neo office or openoffice with XII

roydallasmd · Blue Pill Joined: Jan 01, 2007 Posts: 1

How to decide between the two above options for an officesuite on the newest of mac os's??
Thanks
I've read a bit about each, but I cannot conclude.
Roy Russell

valterb · Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 3:13 pm Post subject:

Please, read something at our wiki.

You could start from here.

Valter

human · Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 7:45 am Post subject:

Considering that this forum is run by and for NeoOffice users, there's just a slight chance that responses might be just a wee bit biased in favor of NeoOffice Wink

That being said, I'll try to give as balanced a response as I can.

Because NeoOffice is based on OpenOffice.org (OOo) source code, the two packages have essentially the same features. The major differences between the two are in the area of Mac OS X integration and interface refinement. Right now, OOo is based on a slightly newer version of the OOo source code (2.1) but it requires the X11 environment for 'life support' and thus has minimal integration with Mac OS X. Its inteface--although identical to that of the Windows, Linux, and Solaris versions--looks and acts nothing like a conventional Mac OS X application.

The latest version of NeoOffice (2.0 Aqua Beta 3, Patch 11) is presently based on a slightly older version (2.0.4?) of OOo source code, but through the magic of Java, it runs natively in Mac OS X and looks and feels more like a real Mac OS X application.

With that informaiton in hand, it would seem to come down to a question of how comfortable you are with the whole X11 thing and whether it's worth it to you to put up with that and OOo's Windows-like interface to be running the absolute latest version of the source code. But then again, both OOo and NeoOffice are free for the downloading, so why not download both for a side-by-side comparison and see which one you and your computer like better.

Samwise · Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 8:34 am Post subject:

OPENSTEP · Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 11:57 am Post subject:

I'll give a totally unbalanced response Wink

If you absolutely need some feature in a newer version of OpenOffice.org, go with the X11 version.

If you have "upgradeitis" and always need to be on the latest and greatest, go with the X11 version.

If you think we are evil, go with the X11 version.

If the word "beta" scares you, go with the X11 version (and also drop a letter of complaint to Google about gmail and a whole horde of other things...).

If what you want is a Mac application, use Neo.

The other thing that you should be aware of is that you can have both OOo X11 and Neo installed side by side without any conflicts. There's no reason to not have both installed adn use whatever one tickles your fancy!

ed

Koenea · Guest

I've been using both for a while now. And I'm not biassed in any way. Wink

I use Neo/OOo because of the incredible database application (Base). I don't use Write a lot.

I've found that Neo is not as stable nor as fast as OOo/X11. In design-mode Neo has strange habbits - copy/paste behaves not as expected, fonts become jagged/bold when moving over comboboxes - and Neo just hangs every now and then. It's obviously still in beta stage.

On the other hand, Neo behaves like a true Mac app, uses fonts that are installed on your Mac and just looks much, much better. That's why I use OOo/X11 to edit and Neo to use my data base. Best of both worlds Smile

OPENSTEP · Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:40 pm Post subject:

If you have reproducible cases for those form layout bugs past Beta 10 please file them. OOo itself really isn't designed to do native widgets in database forms so it's an uphill battle Smile

ed

Keanoe · Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 9:46 am Post subject: Koenea

I've created a new topic in the Testing forum about my findings.

OPENSTEP · Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 11:14 am Post subject:

Saw that, thank you!

ed