Go-oo (previously called ooo-build[2]) was an office suite which started as a set of patches for the cross-platform OpenOffice.org office suite, then later became an independent fork of OpenOffice.org with a number of enhancements. In September 2010 Go-oo was discontinued and became the basis for the newer LibreOffice suite[3] and by late December 2010 the Go-oo patches were incorporated into release candidate 1 of the LibreOffice fork of OpenOffice.
The OpenOffice.org included with many popular Linux distributions such as Debian, Mandriva, openSUSE, Gentoo, and Ubuntu used some of Go-oo patches before they officially moved to LibreOffice which is a fork initially based on Go-oo.[4][5][6][7]
Go-oo/LibreOffice, as a variant of OpenOffice.org, supports the ISO/IEC standard file formats OpenDocument (full support) and Office Open XML (read and write) for data interchange, as well as Microsoft Office 97–2003 formats, among many others. Go-oo/LibreOffice has more complete support for Office Open XML file formats than OpenOffice.org releases produced by Oracle Corporation (which require the addition of the ODF Converter Integrator extension in order to provide comparable functionality)[8] as well as other enhancements that were not accepted into the upstream Oracle version. The hybrid PDF export (PDF that includes original source documents), Sun Presentation Minimizer, and other functionality is directly available in Go-oo/LibreOffice.
[edit] History
For a long time[when?], various Linux distributions, including SUSE in its various forms, Debian and Ubuntu, have cooperated in maintaining a large set of patches to the upstream OpenOffice.org that for various technical or semi-political reasons[which?] have not been accepted or not even submitted upstream.[9][10][11] Some of the companies behind those distributions have also offered Windows builds of OpenOffice.org offering the same enhancements compared to the upstream build. Windows builds include, for example, OxygenOffice Professional and OpenOffice.org Novell Edition. Go-oo is just a more concentrated branding effort for these patches and patched builds of OpenOffice.org.
Michael Meeks, from Novell, (who also works on OpenOffice.org and GNOME), said that the differentiation was done because Sun Microsystems wanted to preserve the right to offer its own version (StarOffice) and even sell the development to the proprietary software market, like IBM Lotus Symphony from IBM.[12] Sun was accused of not accepting contributions from the community.[13][14]
[edit] Versions
Stable builds of Go-oo were usually available a couple of days after Oracle OpenOffice.org stable builds. Windows builds have a different last number in the version's number than Linux builds.[15] A stable version for Macintosh computers is available.[16]
- Windows versions
| Version |
Available from |
| 2.3.0 (unstable) |
October 8, 2007 |
| 2.4.0 |
April 30, 2008 |
| 2.4.1 |
June 10, 2008 |
| 3.0 |
October 22, 2008 |
| 3.0.1 |
February 4, 2009 |
| 3.1.0 |
June 2, 2009 |
| 3.1.1 |
September 16, 2009 |
| 3.2.0 (3.2.0-13) |
February 26, 2010 |
| 3.2.1 (3.2.1-11) |
July 21, 2010 |
- Linux versions
| Version |
Available from |
| 2.3.0 (unstable) |
November 14, 2007 |
| 2.4.0 (unstable) |
February 20, 2008 |
| 2.4.1 |
June 26, 2008 |
| 3.0.0 |
November 21, 2008 |
| 3.0.1 |
February 5, 2009 |
| 3.1.0 |
June 2, 2009 |
| 3.1.1 |
September 5, 2009 |
| 3.2.0 |
February 26, 2010 |
| 3.2.1 |
July 21, 2010 |
- Mac versions
| Version |
Available from |
| 3.1.0 |
May 28, 2009 |
| 3.1.1 |
September 4, 2009 |
| 3.2.0 (3.2.0.13) |
February 26, 2010 |
| 3.2.1 |
June 4, 2010 |
[edit] Some differences between OpenOffice.org and Go-oo
[edit] Advantages
- Go-oo works faster in some operations than OpenOffice.org.[17] This makes it perform faster than OpenOffice.org on older computers with less RAM.
- The OpenOffice.org 3.0 installation no longer includes a large number of dictionaries for writing aids (spell checker, hyphenation and thesaurus), as this impacted application performance. Localised releases may include dictionaries for particular primary and secondary languages. Dictionaries are now available as downloadable extensions, separately for each language.[18] Go-oo installation from version 3 on includes dictionaries in many languages, as a single extension, being a part of installation files. Inclusion of a large number of dictionaries in a default installation may affect performance.
[edit] Features
- Go-oo includes 3-D transition effects in Presentations (Linux).[19]
- Use of the GStreamer multimedia framework in Linux for multimedia content;
- Go-oo uses a combo box in place of the zoom button in stock OpenOffice.org. Newer OOo 2.x feature releases have a clickable status bar item for a zoom menu. A zoom slider was introduced to OOo 3.0 Writer and later added to OOo 3.1 Calc, Impress and Draw components.
- Go-oo Calc 2.4.x has a built in function called "Solver". It is a little different from the Solver function of the same name, which is available from OpenOffice.org 3.0. OpenOffice.org 2.4.x has no Solver.[citation needed]
[edit] Filetype support
- Go-oo can write OOXML files, and not just read them.
- Import
- Go-oo 2.4.x has built in support for opening Office Open XML files and brings this function also for Windows 98/ME users. (Note: OpenOffice.org 3.x has built in support for opening Office Open XML documents, but those versions of OOo cannot be installed under Windows 98/ME.)
- VBA macro support;
- MS Works filetype import;
- Lotus Word Pro import;
- Go-oo Draw has built-in functionality to open SVG files. OpenOffice.org Draw requires an extension.[20][21][22]
- The PDF Import extension is included by default in Go-oo 3.0.
- Improved EMF drawing;
- WordPerfect Graphics import.
- Save/Export
- From version 3.0 on, Go-oo can save password-protected XLS files. It uses only one basic encryption method compatible with many spreadsheet applications (for example Gnumeric).
- Go-oo 3.x can save Office Open XML files such as docx, xlsx, pptx by using Novell OpenXML Converter.[23] Because Go-oo for Windows and OpenOffice.org Novell Edition for Windows are similar, Novell OpenXML Converter can work with Go-oo 3.x.[24]
[edit] Disadvantages
- Go-oo localizations are available only as language packs to the English installation.[7] Translations of the user interface and dictionaries for different languages in Go-oo are in some cases not the same as in OpenOffice.org.
[edit] Other differences
- Go-oo uses "Tango style" application shortcut icons, quick launch icons and icons for associated files.[25][26]
- Go-oo installation files are usually available for download a couple of days after OpenOffice.org builds are released.
- Go-oo for Windows is similar to OpenOffice.org Novell Edition for Windows. For example Go-oo has version 3.0-19 and Novell Edition 3.0-22.[24]
- The first time OpenOffice.org is started, a wizard opens to guide a user through the setting of user name and the registration process.[27] This wizard is disabled in Go-oo.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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