Member Avatar for bigpoppapumpg

which is better?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by tyson567

Dani AI

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Short update and practical advice for a question first asked in 2004: the landscape changed.

Back then and were right to point at OpenOffice for cross-platform compatibility; today the active, community-driven follow-on is LibreOffice and it is the default, actively developed office suite used across most Linux distributions and many desktops. KDE’s KOffice evolved into the Calligra Suite, which is the KDE-native option and focuses on Plasma integration and lighter, KDE-style apps rather than maximum MS-Office fidelity. Apache OpenOffice still exists but has seen far less development and contributor activity compared with LibreOffice. (libreoffice.org)

What matters for day-to-day choice: file-exchange fidelity and support. If exchanging complex DOCX/XLSX/PPTX with Microsoft Office users is the priority, LibreOffice (or a vendor-supported LibreOffice Enterprise build) gives the best import/export filters and ongoing fixes; Microsoft 365 also added modern ODF 1.4 support in 2024, but OOXML (DOCX/XLSX/PPTX) remains the safest bet for preserving layout/features unless both sides test and agree. When in doubt, export a final copy to PDF for distribution. ()

Practical rule-of-thumb and steps: follow ’s suggestion and test real documents. Install LibreOffice for best compatibility and Calligra if a native KDE UI is preferred; keep both on the machine and open a representative sample document in each to see which preserves your styles, charts and macros. For business rollouts, use a LibreOffice Enterprise/LTS build or a commercial vendor (Collabora and other partners) for SLAs and migration tools. For standards-minded workflows, prefer ODF for archival copies and DOCX for active interchange with Office-heavy collaborators. (newdesign2.libreoffice.org)

Notes and cautions: complex features (advanced SmartArt, some macros/VBA, complex tracked changes or layout-heavy publisher files) may still require testing and occasional manual fixes after conversion.

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Member Avatar for Dani

OpenOffice :)

Member Avatar for Dani

OpenOffice is an open source group which branched development from Sun Microsystem's commercial StarOffice suite. OpenOffice is most well known for it's compatibility with Microsoft Office for Windows.

In other words, both OpenOffice and KDE Office are free. ;)

Member Avatar for bigpoppapumpg

well sure i know this, but are they comparable or is there a clear winner?

Member Avatar for twilli227

Which is better, dunno, what is it you are trying to do? Why don't you try them, and find out which works best for you. I could tell you which one is the clear winner, but that won't help you. My needs will probably be differant than your needs. Try them both along with any other app that interests you, only you will know the clear winner.

Member Avatar for TheOgre

With OpenOffice.org you have compatability across platforms, something you don't have with KDEOffice. If you're not going to be sharing documents with anyone, KDEOffice is fine, but there's a lot of functionality that OpenOffice.org has that KDEOffice is still missing. Also, OOo actually has support (mostly fee-based) that KO doesn't have, except for forums and newsgroups. That isn't really an issue for the home user, but corporations might find that handy. Since you didn't specify which target market you are inquiring about, I'm giving overall info here for both :)

Also keep in mind that there are more developers working on OOo at any given time, which usually means more features, faster revision releases, less bugs (on average) and better documentation.

"Which is better?" is a broad topic. "Which is better at handling MS Word docs?" would give a better indication about what features you are trying to compare.

What specifically were you trying to compare between the two?

Member Avatar for Member #2466

OpenOffice IMHO is the best of those two. I use it for work (which we have Winblows2000 here) and I've never had a compatability issue yet. Once you have it opened up and are working on it, you can barely tell the difference between it and Macro$haft Werd.

Member Avatar for RC_Razor

id say open office is the better one...

Member Avatar for i686-linux

Which is better, dunno, what is it you are trying to do? Why don't you try them, and find out which works best for you. I could tell you which one is the clear winner, but that won't help you. My needs will probably be differant than your needs. Try them both along with any other app that interests you, only you will know the clear winner.

While I personally am leaning more towards OpenOffice, I would definitely have to agree with this statement. Try them both and see what works for you. If you are just looking for something personal, to type of homework, and other documents and spreadsheets, then KOffice should more than suffice. If you need stronger portability to/from Microsoft office documents, and a stronger application, then try Open Office.

Just my two cents.

Member Avatar for tyson567

but openoffice is not fully compatible with microsoft office in terms of file format as microsoft word 2010 doesn't open .odf 2.1/more

Edited by tyson567
Member Avatar for DavidB

but openoffice is not fully compatible with microsoft office in terms of file format as microsoft word 2010 doesn't open .odf 2.1/more

You dug up a thread from eight years ago?!! Times have changed since then.

In fact, the last I heard, development of OpenOffice has ground to a halt. LibreOffice is now the one to use.

Member Avatar for tyson567

You dug up a thread from eight years ago?!! Times have changed since then. In fact, the last I heard, development of OpenOffice has ground to a halt. LibreOffice is now the one to use.

No, openoffice is still in use now...infact apache is now developing openoffice and a newer version v4.0 is under development...Your news was correct but it was a year old...

Edited by tyson567
Member Avatar for broj1

Openoffice has been in the Apache incubator for long time now. The availability of languages is very poor which to me indicates the state of the package. Most Linux distributions switched to libreoffice soon after oracle got rid of openoffice. Also many developers switched to OSF. I am not sure if openoffice will ever catch up.

Member Avatar for tyson567

IBM symphony has made it's source code available to Aoo, so we can expect newer things in Aoo v4.0.0. by last quarter of 2012 or 1st quarter of 2013.

Edited by tyson567
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