> Firebird has been upgraded to version 3.0.0. It is unable to read back Firebird 2.5 data, so embedded firebird odb files created in LibreOffice version up to 5.2 cannot be opened with LibreOffice 5.3. Since a future version of firebird will have a backwards compatibility module, some future version of LibreOffice (embedding this future version of firebird) will also be able to open these older files.
> ODB files created by LibreOffice < 5.3 can be manually converted to LibreOffice 5.3 format by using Firebird 2.5 to convert the data to archive format, and replacing the database data within the ODB by the archive format version. To do this, install a stand-alone Firebird 2.5, and use its "gbak" tool to convert the file "database.fdb" to "database.fbk" within the odb file. Don't forget to remove the .fdb file.
I don't use this feature so I don't know how popular it is, but it seems like this could cause a lot of problems for people. They probably shouldn't have updated to Firebird 3.0.0 until they had an automated migration process in place, instead of instructing end users to manually convert their old files from the command line.
Agreed, that part stood out to me a LOT as well.. though I'm not sure if they've had similar issues in the past as I also don't use the feature. Wasn't aware that it was using FB for data, but it does make sense... FB is a pretty nice db option.
Have the fixed the missing grow/shrink feature in the GUI? [1] The bug that's now a decade old? No? Well that's disappointing... I'll keep using LibreOffice, but I still can't recommended it to my non-technical friends who seem to love that effect.
My complaint against openoffice/libreoffice is about their programming/scripting interface: it is a total mess to deal with.
A couple of weeks ago I had the task to dynamically update the value of two cells in a calc spreadsheet. I did it, but ended up using a library that build on a library that builds on ... that build on UNO or whatever it's called.
The api is a mix of C++ and Java, documentation is pretty much non-existing and code examples are incomplete and ridiculous.
If I had been using excel I could have been using the win32 com api and get it done in a couple of hours at most.
But don't get me wrong: when doing non-programming stuff it works great!
I would hardly call that "basic functionality." I've been using LO as my primary office suite through several schools and jobs, and never felt like it was broken.
I use LO daily under Linux to produce handouts, simple screen based materials and spreadsheet models for teaching. My colleagues are blissfully ignorant of the fact that the materials they sometimes use where not produced in MS Office on Windows.
I would really like a stable interface for creating interactive materials, but I'd settle for being able to export a full range of hyperlinked objects in Impress as a pdf file so that the hyperlinks work. That would get me 95% of where I would like to be.
Another good alternative is WPS Office Free. It looks better than Libre Office and Microsoft Office IMO and is very lightweight in terms of memory and storage space. The download weighs in at about 73MB and it's available for Linux and Windows.
I'm actually about to try out Calligra now that they've finally updated to Qt5. I live in Qt5 land (I'm convinced KDE 5 is the best desktop right now, features and design wise), mostly because Qt5 has been my favourite UI to program for. I hope it goes well.
I think anything is a great alternative to the Office at this point. In hindsight, LibreOffice's name must've been chosen by a fortune-teller..or a <strike>pessimist</strike> realist ;)
what's so bad about Office? I just switched from LO to Office and it's felt like taking a huge weight off my shoulders - all the weird little UI quirks and bugs are gone, and everything just works.
LibreOFfice its playing catch up with MS Office actually. I am all for open source but Office is something that Microsoft really gets right and now with their subscription model it became very cheap for everyday users so unless you are on Linux you have very little reason not to use Microsoft's suite.
Because the price is the same as buying it outright in the long run (assuming you use the newer versions as most do), its at least as good a deal as the outright purchase. For things that create value over the term of ownership, a subscription makes a lot more sense than a large up front cost. We do this model, but with more middlemen & machinations, for just about everything nowadays (houses, cars, student loans, etc.). The only difference is Microsoft isn't screwing you.
The value-add here is that Office comes with cloud storage, really great built-in sync, and a continuous stream of improvement. Amazingly, Office is still getting better, but now improvements are released by the month, not every 3-4 years.
It's more expensive to get the subscription even if you do upgrade regularly. And I don't think most people buy the latest version of Office with every release. And what "monthly improvements" are even needed? Office seems pretty feature complete for most use cases.
You also get several installs, cloud storage, and the IOS apps. I would buy it outright for home but for my users in the office the subscription model works great.
I personally use the home edition for my family. 4 family members have office / 1 TB onedrive with a single yearly subscription which is a fraction of the price I'd pay for a single perpetual license (and I have an extra user license to spare). It feels like a good value for me.
It gets regular updates. There is a version that you can just buy once, but it only gets updates for (I think) a year and then you have to buy a new one whenever you want an update.
The problem with this is: Office is pretty much feature complete for most uses, people don't need regular updates to their word processor. Microsoft has even removed quite a few features since the Office 97 days.
Retail Office gets updated about every three years. That's plenty, buying a subscription for Word seems hardly worth it.
> ODB files created by LibreOffice < 5.3 can be manually converted to LibreOffice 5.3 format by using Firebird 2.5 to convert the data to archive format, and replacing the database data within the ODB by the archive format version. To do this, install a stand-alone Firebird 2.5, and use its "gbak" tool to convert the file "database.fdb" to "database.fbk" within the odb file. Don't forget to remove the .fdb file.
I don't use this feature so I don't know how popular it is, but it seems like this could cause a lot of problems for people. They probably shouldn't have updated to Firebird 3.0.0 until they had an automated migration process in place, instead of instructing end users to manually convert their old files from the command line.