8.04, Open Office upgrade

[colintivy]

Hi folks,
I am still on Open Office 2.4 as installed by 8.04 CD. Not a lot wrong with that. Can I expect an upgrade via Synaptic or a normal automatic routine software upgrade that appears from time to time when I power up?
What enhancements are likely from upgrading? Are they likely to be significant??? It sounds as though downloading directly from OOorg is not advisable.

colintivy :confused:

[squaregoldfish]

If you stick with 8.04, the only updates you'll get will be fixes and security patches to OO2.4 - Ubuntu tends not to update major version releases within a distro.

I've downloaded and installed OO3 for my installation, and it works fine - it installs alongside the 2.4 version and doesn't interfere with it at all. The only thing you will have to do is to change all your file associations to run the OO3 programs instead of the OO2.4 ones, but you can do this as you find the need.

The version of OO3 from the website also includes an update tool, so you'll receive updates as they're released.

As for the enhancements, your best bet will be to read the OO website, and see whether or not the changes will suit you.

Steve.

[colintivy]

Hi squregoldfish,

Thanks for that, I tried the web site but did not find much info really, must have a closer look when I have 5 mins (rare).

I guess that you are like me staying on Hardy. From what I read Ibex is not very different from it and people are now having more troubles with Jaunty. I intend to wait until the next LTS is around and probably partition a /Home separately and do a clean instal. Any views?

colintivy :)

[squaregoldfish]

I couldn't upgrade to 8.10 due to nVidia graphics driver issues, so I upgraded OO3 manually as described.

Now 9.04 is out, I upgraded 8.04 -> 8.10 -> 9.04, and I have to say that everything's fine. As with all OS updates there's bound to be a few issues, but if you wait a few weeks then the vast majority will have been ironed out. Of course, if you're working with 8.04 quite happily, there's no particular reason to upgrade. Just bear in mind that you won't receive any major software upgrades - OO is one, and things like Firefox 3.5 may not be provided for 8.04.

On the idea of having a separate /home partition, this is a very good idea. That way, you can do a clean install if you wish, and it's also handy if your OS install goes south for some reason.

EDIT: Useful link: http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.0/

Steve.

[colintivy]

Hi Steve,

Gosh that was quick! I will examine the link shortly.
Thanks.

On the /home re-partitioning front, the www.psycocats.net link looks a bit formidable, especially when my elders and betters had to tweak things a bit (see earlier posts) to get it all working. Is that the only useable way of doing it all?

colintivy :) :) :)

[squaregoldfish]

I just happened to be at my computer!

The link you provided in your previous post doesn't work for me, so I can't comment on it.

I could probably figure out a description of how to do it on a pre-existing setup, but I'd want to try it out before starting to make sure I got it right. Since I set up my system like this at installation time, I'm afraid I can't do it.

I'm sure it can't be that hard though - have more of a search around the net, or ask another question on here!

Good luck,
Steve.

[WhyZeeGuy]

I downloaded Jaunty Jackalope, burned a CD and booted up. I played around with OO 3.x and 9.x and didn't see anything that excited me so I'm sticking with whats working. My 8.04 installation is rock solid and OO's 2.4 meets my needs. I did read at OO website that there is no upgrade path for 3, you just need to remove 2.x and install 3.x and your off and running.