# Apache OpenOffice

22 Hacker News commenters recommended Apache OpenOffice and 41 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free, open-source office suite that people use for everyday documents, though critics say development has slowed to a near standstill.

## Why people recommend it

- Free and open source (2 comments): "None of the tools that you mentioned except for LibreOffice and OpenOffice are free-as-in-freedom" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47654126)) "No look in, since both are open source." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47467522))
- Works fine for everyday documents (3 comments): "Google Sheets, Google Docs, OpenOffice etc. work fine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45839296)) "they still get their work done like before" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50224943)) "Was working fine on openoffice" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47828251))
- Named as Microsoft Office alternative (3 comments): "Most of M$ office software has alternatives (Google Docs, OpenOffice...)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46978371)) "Google Sheets, Google Docs, OpenOffice etc. work fine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45839296)) "Open Office, Libre Office, Only Office to start." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46192423))
- Long-term use without client issues (2 comments): "I've been an OpenOffice and LibreOffice use for my personal use and contracting business since 2004." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46192366)) "using a simple email/open-office combination never caused any issues with clients or suppliers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46081834))

## What people warn about

- Development slowed, project near abandoned (4 comments): "Difficulties maintaining a sufficient number of contributors to keep the project viable have persisted for several years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49764309)) "instead it has limped on for all these years, sucking up valuable effort by users" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47100260)) "development has slowed to a glacial pace and it's close to abandoned" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46198521))
- Feels dated, lags Microsoft Office (3 comments): "OpenOffice and LibreOffice already feel irrelevant and dated to begin with." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47652740)) "As much as I cheer for OpenOffice, it sucks. And it has been decades now." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46768508)) "OpenOffice never took off because new features got added to Office first" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46677111))
- Not reliable enough for real work (2 comments): "Openoffice is somewhat better on those fronts, but neither are good enough if it's for actual work" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48537418)) "you might have had to trust Open Office's export capability to render docs the way you wanted" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48624564))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [LibreOffice](https://hackerapproved.com/p/libreoffice.md): 345 recommend
- [Microsoft Office](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-office.md): 256 recommend
- [Microsoft 365](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-365.md): 151 recommend
- [Google Workspace](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-workspace.md): 107 recommend
- [OnlyOffice](https://hackerapproved.com/p/onlyoffice.md): 58 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Apache OpenOffice", https://hackerapproved.com/p/openoffice/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).