Go-oo | |
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![]() Go-oo version of OpenOffice.org Writer on OpenSUSE 11 | |
Developer(s) | Novell |
Initial release | 2.3.0 / October 8, 2007 |
Final release | 3.2.1 / July 21, 2010 |
Written in | C++, Mono |
Operating system | Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows |
Type | Office suite |
License | GNU Lesser General Public License |
Website | go-oo.org (defunct) |
Go-oo (short for Go-Open Office) was a free and open-source office productivity software suite developed and sponsored by Novell. It originated as a set of patches to OpenOffice.org known as ooo-build developed in 2003 the Linux software company Ximian and led by Michael Meeks. In October 2007 Go-oo was released as an independent fork with additional features. Go-oo incorporated enhancements not accepted by the upstream project, which was maintained by Sun Microsystems, and offered improved support for Microsoft Office formats, faster development cycles, and more permissive policies for accepting external contributions. The project was discontinued in 2010 following the creation of LibreOffice, which integrated most of its features and policies.
Go-oo began in 2003 as a patch set for OpenOffice.org, developed by Ximian, which was later acquired by Novell. The patch set, called ooo-build, was created to make OpenOffice.org easier to build on Linux distributions and to include improvements submitted by the community that were not accepted by Sun Microsystems, the project's upstream maintainer. [1]
By 2005, the project had adopted the domain name go-oo.org, [2] and in October 2007 Novell released the first standalone version of Go-oo (version 2.3.0). From that point on, Linux distributions such as SUSE Linux, Debian, and Ubuntu began using Go-oo rather than the unmodified upstream source. [3] [4] Several Windows-based editions, including OxygenOffice and the OpenOffice.org Novell Edition, were also built on Go-oo.
Go-oo included a number of features not present in OpenOffice.org, such as better support for Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) formats, including limited write capability, [5] "hybrid PDF" export (PDFs with embedded source files), and the Sun Presentation Minimizer. Go-oo's more permissive contribution policies encouraged wider community involvement, in contrast to the stricter practices of Sun Microsystems. [6]
However, Go-oo faced criticism from some members of the free and open-source software community, concerned about Go-oo's inclusion of Microsoft technologies (including support for Visual Basic for Applications, OOXML and Microsoft Works file formats), and the use of the Mono programming language, controlled by Novell. They argued that these features could introduce software patent risks and compromise interoperability. [7] Some also suggested that Go-oo's enhancements may have been shaped by Novell's 2006 partnership announcement with Microsoft, which was later found to have imposed limitations on interoperability features in Go-oo. [8]
In September 2010, The Document Foundation announced the creation of LibreOffice as a full fork of OpenOffice.org, with many of Go-oo's developers and code contributions forming the foundation of the new project. [9] [10] Go-oo was deprecated in favor of LibreOffice, which adopted many of its patches, features, and governance policies. LibreOffice also abandoned the use of the Mono programming language. [11]
LibreOffice and its enterprise-focused derivative, Collabora Online, are considered the principal successors of the Go-oo codebase.
Stable builds of Go-oo were usually available a couple of days after OpenOffice.org stable builds. Windows builds had a different last number in the version's number than Linux builds. [12] A stable version for Macintosh computers was available starting with version 3.1.0 released in May 2009. [13]
Version | Windows release | Linux release | MacOS X release |
---|---|---|---|
2.3.0 | October 8, 2007 | November 14, 2007 | — |
2.4.0 | April 30, 2008 | February 20, 2008 | |
2.4.1 | June 10, 2008 | June 26, 2008 | |
3.0.0 | October 22, 2008 | November 21, 2008 | |
3.0.1 | February 4, 2009 | ||
3.1.0 | June 2, 2009 | May 28, 2009 | |
3.1.1 | September 16, 2009 | September 5, 2009 | September 4, 2009 |
3.2.0 | February 26, 2010 | ||
3.2.1 | July 21, 2010 | June 4, 2010 |