OpenOffice.org is open source under the LGPL and has splintered into many editions. Most editions are 99% the same. The 1% is typically system integration and progressive features.
To make it confusing, some editions use the OpenOffice.org brand.
The most popular edition is the “vanilla” edition, also called the upstream, mainstream, official, and Sun Microsystems edition. It is available from http://www.OpenOffice.org and is especially popular among Windows users.
The next group of editions is ooo-build. Many Linux distributions ship ooo-build. Editions based on ooo-build include
Fedora ships a modified OpenOffice.org (list of patches), but Fedora does not use ooo-build.
Variations of OpenOffice.org with their own brands include StarOffice, NeoOffice, BrOffice, IBM Lotus Symphony, EuroOffice, and Beijing Redflag CH2000's RedOffice.
When OpenOffice.org is running, click on Help and then About. The vanilla OpenOffice.org about dialog is mostly white like this:
Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10's dialog is brown and mentions both Debian and Ubuntu:
Factors that affect performance include:
See The Fastest OpenOffice.org for more information and for benchmarks.
Systems that use ooo-build may pick and choose from a menu of modifications that include:
Additionally, ooo-build distributions can choose to compile the vanilla OpenOffice.org with changes including:
Edition | Path to executable |
---|---|
Debian | ? |
Ubuntu 7.10, OpenOffice.org 2.3 | /usr/bin/openoffice links to /usr/bin/ooffice |
Fedora 8 | /usr/lib/openoffice/program/soffice |
Fedora 10 | /usr/lib/openoffice.org3/program/soffice |
Mandriva Linux One 2008 | /usr/bin/office2.2 /usr/bin/soffice links to /etc/alternatives/ooffice |
StarOffice | ? |
Ubuntu 7.10, OpenOffice.org 2.3 | /usr/bin/openoffice links to /usr/bin/ooffice |
Vanilla 2.4 for Linux | /usr/bin/openoffice.org2.4 |
Vanilla 2.3 for Windows | C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.3\program\soffice.exe |
Vanilla 2.4 for Windows | C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org2.4\program\soffice.exe 1) |
Vanilla 3.0 for Windows | C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3.0\program\soffice.exe |
StarOffice 9 for Windows | C:\Program Files\Sun\StarOffice 9\program\soffice.exe |
OOo Edition | OOo version | Operating system | Path to configuration |
---|---|---|---|
ooo-build2) | 2.x | Linux | ~/.ooo-2.0/user/ |
Vanilla | 2.x | Linux | ~/.openoffice.org2/user/ |
Fedora | 2.x | Linux | ~/.openoffice.org2.0/user/ |
Vanilla | 2.x | Windows 95, 98, ME | C:\Windows\Application Data\OpenOffice.org2\user\ |
Vanilla | 2.x | Windows 2000, XP | C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data\OpenOffice.org2\user\ |
Vanilla | 2.x | Windows Vista | C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice.org2\user\ |
Vanilla | 3.0 | Linux | ~/.openoffice.org/3/ |
Vanilla | 3.0 | Windows XP | C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data\OpenOffice.org\user\3\ |
Vanilla | 3.0 | Vista, 7 | C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice.org\3\ |