Suggestion relating to installing and updating Apache Open Office - was - Re: Winding OpenOffice down

[Bret Busby <br...@busby.net>]

On 23/6/22 7:36 pm, Peter Kovacs wrote:
> Hello Flaviu
> 
> Am 22.06.22 um 23:30 schrieb Flaviu Tamas:
>> Why hasn't OpenOffice been wound down & shuttered?
> 
> I can only explain my view on this. I am an AOO committer because people 
> use AOO. And more often then not they are aware on the market, and they 
> did decide on Apache OpenOffice.
> 
> Winding down the project would mean that the people will most likely to 
> use an abandoned software. We still see updates from 3.x Versions. So 
> for me it is the right thing to continue the project and keep it alive 
> as long as people use the software and we people volunteer to work on 
> it. I think it would be damaging if the current team would quit the 
> OpenSource development.
> 
> Especially OpenOffice shows a resilience that is remarkable and a 
> recommendation for OpenSource in comparison to closed source.
> 
>>
>> The existence of the website makes users assume that OpenOffice is
>> still actively being developed, when those users would be much better
>> served migrating to LibreOffice.
> There is no discussion with LO on a migration path.
>>
>> I've seen this conversation several times over the past few years in
>> various open source communities.
> 
> Which is a bubble discussion. With no relevance or power of solution.
> 
>  From my perspective is the only orderly way  a project merge. AFAIK 
> there is no interest on LO side to discuss this path. So there is no 
> point to follow this up.
> 
> If LO Community is willing to talk they know how to start the 
> discussion. From my perspective the ball is in their half (as we Germans 
> say)
> 
>>
>> At the very least, a prominent notice that users should use
>> LibreOffice on the main OpenOffice site would be nice.
> 
> My dedication is to AOO. I am still open to discuss a merge. And this 
> will remain. But my dedication is to AOO and the users who decided to 
> use AOO with all its pros and cons.
> 
> I am not in favor in promoting any other specific project like LO as 
> long there are active committers. If the move to attic becomes relevant 
> again we can discuss this point. But I would favor an open approach that 
> enables Users to make their own discussion, then dominate them with a 
> predefined decision. But currently I see no need. We getting slowly 
> better in fixing stuff and moving forward.
> 
> All the best
> 
> Peter Kovacs
> 

Hello.

Apart from the thread on the mailing list, having apparently been 
started as a troll, it caused me to check, and, I have LibreOffice 
installed, and, not Apache Open Office, and, Apache Open Office cannot 
be found by Synaptic (I am running UbuntuMATE Linux 20.10, on this 
computer).

In viewing the web page at
https://www.openoffice.org/download/common/instructions.html#linux
which has

"
  Linux Installations
Linux Pre-installation Notes

The following preinstallation steps are recommended for Linux 
distributions. These should be taken to assure that you have a clean 
install of Apache OpenOffice due to internal considerations and/or the 
installation of LibreOffice, if it exists, on your system.

     Check to see if LibreOffice has re-routed the OpenOffice binary.
     Type "whereis soffice" from a console.

     If this is symlinked to libreoffice, remove the symlink. (see your 
favorite reference for how to do this)

     This will NOT remove LibreOffice, this will only disallow 
LibreOffice to redirect the normal OpenOffice binary -- typically 
/usr/bin/soffice -- to libreoffice instead.
     Due to directory structure changes in Apache OpenOffice 4.x 
versions, your older Openoffice 3.x should be deleted entirely by a new 
install or update process. This is normal. If you experience problems 
using the "update" process, please remove the old OpenOffice 3.x 
packages manually.
     If you have been testing one of the older developer snapshots, not 
the released version, revision 150370, completely remove this old 
version before attempting a new install or update.
     See java requirements.
"

I ran "whereis soffice", got

"
Thu Jun 23 21:50:27 bret@bret-MD34045-2521:~$whereis soffice
soffice: /usr/bin/soffice
Thu Jun 23 22:22:30 bret@bret-MD34045-2521:~$ls /usr/bin/soffice
/usr/bin/soffice
"

so ran cat /usr/bin/soffice, and, the file is about four and a half 
screens long.

I am wondering whether it would be possible, to develop a simple method 
of installing Apache Open Office, using a system package manager 
(something like apt or synaptic, or the Ubuntu "Software" utility, by 
creating a repository that could be included in the /etc/apt/sources 
file (or, as a particular file, in /etc/apt/sources.d, that could be 
used for installing and updating, as new versions become available), so 
that less skilled users, like me, could simply add the repository, then 
use a system package manager, to install and update Apache Open Office, 
and, with the installation/updating process, bypassing (using an 
alternative to) /usr/bin/soffice, perhaps, using instead, something like 
/usr/bin/aoffice (or, /usr/bin/aoo).

If, in considering this, the aspect that some users of office suites and 
component applications, like me, are users with limited skills  ("a bear 
with little brain" :) ), would be considered, it could, perhaps, justify 
implementing my suggestion, to make the use of Apache Open Office, more 
accessible.

Out of interest, I was using Star Office 5.0 (I think it was), when it 
was produced by the Star Corporation, and, included, amongst its 
components, an email application. I remember travelling to the Perth 
(Western Australia) CBD office of a company that distributed it, to 
obtain an official CD of it .

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
(UTC+0800)
..............


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