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Blogger Dedoimedo is known for his fascination with bling and his attention to compatibility with MICROS~1's pseudo-standards. So, how did the most recent version of the popular FOSS office suite fare in his test?
LibreOffice 4.4 review - Finally, it rocks
[...]As a free, open-source and cross-platform solution, LibreOffice allows people to enjoy the world of writing, spreadsheets, presentations, and [the like] without having to spend hefty sums of money. The only problem till now was that it didn't quite work as advertised. Microsoft Office support was, for the lack of a better word, lacking.
[...] The most important part, [it now has] Microsoft Office support
[...]my 182-page [DOCX] document, full of images, references, footnotes, preformatted code, and other cool elements, all of which were initially conceived in LaTeX then transformed to PDF and finally to DOCX looked pretty much spotless. The image quality was a little low, but it has nothing to do with LibreOffice. I was amazed. I had not expected this, and it seems for the first time ever, LibreOffice is a most viable solution for home office use. Blimey.
LibreOffice 4.4 is everything you could have hoped for, and then some. It's beautiful. It's streamlined. It has an improved UI, which offers much more intuitive work flows, resulting in an immediate boost in productivity. It comes with enhanced menus, a more intelligent way of working with styles, easier graphics, copy & paste options, a simpler method of polishing up presentations. Most importantly, it offers a genuinely good support for the proprietary Microsoft file formats, allowing you, for the very first time, to consider LibreOffice as the one and only office suite you'll ever need.
I have never quite expected this. In fact, LibreOffice 4.4 should have been called 5.0, because it is that much better. Perhaps grander changes are needed to justify a full new release. Just think of the possibilities, if we got all this in a single dot revision. Imagine what will happen when LibreOffice finally matures toward the next large release.
One wonders how long it will be till MSFT alters their "standard" so that compatibility is broken again.
(Score: 5, Informative) by mmcmonster on Tuesday February 24 2015, @07:02PM
Why is it MICROS~1? It's been close to 20 years (1996?) since FAT32 and long filenames were introduced. Surely we can let go of a grudge by now? And if not, at least get rid of all the FAT32 devices you have (ie: cameras) before you throw those stones.
The snarkiness takes away from the articles in general, and especially in a case like this, where LO has a dramatic improvement both in UI and backend.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 24 2015, @07:24PM
We can't, because Microsoft has a [ridiculous] patent on FAT32 long file names. We'd have to pay royalties to use it, just like Android phone manufacturers.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 24 2015, @08:07PM
While we're on the topic of FAT patents, can we collectively resolve to refresh our "cache" and check the expiration date(s) on those patent(s) ?
For instance, this: http://www.pubpat.org/microsoftfat.htm [pubpat.org] says that at least one of MS's FAT patents was supposed to have expired in 2013. If you're going to claim "Microsoft has ridiculous patents on FAT32", could you please make sure they still do, or make everyone aware of the fact that they have, in fact, expired, and we should finally be able to move on with our lives...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 24 2015, @10:19PM
Yes, FAT, FAT32, and VFAT have been out from under protection for a while.
M$ got their proprietary exFAT protocol baked into the Secure Digital (SD Card) spec.
THAT is what Android folks are paying M$ for.
-- gewg_
(Score: 4, Interesting) by linuxrocks123 on Tuesday February 24 2015, @11:11PM
Well, maybe. A lot of modern phones don't even support external SD cards, and afaict exFAT hasn't really taken off. I think it's more accurate to say they're just paying protection money because they don't want to get sued and have to defend themselves, even if the patents are probably bogus or not applicable.
And with Alice v. CLS Bank in the US, software patents have been dealt a fatal or near-fatal blow. It will be interesting to watch this.
(Score: 2) by kaganar on Tuesday February 24 2015, @07:29PM
(Score: 5, Interesting) by HyperQuantum on Tuesday February 24 2015, @07:48PM
While I agree that "MICROS~1" in the summary is quite bad taste, I feel I must emphasize that 8.3 names are still an issue today, unfortunately.
One example is the Directory.GetFiles [microsoft.com] method in the .NET framework:
Note:
Because this method checks against file names with both the 8.3 file name format and the long file name format, a search pattern similar to "*1*.txt" may return unexpected file names. For example, using a search pattern of "*1*.txt" returns "longfilename.txt" because the equivalent 8.3 file name format is "LONGFI~1.TXT".
IMHO such an old technicality should not be exposed in a supposedly modern API like .NET.
(Score: 2) by hash14 on Wednesday February 25 2015, @12:31AM
And here is a great example of how bad design decisions can still be a problem decades later. I'll have to keep this one in mind...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 24 2015, @08:34PM
What we need is a "party pooper" or "spoilsport" mod option.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by crutchy on Tuesday February 24 2015, @09:13PM
it's still a funny gag imho and an easy way to poke fun at the company in a way that isn't related to money (unlike micro$soft). most of us probably have fond memories of trying to think of a filename with 8 characters or less. msdos was awesome.
retro geek is cool, particularly on a geek website
if you don't appreciate such a gag, there is a popular saying that has something to do with grass or lawnmowing or something :p
(Score: 4, Touché) by Marand on Wednesday February 25 2015, @01:45AM
it's still a funny gag imho and an easy way to poke fun at the company in a way that isn't related to money (unlike micro$soft). most of us probably have fond memories of trying to think of a filename with 8 characters or less. msdos was awesome.
retro geek is cool, particularly on a geek website
if you don't appreciate such a gag, there is a popular saying that has something to do with grass or lawnmowing or something :p
I like your interpretation, but it seems pretty unlikely considering gewg_ also frequently uses M$ as well [google.com], including elsewhere in this discussion [soylentnews.org]. It's a refusal to say the company's name, instead replacing it with a bland attempt at an insult, only a small step above complaining about "MicroSux Internet Exploder" being terrible. About the only good thing about it is that it's less malicious-seeming, but it's still in the same juvenile "he who must not be named" territory as calling Slashdot "that other site" or "the green site".
It's possible he's just trying to be like one of the writers for The Register, but when it's targeted at a specific company rather than spreading the euphemisms out and using them for everybody, it just looks like submissions from a teenager or some autistic neckbeard with an axe to grind.
Also, in case anybody is thinking of saying it, no, I'm not a Microsoft fanboy. I've been a Linux user since '97 or '98 and a Debian user since 2000, with Debian being my primary laptop OS since 2004 and my primary desktop OS since 2008. I just think the M$/MICROS~1/etc. is juvenile bullshit that makes the submissions look like amateur drivel.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Marand on Wednesday February 25 2015, @02:24AM
only a small step above complaining about "MicroSux Internet Exploder" being terrible.
Sorry to double post, but after saying that, I found this gewg_ gem [soylentnews.org] where he says "M$Orifice" instead of "MS Office", which is a perfect example of the sort of childishness I was lambasting. It has no place here, and I'd wager that he, and most of the other "M$" users here would have a fit if submissions started doing the same to open source, such as referring to LibreOffice as "a popular open sores alternative to MS Office", or calling linux "linsux" in submissions.
It has no place in submissions, which should at least attempt to look unbiased and professional. If someone wants to do it in comments, that's fine -- free speech includes supporting people saying things I disagree with -- but they should expect ridicule for their childish behaviour.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday February 26 2015, @01:04PM
May I ask what exactly makes you say that? I mean this site is supposed to be focused on the community, and I'm seeing quite a few people (myself included) who have no problem with it or even enjoy it. I *like* that you can tell who submitted a story just from the writing style. If I want the same damn writing as everyone else I'll go read CNN or something.
"Some people will say that words like scum and rotten are wrong for Objective Journalism -- which is true, but they miss the point."
- HST
(Score: 2) by Marand on Thursday February 26 2015, @01:46PM
May I ask what exactly makes you say that? I mean this site is supposed to be focused on the community, and I'm seeing quite a few people (myself included) who have no problem with it or even enjoy it. I *like* that you can tell who submitted a story just from the writing style. If I want the same damn writing as everyone else I'll go read CNN or something.
"Some people will say that words like scum and rotten are wrong for Objective Journalism -- which is true, but they miss the point."
- HST
Being able to tell the submitter by writing style is one thing; seeing submissions with childish replacements is something else entirely. You can instill your personal style in your writing without mockery, and without being one-sided about it. The Register, as I mentioned, treads closely to to that border, but tends to avoid outright mockery. It's the difference in them referring to Apple as the "fruity firm", rather than the "beachball of death peddler", for example.
I'm arguing that what was done has no place in submissions because it's not conveying useful information, just juvenile snark about someone's pet hate. That's the sort of thing that fits better in the comments, and would be better presented as an actual statement rather than a re-labeling that someone thinks is clever and edgy.
Also, you say you and others don't mind it now, but do you really think that would hold true once the insulting or mocking names started being used on the products and software people like? Shit slinging is all fun and games until the thing you like gets crap on it, and then it turns into outrage and declarations of war.
If that's what you want, then I look forward to seeing your submissions about "open sores software" including new "linsux" kernel releases, news that mentions"overpriced trash vendor Apple", "Data-stealing Scroogle", etc. I'm sure the reactions will be favourable. I realise these examples are nastier than "MICROS~1", but that's because I'm trying to make a point, and making snarky little names for everything would take too much time to be warranted for a response.
What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that it's troll behaviour, which should not be condoned in submissions. It's getting a pass now because SN (except for HairyFeet) isn't a heavily pro-MS crowd, but we shouldn't be hypocrites about it, nor should we open the floodgates by allowing every submission to go that route.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday February 26 2015, @03:26PM
Yeah, I kinda agree with THAT point, but I don't think MICROS~1 fits. There's a reason for that nickname. It describes a feature of their own software. In my opinion, this IS like referring to Apple as "the fruity firm". Besides, it's not like this is a news article; it's an opinion piece! It's *supposed* to have more color! :)
Of course, I also don't think I've *ever* described anything I've coded myself without slinging a number of insults at *my own code* -- my network is a clusterfuck, my server is literally a cardboard box -- and it runs like it -- and my mail setup is just...beyond absurd. Which is probably why I can't get the damn thing working. So maybe I'm a bit inoculated? ;)
Besdies, we say worse things about government agencies in the summaries here but I never see anyone defending *them*. And those are supposed to be *news articles*, where this is just some random guy's software review!