in talks with the researcher to fix the vulnerability.

Reactions

Market share

   Although Microsoft Office retains 95% of the general market,
   OpenOffice.org and StarOffice have secured 14% of the large enterprise
   market as of 2004. The OpenOffice.org web site reports more than 62.5
   million downloads.

   Large scale users of OpenOffice.org include Singapore's Ministry of
   Defense, and Bristol City Council in the UK. In France, OpenOffice.org
   has attracted the attention of both local and national government
   administrations who wish to rationalize their software procurement, as
   well as have stable, standard file formats for archival purposes. It is
   now the official office suite for the French Gendarmerie. It may also
   be noted that the Supreme Court of India, which uses Linux, completely
   relies on OpenOffice.org.

   On October 4, 2005, Sun and Google announced a strategic partnership.
   As part of this agreement, Sun will add a Google search bar to
   OpenOffice.org, Sun and Google will engage in joint marketing
   activities as well as joint research and development, and Google will
   help distribute OpenOffice.org.

   Besides StarOffice, there are still a number of OpenOffice.org derived
   commercial products. Most of them are developed under SISSL license
   (which is valid up to OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta 2). In general they are
   targeted at local or niche market, with proprietary add-ons such as
   speech recognition module, automatic database connection, or better CJK
   support.

Java controversy

   Version 1 depended on a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) being present on
   the user's computer for some auxiliary functions, but version 2
   increased the suite's use of the programming platform. The following
   areas of OpenOffice.org 2.0 depend on a JRE being present:
     * The media player on Unix-like systems
     * All document wizards in Writer
     * Accessibility tools
     * Report Autopilot
     * JDBC driver support
     * HSQL database engine, which is used in OpenOffice.org base
     * XSLT filters
     * BeanShell, the NetBeans scripting language and the Java UNO bridge
     * Export filters to the Aportis.doc (.pdb) format for the Palm OS or
       Pocket Word (.psw) format for the Pocket PC
     * Export filter to LaTeX

   The dependency on an installed JRE had drawn criticism from advocates
   of free software, as the JRE generally available for desktop platforms
   was, at the time, a proprietary application bundle, thus undercutting
   the principles of freedom advocated by such groups. The fact that Sun
   Microsystems is both the creator of Java and the chief supporter of
   OpenOffice.org has drawn accusations of ulterior motives for this
   technology choice.

   The issue of OpenOffice.org's use of Java came to the fore in May 2005,
   when Richard Stallman appeared to call for a fork of the application in
   a posting on the Free Software Foundation website. This led to
   discussions within the OpenOffice.org community and between Sun staff
   and developers involved in GNU Classpath, a free replacement for Sun's
   Java implementation, in which it was determined that all necessary
   steps were in place to ensure that key OpenOffice.org uses of the Java
   platform would be supported in GCJ and Classpath.

   Fedora Core 4 (released on June 13, 2005) included a beta version of
   OpenOffice.org version 2, running on GCJ and GNU Classpath. This
   demonstrated that the use of Java did not need to be a barrier to the
   use of OpenOffice.org on free software platforms. When 2.0 stable was
   released, the same continued. The OpenOffice.org developers also placed
   into their development guidelines various requirements to ensure that
   future versions of OpenOffice.org could be run on free implementations
   of Java.

   Sun Microsystems announced in May 2006 that it intended to release the
   Java platform under an open-source license. On November 13, 2006, Sun
   released javac, JavaHelp, and the Java HotSpot virtual machine as Free/
   Open Source software, under the GNU General Public License. They
   reiterated that they intend to do the same for most of the rest of the
   Java implementations.

   A common point of confusion is that mail merge to generate emails
   requires the Java API JavaMail in StarOffice; however, as of version
   2.0.1, OpenOffice.org uses a Python-component instead.

Trivia

   OpenOffice.org includes several Easter eggs, including some quite fully
   fledged games: a version of Space Invaders is playable by entering a
   cheat code into a cell in Calc, as is a version of Tic-tac-toe, and the
   names and picture of the OpenOffice.org Calc developer team.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
