InfoWorld awards Best of Open Source to LibreOffice
LibreOffice is one of the winners of InfoWorld BOSSIE – Best of Open Source – Awards 2011.
OpenOffice.org desperately needed a rejuvenating shot in the arm, and it’s come in the form of the LibreOffice project, a variant of OO.o developed by the Document Foundation (the folks behind the ODF standard).
LibreOffice launches faster, runs more reliably, and sports an incrementally better set of features than OpenOffice.org – but what’s most important is the accelerated pace of development for the product.
The newest features show that much more attention to improving performance and making the product more like a business tool and less a me-too effort.
The latest version, LibreOffice 3.4.3, adds many useful functions: improved HTML export; better text rendering in Linux; better support for OLE links when importing an Excel document (crucial if you’re migrating away from Microsoft Office); fewer dependencies on Java for import/export and other tasks (another annoying shortcoming in OpenOffice.org); and a nonmodal Firefox/Chrome-like “Find” dialog.
They’re good additions all around.
LibreOffice’s spelling/grammar checking is still primitive compared to Microsoft Office, and there’s still a lot of clunkiness to the program.
But the whole package is finally headed in the right direction.
Doug Dineley, Executive Editor/Test Center, InfoWorld:
In every software category worth mentioning, you’ll find a competitive open source solution. And in some cases, open source is the only solution. Our 2011 Bossie Award winners represent the best that open source has to offer in application development, desktop productivity, mobile computing, and the data center.
By the way, behind the ODF standard there is OASIS and not TDF, which is a supporter of the standard and will soon apply for OASIS membership.