This brief tutorial shows students and new users how to replace LibreOffice productivity suite with OpenOffice on Ubuntu desktops.
Students who are thinking of using OpenOffice productivity on Ubuntu systems, this brief tutorial shows you how to do just that.
As you all know, all Ubuntu desktops come with LibreOffice installed. This is the default productivity tool on most Linux systems including Ubuntu. But this wasn’t the case a few years back.
LibreOffice only became the default productivity suite after OpenOffice parent company (Oracle) made some changes to its licensing terms that had folks angry and started LibreOffice project.
Some folks are still using OpenOffice despite what the Linux community thinks of it. So, if you’re one of the few who prefers OpenOffice, then continue below to learn how to install it on Ubuntu.
One thing to remember though, you can’t have both LibreOffice and OpenOffice installed on the same system as the same time. It’s not possible. You must first uninstall LibreOffice and all packages of it, before you can install OpenOffice.
Step 1: Uninstalling LibreOffice on Ubuntu
To uninstall LibreOffice from Ubuntu systems, run the commands below to update your system.
sudo apt-get update
Then run the commands below to completely remove LibreOffice from your Ubuntu computer.
sudo apt-get -y remove --purge libreoffice* libexttextcat-data* && sudo apt-get -y autoremove
Step 2: Download OpenOffice packages
After removing LibreOffice from your computer, run the commands below to download OpenOffice packages.
For 32-bit version, run the commands below. As of this writing, 4.1.2 was the latest version of OpenOffice.
cd /tmp && wget
For 64-bit version, run the commands below
cd /tmp && wget
Step 3 : Extract the downloaded package
After downloading the version for your platform, run the commands below to extract it.
tar -xvf Apache_OpenOffice*.tar.gz
Step 4: Install OpenOffice
To install OpenOffice after extracting the packages, run the commands below
sudo dpkg -i en-US/DEBS/*.deb
Step 5: Install the desktop integration tool
Finally, install the Linux desktop integration tool. This will integrate OpenOffice with Ubuntu desktop.
sudo dpkg -i en-US/DEBS/desktop-integration/*.deb
Next, go to Ubuntu Unity Dash and run OpenOffice.
Step 6: Remove OpenOffice from Ubuntu
If you decide you want to go back to LibreOffice, remove OpenOffice from Ubuntu using the commands below
sudo apt-get -y purge openoffice*.* && sudo apt-get autoremove
Step 7: Reinstalling LibreOffice
When OpenOffice have been removed, run the commands below to re-install LibreOffice.
sudo apt-get -y install libreoffice libreoffice-gnome
That’s it!
You may also like the tutorial below:
