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Differences between LibreOffice and OpenOffice What is the best office suite to use on Linux?

There are many computer programs (as is Microsoft Office), ideal for work from work or home. However, each one brings with it different features and functions that you can take full advantage of.

On the other hand, there is still a great debate regarding LibreOffice and OpenOffice. For that reason, we made an article that will help you choose between one of the two, where you can see its most important factors and qualities.

In this post, we will explain all the details about these office packages, the similarities and the unique services offered by each of them. Also, we will highlight you will have details about the origin of both program packages.

What are Libre Office and OpenOffice and what are these tools for?

Interface of an application in OpenOffice

Both are office suites that have the ability to put together programs for office jobs. These softwares are very popular among many today, and were created mainly for the development and use of files and Free form documents, as an alternative to payment proposals. These packages generally contain a variety of useful tools, mostly used to assist with the different types of formats.

These bundled programs are the core part of LibreOffice Y OpenOffice, and are characterized by being word processors, slide presenters, and even spreadsheets, among others. Thanks to this set of applications, we have the facility to create, edit, scan, sort, print and many other options, documents of different characters. These word processors are Open Source, promoting the objective of a free internet and computer resources, without exclusion of any kind.

History and origin When and who developed both office suites?

Interface of a LibreOffice package

To understand a little more about these office programs, and the resemblance they have for their respective properties, you must know the birth of each of them together and you must know who their developer is. In the first place is OpenOffice, although it was one of the first to be developed it was not always called that. In 1999, Sun Microsystems purchased the StarOffice package And, years later, the company changed its philosophy to an open source program and renamed it what everyone knows as OpenOffice.

Over the years, Oracle Corporation took control of Sun Microsystems, which led to a change in the perspective of what could happen with OpenOffice. At that moment, The Document Foundation, a group of developers took the initiative and founded LibreOffice in 2011, based on the OpenOffice.org code.

Comparison between LibreOffice and OpenOffice Which is the best central office software?

Since the birth of these two office suites, its popularity has gone increasing considerably, even much more for users of Linux.

Now, you will learn the functions of each one so that you can choose the ideal one for you:

User interface and experience

Applications interface in Librepffice

Habitually, both are considered to have simple and easy-to-use interfaces. For example, OpenOffice maintains a one-color appearance and its menu has tiny icons arranged on the top side of the window.

It also features a sidebar cover, a default menu displayed on the right side of the screen. On the other hand, LibreOffice looks more colorful and shiny, it has a menu of options in the same way at the top, so it has a great resemblance to Microsoft Office.

Programs

You can see that LibreOffice and OpenOffice have a great similarity in relation to its programs, since, They were founded on the same code.

Among the most prominent programs is Writer, categorized as the word processor, Calc fully suitable for modifying spreadsheets. You can use Impress to create your slide shows, just like Base to manage a database. At the other end, you have Draw which is an implemented tool that is used to draw graphs and tables. In this same way, Math complements these softwares and is used for the use of writing formulas and mathematical terms.

Security

Libreofficen online interface

Usually these packages tend to be very safe to work with. However, it has been possible to discover a vulnerability that can affect operating systems Linux Y Windows.

Researchers revealed that attackers can use this security flaw to remotely execute malicious code or simply to access private information. For this reason, It is recommended to update LibreOffice from its official website to the latest version. While OpenOffice offers another solution, rename or delete the file “pythonscript.py” that you can find it in OpenOffice 4program.

Features and functions

We can say that both provide highly profitable and high-performance services, such as the contribution of document templates. LibreOffice is considered much more effective in this field, since these templates are included and ready to work with them, which represents an advantage compared to OpenOffice.

Other feature that differentiates OpenOffice, relative to other packages, is that it does not have the benefit of exporting documents in a format “docx”, something Libre Office can work with. On the one hand, it must be said that both can be used in multiple languages, however, LibreOffice it has support for other languages.

Software license

Licensing section in LibreOffice

Although both are open source software, they do not contain the same licenses. This is because OpenOffice currently uses the Apache license Y dual LGPLv3, on the other hand, MPL is the license acquired by LibreOffice. OpenOffice has limits of some options for their respective license. For example, LibreOffice you can put together the code of OpenOffice to your suite without any problem, instead OpenOffice it does not have this function.

Wide range of formats

It can be summarized that both office automation packages will allow you to preserve documents in multiple formats. If it is to talk about OpenOffice, This one has a slightly older system, but is still very competent nonetheless. However, LibreOffice has a wider range of file formats, since it grants the power to use documents PDF, EPUB or XHTML and export them. In the same way, it provides any user with more up-to-date options that cover up to a format ODF Y UOF, among others.