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posted by martyb on Thursday November 10 2016, @02:49AM   Printer-friendly
from the differences-are-good dept.

I find the Libre Office Update tool for the Windows version of the Suite is not really worth having at all. A notice will pop up indicating that an update is available, but the tool just goes to the Libre Office web site for you to download the full package manually. Compare that to the Pale Moon web browser, which will download small update packages when a new version becomes available. You do not need to remove the old version of Pale Moon to install the update, because its update tool takes care of it automatically.

Libre Office is a high profile Open Source application, I am surprised that their version for the Windows operating system does not have an easy upgrade path. I think that working on the Upgrade tool would be a worthy upgrade to the Suite, and the current version is holding back adoption of it.

Disclaimer: I am not a programmer, so I can't write an upgrade tool on my own. Also my employers owns any software I create (employment agreement).

[Ed note: I was debating whether or not to run this story. Sounds like it could lead to a good discussion. If LibreOffice can download deltas on other platforms, why not on Windows? What practical reason could there be?]


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by richtopia on Thursday November 10 2016, @07:56AM

    by richtopia (3160) on Thursday November 10 2016, @07:56AM (#425030) Homepage Journal

    Matter of opinion, but I prefer software that just reminds you of an update. Perhaps web browsers need updaters because they are a major security risk, but just about all other software on my system can continue to run the present version if I have no problems with it. LibreOffice in particular has a very clean routine of detecting the present install and uninstalling before installing the latest version. (Windows system)

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10 2016, @09:23AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10 2016, @09:23AM (#425054)

    Perhaps web browsers need updaters because they are a major security risk

    I just wish that a browser like Firefox would check for add-on compatibility with the new version BEFORE installing it, rather than installing it and throwing up a message afterwards, leaving it to the user to find and install the old working version again.

  • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday November 10 2016, @02:53PM

    by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Thursday November 10 2016, @02:53PM (#425134)

    Matter of opinion, but I prefer software that just reminds you of an update.

    Especially since these updates seem to perversely time themselves for when you are working on something and pressed for time...