The Apache Software Foundation offers a suite of office productivity software named Apache Open Office. Based on the download page, you would never guess the last major release of the software was made available in 2014.
With that bit of release history in mind, would it be fair to consider Apache Open Office as an un-maintained project? In this blog post, I share a quick recap of the history behind Apache Open Office, and my opinion on why The Apache Software Foundation’s actions may be masking the answer to this question.
I don’t see why the last major release being in 2014 is relevant. It’s just document editing software. If it still works for that then I don’t see the problem. This isn’t some sort of video game client where all of the game servers are shut down and you can’t play it.
Edit: Also, this article really buries the lede. The latest update is a security update from February of 2023. Just because it wasn’t a “major” update doesn’t mean it’s been untouched.
My parents got new phones and have endless hassles with photos being HEIC instead of JPEG.
Document formats are much more fucked up than image formats, at the best of times, and Microsoft almost certainly changes shit just to keep Open Office a little bit broken. This version is ten years out of date. Unless you stick to editing documents you wrote yourself - there is not a chance in hell it works the way people expect.
I really do believe most people editing documents are going to be using the same tool as everyone else. Even using stuff like Google Docs to edit docx doesn’t work super well. It’s definitely a nice to have feature but I really don’t consider it the most important thing.
I’m also not trying to say anyone should use or even like open office. I’m mostly saying the idea of delisting it because it hasn’t seen a “major” update since 2014 seems wrong.
What about security patches?
What about updates to document standards?
What about technological advancements such as IPv6, 10bit colors, high res displays?
What about bugfixes?
Software is complex and office suites are complex by software standards.
Because that’s the only thing relevant to the article in my opinion. This all feels like making mountains out of mole hills. There’s a project that is mostly dead but still receiving some work every now and then by a very small group of people and we want to what, get Apache to shelf it?
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I don’t see why the last major release being in 2014 is relevant. It’s just document editing software. If it still works for that then I don’t see the problem. This isn’t some sort of video game client where all of the game servers are shut down and you can’t play it.
Edit: Also, this article really buries the lede. The latest update is a security update from February of 2023. Just because it wasn’t a “major” update doesn’t mean it’s been untouched.
How about if you go try editing a docx on OpenOffice, then compare it with LibreOffice.
Tho with the fact you’re saying this, you probably wouldn’t tell the difference.
I don’t think the primary use case of document editing software is editing a different piece of software’s documents.
Boy, you’d be surprised…
My parents got new phones and have endless hassles with photos being HEIC instead of JPEG.
Document formats are much more fucked up than image formats, at the best of times, and Microsoft almost certainly changes shit just to keep Open Office a little bit broken. This version is ten years out of date. Unless you stick to editing documents you wrote yourself - there is not a chance in hell it works the way people expect.
I really do believe most people editing documents are going to be using the same tool as everyone else. Even using stuff like Google Docs to edit docx doesn’t work super well. It’s definitely a nice to have feature but I really don’t consider it the most important thing.
I’m also not trying to say anyone should use or even like open office. I’m mostly saying the idea of delisting it because it hasn’t seen a “major” update since 2014 seems wrong.
I find this a weird take.
What about security patches? What about updates to document standards? What about technological advancements such as IPv6, 10bit colors, high res displays? What about bugfixes?
Software is complex and office suites are complex by software standards.
The last major update is from 2014 but the latest update is from February of 2023 and indeed it contains security fixes.
You picked a single sentence in my reply and ignored the rest.
I’d suggest you go use OpenOffice then. Using an essentially 10yr old version of an inherently collaborative software will be a nightmare.
Because that’s the only thing relevant to the article in my opinion. This all feels like making mountains out of mole hills. There’s a project that is mostly dead but still receiving some work every now and then by a very small group of people and we want to what, get Apache to shelf it?