Παρασκευή 21 Δεκεμβρίου 2012

The Open Source Office Suite

Posted on 12/21/2012 08:27:00 μ.μ. by  with No comments

2012 to Present Apache OpenOffice Project Logo.svg
Apache OpenOffice 3.4 Start Center.png
Apache OpenOffice Start Center as launched with version 3.4 of the software suite after it was donated by Oracle to Apache Software Foundation.
Developer(s) StarOffice (1984–1999) by
StarDivision
OpenOffice.org (1999–2011) by
Sun Microsystems (1999-2009)
Oracle Corporation (2010–2011)
Apache OpenOffice (2011–present)by the
Apache Software Foundation
Initial release 30 April 2002[1]
Stable release 3.4.1  (August 24, 2012; 3 months ago) [±]
Preview release Non [±]
Written in C++ and Java
Operating system DragonflyBSD
FreeBSD
Linux
NetBSD
OpenBSD
OS X
Unix
Windows
Platform IA-32 and x86-64
Available in current version: 15 languages[2]
Over 110 languages[3]
Type Office suite
License Dual-licensed under the SISSL and LGPL (OpenOffice.org 2 Beta 2 and earlier)[4]
LGPL version 3 (OpenOffice.org 2 to OpenOffice.org 3.3)[5]
Apache License 2.0 (Apache OpenOffice 3.4 and later)[6]
Website openoffice.org
Apache OpenOffice is an open-source office productivity software suite containing word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, graphics, formula editor, and database management applications.[7] It was formerly known as OpenOffice.org under Sun, then Oracle ownership. OpenOffice's default file format is the OpenDocument Format (ODF), an ISO/IEC standard. It can also handle other file formats including those from Microsoft Office. OpenOffice runs on several operating systems. As of June 2011, it supports over 120 languages.[3] It is distributed under the Apache License.

Contents

History

See also: History of StarOffice
OpenOffice release history
Version Release date Description
Build 638c 2001-10 The first milestone release.
1.0 2002-05-01
1.0.1 2002-07-11
1.0.2 2003-01-17
1.0.3 2003-04-07
1.0.3.1 2003-05-02 Recommended for Windows 95.
1.1 2003-09-02
1.1.1 2004-03-30 Bundled with TheOpenCD.[citation needed]
1.1.2 2004-06
1.1.3 2004-10-04
1.1.4 2004-12-22
1.1.5 2005-09-14 Last release for 1.x product line. Final version for Windows 95. It can edit OpenOffice.org 2 files.
1.1.5secpatch 2006-07-04 Security patch (macros)
2.0 2005-10-20 Milestone, with major enhancements.
2.0.1 2005-12-21
2.0.2 2006-03-08
2.0.3 2006-06-29
2.0.4 2006-10-13
2.1.0 2006-12-12
2.2.0 2007-03-28 Included a security update.
Reintroduced font kerning[8]
2.2.1 2007-06-12
2.3.0 2007-09-17 Updated charting component, minor enhancements,[9] and an improved extension manager[10]
2.3.1 2007-12-04 Stability and security update.
2.4.0 2008-03-27 Bug fixes and new features.[11][12]
2.4.1 2008-06-10 Security fix, minor enhancements, and bug fixes.
2.4.2 2008-10-29 Security fix, minor enhancements, and bug fixes.
2.4.3 2009-09-01 Bug fixes and minor enhancements.[13]
3.0.0 2008-10-13 Milestone, with major enhancements.
3.0.1 2009-01-27 Bug fixes.
3.1.0 2009-05-07 Overlining and transparent dragging added.
3.1.1 2009-08-31 Security fix and bug fixes.
3.2 2010-02-11[14] New features,[15] and performance enhancements.[16]
3.2.1 2010-06-04 Updated Oracle Start Center and OpenDocument format icons.
3.3 2011-01-25[17] New spreadsheet functions and parameters
3.4 2012-05-08[2] First Apache release.
3.4.1 2012-08-23 More languages, improved performance and stability.[18]
OpenOffice originated as StarOffice, a proprietary office suite developed by German company StarDivision.[19] In August 1999, StarDivision was acquired by Sun Microsystems.[20]
On 19 July 2000, Sun Microsystems announced that it would make the source code of StarOffice available for download with the intention of building an open-source development community around the software and providing a free and open alternative to Microsoft Office.[19][21] The new project was known as OpenOffice.org,[22] and its website went live on 13 October 2000. Development of OpenOffice.org was sponsored primarily by Sun Microsystems, which used the code as the basis for subsequent versions of StarOffice.
After acquiring Sun in 2010, Oracle Corporation briefly continued developing OpenOffice.org and StarOffice, which it renamed Oracle Open Office. In September 2010, members of the OpenOffice.org development team left to form "The Document Foundation," which eventually published LibreOffice based on the Open Office source code. In 2011, Oracle stopped supporting commercial development due to the community leaving[23] and contributed the suite to the Apache Incubator to become a project of the Apache Software Foundation.[24][25] As of December 2011, the project is officially known as Apache OpenOffice.[26]

OpenOffice.org 1

OpenOffice.org 1.0 was released under both the LGPL and the Sun Industry Standards Source License (SISSL).[19] Versions for Windows, Linux and Solaris were released on 1 May 2002.[27][28][29] The version for MacOS X (X11) was released on 23 June 2003.[30][31]
OpenOffice.org 1.1 introduced One-click Export to PDF and can Export presentations to Flash (.SWF). It also added the 3rd Party Add-ons ability.[32]

OpenOffice.org 2

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; digital signatures (only in ODF format; this feature is not defined in ODF 1.1 specification); a new built-in SQL database; and improved usability. Sun released a beta version on 4 March 2005.
On September-2-2005 Sun announced that it was retiring the SISSL.[33] 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.[34]
On 20 October 2005, Sun Microsystems formally released OpenOffice.org 2.0 to the public.[35] 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.[36] As of 2010, new versions (including new features) are released every six months (so-called "feature releases") alternating with so-called "bug fix releases" which are being released between two feature releases (every three months).

OpenOffice.org 3


The Sun Start Center for versions between 3.0 and 3.2.0
In October 2008, version 3.0 was released, featuring the ability to import, but not export, Office Open XML documents, support for the new ODF 1.2 document format, improved support for VBA macros, and a native port for Mac OS X. It also introduces the new Start Center.[37]
Version 3.2 included support for PostScript-based OpenType fonts. It warned users when ODF 1.2 Extended features had been used. An improvement to the document integrity check determined if an ODF document conformed to the ODF specification and offered a repair if necessary. Calc and Writer both reduced "cold start" time by 46% compared to version 3.0.[38]
Version 3.3 was released in January 2011 six weeks after the release of the proprietary version of Oracle Open Office.[39] New features include an updated print form, a FindBar and interface improvements for Impress.[17][40]
In future versions, the user interface was expected to receive incremental improvements. This work began with Impress in version 3.3.[41][42]
A beta version of OpenOffice.org 3.4 was released which included new SVG import, improved ODF 1.2 support and other enhancements.[43]

Apache OpenOffice

Before the final version of openoffice 3.4 could be released, Oracle cancelled development of the derivative Oracle Open Office [44] and few months later announced that stewardship of OpenOffice.org would be transferred to the Apache Software Foundation.[45] In February 2012, Ed Brill of IBM blogged "Rather than continue Symphony as a separate fork, we plan to contribute the Symphony codebase into the project that should be released later this year as Apache OpenOffice 4.0. We've hired developers with deep expertise in OpenOffice; I'll be blogging about them later this week."[46]

Apache OpenOffice 3.4

With the donation to Apache, development slowed while the foundation moved the codebase and other web infrastructure to its servers, and updated the software to comply with the Apache License. The first release, Apache OpenOffice 3.4 occurred on 8 May 2012[2] and included new features like a new ODF 1.2 encryption option, new spreadsheet functions, an enhanced pivot table support in Calc and enhanced graphics.[20] Michael Meeks, a LibreOffice developer, criticized that there was little development on AOO since the last beta, except for clearing the Intellectual Property (IP) because of unusable licenses for the Apache Foundation.[47]
In Apache OpenOffice 3.4 the Liberation Fonts were replaced with the Chrome OS Fonts due to licensing incompatibilities between the Apache and copyleft GPL license.[48] The Chrome OS fonts (also known as Croscore fonts) are: Arimo (sans serif), Tinos (serif), and Cousine (monospace), which are newer versions of the same designs but made available by Ascender Corporation under the SIL Open Font License.

Apache OpenOffice 4.0

With the release on OpenOffice 3.4.1 plans for versions 3.5 and 4.0 were announced.[49]
Later the project decided to merge these two versions and release them as 4.0 in March or April 2013.[50][51] This will include code donated by IBM from its Lotus Symphony suite.[52]
Among the targeted features are major UI enhancements with a sidebar framework, improved install and deployment experience, and extended accessibility support via IAccessible2.[53]

Features

OpenOffice 1.0 was launched under the following mission statement:
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.[54]
OpenOffice 3.4 is promoted as being available in many languages, working on all common computers, storing data in an international open standard format and being able to read and write files from other common office software packages, as well as being available for download and use completely free of charge for any purpose.[7]
The Apache foundation stress that openoffice is the result of over twenty years' software engineering, is easy to use, is free, and released under the Apache License 2.0.[7]


Included applications

OpenOffice comprises a collection of applications that work together closely to provide the features commonly included in modern office suites. From a technical point of view the applications are actually just different kinds of user interface windows (for different kinds of documents) handled by the one OpenOffice process. This is different from Microsoft Office where for instance Excel and Word are actually separate programs. Many of the components mirror those available in Microsoft Office. The components available include:
Module Notes
OOoWriter.svg Writer A word processor similar to Microsoft Word and WordPerfect. It can export Portable Document Format (PDF) files, and can function as a basic WYSIWYG editor for creating and editing web pages.
OOoCalc.svg Calc A spreadsheet similar to Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3. Calc can export spreadsheets to the PDF format. 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.
OOoImpress.svg Impress A presentation program similar to Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Keynote. Impress can export presentations to Adobe Flash (SWF) files, allowing them to be played on any computer with a Flash player installed. It also includes the ability to create PDF files, and the ability to read Microsoft PowerPoint's .ppt format. Impress lacks ready-made presentation designs but this can be overcome by downloading free templates on-line.[55][56]
OOoBase.svg Base A database management 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 MS Access, Base can function 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. Native to the OpenOffice suite is an adaptation of HSQL. While Base can be a front-end for any of the databases listed, there is no need to install any of them. Raw SQL code can be entered by those who prefer it, or graphical user interfaces can be used.
OOoDraw.svg Draw A vector graphics editor comparable in features to early versions of CorelDRAW and Microsoft Visio. It features versatile "connectors" between shapes, which are available in a range of line styles and facilitate building drawings such as flowcharts. It has similar features to desktop-publishing software such as Scribus and Microsoft Publisher. Draw can also export its creations to the PDF format. (See ooWriter entry, above, for details of PDF).
OOoMath.svg Math A tool for creating and editing mathematical formulae, similar to Microsoft Equation Editor. Formulae can be embedded inside other OpenOffice documents, such as those created by Writer. It supports multiple fonts and can export to PDF.

Supported operating systems

OpenOffice 3.4.1 was released for Windows, Linux x86 and Mac OS X.[57] Other operating systems were to be supported by community ports, completed ports including various Linux platforms, FreeBSD and OS/2.[58]
Previously supported platforms included Microsoft Windows, Linux, Solaris, BSD, OpenVMS, OS/2 and IRIX.[59]
As of version 3.0 OpenOffice supported Mac OS X's native Aqua user interface. Prior to 3.0, OpenOffice required installing the X Window System component.[60]
Latest versions on other operating systems are:

QuickStarter

A feature where the OpenOffice process is started when the user logs in, without displaying any user interface (except an icon in the task bar or similar), and stays running even if after all windows have been closed in the user interface. Its purpose is to keep the most important libraries of OpenOffice loaded and thus reduce the time required to open the rest of the suite. The amount of time it takes to open OpenOffice applications occasioned complaints at version 1.0 of the suite. Substantial improvements were made in this area for version 2.2.

The macro recorder

Can record user actions and replay them later to help with automating tasks, using OpenOffice Basic.
It is not possible to download these components individually for Apple OSX or Microsoft Windows platforms, though they can be installed separately. Most Linux distributions break the components into individual packages which may be downloaded and installed separately.

Fonts

OpenOffice includes the OpenSymbol and DejaVu fonts font in its installation packages.[64][65] Installation packages for used contain the Liberation fonts (starting with OpenOffice 2.4) and the Gentium fonts (since OpenOffice 3.2).[66][67][68] Older versions of OpenOffice (prior to versions 2.3.x) included the Bitstream Vera fonts.[11][65][69][70][71] OpenOffice applications use the default fonts of the running operating system. For example, as of 2010, versions prior to 3.4 on GNU/Linux distributions (Mandriva Linux, Ubuntu and OpenSUSE) often used the Liberation fonts or DejaVu fonts as default fonts for new documents (when a new document is created).[72][73][74] However after the release of Openoffice 3.4 the GPL licensed Liberation fonts were removed and replaced by the apache licensed ChromeOS fonts Arimo (sans serif), Tinos (serif) and Cousine (monospace).[75][76]

Extensions

Since version 2.0.4, OpenOffice has supported extensions, in a similar manner to Mozilla Firefox, including the unique extension .oxt.[77] Extensions make it possible to add new functionality to an existing OpenOffice installation. As of November 2011, the OpenOffice Extension Repository lists more than 650 extensions.[78] Developers can easily build new extensions for OpenOffice, for example by using the API Plugin for NetBeans.
In 2010 the Open Office Community Council and the Free Software Foundation were struggling about the responsibility of the extension page resulting in a new additional list maintained by the Free Software Foundation.[79]

OpenOffice Basic

Main article: OpenOffice Basic
OpenOffice Basic is a programming language similar to Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) but based on StarOffice Basic. In addition to the macros, the Novell edition of OpenOffice has Microsoft VBA macros support from version 2.0,[80] a feature partly incorporated into the mainstream version with version 3.0.
OpenOffice Basic is available in the Writer and Calc applications. It is written in functions called subroutines or macros, with each macro performing a different task, such as counting the words in a paragraph. OpenOffice Basic is especially useful in doing repetitive tasks that have not been integrated in the program.[81]
The OpenOffice database program, OpenOffice Base, is able to use documents created under the Writer application for reports and forms. Base can also be programmed with OpenOffice Basic.

Connectivity

OOo can interact with databases (local or remote) using:

File formats

OpenDocument format

Main article: OpenDocument
In 2005 OpenOffice pioneered the ISO/IEC standard OpenDocument file formats (ODF), which it uses natively and by default. Since version 3.0 the default format of OpenOffice is based on draft versions for OASIS ODF 1.2 (but this setting can be changed to ODF 1.0/1.1 in application settings). Versions 2.0–2.3.0 of OpenOffice default to the ODF 1.0 file format; OpenOffice versions 2.3.1–2.4.3 default to ODF 1.1. The OpenDocument 1.0 specification was approved for release as an ISO and IEC International Standard under the name ISO/IEC 26300:2006.[83]
OpenOffice used the OpenOffice.org XML file format in its 1.x versions as its native and default format for saving files. OpenOffice developers contributed the OpenOffice.org XML File Format to OASIS. On the basis of that format OASIS developed the OpenDocument format, which became the native file format of OpenOffice.org.[84][85] OpenOffice.org XML file format is still supported in all later versions of OpenOffice.

PDF export

OpenOffice 1.1 introduced exporting to PDF and can export presentations to Flash (.SWF).[32] Since OpenOffice 2.4.0 it also supports export to PDF/A-1a format (ISO 19005-1).[11][86]

Other formats

 This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: Maybe adding a table with the actual status (supported read, supported write, since/until version) might be better than that bullet list. Please help improve this section if you can. (November 2012)
OpenOffice also supports reading (and in some cases writing) many legacy and current proprietary file formats, e.g.:[87][88][89][90][91][92]

Development

Governance

The Podling Project Management Committee (PPMC) is the government of the AOO project. It consists of ASF mentors and initial committers. The committee is responsible for the project and decides what to do and which direction to go. Once the project graduates to an ASF top-level project it will be governed by a new PMC.[93]
Governance history
Before joining the ASF, the OpenOffice project was governed by the Community Council, comprising members from the OpenOffice.org community, which created the charter establishing the Community Council. The Community Council suggested OpenOffice.org project goals, coordinated with Sun Microsystems or Oracle on StarOffice, with producers of other derivative commercial products and with Open Source projects on long-term development planning issues, represented the project, gathered and allocated funds, adjudicated conflicts, offered a forum for community members, etc.[94][95][96]
The Council had no power over intellectual-property ownership of OpenOffice.org, licenses under which OpenOffice was released, resources controlled by Sun Microsystems or Oracle, sponsors or the contributing individuals. The Council was not allowed to sign contracts or enter into binding legal agreements. The Council would not attempt to directly manage individual projects, except where strictly necessary in pursuing other Council's duties.[94]
After acquiring Sun Microsystems, Oracle made many decisions without consulting the Council or in contravention to the council's recommendations. Disputes with the community over these actions led to the departure of a large portion of the independent developers to form The Document Foundation and work on LibreOffice.[97] In April 2011, Oracle announced that it would discontinue commercial development of OpenOffice.org, and that it would become a "purely community based project".[98][dead link][99]

Overview

The OpenOffice 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. OpenOffice converts all external formats which it reads — 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 became the default file format in version 2.0.

Native desktop integration

OpenOffice 1.0 was criticized for not having the look and feel of applications developed natively for the platforms on which it runs. Starting with version 2.0, OpenOffice uses native widget toolkit, icons, and font-rendering libraries across a variety of platforms, to better match native applications and to provide a smoother experience for the user. Projects have started to further improve this integration on both GNOME[100] and KDE[101][102] desktop environments.
This issue had been particularly pronounced on Mac OS X, whose standard user interface looks noticeably different from either Windows or X11-based desktop environments and required the use of programming toolkits that were initially unfamiliar to most OpenOffice developers. Early versions of OpenOffice required the installation of X11.app or XDarwin. Versions since version 3.0 run natively using Apple's Aqua GUI.

Security

The OpenOffice project includes a security team,[103] and as of October 2011 the security organization Secunia reports no known unpatched security flaws for the software.[104] In 2006 Kaspersky Lab demonstrated a proof of concept virus for OpenOffice.org.[105] This showed openoffice viruses are possible, but there is no known virus "in the wild".
In 2006 the lab director of the French Ministry of Defense, Lt. Col. Eric Filiol, demonstrated security weaknesses, in particular within macros.[106] OpenOffice developers criticised that the supposed vulnerability had not been announced through "well defined procedures" for disclosure and that the Ministry had revealed nothing specific. However, the developers had discussions with the researcher concerning the supposed vulnerability.[107]

Ownership and name changes

The project and software are informally referred to as OpenOffice, but since this term is a trademark held by other parties, OpenOffice.org was its formal name.[108] Due to a similar trademark issue, the Brazilian Portuguese version of the suite was distributed under the name BrOffice.org.[109] Stewardship of the slightly re-branded BrOffice builds was moved to The Document Foundation in December 2010.[110]
From 1999-2010 Sun Microsystems managed the development of OpenOffice.org. Developers who wished to contribute code were required to sign a Contributor Agreement[111][112] granting joint ownership of any contributions to Oracle Corporation. An alternative Public Documentation Licence (PDL)[113] was also offered for documentation not intended for inclusion or integration into the project code base.[114][115] From 2010-2011 Oracle managed the development of OpenOffice. after it acquired Sun.
On 1 June 2011, Oracle announced that the code base of OpenOffice had been proposed for submission to the Apache Software Foundation as an Incubator project.[24] On 13 June, it was officially accepted as an incubator project.[25]
On 18 October 2012 it was announced that OpenOffice had graduated from incubation to being a top level apache project and is now known officially as Apache OpenOffice.[116][117][118]

Partnerships

On 4 October 2005, Sun and Google announced a strategic partnership. As part of this agreement, Sun added a Google search toolbar to OpenOffice, and Google agreed to help distribute OpenOffice. Sun and Google also agreed to engage in joint marketing activities, and joint research and development.[119] StarOffice was formerly distributed with the Google Pack.
On 23 May 2007, the OpenOffice community and Redflag Chinese 2000 Software Co, Ltd. announced a joint development effort focused on integrating the new features that have been added in the RedOffice localization of OpenOffice, as well as quality assurance and work on the core applications. Additionally, Redflag Chinese 2000 made public its commitment to the global openoffice community stating it would "strengthen its support of the development of the world's leading free and open source productivity suite", adding around 50 engineers (who have been working on RedOffice since 2006) to the project.[120]
On 10 September 2007, the openoffice community announced that IBM had joined to support the development of OpenOffice.org.[121] "IBM will be making initial code contributions that it has been developing as part of its Lotus Notes product, including accessibility enhancements, and will be making ongoing contributions to the feature richness and code quality of OpenOffice. Besides working with the community on the free productivity suite's software, IBM will also leverage OpenOffice technology in its products" as seen with Lotus Symphony. Sean Poulley, the vice president of business and strategy in IBM's Lotus Software division, said that IBM plans to take a leadership role in the OpenOffice community together with other companies such as Sun Microsystems. IBM will work within the leadership structure that exists.[122] IBM also announced 35 developers would be assigned to work on OpenOffice, and that it would join the OpenOfficefoundation. Commentators noted parallels between IBM's 2000 support of Linux and this announcement.[123] In January 2012 IBM announced that they have donated Symphony's source code to Apache, which will be merged in OpenOffice 4 and that they want to release an "Apache OpenOffice IBM edition" and upgrade their users in early 2013.[124][125]

Reviews

In September 2005 the magazine Federal Computer Week listed OpenOffice as one of the "5 stars of open-source products."[126] In contrast, OpenOffice was used in 2005 by The Guardian newspaper to illustrate what it sees as the limitations of open-source software, although the article does finish by stating that the software may be better than MS Word for books.[127] OpenOffice was featured by eWeek several times,[128][129][130][131] version 2.0 was reviewed by Linux Magazine[132] and previewed by other media.[133][134][135] A PC Pro review awarded OOo Version 2.0 6 stars out of 6 and stated: "Our pick of the low-cost office suites has had a much-needed overhaul, and now battles Microsoft in terms of features, not just price." The reviewer also concluded:[136]

In early October 2005, ComputerWorld of IDG reported that for large government departments, migration to OpenOffice 2.0 cost one tenth of the price of upgrading to Microsoft Office 2007.[137]

Market share


OpenOffice Writer running in Windows 7
Problems arise in estimating the market share of OpenOffice because it can be freely distributed via download sites (including mirrors), peer-to-peer networks, CDs, Linux distributions and so forth. Nevertheless, the OpenOffice tried to capture key adoption data in a market-share analysis.[138] However a study published in 2010 by research at the University of Boulder, Colorado reported that OpenOffice had reached a point where it has an "irreversible" installed user base and that it would continue to grow.[139]
According to Valve Corporation, 14.63% of Steam users have OpenOffice installed on their machines as of November 2012.[140]
A market-share analysis conducted by a web analytics service in 2010, based on over 200,000 Internet users, showed a wide range of adoption in different countries:[141] between 0.2% in China, 9% in the US and the UK and over 20% in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany.
Although Microsoft Office retained 95% of the general market as measured by revenue as of August 2007,[142] OpenOffice and StarOffice had secured 15-20% of the business market as of 2004.[143][144] The OpenOffice web site reported more than 98 million downloads as of September 2007.[145] OpenOffice 3.x reached one hundred million downloads just over a year since its release.[146] In June 2012, the Apache Software Foundation announced that Apache OpenOffice 3.4 had reached five million downloads.[147]

Notable users

Large-scale users of OpenOffice include Singapore’s Ministry of Defence,[148] Bristol City Council in the UK and Banco do Brasil.[149] In France, OpenOffice has attracted the attention of both local and national government administrations who wish to rationalize their software procurement,[citation needed] as well as have stable, standard file formats for archival purposes.[citation needed] As of 2006 OOo is the official office suite for the French Gendarmerie.[150] Several government organizations in India, such as IIT Bombay, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, the Supreme Court of India, ICICI Bank,[151] the Allahabad High Court,[152] which use Linux, completely rely on OpenOffice for their administration.
In Asia, Thailand is another nation that has enterprises seriously migrating to OpenOffice such as Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and S&P Syndicate PLC (one of the largest restaurant chains). The adoption rate is relatively slow, especially for small businesses and state enterprises, but the number of success cases is growing steadily.[153]

Use of Java

In the past OpenOffice was criticized by the Free Software Foundation[154] for its increasing dependency on the Java Runtime Environment which was not free software. Because Sun Microsystems was both the creator of Java and the chief supporter of OpenOffice, the software maker drew accusations of ulterior motives.
Version 1 depended on the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) being present on the user’s computer for some auxiliary functions, but version 2 increased the suite’s use of Java requiring a JRE. In response, Red Hat increased their efforts to improve free Java implementations. Red Hat’s Fedora Core 4 (released on 13 June 2005) included a beta version of OpenOffice version 2, running on GCJ and GNU Classpath.
The issue of OpenOffice’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.[154] This led to discussions within the OpenOffice community and between Sun staff and developers involved in GNU Classpath, a free replacement for Sun’s Java implementation. Later that year, the OpenOffice developers also placed into their development guidelines various requirements to ensure that future versions of OpenOffice could run on free implementations of Java and fixed the issues which previously prevented OpenOffice 2.0 from using free-software Java implementations.[155]
On 13 November 2006, Sun committed to release Java under the GNU General Public License in the near future.[156] This process would end OpenOffice.org's dependence on closed source and non-free software.
Between November 2006 and May 2007, Sun Microsystems made available most of their Java technologies under the GNU General Public License, in compliance with the specifications of the Java Community Process, thus making almost all of the Java platform also free and opensource software.
The following areas of OpenOffice 2.0 depended on JRE installation:[157]
Prior to version 2.0.1, OpenOffice used the Java API JavaMail in mail merge to generate emails, but this has now been replaced by a component written Python.[158]
As of Apache OpenOffice 3.4, Java is no longer bundled with the installer.[159]

Retail

The open source Apache v2 license (under which OpenOffice is distributed) allows unlimited use of the software for both home and business use, including unlimited redistribution of the software.[160] Several businesses sell the OpenOffice suite on auction websites such as eBay, offering value-added services such as 24/7 technical support, download mirrors, and CD mailing. One retail site, Open Office Anywhere, also offers the ability to run the suite using just a web browser.[161]
In July 2007 Everex, a division of First International Computer and the 9th-largest PC supplier in the U.S., began shipping systems preloaded with OpenOffice 2.2 into Wal-Mart, K-mart and Sam's Club outlets in North America.[citation needed]

Forks and derivative software

A number of open source and proprietary products derive from OpenOffice.org.[162] The OpenOffice site also lists a large variety of complementary products, including groupware systems.[163]

StarOffice

Main article: StarOffice
OpenOffice 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 the ISO/IEC standard OpenDocument Format (ODF) replaced it. Sun subsidized the development of OpenOffice in order to use it as a base for its commercial proprietary StarOffice application software. Following the acquisition of Sun by Oracle, StarOffice and StarSuite became known as Oracle Open Office for the 3.3 release. In April 2011, Oracle announced the discontinuation of Oracle Open Office as part of the decision to turn OpenOffice into a "purely community-based project".[98][dead link]

Go-oo

Main article: Go-oo


On 2 October 2007, Michael Meeks announced a derivation of OpenOffice, under the aegis of his employer Novell, with the purpose of including new features and fixes that do not get easily integrated in the OOo-build up-stream core.[164] The work was called Go-oo, a name under which a set of patches for openoffice has been available for five years. The office suite branded OpenOffice in most Linux distributions (including Ubuntu, openSUSE and Mandriva Linux) was in fact based on Go-oo.[165][166][167]

LibreOffice

Main article: LibreOffice

On 28 September 2010, members of the OpenOffice community formed a non-profit called The Document Foundation, and created a fork of OpenOffice named LibreOffice. The Foundation stated that it will coordinate and oversee the development of LibreOffice.
Oracle was invited to become a member of the Document Foundation, and was also asked to donate the OpenOffice brand to the project.[168] However, Oracle declined this invitation and demanded that all members of the OpenOffice board involved with the LibreOffice project step down.[169]
The Document Foundation received statements of support from members of the OpenOffice community, including the companies Novell,[170] Red Hat, Canonical, Google...[171] The goal is to produce a vendor-independent office suite with ODF support and without any copyright assignment requirements.[172]
Several Go-oo improvements were merged into LibreOffice, although they were not directly combined due to the different natures of the two projects.[173][174]
Several Linux distributions including Debian GNU/Linux,[175] Ubuntu[176] and openSUSE[177] have replaced OpenOffice with LibreOffice.

Other projects

  • IBM's Lotus Symphony, with a new interface based on Eclipse was also donated in 2012 to Apache and should be merged with OpenOffice 4.[178]
  • OpenOffice Novell edition, integrated withEvolution[citation needed] and with an OOXML filter.[179] This later became LibreOffice.[citation needed]
  • Beijing Red Flag Chinese 2000's RedOffice, fully localized in Chinese characters and with support for English.[citation needed]
  • NeoOffice, an independent port, offered a native OS X’s Aqua user interface even before such integration was available in OpenOffice.org. Its releases lag behind the official releases, due to its small development team and the concurrent development of the technology used to port the user interface.[180]
  • OxygenOffice Professional extended OpenOffice by adding the ability to run Visual Basic for Application (VBA) macros in Calc (for testing), improved Calc HTML export, enhanced Access support for Base, enhanced color-palette, enhanced help and documentation, additional clip art, several templates and sample documents and over 90 fonts.[181]
  • OpenGroupware.org is a set of extension programs to allow the sharing of OpenOffice documents, calendars, address books, e-mails, instant messaging and blackboards, and to provide access to other groupware applications.[citation needed]
  • Jambo OpenOffice, was an localization project for a translated version in Swahili.
  • White Label Office by Team OpenOffice.org e.V. provides bug fixes and although the code improvements should be merged back to OpenOffice.org, the Apache Foundation fears a new fork.[182][183]

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