OpenOffice

[eestlinc]

I'm trying to download and install OpenOffice on Mac OSX Intel and the site says the most recent version 2.0.3 is only released currently in French and German and that English is "coming soon". Is there a way to get an older version (or is this the only version that runs on Intel macs?) and if not, any idea when "soon" will come? Would I be stupid to download the German version? I'm mildly capable of reading German.

edit: here's the link to the download page:

http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/2.0.x-intel.html

[crono_logical]

I guess you might have to wait, I can't see any other versions for OSX Intel anywhere or on other download pages, just for other systems

[eestlinc]

I guess I could install it on my Windows virtual drive. Once I start school I can buy Microsoft Office at a steep discount too.

[Roto13]

Only fools pay for software.

[Mirage]

Only fools pay for food. Cool people steal it.

[eestlinc]

Only fools pay for software.

you're treading on thin ice here.

[crono_logical]

Not really, the cool people go open source

If you can't wait, you could try compiling openoffice.org yourself after getting the source code Just be warned it takes several GBs of memory to do so so make sure you have enough RAM/swap

[Yamaneko]

You can run the PPC version under Rosetta for now.

I don't think there will be an update to support Intel-based Macs under Office until Office 12 comes out.

[eestlinc]

If I'm going to run a PPC version of openoffice i might as well just get the PPC version of microsoft office. i went ahead and downloaded the Windows version of openoffice for now so i can do some spreadsheeting and word processing if need be.

If you can't wait, you could try compiling openoffice.org yourself after getting the source code Just be warned it takes several GBs of memory to do so so make sure you have enough RAM/swap

I have 2GB of RAM but I think I would need slightly more computer skill than I have right now. Unless you have any great insight.

[Dr Unne]

OO.o support for OS X isn't too great. You could try this: http://www.neooffice.org/ however it is not free until August 29th.

Compiling OO.o doesn't take 2GB of RAM. I've done it with 512MB or less. It does take a lot of disk space. It also takes many hours and there's a good chance of failure. You'd need gcc and I think some versions of OO.o require a java environment for som reason.

You could try a Knoppix disk and run OO.o from there. However I'm unsure if there are any Knoppix disks that will work on a Mac Intel.

[eestlinc]

Yea, it definitely seems like OpenOffice doesn't care too much about Mac functionality. By comparison I was able to download, install, and use the Windows version with no effort whatsoever. I think I'd rather just pay the $75 to get Microsoft Office for Mac from my university that spend a bunch of my time configuring special terminals just to run a somewhat inferior product that happens to be free.

Compiling OO.o doesn't take 2GB of RAM. I've done it with 512MB or less. It does take a lot of disk space. It also takes many hours and there's a good chance of failure. You'd need gcc and I think some versions of OO.o require a java environment for som reason.

According to the OO.o site some versions (including Windows) use JRE for database interaction, although for basic word processing that isn't necessary.

[Yamaneko]

You could always get Pages which is a universal binary. Although it's not technically a word processing program, it does a good job.

I got Ubuntu running on a Macbook Pro at work. No trackpad, keyboard backlight, or isight support though.

[eestlinc]

I decided not to buy Pages because I want Excel as much as I want Word, and I thought I would try OpenOffice, not knowing it was unavailable for Intel Mac in English.

[Yamaneko]

You're better off dual booting/vming OO.o for now until Office 12 comes out. Unless you don't mind spending the money on Office now and getting it again later.

[eestlinc]

When is Office 12 coming out?