LibreOffice 3.4 Beta 2 available
Dear Community,
The Document Foundation is happy to announce the second beta release of LibreOffice 3.4. The upcoming 3.4 will be the second major release of the LibreOffice project, and comes with many exciting new features. Please be aware that LibreOffice 3.4 Beta2 is not yet ready for production use, you should continue to use LibreOffice 3.3.2 for that.
The beta release is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X from our QA builds download page at
http://www.libreoffice.org/download/pre-releases/
Should you find bugs, please report them to the FreeDesktop Bugzilla:
For other ways to get involved with this exciting project – you can e.g. contribute code:
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-involved/developers/
translate LibreOffice to your language:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Translation_for_3.4
or help with funding our foundation:
http://challenge.documentfoundation.org/
A list of known issues with 3.4 Beta2 is available from our wiki:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/3.4/beta2
Please find the list of changes against LibreOffice 3.4 Beta1 here:
http://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/src/bugfixes-libreoffice-3-4-release-3.3.99.2.log
Let us close again with a BIG Thank You! to all of you having contributed to the LibreOffice project – this release would not have been possible without your help.
Yours,
The Steering Committee of The Document Foundation
FYI, list of bugs reported in Beta 2:
http://bit.ly/fdFMPh
It crashes on startup with the error:
/opt/libreoffice/program/oosplash.bin: symbol lookup error: /opt/libreoffice/program/oosplash.bin: undefined symbol: sal_detail_initialize, version PRIVATE_1.1
Debian Testing, 32-bit. Version 3.3.2 works.
Dear LibreOffice team,
we are in 2011 now. Yet you still use this ancient presentation wizard and the task pane as default. The drawing toolbar should also be removed, as it should be summarized in one little icon on the top page.
I suggest working to deuglify the UI in 3.5 and 3.6 before creating a 4.0 LO.
The toolbars should be on the left side of the screen. You know, the monitors get wider and not higher.
I hope to see great results soon!
A faithful LO user
Dear YesBaby,
Please don’t act like you’re the only one who knows what it’s like to live in 2011. Also, please don’t suggest making drastic UI changes based on your personal preferences. It is beyond arrogant.
An irritated LO user
How about toolbars that you can move around to suit your needs, so everyone can be happy?
Dear Foolishgrunt,
I never said anything about anybody being ignorant of the year we live in. The only thing I stated was that after those many years of developing LO there are still some things from the ancient past in it.
I’m suggesting any UI changes which may be far better for the modern audience. If you can’t live with that or live with ancient UI as preferred operation base, it’s your problem, not mine. Also, the majority of the people on the internet really do use wide monitors.
Now if you don’t post some constructive feedback for the LO team, I suggest you stopping to flame anybody who wants the product to get better and better by posting feedback.
I did not say that anybody is ignorant of the year we live in. I just pointed out what ancient program/setting/whatever there still is in LO.
I’ll suggest anything I find suited for the modern audience. If you can’t accept that, it’s your problem and not mine. Also, my “personal preferences” are just suggestions.
Somehow my first post got deleted. Either one of the mods here is really sensible or I didn’t push the post comment button? mmh.. interesting.
mmh, now both answers are back. didn’t see it a few minutes ago. anyhow, both answers are pretty much the same.
Yesbaby, it is your personal opinion that the splashscreen,menu, or whatever you’re complaining about is ugly. It is arrogant to assume that everyone else sees it as being ugly. And your arrogance shows itself again when you think that things should be deguified.
i have a suspicion that you’re the one posting comments on other sites that say this and that is “ugly” and should be changed to your liking. please keep such degrading remarks to yourself. if it is “ugly” to you, i’d suggest you use something else that is not as ugly to you.
I will please suggest anything thay may be better for the product. However, the things I suggest are suggestions. If you need a one-week poll with 1000+ users to comment on this and that, it’s your problem not mine.
Dear LO team,
I have good faith in you! Please keep up the good work!
Overhauling the UI is, I think, a necessary step particularly to appeal to new users.
YesBaby must be an American as he thinks he is the very right person exciting in the world. Typical American thinking.
When you say that LibreOffice’s UI is “ugly”, I can only assume you’re comparing it to the market leader, MS Office. The thing is, OpenOffice and LibreOffice have nearly identical interfaces to MS Office 2003. Now, the only major UI change between MS Office 2003 and MS Office 2010 was the introduction of the ribbon interface. With that in mind, it seems fairly obvious to me that when you talk about “deuglifying” LibreOffice, you’re talking about introducing a UI similar to Microsoft’s ribbon interface. I wish you would state that explicitly, rather than grandstand with all this talk about “it’s 2011” and “keep up with the trends in monitor technology.” It’s just a cover: the fact is you (arrogantly) think your suggestions are somehow representative of public opinion.
I, for one, am quite satisfied with LibreOffice’s menu-driven UI, and would be disappointed if the dev team opted for the hordes of icons and buttons necessitated by a ribbon-like interface. I personally dislike the apparent trend towards tons of buttons, and it bothers me when a nitpicker like you tries to convince people that buttons are the only legitimate way to modernize your software.
I may have been a little harsh here, but I was not insulting. If you were offended by my words, then (to borrow a phrase) “that’s your problem, not mine.”
I’m not insulted, I’m for a modern UI. I know it’ll take time to develop etc., but the fact that every little piece which should be changed needs varification from the whole community is… not good. super agrees with me.
You may like Office 2003. However, it’s now >8 years old. Browser’s UI change, Windows’ UI changes etc, etc.
However, LO is quite… old-fashioned.
I would have to agree with yesbaby. If Libre Office wants to compete with Microsoft, they are going to have to do some UI changes. Face it, some people do not use Libreoffice because it doesn’t look modern. To make people want to use LO, they are going to have to at least make the UI look more interesting.
The UI has to change +1
More space, more convenience. The concept of FREE!!!Unity of Ubuntu, Apple iPad, MS office,etc. User need more free space, while the arrangement of the big and variously complicated icons is way too disappointing.
The buglist doesn’t even look like parade of showstoppers. It’s a full bag of showkillers.
Seems like all ex-OOO managers moved here, while all the developers are still *there*.
Its actually kind of the opposite. Many developers moved to LibreOffice, but the managers did not. As a result, there are a lot of changes being committed to the code without a good quality assurance plan. This is what is causing the bugs. Hopefully, the project will get its act together and implement a more rigorous development, testing and release process.
Great job! Keep up the amazing work!
Libreoffice 3.4 beta 2 crashes when I instaling in Mandriva 2010.2. Message error:
/opt/libreoffice/program/oosplash.bin: symbol lookup error
Thanks for your incredible work!!! LibreOffice will be surely better than M$ office in a few years!
Please, please, please….. can someone give us a real clone of vba for the LO/OOO world? The hangover fromt he dark days that’s StarBasic is driving me nuts and there’s not been one good article anywhere that tells you how to use it that makes sense….
Until there’s a change in there…. I’m staying with MS Office and keeping LO/OOO just as a nutcracker for problem documents….
Oh – and I tried the beta…. and it crashed when I started it… and I’ve not got the time to try and work out why…. Incidentally – when I looked at LO on some live disks…. the database application, which is the one I’m most interested in, didn’t have operating form creation tools – so it was completely unusable!
I have been a loyal user of this code since StarOffice ran on OS/2! I am happy to see that the concept of a free alternative to MS Office has managed to survive for so long and wish you good luck. However, if I might be allowed a few suggestions:
1. The user interface is pretty old and tired-looking. I’m not suggesting that you slavishly copy Office’s “ribbon” interface but certainly a facelift would make program functions a bit more approachable. IBM’s Lotus Symphony has made an interesting effort with a tabbed interface which only clutters up the screen when you need access to specific features.
2. Base definitely needs a substantial overhaul. At present, it isn’t much better than a set of linked spreadsheets for data entry and reporting. Something closer to Access or Lotus Approach would be highly beneficial, especially if the program could easily be employed as a front end to a number of “industrial strength” relational database managers.
Anyway, thanks for your efforts. If nothing else, you convinced Oracle to let go of OpenOffice.org!
I think draw should be remove and the dev should make an equivalent of EVERNOTE to replace it. I would be so great to have this. And MS office has one note, and it is note for nothing. More students would move to libre office with that.
Libre Office woulnt be anymore just a fork but a differnt system with that.
What do you think about it ?
I would love to see LO dev teams to develop an iPhone/Android/Blackberry app for an OpenDocument viewer to facilitate mobile LO users in the near future.
For the LibreOffice team, thanks a million for the effort and great work!
In relation to the some of the negative comments above, sorry for the rant but please remember that (i) this is free/libre and open source software and that (ii) this is Beta software.
You cannot behave as clients. You have the choice to be users and community members and that’s it. If you really would like to have a new feature, get involved, donate money (I did!) and write code! Go and check the mail lists and IRC channels. Few projects seem to be as open as LibreOffice. Make use of it. The comment’s section of this blog is definitely not the place for productive and structured feedback.
Moreover, even though I agree that the packaging bug of Beta1 was a bit embarrassing, the whole point of a testing version is to break down. The disclaimer on “do not use it on your production machine” is there for a (good) reason. If you can’t afford using a buggy version, stick to 3.3 for the moment.
Only my two cents…
@Yeti
First of all, installing this beta version removes the stable version, leaving you with no choice but to use the beta. I would stick to 3.3 for production use if that were possible, but it isn’t possible because 3.4 beta 2 removed 3.3 it from my machine.
Telling someone not do do something does not help anyone if the users are being forced to do the very thing they have been told not to do.
Secondly, the point of a testing version IS NOT to break down. A beta is there to be tested and identify problems so that they can be solved, not to deliberately create problems.
I think the point is this: if you can’t afford to use a buggy piece of software, don’t install the beta. Period. I understand that you intended to use both versions side-by-side, but once it became obvious that installing the beta would remove the stable version, you did not need to continue the install. You did it of your own free will, you were not forced.
As for the point of a development version, no one can deny that the point is to fix problems. But consider this: the only way to fix a problem is to identify it, and the only way to identify a problem is to have something break in the first place. The idea is not to DELIBERATELY create problems, but having problems can be considered beneficial, as it’s a necessary prerequisite to solving them. So I don’t think you can say having bugs in a beta package is a bad thing.
So basically you’re saying that no one should ever install a beta? In that case what’s the point of releasing something that no one should ever use?
There was no warning on the download page that installing this package would remove a stable installation, and it did not become obvious that this would happen until it had already happened.
It doesn’t make sense to tell someone to “use 3.3 for production use” if that is impossible because 3.3 has been removed from their machine!
Also, by what measure is having bugs in a beta “beneficial”? If there are bugs then that means work has to be done to fix those bugs, if there are no bugs then there is no need to do any work. How is having to do extra work “beneficial”?
Ed,
I really think you should fully remove 3.4 and reinstall 3.3 and then wait a few weeks before 3.4 is mature enough in order to give it a second try. Maybe you should even wait for the final release. Let me know if you need any help with uninstall/reinstall.
3.4 Beta2 removed 3.3 because it was an upgrade. That is what an upgrade is expected to do. There is a ongoing discussion on the need to allow new versions to be installed alongside older ones (it would indeed be convenient), but it is a not a simple issue:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36551
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=35673#c35
I can understand your frustration, but I believe that the concepts of Beta and Beta testing are clear enough: you use a beta version only to test it, not to do your daily work. If possible, you use it in a sandbox (Virtual machine, old computer, etc.), not on your production machine.
Moreover, bugs are not created by anyone on purpose, they are the unavoidable result of complexity. No one is happy to have them, but everyone is glad find them, specially when we are in a Beta version, which is the right occasion to do so.
Maybe the disclaimers in the download page were not explicit enough, but I don’t believe you or anyone else was “forced” to install 3.4 Beta2.
Cheers,
Yeti
“I really think you should fully remove 3.4 and reinstall 3.3 and then wait a few weeks before 3.4 is mature enough in order to give it a second try. Maybe you should even wait for the final release.”
So you’re saying “do not test the beta build”? That begs the question what the point of a testing build is if no one is supposed to ever test it.
“but I believe that the concepts of Beta and Beta testing are clear enough: you use a beta version only to test it, not to do your daily work.”
My point is that once the beta in installed to test, THERE IS NO CHOICE BUT TO USE IF FOR DAILY WORK because the beta has removed the previous version.
Being clear that you “should” do something does not help if what you “should” do is impossible!
“Maybe the disclaimers in the download page were not explicit enough, but I don’t believe you or anyone else was “forced” to install 3.4 Beta2”
I never said I was forced to install the beta. What I did say was that since I volunteered to test the beta, I was forced to use that beta build for everything as it uninstalled the previous version.
Once again, being “explicit” about something doers not help if the user has no choice.
A concise list of user-visible changes would be nice, with screenshots where relevant.
Would oou please advise if following is from this Libreoffice?
”
DDE Server Window : Soffice.bin Application program error
Order at 0x06076546 refered memory at 0x00000004 Memory can not be read.
If you want to finish program click confirm.
”
Installed Livreoffice LibreOffice 3.4.0 DEV300m103 (Build:1)
Korean version also installed.
Whenever close document(doc, xls, ppt)of Livreoffice, above message shows in in window (square box)
window XP professional service pack 3
I agree with YesBaby. I think the UI needs an overhaul. At the very least, dark themes on Linux make Ooo/LO look like a throwback to the early 90’s. Btw, don’t worry about the people that are always stuck with the old ways of doing things, they’ll die off soon enough. If new UI didn’t matter, then why do car manufacturer’s change their styles? Cell phones continue to look different, etc.,
Please remember that aesthetics are entirely subjective. Having different aesthetic tastes to yours does not mean someone is “always stuck with the old ways of doing things” or will “die off soon enough”.
LO already has a choice of icon sets, and most of the other theme aspects are lifted from the operating system and can be changes at OS level.
Also, where did you get the idea that dark themes “look like a throwback to the early 90′s”? Most software from the early 90’s was actually predominantly white or light grey by default. The current trend (and it is the current trend, not a throwback to anything) for dark themes started with Windows Vista in 2007.
on the subject of GUI’S I’d like for Libre to have floating toolbars akin to GIMP. This would set it apart from Office 2007, and make a bold statement which, hopefully, the press would take hold of, thus promoting the positives of Libre