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Apache OpenOffice
Apache OpenOffice (AOO) is an open-source office productivity software suite. It is a successor project of OpenOffice.org that incorporates code merged from the IBM Lotus Symphony code base.[6] Apache OpenOffice is a close cousin of LibreOffice and NeoOffice. It contains a word processor (Writer), a spreadsheet (Calc), a presentation application (Impress), a drawing application (Draw), a formula editor (Math), and a database management application (Base).[7]
Apache OpenOffice's default file format is the OpenDocument Format (ODF), an ISO/IEC standard, which originated with OpenOffice.org. It can also read a wide variety of other file formats, with particular attention to those from Microsoft Office.
Apache OpenOffice is developed for Linux, OS X and Windows, with ports to other operating systems. It is distributed under the Apache License.[5] The first release was version 3.4.0, on 8 May 2012.[1]
In October 2014, Bruce Byfield, writing for Linux Magazine, said the project had "all but stalled [possibly] due to IBM's withdrawal from the project."[8]
History
After acquiring Sun Microsystems in January 2010, Oracle Corporation continued developing OpenOffice.org and StarOffice, which it renamed Oracle Open Office. In September 2010, the majority[9][10] of outside OpenOffice.org developers left the project[11][12] due to concerns over Sun's, and then Oracle's, management of the project,[13][14] to form The Document Foundation (TDF). TDF released the fork LibreOffice in January 2011,[15] which most Linux distributions soon moved to,[16][17][18][19] including Oracle Linux in 2012.[20][21][22]
In April 2011 Oracle stopped development of OpenOffice.org[23] and laid off the remaining development team.[24] Its reasons for doing so were not disclosed; some speculate that it was due to the loss of mindshare with much of the community moving to LibreOffice[25] while others suggest it was a commercial decision.[26] In June 2011 Oracle contributed the trademarks to the Apache Software Foundation.[27] It also contributed Oracle-owned code to Apache for re-licensing under the Apache License,[28] at the suggestion of IBM (to whom Oracle had contractual obligations concerning the code),[29][30] as IBM did not want the code put under a copyleft license.[31] The developer pool for the Apache project was seeded by IBM employees,[32] who as of 2014 continued to do the majority of the development.[33][34][35][36][37]
The project was accepted to the Apache Incubator on 13 June 2011,[38] the Oracle code drop was imported on 29 August 2011,[39] Apache OpenOffice 3.4 was released 8 May 2012[1] and Apache OpenOffice graduated as a top-level Apache project on 18 October 2012.[40][41][42]
IBM donated the Lotus Symphony codebase to the Apache Software Foundation in 2012, and Symphony was deprecated in favour of Apache OpenOffice.[36] Many features, including the sidebar and bug fixes, were merged.[43] The IAccessible2 screen reader support from Symphony was merged for inclusion in the AOO 4.1 release,[6] although its first appearance in an open source software release was as part of LibreOffice 4.2 in January 2014.[44]
Timeline of major derivatives of StarOffice and OpenOffice.org. Apache OpenOffice is in blue.
Naming
By December 2011, the project was being called Apache OpenOffice.org (Incubating);[45] in 2012, the project chose the name Apache OpenOffice,[46] a name used in the 3.4 press release.[1]
Component applications
Fonts
Apache OpenOffice includes OpenSymbol, DejaVu,[47] the Gentium fonts, and the Apache-licensed ChromeOS fonts Arimo (sans serif), Tinos (serif) and Cousine (monospace).[48][49]
OpenOffice Basic
Apache OpenOffice includes OpenOffice Basic, a programming language similar to Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). Apache OpenOffice has some Microsoft VBA macro support. OpenOffice Basic is available in Writer, Calc and Base.
File formats
Apache OpenOffice inherits its handling of file formats from OpenOffice.org (excluding some supported only by copyleft libraries,[48] such as WordPerfect support). There is no definitive list of what formats the program supports other than the program's behaviour.[50] Notable claimed improvements in file format handling in 4.0 include improved interoperability with Office Open XML[51] (import only).
Use of Java
Apache OpenOffice does not bundle a Java virtual machine with the installer, as OpenOffice.org did,[52] although the suite still requires Java for "full functionality."[53]
Supported operating systems
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.0 was released for x86 versions of Microsoft Windows XP or later, Linux (32-bit and 64-bit), and Macintosh OS X 10.7 or later.[54]
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This section is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2014) |
Other operating systems are supported by community ports; completed ports for 3.4.1[55] included various other Linux platforms, FreeBSD, OS/2 and Solaris SPARC,[56] and ports of 3.4.0 for Mac OS X v10.4–v10.5 PowerPC[57] and Solaris x86.[58]
Development
Release history
| Version |
Release date |
Description |
| 3.4 |
2012-05-08[1] |
First Apache release. |
| 3.4.1 |
2012-08-23 |
Bug fixes, more languages.[59] |
| 4.0.0 |
2013-07-23 |
New sidebar, Symphony merge, additional features.[51] |
| 4.0.1 |
2013-10-01 |
Bug fixes, 9 new languages.[60] |
| 4.1 |
2014-04-29 |
___ |
| 4.1.1 |
2014-08-21 |
___ |
As an Apache project, Apache OpenOffice is under the governance of the Apache Software Foundation.
The project has no regular release schedule; it eschews time-based release schedules, releasing only "when it is ready".[61] This contrasts with the approach of LibreOffice, which plans feature releases every six months.[62]
Apache OpenOffice 3.4
Apache OpenOffice 3.4 logo
Oracle released a beta version of OpenOffice.org 3.4 on 12 April 2011, including new SVG import, improved ODF 1.2 support, and spreadsheet functionality.[63]
A few days after the beta release, Oracle cancelled development of the proprietary Oracle Open Office derivative[64] and, a few months later, announced that stewardship of OpenOffice.org would be transferred to the Apache Software Foundation.[65]
With the donation to Apache, development slowed while the foundation moved the codebase and infrastructure to its servers. Apache OpenOffice 3.4 was released on 8 May 2012.[1][66] Apache OpenOffice 3.4 differed from the thirteen-month-older OpenOffice.org 3.4 beta mainly in license-related details:[67] as much code and fonts under licenses unacceptable to Apache was removed as was possible.[48][68] Language support was considerably reduced, to 15 languages[1] from 121 in the last Oracle OpenOffice.org version.[69] Java is not bundled with the software.[52] 3.4.1, released 23 August 2012, added five more languages,[59] with a further eight added 30 January 2013.[70]
Apache OpenOffice 4.0
Apache OpenOffice 4.0 was released 23 July 2013.[71] Features include merging the Symphony code drop, reimplementing the sidebar-style interface from Symphony, improved install, MS Office interoperability enhancements, and performance improvements.[72][73] 4.0.1 added nine new languages.[60]
Apache OpenOffice 4.1
This version was released 29 April 2014. Various features lined up for 4.1 include comments on text ranges, IAccessible2, in-place editing of Input Fields, interactive cropping, importing pictures from files and other improvements.[74]
Distribution
The project strongly recommends all downloads be made from its own download page,[75] which supplies binaries from the project's SourceForge page. SourceForge reported 30 million downloads for the Apache OpenOffice 3.4 series by January 2013, making it one of SourceForge's top downloads;[76] the project claimed 50 million downloads of Apache OpenOffice 3.4.x as of 15 May 2013, slightly over one year after the release of 3.4.0 (8 May 2012),[77] and 85,083,221 downloads of all versions by 1 January 2014.[78]
As of May 2012 (the first million downloads), 87% of downloads via SourceForge were for Windows, 11% for Macintosh and 2% for Linux;[16] statistics in the first 50 million downloads remained consistent, at 88% Windows, 10% Macintosh, 2% Linux.[79] As of April 2014, Apache OpenOffice has been downloaded 100 million times in a period of two years. [80]
In distributions, Apache OpenOffice is available in Gentoo Linux[81] and the FreeBSD ports tree.[82] It's is also to be made available for OS/2 and eComStation.[83]
Derivatives
Derivatives include AndrOpen Office[84][85] for Android.
LibreOffice also reuses some Apache OpenOffice code, acknowledging 4.5% of commits in LibreOffice 4.1 as coming from Apache contributors.[86] It is also rebasing its LGPL version 3 codebase on the Apache OpenOffice 3.4 source code release,[clarification needed] to allow wider (but still copyleft) licensing under MPL v2+ and LGPL v3+.[87]
NeoOffice includes stability fixes from Apache OpenOffice.[88]
