Get the hell off Apache OpenOffice
An old friend of mine posted an well-referenced rant on why people should leave OpenOffice. "... actively dangerous to use" http://reddragdiva.dreamwidth.org/596490.html Security bug is as follows: http://www.openoffice.org/security/cves/CVE-2015-1774.html -- Lev Lafayette, BA (Hons), GradCertTerAdEd (Murdoch), GradCertPM, MBA (Tech Mngmnt) (Chifley) mobile: 0432 255 208 RFC 1855 Netiquette Guidelines http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt
Lev Lafayette wrote:
An old friend of mine posted an well-referenced rant on why people should leave OpenOffice.
"... actively dangerous to use" http://reddragdiva.dreamwidth.org/596490.html
Security bug is as follows: http://www.openoffice.org/security/cves/CVE-2015-1774.html
It is suggested that OpenOffice be replaced LibreOffice. Well I have dumped even LibreOffice-Writer (the only part of LibreOffice which, I use) following an experience where it corrupted and made unopenable, a document; simply due to the printer it wanted becoming inaccessible. Mostly I use Abiword now; which even though it produces much larger documents; thus far seems much more robust. I just wonder whether it is time for a rethink about open-source software, generally the recieved wisdom is that open-source will be maintained by the 'community', but the reality is that it is substantially maintained by a few unpaid developers. The consequence is the developers have huge discretion regarding what gets fixed, and what doesn't. Also because of the work load we have these complex bug reporting systems which many users simply can't be bothered engaging with, so the bugs go unreported ! This is not to suggest a return to closed-source but if one accepts that user's are unlikely; to change and become more committed to involvement in open-source; what to do ? regards Rohan McLeod
On Fri, September 18, 2015 12:12 pm, Rohan McLeod wrote:
I just wonder whether it is time for a rethink about open-source software, generally the recieved wisdom is that open-source will be maintained by the 'community', but the reality is that it is substantially maintained by a few unpaid developers.
Open source software is maintained if the software is worthwhile. In this particular case the software *is* worthwhile and is maintained and actively developed, except under a new name. This is an example which illustrates the "received wisdom" is in fact true (and by which other historical examples e.g., Mambo/Joomla) are also illustrative. -- Lev Lafayette, BA (Hons), GradCertTerAdEd (Murdoch), GradCertPM, MBA (Tech Mngmnt) (Chifley) mobile: 0432 255 208 RFC 1855 Netiquette Guidelines http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt
Hi Rohan, The file corruption problem you had experienced might be due to some special circumstances, or some bug that could or would be fixed in newer version of LO. The LO Community is a very active one. There are many active sites, forums and wikis providing help to anyone who care to ask, or report the bug. I also heard of incidents of file corruption even in MS Office, but it doesn't mean people would stop using the software. Believe me, I myself had experience with some functions or bugs that I was annoyed about, not long later they were fixed in newer version of LO. Open Source software never promise people that it would be perfect and without any bug. It requires people in the community to report the bug or help to fix it. Don't give up on LO just yet! :-) Wen On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 11:12 AM, Rohan McLeod <rhn@jeack.com.au> wrote:
Lev Lafayette wrote:
An old friend of mine posted an well-referenced rant on why people should leave OpenOffice.
"... actively dangerous to use" http://reddragdiva.dreamwidth.org/596490.html
Security bug is as follows: http://www.openoffice.org/security/cves/CVE-2015-1774.html
It is suggested that OpenOffice be replaced LibreOffice. Well I have dumped even LibreOffice-Writer (the only part of LibreOffice which, I use) following an experience where it corrupted and made unopenable, a document; simply due to the printer it wanted becoming inaccessible. Mostly I use Abiword now; which even though it produces much larger documents; thus far seems much more robust.
I just wonder whether it is time for a rethink about open-source software, generally the recieved wisdom is that open-source will be maintained by the 'community', but the reality is that it is substantially maintained by a few unpaid developers. The consequence is the developers have huge discretion regarding what gets fixed, and what doesn't. Also because of the work load we have these complex bug reporting systems which many users simply can't be bothered engaging with, so the bugs go unreported ! This is not to suggest a return to closed-source but if one accepts that user's are unlikely; to change and become more committed to involvement in open-source; what to do ?
regards Rohan McLeod
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LO 5.0 is great. There were some bugs, specially in Impress in one of the 4.4.x version. But it was very quickly fixed in a point release. The model of Open Source software development often *depends* on users being able to discover and report bugs. So open source software are *NOT* more buggy. Its just that the bugs are more *visible* and by the very nature of the Open Source software ecosystem, you tend to see or there is the impression that there may be more bugs for software that are in heavy development. Thats why it may be better to use "older" longer tested open source software than use bleeding edge software if stability is a crucial issue. Thats why RedHat/Centos and to some extent Debian (stable) tend to have slightly older versions of software. For example LO is version 4.3.x in the latest version of Debian 8, but the latest version of LO is 5.0.5 (I think). For this reason I generally do not use the .0 release of a software, but wait for a .1 or .0.1 version or later. For Ubuntu I always wait for the .0.2 version. The issue of the capability or motivation from developers to fix bugs in an open source software model v/s close source model is great discussion for another time!! Cheers Daniel. On 18/09/15 11:12, Rohan McLeod wrote:
Lev Lafayette wrote:
An old friend of mine posted an well-referenced rant on why people should leave OpenOffice.
"... actively dangerous to use" http://reddragdiva.dreamwidth.org/596490.html
Security bug is as follows: http://www.openoffice.org/security/cves/CVE-2015-1774.html
It is suggested that OpenOffice be replaced LibreOffice. Well I have dumped even LibreOffice-Writer (the only part of LibreOffice which, I use) following an experience where it corrupted and made unopenable, a document; simply due to the printer it wanted becoming inaccessible. Mostly I use Abiword now; which even though it produces much larger documents; thus far seems much more robust.
I just wonder whether it is time for a rethink about open-source software, generally the recieved wisdom is that open-source will be maintained by the 'community', but the reality is that it is substantially maintained by a few unpaid developers. The consequence is the developers have huge discretion regarding what gets fixed, and what doesn't. Also because of the work load we have these complex bug reporting systems which many users simply can't be bothered engaging with, so the bugs go unreported ! This is not to suggest a return to closed-source but if one accepts that user's are unlikely; to change and become more committed to involvement in open-source; what to do ?
regards Rohan McLeod _______________________________________________ luv-talk mailing list luv-talk@luv.asn.au http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-talk
Daniel Jitnah wrote:
Thats why RedHat/Centos and to some extent Debian (stable) tend to have slightly older versions of software. For example LO is version 4.3.x in the latest version of Debian 8, but the latest version of LO is 5.0.5 (I think).
FTR, LO5 is available in Debian 8 (jessie) as a backport. $ rmadison libreoffice -aamd64 -uubuntu,debian ubuntu: libreoffice | 1:3.5.2-2ubuntu1 | precise | amd64 libreoffice | 1:3.5.7-0ubuntu8 | precise-security | amd64 libreoffice | 1:3.5.7-0ubuntu8 | precise-updates | amd64 libreoffice | 1:4.2.3~rc3-0ubuntu2 | trusty/universe | amd64 libreoffice | 1:4.2.8-0ubuntu2 | trusty-security/universe | amd64 libreoffice | 1:4.2.8-0ubuntu2 | trusty-updates/universe | amd64 libreoffice | 1:4.4.2-0ubuntu1 | vivid/universe | amd64 libreoffice | 1:4.4.2-0ubuntu2 | vivid-proposed/universe | amd64 libreoffice | 1:5.0.1-0ubuntu2 | wily/universe | amd64 debian: libreoffice | 1:3.5.4+dfsg2-0+deb7u2 | wheezy | amd64 libreoffice | 1:3.5.4+dfsg2-0+deb7u4~bpo60+1 | squeeze-backports | amd64 libreoffice | 1:3.5.4+dfsg2-0+deb7u4 | wheezy-security | amd64 libreoffice | 1:4.3.3-2+deb8u1~bpo70+1 | wheezy-backports | amd64 libreoffice | 1:4.3.3-2+deb8u1 | jessie-security | amd64 libreoffice | 1:4.3.3-2+deb8u1 | jessie | amd64 libreoffice | 1:5.0.1-1~bpo8+2 | jessie-backports | amd64 libreoffice | 1:5.0.1-1 | stretch | amd64 libreoffice | 1:5.0.1-1 | sid | amd64
Yeah, whenever someone asked me where to get or how to use Apache OpenOffice, I will correct them to LibreOffice. It's the only one that counts! Wen On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 9:48 AM, Lev Lafayette <lev@levlafayette.com> wrote:
An old friend of mine posted an well-referenced rant on why people should leave OpenOffice.
"... actively dangerous to use" http://reddragdiva.dreamwidth.org/596490.html
Security bug is as follows: http://www.openoffice.org/security/cves/CVE-2015-1774.html
-- Lev Lafayette, BA (Hons), GradCertTerAdEd (Murdoch), GradCertPM, MBA (Tech Mngmnt) (Chifley) mobile: 0432 255 208 RFC 1855 Netiquette Guidelines http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt
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participants (6)
-
Daniel Jitnah -
Jason White -
Lev Lafayette -
Rohan McLeod -
Trent W. Buck -
Wen Lin