Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 12:20 pm Post subject: Mac Tiger compatibilty
Hello I am new to the forum, but I have been an Open Office user for about 2.5 years on Linux machines mostly and on Windows machine years ago. My question is: I am about to purchase an Apple laptop for my wife, I want to install either Open Office X11 or Neo Office J. Is either of these programs compatible with the upcoming Tiger release from Apple. In addition, when saving word processing files; does Neo Office and OO X11 have the same file compatibility that I have grown acustomed to or should I lower myself and use MS office for Mac? I am not a prorammer at all, but I am a dedicated user of GPL products and have been for years. Any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated.
As far as I know, all software running on Mac OS 10.x (or maybe .2 or .3) will run on the Tiger. Tiger is Mac OS 10.4 with lots of new features.
Both NeoOffice/J and OOo X11 has the required file compatibility, but I believe NeoOffice/J is based on a newer OOo source code (1.1.4) than the X11 version (1.1.3), with better compability - specially regarding Wordperfect files.
FYI. I just spent several hours today at the Apple campus testing Neo/J on the last developer preview release of Tiger (thanks go to Apple for allowing me to use their compatibility lab).
The good news is that after testing a myriad of English, Arabic, Hebrew, and Japanese documents and fonts, Neo/J behaves the same on Tiger as it does on Panther.
There will probably be some minor bugs that show up in the official Tiger release, but I think we can safely assume that Neo/J will work OK on Tiger.
FYI. I just spent several hours today at the Apple campus testing Neo/J on the last developer preview release of Tiger (thanks go to Apple for allowing me to use their compatibility lab).
The good news is that after testing a myriad of English, Arabic, Hebrew, and Japanese documents and fonts, Neo/J behaves the same on Tiger as it does on Panther.
There will probably be some minor bugs that show up in the official Tiger release, but I think we can safely assume that Neo/J will work OK on Tiger.
Patrick
That's a relief!
What a shame that Apple's generosity doesn't stretch as far as to give you some very direct assistance to tackle some of the big issues like moving up the Java ladder etc. Nonetheless, it is good to learn here that there is at least some cooperation coming your way from Cupertino.
Perhaps we should start lobbying Apple Board member, Al Gore? Remember this gem from when he was appointed (March 19, 2003):
“Steve and his team have done an incredible job in making Apple once again the very best in the world,†said former Vice President Al Gore. “I have been particularly impressed with the new Mac OS X operating system and the company’s commitment to the open source movement."
We could mail him a complimentary copy of NeoOffice/J and ask him to push from the inside for a little bit more commitment now?
Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 1:03 am Post subject: Re: Mac Tiger compatibilty
rmratliff wrote:
In addition, when saving word processing files; does Neo Office and OO X11 have the same file compatibility that I have grown acustomed to or should I lower myself and use MS office for Mac?
Warts and all. While there are occasional Mac-only bugs that pop-up in OOo/X11 and Neo/J, they haven't so far ever affected file compatibility. Unless your Win/Linux OOo files use plugins to handle media types, your biggest problem will be making sure you have all the same fonts (the Microsoft fonts that ship with Mac OS X are pre-Unicode and don't support the same range of alphabets as those fonts on Windows--more info elsewhere on trinity).
rmratliff wrote:
I am not a prorammer at all, but I am a dedicated user of GPL products and have been for years. Any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated.
I suggest you use Neo/J rather than OOo/X11 Patrick has solved a number of "nasty" X11 problems by making Neo/J into a "native" Mac app, so you have a better overall experience (no wondering why your inkjet printer won't print from X11, etc.) and a better fit with the OS and other apps. ...I'm biased, of course, but there is a reason I've devoted my time and efforts towards Neo/J rather than OOo/X11
knutkja wrote:
NeoOffice/J is based on a newer OOo source code (1.1.4) than the X11 version (1.1.3)
Actually, the official OOo/X11 build is only at 1.1.2 (there are unofficial localized builds for 1.1.3-fr and 1.1.4-de).
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
FYI. I just spent several hours today at the Apple campus testing Neo/J on the last developer preview release of Tiger (thanks go to Apple for allowing me to use their compatibility lab).
This is good to hear both ways, in that Neo/J will be OK and that Apple was very nice to let you use their lab to test! It seems it was a very timely visit, too.
With 10.4's official release in just a few days, you'd think Apple would've started to upgrade its own Macs, though
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
I'm quite curious about speed, many people are telling me that all applications are faster using tiger. I'd like to know if neooffice will be faster under tiger, and what is gonna happen to the memory used by java (actually java takes 1gb of virtual memory starting).
I have not understand if tiger eat more memory for itself too, and how many memory it leaves to neooffice: panther needs 128mb to run, tiger 256mb...
So the first tiger user using neooffice could give us a good report
Joined: May 25, 2003 Posts: 4752 Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 9:10 pm Post subject:
I highly suspect that Java 1.3.1 will not see a large boost under Tiger. The largest bottleneck in 1.3.1, IMHO, is the dreaded buckyball carbon lock that gets passed around like the conch from Lord of the Flies. I suspect there may be some minor speedup, but from what I know of Tiger the 1.3.1 Java VM is in some of the types of apps that may benefit the least.
I highly suspect that Java 1.3.1 will not see a large boost under Tiger. The largest bottleneck in 1.3.1, IMHO, is the dreaded buckyball carbon lock that gets passed around like the conch from Lord of the Flies. I suspect there may be some minor speedup, but from what I know of Tiger the 1.3.1 Java VM is in some of the types of apps that may benefit the least.
... (actually java takes 1gb of virtual memory starting).
f.
Did you know that 'top' (the unix utility) uses almost 27Mb of virtual memory, and 'ps' just the same? I don't think virtual memory makes much sense...
About tiger, I've got 512Mb of RAM on a G5 and it runs pretty well, and a lot lot faster than Panther both on the application startup time, display speed, smoothness.
It is optimized for G5 processors but iv'e played a bit with it on a 800Mhz G4 iMac and it was almost the same as with my G5.
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