Apache OpenOffice versus LibreOffice

Following yesterday's LibreOffice report for 2014, comes another interesting report from Document Foundation members Barend Jonkers and Cor Nouws comparing the features of LibreOffice and OpenOffice. The 60-page report "focuses on areas as feasibility, smart use, quality and improvements, localization and more." It makes clear that LibreOffice has undergone massive improvements as compared to OpenOffice.

The report compares the list of improvements listed in release notes of each application since LibreOffice 3.4 and OpenOffice 3.4. The report divides the improvements into nine categories. It appears the writers listed all of the LibreOffice changes and then checked if OpenOffice made the improvement as well. OpenOffice received some of the improvements LibreOffice did, but I didn't see any in OpenOffice that didn't end up in LibreOffice too; which is the point of the report. OpenOffice received about 10% of the improvements LibreOffice did in the period of time studied. Nouws blogged, "The name "Open Office" is known by many people, based on its great history. I have to explain regularly what LibreOffice is and what makes it so much different." He added he hoped the comparison might help journalists relay these vast differences as well.

Layout of the data points in Comparing LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice