Apache OpenOffice Word Processor hits the 100 million downloads mark.

To think I'm responsible for at least 25 of those downloads over the years...

Skip OpenOffice and go for LibreOffice. It's the same thing, only a lot better.

That 100 million number is probably highly deceptive. I don't use OpenOffice, but I've been downloading it since before it was even OpenOffice, and I've downloaded some version a dozen or more times.

I know a bunch of people who have done the same.

And since LibreOffice came along, OpenOffice is just out of date and unnecessary.

Will check it out. OpenOffice is fine for me, but it's a little bloaty on weedy laptops.

If you need something lighter, I'd probably go with Abiword (abisource.com)--less featureful and sometimes rough around the edges, but good enough for daily use (its ability to interoperate with Word isn't that great, though).

Alexys said:

If you need something lighter, I'd probably go with Abiword (abisource.com)--less featureful and sometimes rough around the edges, but good enough for daily use (its ability to interoperate with Word isn't that great, though).

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Be aware that AbiWord, tho competent enough, can also be exceedingly laggy on an older box. It was bad enough on my old P3-550 that I literally couldn't type in it, let alone do anything more complex.

Jamesaritchie said:

Skip OpenOffice and go for LibreOffice. It's the same thing, only a lot better.

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Anyone know for sure which version ended up with all Novell's fixes and enhancements? (Which at the time made a huge difference.) I'm thinkin' it was the branch that became LibreOffice, but it's been a long time and I didn't really care.

Jamesaritchie said:

That 100 million number is probably highly deceptive. I don't use OpenOffice, but I've been downloading it since before it was even OpenOffice, and I've downloaded some version a dozen or more times.

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Same here. And I usually have some version installed, but I use it seldom to never.

I archive a great deal of software (and often source code as well) that I personally have no use for, just because it seems like a good thing to have archived, and through bitter experience I've become a little paranoid about such stuff becoming lost.

Reziac said:

Anyone know for sure which version ended up with all Novell's fixes and enhancements? (Which at the time made a huge difference.) I'm thinkin' it was the branch that became LibreOffice, but it's been a long time and I didn't really care.

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From what I read when the split happened I thought that both got everything, but I wouldn't put any money on that. Immediately after the split Liberoffice was significantly different and not as stable as OpenOffice, but things seem to have changed since then.