Welcome Guest.   Make a donation to an author on the site June 19, 2013, 06:06:35 AM  *

Please login or register.
Or did you miss your validation email?


Login with username and password (forgot your password?)
Why not become a lifetime supporting member of the site with a one-time donation of any amount? Your donation entitles you to a ton of additional benefits, including access to exclusive discounts and downloads, the ability to enter monthly free software drawings, and a single non-expiring license key for all of our programs.

You must sign up here before you can post and access some areas of the site. Registration is totally free and confidential.
 
The N.A.N.Y. Challenge 2010! Download 24 custom programs!
   
   Forum Home   Thread Marks Chat! Downloads Search Login Register  
+  DonationCoder.com Forum
|-+  Main Area and Open Discussion
| |-+  General Software Discussion
| | |-+  First looks at OpenOffice 3.1
Pages: Prev 1 [2]   Go Down
« previous next »
  Reply  |  New Topic  |  Print  
Author Topic: First looks at OpenOffice 3.1  (Read 9857 times)
J-Mac
Supporting Member
**
Posts: 2,682


plarker J-Mac see users location on a map View Profile Read user's biography. Give some DonationCredits to this forum member
« Reply #25 on: March 04, 2009, 02:01:56 AM »
Quote from: Carol Haynes on March 03, 2009, 07:46:25 PM
Quote from: J-Mac on March 03, 2009, 06:05:52 PM
Quote from: Edvard on March 03, 2009, 05:52:49 PM
Quickstart should only open once and sit in your tray, or you can set it to open on startup.
If it goes everytime you open a file, maybe you have it actually disabled and so it loads every time you open a OO file?

I don't want it open, taking memory for no good reason, at all! So I would close it - completely. And, yes, it will open again and again if you close it. I have to end up disabling it altogether - and users shouldn’t have to figure out how to do that. Even Microsoft doesn't keep the entire Office suite open in the background by default so individual programs load faster.

Jim

Actually MS Office does startup an application at startup - they just don't put an icon in the system tray. Also MS loads all sorts of modules into memory with Windows at startup too support all kinds of software (whether you use it or not) - check you task manager.

As I understand it OpenOffice do not load the whol application into memory at startup they just load a helper which appears in the system tray - which many many programs do and given that it is a cross platform app it is not surprising that it has to rely on non-MS libraries etc. to run.

I have - and I cannot find anywhere near as much memory used by MS Office as I see with OO, though I do prefer some parts of OO more than MS Office. In other areas OO still has a ways to go to catch up. I really wish that they could get Draw working better; I love it but it manages to bite me most of the time!!

Thanks!

Jim
Logged
J-Mac
Carol Haynes
Waffles for England (patent pending)
Global Moderator
*****
Posts: 7,824



see users location on a map View Profile WWW Give some DonationCredits to this forum member
« Reply #26 on: March 04, 2009, 04:23:29 AM »
The trouble with MS is it is all smoke and mirrors - you won't see a massive memory usgae because most of MS's 'preload' isn't specific to MS Office (but if you look in startup you will find MSO). A lot of the support required for MS Office is shared support for other apps and loaded as various DLLs with cryptic names even when Office isn't installed.

OO doesn't have that luxury. It is written to run on Windows, Linux, Mac (and others) so it has to have libraries written for specific support for OO. There is no way round that.

Having said that if you want to see how bad MS Office can be try using Outlook (any version since 2002) and you will find out what slow is. Not only is it horrendously slow to load but when you check your emails it freezes up periodically until it has finished downloading.

It is interesting that you single out OO Draw for improvement - MSO doesn't even have a draw feature!

Have you tried inkscape
Logged
Things I like to do ... PlayOutdoors.co.uk ... Lairdswood.com ... and I support FGVI - Charity helping Visually Impaired Children in the Gambia
fenixproductions
Honorary Member
**
Posts: 1,158



see users location on a map View Profile WWW Give some DonationCredits to this forum member
« Reply #27 on: March 04, 2009, 04:35:37 PM »
Quote from: Carol Haynes on March 04, 2009, 04:23:29 AM
It is interesting that you single out OO Draw for improvement - MSO doesn't even have a draw feature!
And OO does not have mail client. We can quarrel and say: MS has Visio and OO - Thunderbird.

I think that Draw is the worst part of OO but it pushed me into Inkscape's side (and Scribus a little bit). Maybe that was its creator idea at the first place?

I can't also get one thing off my head when it comes to Draw: a sentence that when 3 pretty girls go to party they always take ugly one with them... Wink
Logged
Надо было учиться, а не камни в школу бросать...
--
f0dder is my personal hero smiley


[ may-june 2013 ad experiment; click here to learn more about donationcoder.com ]

Edvard
Coding Snacks Author
Charter Honorary Member
***
Posts: 2,155



View Profile Give some DonationCredits to this forum member
« Reply #28 on: March 04, 2009, 06:55:14 PM »
Gee, I kinda like Draw. Sad

Sure, it's no Inkscape, but when I need a quick layout with a few pasted-in logos and large text, it works a peach! This new version has a few tweaks that are nice, so I'm looking forward...
Logged
All children left unattended will be given a mocha and a puppy.
J-Mac
Supporting Member
**
Posts: 2,682


plarker J-Mac see users location on a map View Profile Read user's biography. Give some DonationCredits to this forum member
« Reply #29 on: March 05, 2009, 12:46:34 AM »
Quote from: Carol Haynes on March 04, 2009, 04:23:29 AM
The trouble with MS is it is all smoke and mirrors - you won't see a massive memory usgae because most of MS's 'preload' isn't specific to MS Office (but if you look in startup you will find MSO). A lot of the support required for MS Office is shared support for other apps and loaded as various DLLs with cryptic names even when Office isn't installed.

OO doesn't have that luxury. It is written to run on Windows, Linux, Mac (and others) so it has to have libraries written for specific support for OO. There is no way round that.

Having said that if you want to see how bad MS Office can be try using Outlook (any version since 2002) and you will find out what slow is. Not only is it horrendously slow to load but when you check your emails it freezes up periodically until it has finished downloading.

It is interesting that you single out OO Draw for improvement - MSO doesn't even have a draw feature!

Have you tried inkscape

I only know what I can see.  smiley

Regarding Outlook, I was just using it (once again - it's an on and off, love/hate - or more like a hate/really hate relationship!) and had to stop again; it now closes immediately after opening. Arrgghh! Tried Detect and Repair - didn’t help at all. So it is in the can again. Back to T-Bird for now.

Carol - you seem to think I am attacking OO and pushing Office. Not so. I mentioned the one thing I don't like about OO and you are on me like, well, you know! Take it easy - I am not besmirching your beloved OO! Regarding my comments on Draw, I know full well that MS has no such app. I just want OO's Draw to work better - and I am not alone!

Jim
Logged
J-Mac
Carol Haynes
Waffles for England (patent pending)
Global Moderator
*****
Posts: 7,824



see users location on a map View Profile WWW Give some DonationCredits to this forum member
« Reply #30 on: March 05, 2009, 05:16:00 AM »
Sorry if I gave you that impression - actually I use MS Office 2007 almost exclusively.

I did have a play with OO 3 and am generally impressed with what they have acheived and I have recommended it to a number of people as an alternative to spending money.

No software is without its irritations but as far as free software goes I think OO is an admirable effort to meet a need. I just think sometime people can be rather critical of a product that is being given away for free. It happens here some times (rarely) when people get uptight when something isn't quite right in software produced by Mouser and others.

WRT MS Outlook - I seem to be in a hate relationship too but I actually prefer it (when it works) to the alternatives. I like some of the new features in Outlook 2007 but I just wish they would make the whole thing run more efficiently and not have such a clunky feel in use. I presume it is in line for the ribbon treatment in the next version - which I am not against in principle - I just hope they focus on some of the practical issues.
Logged
Things I like to do ... PlayOutdoors.co.uk ... Lairdswood.com ... and I support FGVI - Charity helping Visually Impaired Children in the Gambia
Midnight Rambler
Supporting Member
**
Posts: 103


see users location on a map View Profile Give some DonationCredits to this forum member
« Reply #31 on: March 07, 2009, 03:52:27 PM »
Have been using OO since 1.14 and biggest drawback is still that user has to download full file even for minor version update.  Not as big an issue since broadband but FF finally got it right so why can't OO?

Also, installation of 3.0 over 2.X corrupted some components of my Vista SP1 laptop.  Luckily, had TI 11 image and restored.

And what's up with OO's funky real-time spell check function?  Still haven't figured out how it works.
Logged
Compaq Presario 5716 (98), Dell Dimension 4700 (XP), Lenovo ThinkPad R61i (Vista).
Pages: Prev 1 [2]   Go Up
  Reply  |  New Topic  |  Print  
« previous next »
 
Jump to:  
   Forum Home   Thread Marks Chat! Downloads Search Login Register  

DonationCoder.com | About Us
DonationCoder.com Forum | Powered by SMF
[ Page time: 0.046s | Server load: 0.1 ]