OpenOffice.org (OOo) occurs as free and open source office suite, including a word processing system, spreadsheet, presentation, vector drawing, & database components. These are available for numbers of different platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Unix-like systems including Solaris and Linux, and Mac OS X. These are meant to exist as compatible by owning, and compete with, Microsoft Office, it supports the OpenDocument standard for data interchange, & may be utilized at there is no prices.

OpenOffice.org is according to a codebase of StarOffice, an office suite developed by StarDivision acquired by Sun Microsystems in August 1999. A source code of the suite was released as an open source task inside July 2000, with the aim of breaking a market dominance of Microsoft Professional by providing a lower-numbers, high-quality & open choice. A source code for the application suite was antecedently available under ii different software licenses: the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) and Sun Industry Standards Source License (SISSL); from version Ii.Nought, these are lone available under LGPL.

A design & package come informally known as "OpenOffice", however task organizers report that this term occurs as trademark held by another person, requiring the two to adopt "OpenOffice.org" when its formal title, & abbreviated when OOo.

Overview
Based on data from its mission statement, a OpenOffice.org task aims "To create, as a community, the leading international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format."

A design aims to compete sustaining Microsoft Professional & emulate its look & sense in which suitable. It can as well see & write virtually all of the file formats found in Microsoft Professional, & numbers of more applications. A ability to underst& and write Microsoft Professional documents is an essential feature of the suite for numerous users. OpenOffice.org has been witnessed to become suspire to open files of older versions of Microsoft Professional that fresh versions of Microsoft Professional itself can't open.

A primary development platforms come Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and Sun Solaris. There are besides ports available or even inside progress for Mac OS X, OS/2, and numbers of Unix-like operating systems.

A software system has drawn praise from either several quarters. Federal Computer Week's September 26, 2005 issue listed OpenOffice.org when one of a "5 stars of open-source products."

Components
OpenOffice.org occurs as collection of different applications that function together closely to provide the features potential from either a modern professional suite. Several of the components come designed to mirror victims available inside Microsoft Professional. A components available include:

Writer — a word processor similar in look & sense to Microsoft Word & offering a widely overlapping range of functions and information. It likewise includes a ability to produce Portable Document Format (PDF) files with there are no extra software package, & can as well work as an HTML editor for creating web pages.

Calc — a spreadsheet similar to Microsoft Excel with a about tantamount range of features. Calc will bring a total of features non present inside Excel, including the patterns which automatically defines series for graphing, according to the layout of the user's information. Calc is as well capable of writing spreadsheets directly as a PDF file.

Impress — a presentation program similar to Microsoft PowerPoint. It might export presentations to Macromedia Flash (SWF) files allowing a children to become played in any computer sustaining the Macromedia flash player installed. It as well includes a ability to produce PDF files. Impressment suffers from either the deficiency of quick-processed presentation designs. Nonetheless, [http://documentation.openoffice.org/Samples_Templates/User/template/presentations/index.html third-party templates] come readily available using your internet browser.

Draw — a vector graphics editor comparable in features to CorelDRAW. It features versatile "connectors" between shapes, which are then available inside the range of line styles & help building drawings like flow chart.

Base — a database program similar to Microsoft Access. Base allows a creation & manipulation of databases, & a building of forms & reports to provide easily access to information for prevent-users. When sustaining Access, Base is breathe to function as the front-prevent to a kind of database systems, including Access databases (JET), ODBC data sources and MySQL/PostgreSQL. Base is non available in the Unity.10 versions of OpenOffice.org, becoming section of the suite starting using version Two.Cipher.

A macro recorder — is used to record user actions & replay the children late to help using automating tasks, similar to Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). These are available throughout a professional suite & is according to StarOffice BASIC.

Math — a tool for creating and editing mathematical formulae, similar to Microsoft Equation Editor. A created formulae could so exist as embedded in more OpenOffice.org documents, like victims created by Writer. It supports multiple fonts and can export to PDF.

Quickstarter — a little program for Windows that diarrhea after a computer starts first. It loads a core files & libraries for OpenOffice.org after you took computer startup & allows a suite applications to run further quickly when selected late. A total of period it will require to open OpenOffice.org applications was the most common complaint inside version One.Cypher of the suite, & Quickstarter was the guide of sorts. Real improvements come potential therein metropolitan area for version Deuce.Nought.

History
style="float: right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em" |+OpenOffice.org versions |- !style="background: #efefef"|Version !style="background: #efefef"|Description !style="background: #efefef"|Release Date |- |Build 638c |The 1st milestone release |October 2001 |- |1.0 |  |May 1, 2002 |- |1.1 |  |September 2, 2003 |- |1.I.3 |  |October 4, 2004 |- |1.Unity.5 |Last release for I.10 product line |September 14, 2005 |- |2.0 |Current horse barn release |October 20, 2005 |}

Originally developed when proprietary office suite StarOffice by the German company StarDivision, the code was purchased within 1999 by Sun Microsystems. Within August 1999 version 5.Ii of StarOffice was manufactured available absolutely free!-of-charge.

In July 19, 2000, Sun Microsystems announced that it was making a source code of StarOffice available for download under two a Lesser General Public License (LGPL) & a Sun Industry Standards Source License (SISSL) sustaining a intention of building an open source development community about the software program. A recently plan was referred to as OpenOffice.org, & its internet site went hold up October 13, 2000.

Operate in version Deuce.Cypher began inside early 2003 by owning the as punishment goals: better interoperability by owning Microsoft Professional; better performance, with improved speed & moo memory usage; greater scripting capabilities; better integration, particularly with GNOME; an easier-to-call for & utilize database front-prevent for creating reports, forms & inquiry; the fresh built-integral SQL database, and improved usability. The beta version was released in March 4, 2005. The final release candidate was potential around April 2005, with a official release inside May/June, however due to total of act required to exist as done, a release was delayed.

In September 2, 2005 Sun announced that it was 'retiring' the Sun Industry Standards Source License (SISSL)

In October 20, 2005, OpenOffice.org 2.Zero was freed to the public.

StarOffice
Sun subsidises a development of OpenOffice.org sequentially to let it run as a base for its commercial StarOffice application package. Releases of StarOffice since version Six.Nought keep around been according to a OpenOffice.org source code, sustaining occasionally extra proprietary components, including:

Added fonts (especially Asian language fonts) Adabas D database Added document templates Clip art Sorting functionality for Asian versions Added file purification.

Security
When of October 5, 2005, the security places Secunia reports all security flaws fixed for Open Professional One.One.10 .

Development
Overview
A OpenOffice.org API is based on the component technology called Universal Network Objects (or UNO). It consists of the wide range of interfaces defined within the CORBA-like interface description language.

A document file format used is based on XML & several exportation and import purification. Entirely external formats scroll through by OpenOffice.org come converted back & forth from either an internal XML representation. By applying compression when saving XML to disk, files are typically little than a tantamount binary Microsoft Professional documents. A native file format for storing documents is utilized when a basis of the OASIS OpenDocument file format standard.

Development versions of the suite come freed each couple of weeks on the creator zone of the OpenOffice.org site. A releases come intended for even victims world health organization wish to line 3 text freshly features or come only curious just about forthcoming changes, it is non suitable for production utilize.

A task is however in essence process by StarOffice staff, & getting non-Sun contributions into a core codebase may be hard, possibly for the plan's more corporate sponsors.

Native desktop integration
Todays stable versions of OpenOffice.org come entity to provide the equivalent user case through a wide kind of platforms by using its have widget toolkit and typeface-rendering libraries. Yet, the ability to start in several different platforms has a penalty. Todays stable versions of OpenOffice.org don't keep close at hand a to the full look and feel of native applications. Operate is inside progress for version Two.Zero to allow it better integrate by owning a different platforms in which it diarrhea.

Mac OS X
A Mac OS X version is a port of the Unix version. The version using the Aqua interface was planned for OpenOffice.org version 2, however imputable a kind of issues (including technical indicator challenges, licensing complications, & limited development resources), the plan was abandoned. Instead OpenOffice.org is available inside 2 varieties that rerun in OS X:

OpenOffice.org Mackintosh OS 10 (X11). This version takes a installation of Apple X11 or XDarwin. These are a close port of the easily-tested Uni10 version, then it will bring the functional capabilities of the Unix versions, however doesn't integrate smoothly by using OS X services like fonts & printing, & its interface is that of an X11 application.

NeoOffice/J. This version integrates by owning OS X by utilizing Java. NeoOffice is more leisurely to set up, adheres fairly closely to OS 10 GUI standards (for instance, utilizing native pull-down menus), & has to the full access to OS X's font & printing subsystems. But, these are the act of a super little team & relies in completion of the OS X X11 version of OpenOffice.org, therefore its releases lag behind a official OpenOffice.org releases.

Other projects
More projects rerun alongside a independent OpenOffice.org design & come more comfortable to contribute to. These include documentation, localisation and the API.

There is a scripting plan for the collection, cataloging & distribution of utile macros.

OpenGroupware.org is a set of extension programs to allow the sharing of OpenOffice.org documents, calendars, address books, e-mails, instant messaging and blackboards, and provide access to other groupware applications.

There exists as well an effort to produce & part assorted document templet & more utile additions at [http://ooextras.sourceforge.net OOExtras].

Market share
Although Microsoft Professional retains 95% of the general market, OpenOffice.org & StarOffice use secured 14% of the big enterprise market when of 2004 . A OpenOffice.org website [http://stats.openoffice.org/index.html reports] most 50 million downloads.

In October 4, 2005, Sun and Google announced a strategical partnership. When section of this agreement, Sun may add the Google look for bar to OpenOffice.org, Sun & Google might locate within joint marketing activities likewise when joint locate & development, & Google will help distribute OpenOffice.org.

Java controversy
Version One mass produced utilise of Java for some auxiliary functions, however version Ii may increase a suite's utilize of the programming platform. the as a result areas depend in a Java Runtime Environment being present on the user's computer:

Area of the Base application A media player Mail merge to e-mail (takes Java Mail) Completely document wizards within Writer Accessibility tools Report Autopilot JDBC driver support XSLT filters BeanShell, the NetBeans scripting language, and a Java UNO bridge Exportation purification to the Aportis.doc (.pdb) format for the Palm OS or Pocket Word (.psw) format for the Pocket PC

This got drawn criticism from either advocates of free software, since the Java Runtime Environment needed to enable these features are often non licensed utilizing loose software program information, thereby undermining a "Free-ness" of OpenOffice.org. A fact that Sun is each a discoverer of Java & a principal supporter of OpenOffice.org has drawn accusations of ulterior motives for this technology guide. Too, the total of operating rules distributions either don't include the complete JRE due to licensing terms (e.g., Debian GNU/Linux), or can't include of these because these are non available (e.g., FreeBSD, Yellow Dog Linux). Users of such operating systems would keep around to implement the workaround of some form (like applying the third-person implementation of Java), or even non develop access to the Java-dependent features.

Focus was cast on this issue inside May 2005 when Richard Stallman appeared to call for the fork of OpenOffice.org in the (currently modified) posting [http://www.fsf.org/news/open-office-java.html] on the Free Software Foundation website. This led to discussions in a OpenOffice.org community & between Sun staff & developers required within Classpath in which it was determined that all necessary steps were in situ to assure that key OpenOffice.org utilizes of the Java platform would exist as supported around GCJ and Classpath. a sum-up is available at the OpenOffice.org places [http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/kay-java-20050511.html].

Red Hat's Fedora Core 4 (released in 2005-06-13) included the beta version of OpenOffice.org versiin Ii, going on GCJ & GNU Classpath. This demonstrated that the utilise of Java did non want to exist as a barrier to the utilize of OpenOffice.org in open source software system platforms. A OpenOffice.org developers too set into their development guidelines various requirements to assure that first versions of OpenOffice.org can be start in open source implementations of Java.

Notes