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Go-oo

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Go-oo
Developer(s)free software community
Stable release
3.0
Written inC++
Operating systemCross-platform
TypeOffice suite
LicenseGNU Lesser General Public License / CDDL
Websitehttp://go-oo.org/

Go-oo is a concentrated set of patches for the cross-platform OpenOffice.org office suite. Go-oo is also one of OpenOffice.org variants created from these patches. It has some more support for Office Open XML file formats than the official OpenOffice.org releases produced by Sun Microsystems, and other enhancements that have either not yet been accepted into the upstream Sun version, or will not be because of business or political reasons.[1] Some of these changes or enhacements will eventually be part of the Sun version, too, the so-called upstreaming process just takes time.[2]

For example, until now, the only way to have spell-checker for Indonesian and many other languages in OpenOffice 3 is by using Go-oo releases, since many other OpenOffice.org don't include them by default and their individual extension is not yet available. The hybrid PDF export (PDF that include their original source documents), Sun Presentation Minimizer, and other functionality is directly available in Go-oo.

The OpenOffice.org included with many popular Linux distributions such as Debian, Mandriva and openSUSE uses some of Go-oo patches.[3][4]

Go-oo supports the ISO/IEC standard file formats OpenDocument (full support) and Office Open XML (import only) for data interchange, as well as Microsoft Office '97–2003 formats, among many others.

History

For a long time 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 have not been accepted or not even submitted upstream. Some of the companies behind those distributions also have offered Windows builds of OpenOffice.org offering the same enhancements compared to the upstream build. Windows builds are for example OxygenOffice Professional or OpenOffice.org Novell Edition. Go-oo is just a more concentrated branding effort for these patched builds of OpenOffice.org. Whether this can be called a fork is open to debate.[5]

Michael Meeks, from Novell (who works also on OpenOffice.org and GNOME), said that the differentiation is done because Sun Microsystems wants to preserve the right to offer its own version (StarOffice) and even sell the development to the proprietary software market, like Lotus Symphony, from IBM.[6] Sun is accused of not accepting contributions from the community.[7][8]

Versions

Stable builds of Go-oo are usually availaible a couple of days after official OpenOffice.org stable builds. Windows builds has different last number in version's number than Linux builds.[4]. There is also an unstable version for Mac availaible.[9]

Windows versions

  • 2.3.0-4 (unstable) - availaible from October 8, 2007
  • 2.4.0-17 — availaible from April 30, 2008
  • 2.4.1-5 — availaible from June 10, 2008
  • 3.0-19 — availaible from October 22, 2008

Linux versions

  • 2.3.0-9221 (unstable) - availaible from November 14, 2007
  • 2.4.0-9272 (unstable) - availaible from February 20, 2008
  • 2.4.1-9310 - availaible from Jun 26, 2008
  • 3.0.0-9358 - availaible from November 21, 2008

Some differences between OpenOffice.org and Go-oo

  • Go-oo works faster in some operations than OpenOffice.org.[10] It is sensible mostly on older computers with small RAM memory.
  • Go-oo localizations are available only as language packs to the English installation.[4] Translations of the user interface and dictionaries for different languages in Go-oo are in some cases not the same as in OpenOffice.org.
  • From version 3 OpenOffice.org installation includes no dictionaries (spell check, hyphenation and thesaurus) and they are available as extensions which can be downloaded, separate for each language.[11] In some localizations of OpenOffice.org are only some basic dictionaries included. Go-oo installation from version 3 includes dictionaries in many languages a single extension and it is part of installation files.
  • The first time OpenOffice.org is started, a wizard opens to guide a user through setting of user name and the registration process.[12] This wizard is disabled in Go-oo.
  • Go-oo from version 3.0 can save XLS files protected with a password. It uses only one basic encryption compatible with many spreadsheet processors (for example Gnumeric).
  • Go-oo uses "Tango style" application shortcut icons, quicklaunch icons and icons for associated files.[13][14]
  • Go-oo uses large icon sizes and the "Tango" icon style for toolbars and menus by default. OpenOffice.org uses small icon sizes and the "Classic" or "Galaxy" icon style by default.[15][16]
  • Go-oo uses a different type of zoom button.
  • Go-oo Draw can open SVG files, whereas OpenOffice.org Draw needs an extension for opening SVG files.
  • Go-oo 3.0 has broken function for adding or editing words in spell check dictionaries. In OpenOffice.org this functionality is fully availaible.
  • 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. OpenOffice.org has built in support for opening Office Open XML from version 3.0, which is not possible to install on Windows 98/ME.
  • Go-oo Calc 2.4.x has built in function called "Solver". It is a little different from Solver, which is availaible from OpenOffice.org 3.0. OpenOffice.org 2.4.x has no Solver.
  • Go-oo Calc 3.0 has missing translation of functions like "Solver", "Share document" in some languages. OpenOffice.org 3.0 has the same functions fully translated.
  • PDF Import extension is included in Go-oo 3.0 installation.
  • Go-oo installation files are usually availaible for download a couple of days after OpenOffice.org builds.

Other differences are available on the go-oo.org website.

See also

References

  1. ^ History of Calc Solver [1]
  2. ^ Go-oo is OpenOffice.org [2]
  3. ^ http://www.linux.com/feature/154364
  4. ^ a b c Go-oo derivates in Linux distributions [3] Cite error: The named reference "go-oo-download" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  5. ^ blog - Stuff Michael Meeks is doing (Is go-oo a fork ? License problems ...)[4] [5]
  6. ^ Reviewed July 7 2008, Der Standard interview with Michael Meeks [6]
  7. ^ Sun Refuses LGPL for OpenOffice; Novell forks [7]
  8. ^ Can IBM save OpenOffice.org from itself? [8]
  9. ^ Unstable Go-oo Mac OS X-Intel version [9]
  10. ^ The fastest OpenOffice.org edition [10]
  11. ^ Dictionaries in OpenOffice.org 3 [11]
  12. ^ OpenOffice.org first start wizard [12]
  13. ^ Tango style OpenOffice.org [13]
  14. ^ OpenOffice.org 3.0 icons [14]
  15. ^ OpenOffice.org icon sets [15]
  16. ^ Evolution of toolbar icons [16]
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