Why can't they move to NeoOffice and work on something that is already working on the Mac?
1) NeoOffice's code is GPL and OpenOffice's is LGPL. GPL code cannot be migrated to an LGPL license. The code can move in the opposite direction, however. That is how NeoOffice came to be.
2) NeoOffice is a Java layer on top of X11 OpenOffice. X11 OpenOffice has been discontinued in favour of OpenOffice Aqua, a brand new project to port OpenOffice natively to the Mac.
1) NeoOffice's code is GPL and OpenOffice's is LGPL. GPL code cannot be migrated to an LGPL license. The code can move in the opposite direction, however. That is how NeoOffice came to be.
2) NeoOffice is a Java layer on top of X11 OpenOffice. X11 OpenOffice has been discontinued in favour of OpenOffice Aqua, a brand new project to port OpenOffice natively to the Mac.
So they are basically wasting time until the OOA makes the appearance on the scene?
So they are basically wasting time until the OOA makes the appearance on the scene?
The keep issuing patches to improve NeoOffice performance. I guess all they can do is stick it to Sun for killing their project by keeping their code GPL'd.
The keep issuing patches to improve NeoOffice performance. I guess all they can do is stick it to Sun for killing their project by keeping their code GPL'd.
Can you elaborate on that some more (the sticking it to Sun and what happened there). I never got the send beer message they directed toward Sun on their website.
Can you elaborate on that some more (the sticking it to Sun and what happened there). I never got the send beer message they directed toward Sun on their website.
This seems to be an objective telling of the story:
The keep issuing patches to improve NeoOffice performance. I guess all they can do is stick it to Sun for killing their project by keeping their code GPL'd.
I just downloaded the latest patch tonight. It cut startup by 6 or seven seconds and a few other functions do seem snappier?.
This is the first time I've seen at NeoOffice as being almost ready for prime time.
If they can eke out a bit more speed (I'm on the PPC version) while continue to work on the UI, I think we may have a product that can finally play in the big leagues.
I just downloaded the latest patch tonight. It cut startup by 6 or seven seconds and a few other functions do seem snappier?.
This is the first time I've seen at NeoOffice as being almost ready for prime time.
Yeah I saw a speed improvement at launch but then I tried the wizard and making new documents and they were slow. Pages still seems like a better program ATM, it just needs a spreadsheet component.
Yeah I saw a speed improvement at launch but then I tried the wizard and making new documents and they were slow. Pages still seems like a better program ATM, it just needs a spreadsheet component.
Well yeah, but iWork is $89. plus tax. NeoOffice is free.
As long as it's fairly competitive with the bigger guys, it's the better value.
I'm now a happy iWork 06 user (due to my impatience with waiting for the next version... I'll at least qualify for upgrade pricing) and you know what, NeoOffice is a piece of s***!!! It's there as a last resort in case you're either a) Waiting for some other app to be released or b) You just can't afford another app or app suite and c) hate the X11 OpenOffice.org as much as I. I qualified for a and c before Friday.
Sebastian
iWork 06 makes you happy and NeoOffice sucks. Do you use spreadsheets in your "work" environment?
Last time I opened iWork 06 it had two applications. One for making birthday announcements for my 3 year old neice called Pages and the other is a professional presenatation software I use called Keynote. Passed that, it sucks and does not warrant the "work" word being in the name.
NeoOffice is not bad at all and I gave up MS Office 2004 for a week to force myself to use it and I did great. It has it's quarks but works great.
Last I checked, NeoOffice is slow to open, annoying to use, and it's User Interface makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I'm waiting for iWork Next or Office 2008 before I bother with spreadsheets, but no I don't use them right now.
Oh and Pages COMPLETELY blows away NeoOffice/OpenOffice.org Writer. I thought it's word processing would be terrible, but it couldn't be easier to use.
Sebastian
You should check again. That was the point of my previous post.
NeoOffice was painfully slow, and a few months ago I would have agreed with your above post totally.
However with Patch 6 applied, it's not bad on my G4 and is quite competitive now on my Intel MacBook Pro. The user interface now has Mac icons and isn't much different from Office, so I don't get the problem there.
While an Apple solution will always have an edge in the UI department, NeoOffice isn't bad. The Writer component reminds me of Word 5.1 and the spreadsheet module is available now.
I just checked again, it's faster but still slow, there's still a stupid splash screen which I can't shut off, they still open a web page asking for donations every time I open it and nothing makes me want to not donate like bugging me about it, or making a crappy product for that matter. It's UI still makes me want to gouge out my eyes, and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless their situation for a word processor was desperate.
Hmm, funny behavior?! I have never got the donation page you mention.
Although it is slow on first load, the speed is perfect afterwards. I use it mainly for work-related DOC files filled with tables that are screwed up big time by either pages or textedit (unfortunately). With respect to the UI: Not at all perfect, but I still like it way more than office with it's funny floating toolbar paradigm.
If not for screwed-up tables I would go pages-only, so I have good hopes for improved .doc importing in the new iWork.
Last I checked, NeoOffice is slow to open, annoying to use, and it's User Interface makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I'm waiting for iWork Next or Office 2008 before I bother with spreadsheets, but no I don't use them right now.
Oh and Pages COMPLETELY blows away NeoOffice/OpenOffice.org Writer. I thought it's word processing would be terrible, but it couldn't be easier to use.
Sebastian
Neo Office opens just fine on my 24" iMac, 1.83 CD Mini, and 2 GHz MBP along with all my G4 and 5 computers. It opens as fast as MS Office.
You don't use spreadsheets. There is the first problem that iWork has. No spreadsheet functionality and if you are waiting for Pages to deliver this, I think you will be disappointed.
Word processing? Really? I triple dog dare you to write a 140 page manual or document in Pages. I need a Table of Contents with it too.
Moving images in and out are no problem in Mac Office or Neo Office for me so I am not sure what to tell you there. Yes, the UI looks different because of the thousands upon thousands of iCons that have to be replaced. It is an alternative to Mac Office and a really good one at that.
From what you have commented it seems you are not in a typical work environment and that is fine. But my comments hold true. Pages is for making birthday announcements. iWork has no spreadsheet program and Pages is not considered a Word Processing program in the company of NeoOffice or Mac Office.
It's quite normal for me. I open it so rarely that if it's not a patch it's a donation page. However one thing that I didn't try until tonight was moving an image from the Pictures folder into NeoOffice, I wanted to see how well it handled them while I was typing that previous post because I'm using more images in my documents now. It turns out it doesn't handle them at all, it might display one if one might turn up in a document through other means, but I can't drag and drop an image from the pictures folder into a document which just kills any hope of me ever using it right there.
That was the same reason I stopped using it for Word Processing and I also get the donation popup regularly (it used to be the first two launches or something). These days, I rarely type a document with just text, there's always an image here or there and NeoOffice doesn't handle image positioning well at all.
I don't think Pages is limited to invitations and things but I probably wouldn't like to do a long document with it as it gets quite slow. My impression of Pages is that it's more like Indesign than Microsoft Word so they are for different purposes. A graphics designer wouldn't do a brochure design in Microsoft Word and an office worker wouldn't use Indesign to write a letter.
I hope Pages tries to do both but it needs to be leaner for office work and have spreadsheet capability (possibly in the form of Numbers).
I actually just wish Textedit had more features and better Word compatibility because it is fast for writing Word documents but it can hardly open any that were made in Office.
Comments
Why can't they move to NeoOffice and work on something that is already working on the Mac?
1) NeoOffice's code is GPL and OpenOffice's is LGPL. GPL code cannot be migrated to an LGPL license. The code can move in the opposite direction, however. That is how NeoOffice came to be.
2) NeoOffice is a Java layer on top of X11 OpenOffice. X11 OpenOffice has been discontinued in favour of OpenOffice Aqua, a brand new project to port OpenOffice natively to the Mac.
1) NeoOffice's code is GPL and OpenOffice's is LGPL. GPL code cannot be migrated to an LGPL license. The code can move in the opposite direction, however. That is how NeoOffice came to be.
2) NeoOffice is a Java layer on top of X11 OpenOffice. X11 OpenOffice has been discontinued in favour of OpenOffice Aqua, a brand new project to port OpenOffice natively to the Mac.
So they are basically wasting time until the OOA makes the appearance on the scene?
So they are basically wasting time until the OOA makes the appearance on the scene?
The keep issuing patches to improve NeoOffice performance. I guess all they can do is stick it to Sun for killing their project by keeping their code GPL'd.
The keep issuing patches to improve NeoOffice performance. I guess all they can do is stick it to Sun for killing their project by keeping their code GPL'd.
Can you elaborate on that some more (the sticking it to Sun and what happened there). I never got the send beer message they directed toward Sun on their website.
Can you elaborate on that some more (the sticking it to Sun and what happened there). I never got the send beer message they directed toward Sun on their website.
This seems to be an objective telling of the story:
http://neowiki.neooffice.org/index.p...OpenOffice.org
The keep issuing patches to improve NeoOffice performance. I guess all they can do is stick it to Sun for killing their project by keeping their code GPL'd.
I just downloaded the latest patch tonight. It cut startup by 6 or seven seconds and a few other functions do seem snappier?.
This is the first time I've seen at NeoOffice as being almost ready for prime time.
If they can eke out a bit more speed (I'm on the PPC version) while continue to work on the UI, I think we may have a product that can finally play in the big leagues.
I just downloaded the latest patch tonight. It cut startup by 6 or seven seconds and a few other functions do seem snappier?.
This is the first time I've seen at NeoOffice as being almost ready for prime time.
Yeah I saw a speed improvement at launch but then I tried the wizard and making new documents and they were slow. Pages still seems like a better program ATM, it just needs a spreadsheet component.
Yeah I saw a speed improvement at launch but then I tried the wizard and making new documents and they were slow. Pages still seems like a better program ATM, it just needs a spreadsheet component.
Well yeah, but iWork is $89. plus tax. NeoOffice is free.
As long as it's fairly competitive with the bigger guys, it's the better value.
I'm now a happy iWork 06 user (due to my impatience with waiting for the next version... I'll at least qualify for upgrade pricing) and you know what, NeoOffice is a piece of s***!!! It's there as a last resort in case you're either a) Waiting for some other app to be released or b) You just can't afford another app or app suite and c) hate the X11 OpenOffice.org as much as I. I qualified for a and c before Friday.
Sebastian
iWork 06 makes you happy and NeoOffice sucks.
Last time I opened iWork 06 it had two applications. One for making birthday announcements for my 3 year old neice called Pages and the other is a professional presenatation software I use called Keynote. Passed that, it sucks and does not warrant the "work" word being in the name.
NeoOffice is not bad at all and I gave up MS Office 2004 for a week to force myself to use it and I did great. It has it's quarks but works great.
Last I checked, NeoOffice is slow to open, annoying to use, and it's User Interface makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I'm waiting for iWork Next or Office 2008 before I bother with spreadsheets, but no I don't use them right now.
Oh and Pages COMPLETELY blows away NeoOffice/OpenOffice.org Writer. I thought it's word processing would be terrible, but it couldn't be easier to use.
Sebastian
You should check again. That was the point of my previous post.
NeoOffice was painfully slow, and a few months ago I would have agreed with your above post totally.
However with Patch 6 applied, it's not bad on my G4 and is quite competitive now on my Intel MacBook Pro. The user interface now has Mac icons and isn't much different from Office, so I don't get the problem there.
While an Apple solution will always have an edge in the UI department, NeoOffice isn't bad. The Writer component reminds me of Word 5.1 and the spreadsheet module is available now.
I just checked again, it's faster but still slow, there's still a stupid splash screen which I can't shut off, they still open a web page asking for donations every time I open it and nothing makes me want to not donate like bugging me about it, or making a crappy product for that matter. It's UI still makes me want to gouge out my eyes, and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless their situation for a word processor was desperate.
Hmm, funny behavior?! I have never got the donation page you mention.
Although it is slow on first load, the speed is perfect afterwards. I use it mainly for work-related DOC files filled with tables that are screwed up big time by either pages or textedit (unfortunately). With respect to the UI: Not at all perfect, but I still like it way more than office with it's funny floating toolbar paradigm.
If not for screwed-up tables I would go pages-only, so I have good hopes for improved .doc importing in the new iWork.
Last I checked, NeoOffice is slow to open, annoying to use, and it's User Interface makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I'm waiting for iWork Next or Office 2008 before I bother with spreadsheets, but no I don't use them right now.
Oh and Pages COMPLETELY blows away NeoOffice/OpenOffice.org Writer. I thought it's word processing would be terrible, but it couldn't be easier to use.
Sebastian
Neo Office opens just fine on my 24" iMac, 1.83 CD Mini, and 2 GHz MBP along with all my G4 and 5 computers. It opens as fast as MS Office.
You don't use spreadsheets. There is the first problem that iWork has. No spreadsheet functionality and if you are waiting for Pages to deliver this, I think you will be disappointed.
Word processing? Really? I triple dog dare you to write a 140 page manual or document in Pages. I need a Table of Contents with it too.
Moving images in and out are no problem in Mac Office or Neo Office for me so I am not sure what to tell you there. Yes, the UI looks different because of the thousands upon thousands of iCons that have to be replaced. It is an alternative to Mac Office and a really good one at that.
From what you have commented it seems you are not in a typical work environment and that is fine. But my comments hold true. Pages is for making birthday announcements. iWork has no spreadsheet program and Pages is not considered a Word Processing program in the company of NeoOffice or Mac Office.
It's quite normal for me. I open it so rarely that if it's not a patch it's a donation page. However one thing that I didn't try until tonight was moving an image from the Pictures folder into NeoOffice, I wanted to see how well it handled them while I was typing that previous post because I'm using more images in my documents now. It turns out it doesn't handle them at all, it might display one if one might turn up in a document through other means, but I can't drag and drop an image from the pictures folder into a document which just kills any hope of me ever using it right there.
That was the same reason I stopped using it for Word Processing and I also get the donation popup regularly (it used to be the first two launches or something). These days, I rarely type a document with just text, there's always an image here or there and NeoOffice doesn't handle image positioning well at all.
I don't think Pages is limited to invitations and things but I probably wouldn't like to do a long document with it as it gets quite slow. My impression of Pages is that it's more like Indesign than Microsoft Word so they are for different purposes. A graphics designer wouldn't do a brochure design in Microsoft Word and an office worker wouldn't use Indesign to write a letter.
I hope Pages tries to do both but it needs to be leaner for office work and have spreadsheet capability (possibly in the form of Numbers).
I actually just wish Textedit had more features and better Word compatibility because it is fast for writing Word documents but it can hardly open any that were made in Office.
... and I also get the donation popup regularly (it used to be the first two launches or something).
I have never got this screen. I only get updates regarding the patches.