LibreOffice recently released version 5.0 of its Office Suite. I thought this might be a good time to discuss the program more generally. For anyone unfamilar, LibreOffice is an office suite with multiple functions similar to MS Office or WordPerfect Office. A major factor that makes Libre different from these other Suites is that LibreOffice is free.
Benefits LibreOffice:
For many, especially in business, we often think of freeware as somehow substandard. Often that may be the case, but I don't think it is with LibreOffice. It is a feature rich fully functioning office suite which can do virtually anything you want. In the unlikely event you need it to do something it cannot, there are free downloadable add-ons available, or you can work with other online developers to build your own customizations or improvements. A major benefit of the program is that it is open source, meaning there are thousands of developers making customizations and add-ons that are available to do a great many things.
Of course, most of us are not coders or developers. We just want a great program that works right way. Libre absolutely delivers on this front. The Suite includes Writer, a top of the line word processor. Calc, is its spreadsheet. Impress handles presentations. Draw is used for graphics and diagrams, The Base database program works great on its own or as a front end for other more complex databases such as the also free MySQL. Math is great for developing formulas. If you are a mathematician, scientist, economist, etc. you have got to try this. Finally there is Charts for easy creation of charts. People used to having a Mail program included in their office suite will be disappointed. There is no program the corresponds to MS Outlook. Of course, there are other very good mail programs available to replace Outlook. They just aren't part of LibreOffice.
Aside from the hassles of MS Office licensing, I prefer LibreOffice. I find MS Office's ribbon interface difficult to use. It is unintuitive and tends to hide many of the features I often need to use. By contrast, Libre's familiar toolbar remains much easier to use. Also, even if you develop experience in using MS Office, it is quite possible that the next version will have a completely new user interface that requires you to learn all over again. This has often been the case in the past. By contrast, Libre, makes changes on a slower evolutionary process, which means there are not huge changes in the user experience between versions.
In addition to its support for MS Office documents, Libre has a strong library of support for a wide range of other types of documents, many created by older or defunct systems. If you have an older document from some source that won't open properly in MS Office or WordPerfect, you might want to give LibreOffice a try.
Libre as a Replacement for MS Office
Be default, we have been installing LibreOffice (and before that OpenOffice) for many years on all new computers (unless you needed MS Office). We have configured it to open MS Word and Excel documents and to save in those formats by default. This enables lawyers and staff who do not have MS Office installed, to work with such documents when the need arises.
Microsoft often seems to make deliberate changes to MS Office via updates or service packs that can interfere with Libre's ability to convert some MS Office documents This was especially true with earlier versions. However, Libre developers have been focused on making the product highly compatible and interactive with MS Office. Most documents can convert back and forth seamlessly. Even redlining with someone who is using MS Office has gotten much better in recent version. For Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, it usually works perfectly.
History of LibreOffice
LibreOffice has a complicated and long history. Back in 1999, Sun Microsystems bought a company called StarDivision. It included a product called StarOffice, an office suite in direct competition with Microsoft Office. Microsoft, of course, dominated the market at the time and most people had not even heard of StarOffice. Rather than try to compete, Sun made the program free and open source, so anyone could work on it. The name changed to OpenOffice. It remained a free download but continued to be developed and improved. Sun did not seem to have any business model for the program, as it did not even try to collect advertising revenue or use it as a loss leader for other products. Personally, I think they just liked having a thorn in Microsoft's side.
In 2010, Oracle acquired Sun. Oracle really had no interest paying to maintain and improve OpenOffice. It saw no financial benefit and liked remaining on good terms with Microsoft. It did not kill OpenOffice, but rather in 2011, donated it to the Apache Foundation, a nonprofit group.
Many OpenOffice users grew frustrated at this point because Apache really didn't put the money and resources into improving and upgrading the software. Because it remained open source, anyone could take the code and improve it themselves. A group of volunteers who had been working on OpenOffice for years, took the source code and started the Documents Foundation to continue work on the software. This derivation was called LibreOffice which continues to be developed and upgraded to this day. OpenOffice also still exists, but by the time it started development again, many people had already moved to Libre and saw no need to go back.
Updates
The program is updated every few weeks, but most updates are quite minor. I like this method as it allows me to get used to changes over time, rather than a single major upgrade like the pay programs do. But it is also not necessary to have the latest version. Most changes are quite minor and often deal with issues that never impact you. So don't feel like you must download new versions constantly. Because the installation package is rather large, it's probably not a good idea to attempt a download from the site during work hours, as you may interrupt Internet access for the whole office for a short time.
From time to time, we update the copies we deploy to new computers and keep a copy on the u: drive of each office. If you think the version you have is getting dated, someone from the help desk can help you install a newer version. Of course, with open licensing, you are free to install wherever you like, including personal computers, kids' computers, etc. without there ever being any cost.
Other versions
I have only used the Windows version of LibreOffice, but there are also versions for Linux and Mac. There is also a portable version which you can stick on a flash drive and use without having to install. This can be handy if you are working on document on a computer that does not have a reader installed.
There are version of Libre for iPhones and Android, but I don't recommend these. There are other programs I like better for those devices, particularly the free WPS Office. For most basic access to MS Office documents on a phone or tablet, I just use Google Drive.
Outside Reviews:
For more reviews on LibreOffice, you may find this ZD Net Review interesting. A more in depth review of features is in this Alphr article. Also, betanews had a review discussing the different versions.
More detailed release notes on what has been added to version 5 are available on the Document Foundation site, which manages LibreOffice.
