OpenOffice 3 crashes out of the gate
The new version of the freebie OpenOffice suite, released today, offers snappier performance than its predecessor. Plus its word processor, spreadsheet and other apps gain read support for Microsoft Office 2007/2008 file formats, including the notorious .docx.
One major hitch: intial interest in the OpenOffice 3 was such that the openoffice.org download site crashed, unable to cope with the traffic (and as I write, half a day into the release, there are still "technical difficulties". The suite is available through several other sources, including download.com; be warned the install file is a relatively hefty 127MB download).
Once you do manage to snag a copy, you'll see that as well as loading and running noticably faster than OpenOffice 2.x, version 3 gets native support for MacOS, and should be more stable under Vista. Native support for the OpenDocument format has also been added, and users can now save to the aforementioned docx or xlxs.
OpenOffice 3 retain's the suite's trademark plain-Jane interface, with no major changes to its overall look and feel, bar a new "start center" that features big icons for one-click access its apps.
Bankrolled by corporate supporters including Sun Microsystems, IBM and Google, and supported by the open source community at large, OpenOffice is a free-download suite that includies word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing and database programs.
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Comments and questions10
I hope openoffice 3 includes spelling and grammar checkers.
In reply to the question re spell checks and grammar checks, why should they have taken these features out? They are available in earlier versions
Yes, OpenOffice 3.0 does have spelling and grammar checkers, though they've both come in for a bit of stick on community forums. Many would say Microsoft Office's grammar checker still has a way to go, too, while we're on the subject.
Downloaded at about 10:30 am. Completely wiped my desktop from then on in. I am not really in love with this update yet! very annoying trying to find all me programmes!!
Have been using the Beta version for a month or so and have found it very stable and have not noticed any issues. Friends have also used it and report the same. I shall not be going back to Microsoft Office after this as there is simply no need. Long live open source!
Downloaded it and installed on a customer's Vista laptop from CD without a hitch. Installation went very quickly, and it opens much, much faster than the previous version (2.4.1).
ODF 1.2 is the truly open standard and is fully supported by OO.o
OOXML is the format that Microsoft paid ISO for and is read-only supported by OO.o 3. OO.o 3 doesn't save to OOXML format (docx, xlsx)
Do I need to uninstall Open Office 2.41 or will this new vesion simply update the existing files?
You don't need to uninstall v2.4.1 since the v3.0 software prompts you and lets you know it will erase the old software from your hard drive.
Every application in version 3.0 crashes upon opening. Not a very auspicious start. I'm going to uninstall and re-install and give it another go.