OOo really needs to speed up.

[Thetargos]

During the week end I was helping my father with some stuff. I changed my system and he was interested in some parts, so I was installing these parts onto his computer. While I was at it, he also asked me to install "Linux", and after a short talk about different distributions, etc, he told me to install "whatever you are running so you know exactly what to do if something goes south". At any rate, I installed Fedora 7 onto the system and soon after he asked me if he would be able to still work on some files from his Windows drive. I configured the NTFS drive to mount so he could write to the partition and read the necessary files off the partition and taught him how to use OOo. After a short while he asked me if I could install Office 2000 onto it (as it is the only version of Office he's got) to help him ease the migration.

So I go grab wine and install MSO 2000 onto it. I knew Office ran off Wine just fine, but BOY! Didn't I know it ran so freaking well!! and FAST, too! I had never attempted to install it prior to this "request". I have never seen how would it "perform" under Wine. I simply never cared to install it. Then came the question that got me thinking on writing this post in the first place: "Why does Open Office take so long to start"? Yes... Indeed, why? I must admit that I was blown away at how fast did MSO opened... Even with the overhead wine has on it, it opened up in the fraction of what usually would take Open Office to start.

I must confess I never actually paid much attention to this "issue" (the program loads, right?), until it was brought to my attention by my father. When I saw posts about OOo taking too long to start and what not, I used to think that Microsoft somewhat cheated with MSO and forced some sort of service loading causing the programs to load almost instantly... Now that I installed it under wine (albeit a fairly old MSO version), I was really surprised.

This "incident" made me notice something: Even if I don't care much or at all about how long do programs take to start (at least not with these kind of programs, I don't), as I'm sure a lot of other Linux users don't, plenty more other users (most notably new users) do care about this.

PS: What the freaking freezing hell did Microsoft do to get MSO to load so blazing fast?!?!
I could only assume that Office 2003 (AKA XP) loads just as fast under wine.

[pete_1967]

There's OOo quickstart (used to be available via Yum as separate install - now should work with Tools->Opetions->Memory->Enable systray Quickstart) that preloads stuff. Also, disable Java in OOo (Tools->Options->Java) and increase allocated memory (Tools->Options->Memory, especially the "Use for OepnOffice.org).

It'll still be slug, but not as bad.

By the way, OOo is about as fast as Office on Windows so if you're desperate, you should be able to install and run Windows version with Wine.

[scottro]

Actually, my experience is that Office is much faster on Windows. On the other hand, by default, it's preloaded when Windows starts and Windows starts more slowly, in my experience, than Linux. :)

OpenOffice is still a bit of a pig, unfortunately. Part of this, I assume, is java. However, the 2.x versions do seem to start far more quickly than the 1.x versions, and it does continue to improve.

Of course, there is also the price factor. What does Office cost now, $300 something, with a license to install on one, or possibly two computers? Also, OpenOffice can export to a PDF, I'm not sure if Office has gotten that ability yet.

However, these are asides to your argument--yes, you're right, but, on the other hand, I can avoid paying for it and have all the things that *I* find necessary without having to pay as much as I would pay for as many as 300 bottles of Diet Mountain Dew. :)

[Thetargos]

Like I said, it is not ME who has a problem with OOo, I couldn't care less how long it takes, as long as it loads and is snappy when it loads. Which it is. Also, it is not local to Open Office alone, unfortunately. Other products based on the same code seem to suffer from this problem too (Star Office, IBM Notes, etc). So it is not only associated with the cost...

Indeed OOo in versions 2.x starts MUCH faster than 1.x, also another important thing is that it also starts much faster ever since Fedora adopted prelink (was it in Stentz, or Heidelberg?). At any rate, I'm sure OOo is bound to be much faster in the future. IIRC for version 2 Java had little to do (for starting times) as it is only invoked as needed (I do believe that the Macros editor does load/use Java). I wonder how many actual users find this starting "issue" to be a problem... On my system it takes about 12 seconds for writer to load... cold start. It is actually very fast, compared to the 20+ secs it used to take OOo 1.x, still it is much more than it takes MSO (anywhere between 2-3 seconds, 5-7 under wine).

[JN4OldSchool]

8 seconds to open cold on mine, but once it has been opened it will restart in less than 2.

[Dan]

About the same here.

[Wayne]

The quickstart is greyed out in the official build of OpenOffice. Never had the Fedora version installed to try it. I posted a link to a different build of OpenOffice, but the name escapes me, that had it enabled by default.

Wayne

[Dan]

... Oxygen?

[Wayne]

... Oxygen?

Thanks, I knew it had something to do with plant life :)

Wayne

[Thetargos]

Yes, I remember that version of OOo. Promised to myself I would try it, alas I have not.

[Wayne]

In the thread title, did you mean 'Speed up?'

Wayne

[Dan]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ooop/

[Thetargos]

In the thread title, did you mean 'Speed up?'

Wayne
That's what I thought I wrote, yes...

From the looks of it, Oxygen only offers more clipart and a few extras that kosher OOo doesn't have (like VBA, which is supposedly only available through Star Office)... I have no real need for either... But I reckon that these may be features some people really need on a daily basis.

[Seve]

Hello:
I edited your original for spelling, hope you didn't mind.

Seve

[Thetargos]

Hello:
I edited your original for spelling, hope you didn't mind.

Seve
By all means, if it was misspelled, I'm glad you corrected it ;)

[Seve]

Hello:
I apologize for any confusion, as I should have PM'd you to let know.

Seve

[Thetargos]

Most likely I skipped an 'e' so it read 'sped' instead of 'speed'. No problem, thanks for doing it.

[Wayne]

Most likely I skipped an 'e' so it read 'sped' instead of 'speed'. No problem, thanks for doing it.

Actually, you wrote "seed" so your spiel chacker would have missed it :)

Wayne

[Seve]

Hello:
It could be worse, there was one poor soul who had a title of
how to mount my disk

I'll let you guess which word was misspelled. :)

Seve

[Thetargos]

Hello:
It could be worse, there was one poor soul who had a title of
how to mount my disk

I'll let you guess which word was misspelled. :)

Seve
Yeah, I remember that one on the Gaming forum, about Wine, LOL :D

[Wayne]

Yeah, I remember that one on the Gaming forum, about Wine, LOL :D

Mounting disks and seeding have something in common :D

Wayne

[Thetargos]

Misspelled disks, I assume you mean... :D

[JN4OldSchool]

OK, fine, but can the chit-chat. What are we going to do about OO.o? Huh?

[Dan]

http://www.openoffice.org/contact.html


Dan

[JN4OldSchool]

http://www.openoffice.org/contact.html


Dan

Done sir!

I told them this was Dan over at the Fedora Forum and that if they didnt straighten up their act I was gonna come down there and feed them all a bucket of turnips each! Bet we see OO.o flying open on our desktops now! :)

[Dan]

ROTFLMAO!

I'll be looking for the email from Louis saying. "WTF?!?!"


Dan

[RupertPupkin]

IIRC for version 2 Java had little to do (for starting times) as it is only invoked as needed (I do believe that the Macros editor does load/use Java).
You are correct, Java has nothing to do with startup times in OOo and is only used for a few things that the vast majority of users never even use.

I have StarOffice 7 on my Fedora 7 machine, and I have noticed that it starts up much faster than OOo, and is generally more responsive. I haven't tried StarOffice 8 yet, but I've heard that it's even faster than SO7. It's not free of course (unless you're a student), but at $69.95 it's not too expensive.

[Thetargos]

You are correct, Java has nothing to do with startup times in OOo and is only used for a few things that the vast majority of users never even use.

I have StarOffice 7 on my Fedora 7 machine, and I have noticed that it starts up much faster than OOo, and is generally more responsive. I haven't tried StarOffice 8 yet, but I've heard that it's even faster than SO7. It's not free of course (unless you're a student), but at $69.95 it's not too expensive.
I'd more than happily pay ~70 dollars for a good, solid and robust office productivity suit than the ~700 the Professional version of MSO runs for down these parts.

[Thetargos]

OK, fine, but can the chit-chat. What are we going to do about OO.o? Huh?
Well, the thing is that most users should actually complain about this "issue" and through their distributors (or distribution communications) contact "upstream" and see what could be done. Since OOo is shipped with most Linux distributions, I'd guess it would not take too long, alas it would appear that people (like me and many others) don't see this a "problem" as such, and have learned to have patience with OOo start times, after all, it is the first time it runs that it takes the longest to load, anyway.

[JN4OldSchool]

Well, the thing is that most users should actually complain about this "issue" and through their distributors (or distribution communications) contact "upstream" and see what could be done. Since OOo is shipped with most Linux distributions, I'd guess it would not take too long, alas it would appear that people (like me and many others) don't see this a "problem" as such, and have learned to have patience with OOo start times, after all, it is the first time it runs that it takes the longest to load, anyway.

lol, you answered your own objection! :) Exactly, frankly, I just dont care. OK, it takes a few breaths to open the first time after a reboot, but after that it snaps open relatively quick. As far as dissuading potential new Linux users...I am seeing an alarming trend in threads of this nature too, like the one you participated in about the printers. For real, do you think this would even be a factor? And if so, so what? OO;o is simply slow. It is getting better but it still sucks. Thats just the way it is, I think the developers are trying to fix this and I dont reckon any pressure from the Linux community is going to speed these efforts up or help matters. It really just isnt that big a problem for me. And if a Windows user wants to use this as ammo for why Windows is better than Linux (nah nah na nah na) then fine. Lord knows they need all the ammo they can get. ;)

[Thetargos]

Actually I didn't have an objection, as such. It was brought to my attention while trying to help my father keep on his work from Linux, while he migrated away from the Microsoft ecosystem. However, I do reckon one thing: more new users are prone to notice this than us, old time users. Hell, I still remember that I had this wonderful network friendly Operating System sitting on my hard drive, without any internet connection, because I had a winmodem and I couldn't hop up to the Internet from Linux. Times have changed quite a bit since then, and I've had to develop a sort of patience for the system, hence small things like these don't actually bother me (another negligible issue being Firefox'/Thunderbird's start up times on cold start). What it might happen, though, is that this new crop of 'refugee' users causing a stir and building enough pressure to actually accelerate things up (at least a bit).

Don't get me wrong, though... With all and my indifference towards this, I was genuinely shocked to see MSO load so fast, and on wine! (BTW, has anyone else noticed the "Win2000" GDI color change in Wine 0.9.52? Is indeed much easier on the eyes!). I still like my Linux the way it is, I still, with all and its flaws, like quite a bit OOo as it is robust enough for what I need it to do, nice enough to be a comprehensible office productivity suite and fast enough for my needs. Just like with the printers issue you mention, all you have to do is figure out how to make things work, and when you do, it is like magic... It all works.

[JN4OldSchool]

You mention the other piece of software that is industry standard yet could be much improved: Firefox. We all use it (well, most of us) and we are used to it and it has many great features. But it is also flaky, sluggish and a resource hog. Much like OO.o. I always knew this but it didnt hit home till I started playing with my Xfce Fedora spin with Abiword and Dillo. It is a slick, fast, lite spin that is beautiful to use. But at what price? Would the average user make these compromises in these packages? I think not and I am still using FF and OO.o on my main computer.

[Thetargos]

Well, at least I KNOW that Mozilla is addressing the Firefox' issues in Firefox 3, it is MUCH slicker than it is now with 2.0. Not only is it more resource friendly and efficient, but it also has a much better rendering engine, more compatible and acid-approved, only time will tell how well it turns out to be and if it is not brought down by its extensions ;)