On the heels of the release of OpenOffice.org 2.3.0 update for most operating systems on the planet this week, the group has announced that they are releasing a new native Mac version of OpenOffice, the FOSS alternative office suite, one that does not require X11 to run, in September - of 2008.
I actually did a double-take when reading the original report from Computerworld, thinking they meant this September we’re in now - which made me wonder about the odd statement; why not just say this month then?
Macworld UK didn’t even notice the year: writer Jonny Evans, citing the exact same original report I linked to, wrote totally a off-the-mark and misleading report that headlined “Mac native OpenOffice this month?” It further says:
Popular and free Microsoft Office alternative OpenOffice seems set to ship in a native Mac OS X version later this month.
A report on Computerworld claims that OpenOffice 3.0 will ship later this month, citing a presentation to be made today by the lead engineer working on the project, Eric Bachard.
If you hurry, you can still read Macworld UK’s big blooper (if they haven’t yet pulled it by now) here. (If they have, I can still show you - I saved the page, heh heh.) They should read more closely, especially if they’re just snagging a report. Macworld should be more careful. If you’re just going to crib (like me), at least get the dates right. Tsk tsk.
Ahem. Back to the story.
Development for the Mac platform has been lackluster and perfunctory of late, but with the increasing popularity and acceptance of Macs and OS X as part of the halo effect of the various Apple “side” projects, apparently the group has re-thought their commitment to the Mac community and redoubled efforts to develop the suite for the platform, and assigned a few more people to the project. But - a year?
Version 3.0 is being designed for OS X 10.5, although by then 10.6 might be the prevailing OS for the Mac.
A year might be too long for most people. Like me. This is one instance where I literally can’t wait. And I don’t mean that in a good way.
September 20th, 2007 at 8:42 am
That is great news, Projity has released OpenProj for the Mac which is a complete replacement of Microsoft Project. They have a hit on their hands with over 100,000 downloads in the first full month. This should be a nice complement for OpenOffice’s other solutions.