Yet Another Poll: OpenOffice

[Simon Veteran]

Alright, I'm sitting here, looking at an ISO for Shift 0.6 Gnome that is about 700MB. A lot of that is from OpenOffice. So I'm wondering, should we just get rid of OpenOffice?

Vote in the poll. We'll probably have a simple shortcut to install OpenOffice in the Office menu, which would run the apt-get command for you.

[CelticWhisper]

I know Knoppix uses some kind of super-high compression and decompresses on-the-fly to fit more software in a CD. You could try keeping an LZMA-compressed archive of OpenOffice and then launching it via a script that decompresses it to memory/virtual memory before launching the actual binary.

Just a thought.

[Simon Veteran]

I know Knoppix uses some kind of super-high compression and decompresses on-the-fly to fit more software in a CD. You could try keeping an LZMA-compressed archive of OpenOffice and then launching it via a script that decompresses it to memory/virtual memory before launching the actual binary.

Just a thought.

Everything is pretty well compressed already (Casper is what we (and Ubuntu) use, iirc). I don't think that's the answer, unfortunately.

[Olemus]

Get shot of it and put a apt-get link on the menu like you suggested or on the desktop or something. Anything that decreases dwonloads is a good thing.

[Victor V.]

I don't really like OpenOffice, but AbiWord is outstanding!

[Simon Veteran]

I don't really like OpenOffice, but AbiWord is outstanding!

That's how I am, too.

I think I'll at least get rid of OpenOffice Draw, since it's a fairly niche product. It's not very good, either.

[Slimy]

I can't stand OpenOffice. It just feels "incomplete". I haven't tried the others on the list though.

[Fish]

I can live without an office suite on my Linux box. If there's something I really need to do, I'll do it at work. I voted no and no.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

I'd say most people who have Linux will have no need for a complete office solution anyway. Abiword will do.

[Simon Veteran]

We have reasons why not, and yet the poll says for us to include it...

I'm thinking at this point that the comments outweigh the results. Anyone have a reason why we shouldn't just put what's essentially a quick installer for OpenOffice in the Office menu?

We're talking about saving a lot of space here.

Meanwhile, I found more stuff to delete, so it's a bit smaller now...

[markwolfe Veteran]

Call me a stick-in-the-mud, or say that I am pandering to the masses, but most *nixers kind of expect OO.o. I would keep it, if at all possible.

And, in a fit of contradiction, I also voted for Abiword and Gnumeric. Especially for fluxbox (where I would actually recommend to drop OO.o, as the flux version is targeted to lower-end computers).

[Simon Veteran]

Call me a stick-in-the-mud, or say that I am pandering to the masses, but most *nixers kind of expect OO.o. I would keep it, if at all possible.

And, in a fit of contradiction, I also voted for Abiword and Gnumeric. Especially for fluxbox (where I would actually recommend to drop OO.o, as the flux version is targeted to lower-end computers).

Haha, just trying to make things difficult, aren't you :p . I see your point, though. I have an ISO building right now, and we'll see if it's a reasonable size.

Just a quick correction, it's squashfs we're using, not Casper.

[Barney T. Administrators]

I like Open Office myself. The main issue with it, as you stated, is that it takes up lots of real estate on a live cd. The app is very good, in my opinion, but if we use it, it may be at the expense of something else we might want. Abiword is a decent alternative, but as Mark said, most *nix fans expect OO.o in a distro.

I voted for it, none the less. :yes:

[Simon Veteran]

Alright, good news: we're at a human size right now: 635MB.

[hopp58902 Member]

Shift Lite won't include Oo.o, it's Lite, remember? Using AbiWord and Gnumeric as replacements.

[Mathachew Veteran]

I voted no for a smaller size since it's so big, and performing updates on it = drag, at least when I last played with it in Ubuntu about a year ago.

[Angel Blue01]

I voted yes because its the only presenations/word processor/spreadsheet suite that's not KDE dependent and aleady has full MS Office support. Abiword is great for distros that target old computers

[rage710]

Couldn't you just keep the Open Office Writer?

Also, I think a apt-get link to it would be the best option, as it would reduce the size of the os (1) and it would allow the user to have a more up to date version (2)

[Angel Blue01]

Couldn't you just keep the Open Office Writer?

No because OpenOffice is one giant program

[Simon Veteran]

Actually, we could only include OpenOffice Writer, but after looking into it, we would only save about 10MB. If we removed everything OpenOffice related, it would be a lot more.

[TekMate]

I like to install and use Koffice myself so I would be OK with no Office.

[Dark Phoenix]

Well, I suggest using Abiword and Gnumeric for the Lite and GNOME versions, and KOffice for the KDE version. But OO.org should be an option...

[slythfox]

I like Open Office myself. The main issue with it, as you stated, is that it takes up lots of real estate on a live cd. The app is very good, in my opinion, but if we use it, it may be at the expense of something else we might want. Abiword is a decent alternative, but as Mark said, most *nix fans expect OO.o in a distro.

I don't expect it, except in an all purpose distribution.

Abiword is still premature but usable. (I should start a blog critiquing open source projects at some point.)

Anyway, be sure to remove any extra language packs. For example, KNOPPIX contains "Openoffice-de-en" which adds an extra 30mb onto the iso! I hate to be English oriented, but 30mb is too much for a single language, I'm sure there's another way to get language support.

[k311]

as a linux user who has migrated from windows, i still need to wine install MS office anyway (blasphemy i know but i really dont feel like reformatting lots of documents like my resume just for the sake of using openoffice...)

[Borbus]

I only use LaTeX for documents. You should redo your resume in LaTeX, it will look more impressive.