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Open Office vs. Libre Office

15 years ago

Hi,

I'm looking for a MS Office alternative for someone who does not want to pay for MS's version and really has only occasional need for such software (most of which is for reading emails sent to her in a format requiring an Office program to open it). I know about the Open Office alternative and have only recently learned of Libre Office. Has anyone here tried both of these programs who can give a brief review of which one you consider better ?

Thanks !

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Comments (7)

azinoh
15 years ago
I use OO and it suits my needs well. I've not used LO yet, and since they are so closely related I wouldn't expect the differences to impact me very much. Since both are free, you should just flip a coin and take one for a test drive. There's really nothing to lose.
DA_Mccoy
15 years ago
Before being issued Microsoft Office Enterprise for home use I used OO when working on documents transported between home and the office. I never had any concern, and I have to agree with AZ that there can't be too much difference between OO and LO.

DA
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OpenOffice was picked up almost immediately by Apache software and I haven't seen any reputable source show that there's malware in it. Apache was a very reputable company and I'm skeptical of any claims against them. I've used OO since probably the 90s? Never a problem. In fact, there's certain uses I prefer using it to MS Office. Used it for years in my businesses, would include it when I sold new computers. I've tried Libre Office, and it's OK, don't see any advantage to it so I stick with the software I'm used to. I'm not sure if it's even around anymore but if you're just looking for something for .RTF, Abiword was a great lightweight word processor and I used that a lot but haven't tried it for years now.
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ravencajun Zone 8b TX
15 years ago
I use OO on all my computers including linux have not tried the LO, happy with OO.
mikie_gw
15 years ago
LO was started by all the unhappy employee's whom left OO because of the new owner dislikes/incompatabilities/etc/or something very secret.
owbist
15 years ago
Same soup, different gravy as Mikie notes. But read report linked below for a fuller explanation.

Here is a link that might be useful: Open Office and Libre Office
not2bright
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for all the great responses !! I guess I'll suggest she go with OO and only try the other if she runs into problems. :-)
grandms
15 years ago
I downloaded and installed Libre Office several days ago. Other than just opening the word processor, I haven't really used it at all. Just thought I'd give it a try since I'm not really keen on Oracle's actions with what was an open source program.

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