[Knersus]

I hate saying this about free, open source software: OOo 3.0 is malware. I installed it this morning, created a new text file, wrote 3 paragraphs, tried to change the line spacing and boom! It crashed. So, I launched it again, tried the same thing, crashed again. This time it wouldn't actually quit, not even force-quit. I had to use Activity Monitor to do that. Launch again, same problem, same refusal to force-quit. All 3 times, after re-launching, it offered to send a crash report to the OO.o server. It wouldn't let me fill in anything in the text fields, and when I clicked send, it froze!
Besides the above, it's sluggish (typical Java app), semi-responsive with unexpected display and interactive behaviour. When open, it sometimes doesn't even show the app name in the menu bar - instead, it shows "Finder". When I tried to force-quit it via Activity Monitor, it showed itself as 2 apps - soffice.bin and soffice – not exactly helpful to consumers. This is really still just a bad port, an insult to Mac users.
Regarding .docx support – I'm not sure what all the fuss is about, I mean NeoOffice 2.2 opens them just fine.
I'll be sticking with NeoOffice, which has never given me any problems, is completely Mac-native, responsive and includes many Mac-specific features OOo doesn't even have.
NeoOffice's own version 3 beta will be available a month from now.

[Maya]

I no longer need Microsoft even now. I removed my trial MSOffice, installed NeoOffice for emergencies, open and write most files with Pages/Numbers/Keynote, and use TextEdit for simple word processing needs. I've never installed Windows on my Macbook. I can live without Microsoft for my many needs, which range from word processing to photo editing to Web-weaving to making simple YouTube movies to keeping spreadsheet data.

Goodbye Microsoft!

[whitedog]

{quote}...I hate saying this about free, open source software: OOo 3.0 is malware. I installed it this morning, created a new text file, wrote 3 paragraphs, tried to change the line spacing and boom! It crashed. So, I launched it again, tried the same thing, crashed again....{quote}

I tried to reproduce your problem on my Mac Pro running OS X 10.5.5 and had no crashes at all changing the line spacing. Admittedly this was a limited test, but it suggests the trouble you are having may be specific to your machine. That's not to say you shouldn't stick with NeoOffice, but you might look a little deeper - in case the problem with OpenOffice 3 is merely a symptom of something else that's out of whack. I've found that usually to be the case when a reputable application begins misbehaving.

In any case, it's excessive to call a program malware when you've tested it on only one computer.

[Tapiwaiztaps]

So we should be able to open files made from open office in word 2007? I remember having some problems with the beta before.

[whitedog]

Tapiwaiztaps said:

So we should be able to open files made from open office in word 2007? I remember having some problems with the beta before.

I'm sure compatibility depends on the number and kinds of elements included in the OpenOffice document. But you can save an OpenOffice document in a number of older Word formats (not the new .docx format, though) - with a warning about possible unsupported formatting and content. Word will open these, but not, of course, documents saved in OpenOffice format. The reverse is no doubt also true: how well will OpenOffice open Word documents? The answer: It depends. Both applications include features not supported in the other. Microsoft couldn't care less about such issues; it's up to OpenOffice.org to resolve them if they want to supplant MS Office on the desktop. Hopefully Macworld will do another comparison test once the NeoOffice Intel native version is available.

[Tapiwaiztaps]

The issue that I was having with the beta was due to being unable to save in the .docx format. One of my online classes requires that we submit assignments using that (why I don't know) even though .doc may easily be opened in Word 2007. This is the reason I removed the beta from osx. At the time. I thought I had read that Open Office would address the issue of saving in the .docx format. Apparently I must have been mistaken. Right now I have Office 2007 (windows), Office 2008 (mac), and Open Office and while making documents and other things in those programs really isn't a problem, it becomes a headache when you try to open something in a different program and bam, it's not compatible.

Ideally I would like to just use iWork and if needs be, then Open Office also but a lot of things for school or work have to be Microsoft Office or bust. For example, I just finished making a presentation with iWork for school and tried to open it with PPT 08 and it just kept on exiting. I had to end up copying and pasting everything slide by slide over to PPT wasting a good chunk of time.

[Knersus]

Hi whitedog

I forgot to include my setup: MacBook Pro 15" Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz (late 2006), running Mac OS 10.4.11 with all the latest patches. No other apps on my machine have problems, and I have NeoOffice 2.2.5 (I say this in case it shared some resources with OpenOffice).

There is nothing unusual about my setup - no troublesome InputManagers, and I regularly use Onyx to do system maintenance, I did a safe boot and I even zapped the PRAM.

Because my setup is still a pretty popular one, I would've thought they'd have tested it. I'm very, very grateful for OOo development, as without it I wouldn't have such a stable alternative to MS Office - NeoOffice.

I understand their resources are limited and probably don't have enough dedicated Mac developers, but I just find it to be misleading advertising when my OS was said to be supported.

[matt78704]

Wow, wheat... what are you smoking?

Quote

there are two reasons to support NeoOffice, and to make a
monetary donation to them. The first is loyalty. They've been
providing a native port of OpenOffice for Mac for years and years.

Loyalty is something a product must earn, not assume. MS Excel has been shipping on the Mac since 1985. By your own logic we should all be loyal to Microsoft since they've supported the Mac longer than OpenOffice or NeoOffice combined.

Quote

The second reason is ... a much more Mac-like user interface.

You've got to be kidding. The last time I took a look at NeoOffice I was appalled by the user interface. It looked like Office 98 crammed into a Mac window, with UI violations all over the place. Perhaps the UI has gotten better, but fixing a bad user interface isn't enough to earn you users or dollars. On the Mac, a well designed, native interface is the price of admission... it's a requirement to get into the contest, but it certainly isn't enough to win it.

Here's a reason not to make a monetary donation to NeoOffice: the NeoOffice team has refused to help the OpenOffice folks with their native Mac version. The Mac market doesn't need two mediocre Office clones... it needs one really good one. Why reward this group of people for fragmenting their efforts and for forking the code?