Ubuntu – OpenOffice doesn’t work

NOTE - To remove LibreOffice ( to avoid any conflict) please read Rick Green's below answer and then follow this.

Now it is known as Apache OpenOffice which is available through third Party repository as

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/office 
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openoffice

• Are PPA's safe to add to my system and what are some "red flags" to watch out for?

If you are on a 64 bit system you are not done yet. Starting openoffice3 will fail with the message "no suitable windowing system found, exiting". You need to install some 32 bit libraries:

sudo apt-get install libxrandr2:i386 libxinerama1:i386

Next, it fails with "exception in syncronize" because permissions are wrong. Fix them. Then it worked for me.

sudo chmod a+rx /opt/openoffice.org3/share/uno_packages/cache/uno_packages

Alternate method

Download .tar.gz from here , selecting your Arch type through Linux Intel DEB for 32-bit and Linux x86-64 DEB for 64-bit, it basically contains .deb installation packages. Follow these instructions:

• Unpack the downloaded Apache_OpenOffice_incubating_3.4.0_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US.tar.gz to prepare for installation by

  tar -xvzf Apache_OpenOffice_incubating_3.4.0_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US.tar.gz
  

  The Extracted directory will be named after the Language you selected to download like

  en-US

  Navigate into DEBS folder

  Install the .deb files by typing

  sudo dpkg -i *.deb
  

By default, this will install Apache OpenOffice in your /opt directory.

For installing the desktop integration features for your setup navigate to desktop-integration in the DEBS installation directory and do

  sudo dpkg -i *.deb

NOTE Be careful ppa:upubuntu-com/office refers to older version of open office.

SOURCE

Linked answer

• We use Libreoffice. It basically is OpenOffice but with a license that is suited. OpenOffice has a license that is too restrictive for Ubuntu to be of use (see below).
• Besides that: Ubuntu is not about using the latest version but the most stable version at the release of the OS. Security wise it is better to stick with the versions Ubuntu supplies. Security related fixes are provided when those are found and fixed.

Nevertheless ...

• You need to remove LibreOffice 1st and since there is no personal archive for Openoffice you need to download it from their website (pick 64-bit DEB). Software is provided by a DEB so you can download it and use our Software Center to install it by doubleclicking the finished download; or you can pick the tar.gz download and it will have installation instructions inside the installer on how to install it (see the readme regarding installation inside the package).

But why go through this trouble? Since there is a licensing issue I would always opt for LibreOffice.

This isn’t an accident. OpenOffice’s sidebar code was copied and incorporated into LibreOffice. The Apache OpenOffice project uses the Apache License, while the LibreOffice uses a dual LGPLv3 / MPL license. The practical result is LibreOffice can take OpenOffice’s code and incorporate it into LibreOffice — the licenses are compatible.

On the other hand, LibreOffice has some features — like font embedding — that don’t appear in OpenOffice. This is because the two different licenses only allow a one-way transfer of code. LibreOffice can incorporate OpenOffice’s code, but OpenOffice can’t incorporate LibreOffice’s code. This is the result of the different licenses the projects chose.

Basically: LibeOffice will always have more features than OpenOffice.

Regarding LibeOffice

• LibreOffice provides a native Debian installer so you can use Software Center to install it. And there is also a personal archive for the really bleeding edge ...

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
  sudo apt update
  

  You can also install specific versions newer than what Ubuntu provides by replacing the 1st command with ...

  sudo apt-add-repository ppa:libreoffice/libreoffice-4-2
  

and replacing the 4-2 by the version you want.

By the way: you do NOT need to remove LibreOffice or OpenOffice if you want to install a newer version of Libreoffice or of OpenOffice. You do need to remove the other one if you want to switch between them or need to remove a version that as higher than the one you want to install (and disable the newer version when installing the older version).