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Apache Software Foundation
OpenOffice

by Faulkner Staff

Copyright 2021, Faulkner Information Services. All
Rights Reserved.

Docid: 00018879

Publication Date: 2101

Report Type: PRODUCT

Preview

The Apache Software Foundation’s OpenOffice is a free workplace productivity
suite with applications that are designed to resemble Microsoft Office.
To date, OpenOffice has been downloaded nearly 305 million
times (January 2021). The release is also, however, part of a crowded field that includes a variety of
commercial and freely available options for office software. This profile takes a look at
the various elements of OpenOffice, the key components of its
most-recent update (version 4.1.8), and its top competitors.

Report Contents:

• Description
• Applications
• Environment
• Support
• Pricing
• Competitors
• References
• Web Links
• Related Reports

Description

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The Apache Software Foundation’s OpenOffice is a portfolio of open-source
desktop applications that serve as an alternative to Microsoft Office,
with software comparable to Word (Writer), Excel (Calc),
and other familiar Microsoft programs.

OpenOffice also includes Impress (multimedia
presentations), Draw (illustration tool), Base
(databases), and Math (mathematical equations creator). 

The OpenOffice group was founded in 2000 when Sun Microsystems donated
more than 7.4 million lines of source code. In 2011, OpenOffice was
donated to the community-based Apache Software Foundation by Oracle, its
main corporate sponsor. (Oracle no longer offers a commercial version of
OpenOffice, as it once did in the forms of Oracle OpenOffice and
StarOffice.) Around this stage of OpenOffice’s history, some of the
developers working on the software pursued another project, called
LibreOffice, which is now a free suite of applications that includes
similar components to those included in OpenOffice.¹

As with
any code base brought to Apache, OpenOffice underwent an incubation period
in which it was reviewed by committee members. The project was
developed as a podling in the Apache Software Foundation Incubator under
its meritocratic process (“The Apache Way”). In 2012, it became a
"top-level" project. A distinguishing technical feature is that OpenOffice uses the OASIS
OpenDocument Format.

One major difference between OpenOffice and other commercial software such as
Microsoft Office is its licensing. Apache lets users install OpenOffice as widely as they like for free, regardless of how or in what
industry, and can even distribute it freely to
others. According to Apache, OpenOffice had been downloaded nearly 305 million times (January
2021), which is up 8 percent – or 22 million – from 283 million downloads for the same date,
one year prior.² The statistics, it should be noted, do not include
copies downloaded from sources other than Apache.

Table 1 describes OpenOffice applications in
greater detail.

Figure 1 shows OpenOffice Writer.

Figure 1. OpenOffice Writer

Source: OpenOffice

Figure 2 shows a sample of Calc spreadsheets in use.

Figure 2. OpenOffice Calc

Source: OpenOffice

Most OpenOffice applications have a set of common features, as listed in Table 2.

Latest Release

OpenOffice 4.1.8 was

released in November 2020. This update is available in 41 languages for
Windows, macOS, and Linux. Primarily a maintenance release, the refresh includes
"important" bug fixes. Apache followed up this rollout with a fix to its version
for macOS 11 (Big Sur) in January 2021. This application specifically addresses
a crashing issue when opening, for example, .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx files.

Applications

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The base version of OpenOffice supports roughly 100 languages in all. Because it is free, it is
particularly useful for organizations in developing countries and for
users who do not want complicated license agreements or who do not need
(or cannot afford) support for proprietary software from Microsoft or
another commercial vendor. Particular areas of application include:

• Government Agencies
• Education Sector
• Businesses
• Nonprofits
• IT Organizations
• F/OSS Advocates

Environment

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OpenOffice applications run natively on many different operating systems.
It is released on Windows, Linux, and Mac OSs, with more communities joining,
including a mature FreeBSD port. Regardless of platform, a Java Runtime
Environment 1.5.x or newer deployment is needed; for Linux, GNOME 2.10 or higher
is also necessary.

These and other specifications are outlined in Table 3.

Support

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Apache offers a complete OpenOffice support area with links for product
documentation, community support, bug tracking, professional services,
books about OpenOffice, online tutorials, and other resources. This area
is available at http://www.openoffice.org/support/index.html.

Pricing

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The Apache Software Foundation offers OpenOffice as a free download at http://www.openoffice.org/download/.

Competitors

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OpenOffice’s top competitor is Microsoft Office, perhaps even more so in
light of the cloud-based Office 365 family. Other competitors include Apple iWork,
Corel Office, Google Docs, Gnome Gnumeric, Kingsoft WPS Office,
LibreOffice, neoOffice, SoftMaker Office, and the Zoho Office suite.

References

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¹ Gupta, Hermant. “Review: OpenOffice vs. LibreOffice Indepth
Analysis.” Only Business Talks. August 2014.
² “OpenOffice Download Stats." Apache. Accessed January
20, 2021.

Web Links

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• Apache Software Foundation: http://www.apache.org/
• Apple: http://www.apple.com/
• Corel: http://www.corel.com/
• Gnome: http://www.gnome.org/
• Google: http://www.google.com/
• Kingsoft WPS: https://www.wps.com/
• LibreOffice: http://www.libreoffice.org/
• Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/
• neoOffice: http://www.neooffice.org/
• OASIS: https://www.oasis-open.org/
• SoftMaker: http://www.softmaker.com/
• Zoho: http://www.zoho.com/

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