Sun to help port OpenOffice.org to Mac

I've told the OpenOffice.org team over and over again that the Mac may not have the share of Windows but it is in important areas of the enterprise graphics, education, media creation, as well as a rapidly growing share of the home user market. Apple users are some of the most frequent people to donate to open source software projects. I would definitely buy StarOffice for the Mac and many other will too. There is a reason why Microsoft and Adobe still make software for Macs - they make good money off them and not having a native OpenOffice.org will get a lot more contracts as many businesses need the Mac compatibility. Just don't do a WordPerfect style port - make the GUI conform to Apple HIG and have it come out at the same time as all other releases and continue your commitment for many years. Also, don't forget to advertise it. Most Windows users are very cheap - they only use what comes with their computers for free and very few buy any other software other than games.

sheesh!

If Sun wants to license the next osX for there hardware they need a Mac version for OpenOffice.

Someone is working on this. It is called NeoOffice. see their website at http://www.neooffice.org/ What Sun should do is joint this other project and help contribute to it since so much work has already been done.

NeoOffice is missing some features of OpenOffice, though it is a nice version integrating the OS X experience. If I'm not mistaken, NeoOffice is built primarily on Java, no?

I think the drive behind the native OpenOffice port is to provide the full suite without the overhead and dependence on Java, or X11, writing specifically to utilize the Apple libraries directly. No middleman (if you will).

While I applaud the fine effort of the NeoOffice team, I eagerly anticipate the arrival of a fully native OS X OpenOffice suite.

That X11 crap is just that, crap. It's about time they got with the program on this. How horrendous is it to open that wannabe windoze crap gobbling up resources?

Leopard, CS3, Firefox 3, Thunderbird 2, and now a native Mac OpenOffice? These are good times for those who have seen the light. Every time I turn around I see another faithful picking up a rock to throw at the windows. Aim for the dancing monkey boy!

A day late and a dolloar short: www.neooffice.org

I use it and have been using it for some time now. However, it is very slow even on my Mac Pro. I hated using it on my old G5 1.8GHz. If OpenOffice makes it look good and work as well as the Windows and Linux version I am there. Nothing against the guys working on NeoOffice but it is just too slow.

Dear Sun Microsystems.

Please send some quality beer to those involved in doing most of the legwork for you already at the NeoOffice.org offices.

Regards, NeoOffice.org user.

Uh, just to note, Sun promised something like this before, about five years ago when OSX was in its infancy and they were still developing StarOffice. So don't hold your breath.

That said, someone was working on an Aqua port, and was planning to show something at WWDC - I hope this announcement doesn't lead to duplicated effort.

With regard to NeoOffice - its pretty much unusable, running in Java. A nice effort, but really not worth it.

The X11 version for MacOS X is a bit clunky interface-wise, and takes some getting used to, but it does run a decent speed. When you consider that the alternative is Microsucks Office, you find that you can put up with the X11 shortcomings pretty easily.