How on earth do i install Open Office? Every single tutorial/Forum says just extrakt the Tar. I do and all i have is a bunch of files that do nothing. their readme is useless, their homepage doesn't explain. why cant i just rightclick to install stuff? THIS is exactly why people still prefer to get spied on and stick to mac/windows. id use libre office writer but damn it's such a dumpsterfire of bugs and bad UI. libre exel does its job.
Actually I was impressed with LibreOffice that comes with LMDE 7.
A lot of Open Office devs left for The Document Foundation which produces LibreOffice. If you want a Windows look-alike then use SoftMaker's Free Office.
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Here is a helpful guide in German.
First remove libreoffice.
Unzip the Apache Download.
Open it, go to "de" (probably there is shown the code for your language and not "de" as on my system), then to DEBS.
Then right-click and select "open in terminal".
Enter in terminal
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
When it is ready, enter
cd desktop-integration
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
You don't need to use the terminal. You can double-click on every single .deb file in the folders "DEBS" and "desktop-integration" to install them, but it takes much longer time.
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Usually you don't need to download/install apps from different sites in Linux. 99.9% of the the apps comes via the software store for normal users to install.
May I suggest OnlyOffice. I found it most reliable when it comes to MS docx files.
uff. lets be honest here; the free stuff is not on par. just compare inkscape and Gimp to Adobe, Blender to Maya, Audacity to Cubase. The built in stuff is nice and i appreciate it very much but not state of the art.
Then theres the part with "remove libre" why would i want that? i like libre exel and powerpoint (however they are called). There must be a workaround to have both installed. i think i did that on ubuntu, but thats like 3 years ago and i cant remember how. im not a fan of having chat gpt being installed on my pc so softmaker sounds like a really bad idea.
i dont really care bout ms doc files, i just want a nice interface and bug free software. and libre word did cost me like 50 gram of hair during writing a paper.
In 2026, installing Apache OpenOffice is not really a good idea (except in the case of very specific use).
The explanation: www.libreoffice.org/discover/libreoffice-vs-openoffice
And today, it is possible to customize the interface of LibreOffice (ribbon like Microsoft, historical presentation, etc...).
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why is it not a good idea to install open office (despite that a normal human cant install it)? where do i find the option to make it behave like the good old word 2006 or older when things just worked and did not do some automatic stuff nobody asked for
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much better now. you are truly a king penguin. i still like open office better because it wont just destroy parts of your text randomly.
i really don't get why people are so obsessed with their burger menus. in UI/UX the first thing we learned was that your stuff should have everything available with the least amount of clicks and searching. here we have a tiny little button hidden in the corner. where you need 1-2 extra clicks, just so they save 20-30 pixels of height. after you search for that button. especially if it looks like the button for lay-outing text-flow. (yes zorin does that too, but at least here its placed where you can see it.)
Very accurate.
Tools should be laid out and accessible for workflow.
However, this is not end users obsessed with them. It is the developers that want them.
Gnome often justifies their use by saying "The users don't need all that."
They claim users need 'visual minimalism" and "maximum screen real estate".
But these are illogical and untrue.
Hamburger menu's reduce visual clutter and simplify layout and maintenance, but they hide functionality, hurt discoverability, and slow down frequent tasks. Research consistently shows that visible controls are easier to learn and faster to use, especially on desktop where space isn’t scarce.
Gnome applications waste tons of screen space in applications, by design.
All of this is about lowering user expectations and access, which puts more control in the developers hands.
Yes, UI/UX teaches exactly what you said.
And that teaching is ignored when you want to empower yourself over the end user.
Well, now that you get started with LibreOffice ... I can tell you that there is another way as well, IF you still have an .exe installer (and the product key?) of Office2010 or older.
Open a bottle ...
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