LibreOffice
after one and half-years as an open source office productivity suite
has grown from being just a fork of OpenOffice.org (OOo) and emerged as
an independent tool for those who prefer the openness and scope of work
copyleft offers over claustrophobic copyright licenses and proprietary
software. Following the game-changing split and backing by The Document
Foundation (TDF) LibreOffice has over 25,000 code commits and 330
contributors. Secondly, it has over 15million Linux OS users, a further 10 million users are split between Microsoft (90-percent) and Mac OS X (5- percent).
Even as these numbers speak of the
domination of LibreOffice over the Office tools segment, there is room
for thought, that it will soon break critical mass and move and become
the most used office suite as Microsoft Office looks traction because of two major aspects – the phenomenal prices at which each version of the suite is sold and the claustrophobic licensing factor.
In contrast LibreOffice, encourages and engages in the opposite,
offering any number of downloads and use for almost the same set of
tools – for spreadsheets, database creation, Math or desktop publishing.
Despite paying due credit to Microsoft’s more mature platform and
dedicated development input, the increase in contribution and excellent
open governance model is fast moving LibreOffice to streamline its suite
and offer a great package.
Additionally, there are umpteen
limitations Microsoft Office struggles with – Document Sharing,
technical support which is handled by trained office desk personnel as
against developers who offer hands-on solutions for LibreOffice suite
users. Another very vital and potentially dangerous issue is that of security.
Every time Microsoft Office has a security-hole, and there have been
many, users are typically unaware of the lurking dearth as they are not
informed of such issues. Microsoft usually tries to patch them with
standard security updates that they offer.
Interface on LibreOffice is its
mainstay; frugal, minimalistic but highly functional and easily
accessible. Microsoft’s ribbon interface, though now spread over all its
products remains an acquired method.
Microsoft Office is limited to running
on Windows or Mac. LibreOffice’s advantage is that not only will it run
on other platforms, Windows, Linux or Mac, it actually runs on legacy
hardware as well, which is simply not possible with Microsoft Office.
Perhaps, where LibreOffice truly
delivers is its agility. With great implementation- in terms of
algorithm, architecture and language, minimal layers and a integrated
minimal program that LibreOffice has truly delivers on the speed over
Microsoft’s Office.
LibreOffice 3.5 includes template
creator for Writer, tweaked better performing Calc and elliptical arcs;
Additionally, LibreOffice is to be available for tablets and a browser
launched online LibreOffice suite. And for commercial users, LibreOffice
is to offer integrative features for Microsoft SharePoint.
A recent development in this direction
is Intel’s open move to encourage LibreOffice code improvement and
offers download via Intel website. SUSE, in fact developed the Windows
version of LibreOffice. Intel in fact, is considering adding LibreOffice
to its AppUp Center providing users a great alternative to use vendor neutral productivity suite.
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