maybe i'll just stop using desktop software

OOo was designed for a PC with 64MB of ram. Increase the amount of RAM available to it and it flies. Ideally this should be automatic, but it's not. In OOo go into Tools - Options - OpenOffice.org - Memory and multiply the amount of RAM required by 10 (or more if you are feeling benevolent). That works fine for me, just as speedy as it was on release 1.

Did it run software on all platforms? what did you try it on?

no way to patch or easily update Openoffice. it's just criminal that a each minor software revision involved downloading and reinstalling the whole suite.

Just crazy that a patch update can't just be that... a patch!

I hate openoffice!

> Just crazy that a patch update can't just be that... a patch!

Agreed.

>I hate openoffice!

But at least they don't completely change the interface and then try to tell you it's more intuitive (anything that takes 2 weeks to learn to use in *not* intuitive, at least according to my dictionary).

Give OO a break - it is free after all!

I agree it's a bit annoying having to download the whole disto to patch up the vuln, but I'd rather do that than spend hundreds of quid on MS Office.

And it does most of the things the latter can do..albeit slower.

Plus it keeps MS on their toes, which is always a good thing.

What, free software that isn't perfect! OMG, it is the end of the World!

>>anything that takes 2 weeks to learn to use in *not* intuitive, at least according to my dictionary

I've had Office 2007 on my machine since release, and I still can't find the Edit button (cos I want to Edit - Find and Replace).

I think it took me 2 weeks to work out pressing the round button allowed me to do Save as.

It's soooo unuseable. The only reason I have it installed is cos I get it free as part of my £199 anual action pack subscription. Everyone else get's OOo :)

To all the posters above using the word free.

There is no such thing, just because you aren't paying for it, doesnt mean nobody is paying for it. Developers programming on open source projects often do that in their bosses time (with their bosses allowing it ofc), or doing it to get a better job.

So either some company is paying for it, or some company will be paying for it later (better job, better salary). Because that company also has to make a profit, when they are calculating the costprice of their product, they have to take that open source developers salary into account.

Hence, the cost price of the product increases because the open source developer spends time on open source coding in stread of on the product. So actually the customers of the company pay for your use of an open source product.

So there is nothing wrong with requiring a certain quality. Even if you weren't the one paying for it.

Paris, because she also won't be able to understand the real price of things. At least I can't blame her for it.

Its slower than MS Orifice 200x [ eyes the old Office 97 sp2 CD in the corner ]

It's a re-install.

I love you now. I was beginning to really hate OO for being so slow, but now it speeds happily along.

For those who haven't seen it, this MS download 'translates' the menus & buttons from Excel 2003 to the appropriate action in 2007. You use the mock-up Excel 2003 window to point to the menu items or commands you want to execute, and it shows you how to do the same thing in 2007...

I really, *really* don't understand why they completely removed the old-style interface. I suspect people are going to avoid upgrading until they absolutely have to, and then are going to hate it...

Link here: http://preview.tinyurl.com/3crjpm

Open Office has issues, it's Ok, it's not there fault, hey come on guys it's just the way software is you know?

MS Office has issues, Kill Bill, burn all MS developers children and piss on their faces, how dare they do this, what vile disgusting shit, boycot boycot burn!!!

Kinda sums it up, no matter we all really know which the better Office suite is even if you choose not to use it.

Yes, OOo is running slower with each release, but is being rescued by faster CPUs. Since disks aren't improving as quickly as silicon OOo's performance is becoming I/O bound. For one set of objective measurements see: http://www.oooninja.com/2008/05/openofficeorg-getting-faster-benchmark.html.

That the one-line fix under Fedora 9 is a 82MB download. A bit like OOo itself, this is better than under Windows but still sucky.

Abiword is coming along nicely and is well worth a look if you run Linux.

I'm pleased to aim.

If they made that bit dynamic based on the amount of free RAM in the machine, people would start to see it as an alternative to Office. At the very least you would hear "That OOo it's sooooo fast compared to Office 200X" a lot more.

Open Office is a pain to install. First you must download a 120Mb file, then unpack that, then sit there for 15 minutes installing, and then clear up the temporary folder it left behind. Finally you have the update.

Why can't they do a binary patch and automatically offer to install it? Firefox manages it and it's a great feature. A few security updates shouldn't require more than a couple Mb download. It would be better for everyone - OpenOffice for not straining under the downloads and users for getting patched up in a few minutes.

You could use Wordpad. That's really really fast and "free" if you've got Windows already. I love it and I use it all the time for basic word processing.

Will you *please* STFU! If you shout about this, the OOtards will complain to the EU about anti-competitive practices by MS, the EU will force MS to unbundle the bloody thing and we'll have to pay for it in future.

I like getting free software, no matter who it's from.