NeoOffice
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| [[Image::NeoOffice 2.2.2 patch 7.png|250px]] | |
| Developer(s) | Planamesa Software |
|---|---|
| Stable release | |
| Repository | |
| Operating system | Mac OS X |
| Type | Office suite |
| License | GPL |
| Website | http://www.neooffice.org |
NeoOffice is a fork of the free/open source OpenOffice.org office suite that is ported to Mac OS X. It implements nearly all of the features of the corresponding OpenOffice.org version, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, and graphics program. It is developed by Planamesa Software, and uses Java technology to integrate OpenOffice.org — originally developed for Solaris and Linux — with the Aqua interface of Mac OS X.
Characteristics & Development
NeoOffice is one of two functional OpenOffice.org-based packages for Mac OS X; the other is "OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X (X11)", a version developed and distributed by the OpenOffice.org team, which currently runs in an X11 environment and requires either X11.app or XDarwin to be installed (although an Aqua version is nearing release [1]). Because of software license differences (see below), NeoOffice code cannot be used in the official OpenOffice.org versions. Furthermore, the NeoOffice developers have stated that they prefer to work separately from OpenOffice.org because "coordination requires a significant amount of time" [2]; on the other side, the OpenOffice.org developers state: "A proposal to work together has been made, and NeoOffice developers refused" [3].
NeoOffice is currently the more "Mac-like" of the two, with easier installation, better integration into the OS X interface (with pull down menus at the top of the screen, and familiar keyboard shortcuts, for example), use of Mac OS X's fonts and printing services without additional configuration, and integration with the Mac OS X clipboard and drag-and-drop functions.
However, it requires more memory than the X11 version to perform well, some functions are allegedly slower,[citation needed] and the additional code it adds to the main OpenOffice.org code base is not as fully tested. Because NeoOffice is based on releases of OpenOffice.org, there is a delay between those releases and corresponding versions of NeoOffice. Furthermore, because NeoOffice's small development team have been concurrently developing the technology for its user interface, these delays have often been several months in length.
As of October 2007, the latest version of NeoOffice is 2.2.2. This version is based on OpenOffice.org 2.2.1, and is available for both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macintoshes. In addition to incorporating the source application's new features, it is based directly on the source code for the Linux and Solaris versions rather than the "Mac OS X (X11)" releases, with a redesigned interface using Apple's Aqua design elements, giving the application an appearance more similar to other Mac OS X software. A new icon set introduced in version 2.1 uses designs that more closely resemble typical Mac OS X icons.
With version 2.2.1, NeoOffice has access to the Mac OS X spellchecker and address book; users of languages not supported by the OS X spellchecker can use the Hunspell system originally used. In addition to the file formats supported by OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice can import, edit, and save documents created with Microsoft Word 2007 and can execute Microsoft Excel Visual Basic for Applications macros. The current release also adds experimental support for Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007 documents.[4]
Licensing
OpenOffice.org was originally released under both the LGPL and SISSL; it is now released solely under the LGPL. However, OpenOffice.org requires a copyright assignment for contributions to the main code base; this allows Sun to create proprietary versions of the software (notably StarOffice). NeoOffice chooses not to assign their code to Sun; this prevents NeoOffice code from being used in official OpenOffice.org versions. Instead, NeoOffice is released only under the GPL (this is allowed by the LGPL), which ensures that any software based on it remains free.
History
NeoOffice began as a project to investigate methods of creating a native port of OpenOffice.org to Mac OS X. The project now called NeoOffice was originally dubbed "NeoOffice/J", reflecting its use of OS X's Java integration to enable a native application. A related project was NeoOffice/C, which was a simultaneous effort to develop a version using Apple's Cocoa APIs. But NeoOffice/C proved very difficult to implement and the application was highly unstable, so the project was set aside in favor of the more promising NeoOffice/J. The "/J" suffix was dropped with version 1.2, since there was no longer another variety of NeoOffice from which to distinguish it.
| OOo version | Version | Release date | Other Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | NeoOffice/C 0.0.1 | June 22, 2003 | Incendiary Goblin build |
| 1.1.2 | NeoOffice/J 1.1 Alpha 2 | September, 2004 | |
| 1.1.3 | NeoOffice/J 1.1 Beta | December, 2004 | |
| 1.1.4 | NeoOffice/J 1.1 RC | March, 2005 | |
| NeoOffice/J 1.1 | June 22, 2005 | ||
| 1.1.5 | NeoOffice 1.2 Alpha | November, 2005 | |
| NeoOffice 1.2 Beta | January 2, 2006 | ||
| NeoOffice 1.2 | February 1, 2006 | ||
| NeoOffice 1.2.2 | March 30, 2005 | ||
| 2.0.2 | NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha PowerPC | April 25, 2006 | |
| NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 2 PowerPC | May 9, 2006 | ||
| NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 3 PowerPC | May 23, 2006 | ||
| NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha Intel | June 5, 2006 | ||
| NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 2 Intel | June 19, 2006 | ||
| NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 4 | July 1, 2006 | ||
| 2.0.3 | NeoOffice 2.0 Aqua Beta | August 1, 2006 | |
| NeoOffice 2.0 Aqua Beta 2 | August 15, 2006 | ||
| NeoOffice 2.0 Aqua Beta 3 | August 29, 2006 | ||
| 2.1 | NeoOffice 2.1 Early Access | February 27, 2007 | Only Available to Early Access Members |
| NeoOffice 2.1 | March 26, 2007 | General public release | |
| 2.2.1 | NeoOffice 2.2.1 Early Access | July 23, 2007 | Only Available to Early Access Members |
| NeoOffice 2.2.1 | August 27, 2007 | General public release | |
| NeoOffice 2.2.2 | October 9, 2007 | bug fixes [5] |