How to Install OpenOffice on Linux

Written in C language, Apache OpenOffice is a powerful software suite that allows you to perform basic office tasks such as word processing, create spreadsheets, and create stunning presentations. Written in C language, OpenOffice is opensource and free to download. It closely resembles the LibreOffice suite and is considered an ideal alternative to the Microsoft Office suite.

In this article, you will know how to install Openoffice on Linux Distributions such as Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, RHEL, and CentOS.

At the time of penning down this guide, the latest version of OpenOffice is Openoffice 4.1.7. Apache OpenOffice comes bundled with the following applications:

1. Calc – A spreadsheet application, the equivalent of Microsoft Excel.
2. Impress – This is a simple yet effective tool for creating slide presentations.
3. Writer – A word processing application, the equivalent of Microsoft Word.
4. Draw – A nifty tool that allows you to draw 3D images and create simple diagrams.
5. Base – A database tool that lets you design tables, forms as well as create queries to retrieve results from the tables.
6. Math – A tool that enables you to come up with mathematical equations.

That said, let’s now switch gears and see how you can install OpenOffice on various Linux distributions.

How to install OpenOffice in Ubuntu/Debian/Mint

Firstly, before you embark on the installation of OpenOffice, ensure that Java is installed on your system. To do this, run the command:

$ java -version

If Java is not installed, you will the following output printed on your terminal:

Command 'java' not found, but can be installed with:

sudo apt install default-jre              # version 2:1.11-72, or
sudo apt install openjdk-11-jre-headless  # version 11.0.7+10-3ubuntu1
sudo apt install openjdk-13-jre-headless  # version 13.0.3+3-1ubuntu2
sudo apt install openjdk-14-jre-headless  # version 14.0.1+7-1ubuntu1
sudo apt install openjdk-8-jre-headless   # version 8u252-b09-1ubuntu

To install Java, run the following command to install the default Java Runtime Environment (JRE) . This installed JRE from OpenJDK 11.

$ sudo apt install default-jre

Next,  uninstall or remove the LibreOffice suite and its associated packages. To accomplish this, run the command:

$ sudo apt-get remove --purge libreoffice*

Next, clear the cache and free up the disk space.

$ sudo apt clean 

$ sudo apt autoremove

Next, head over to the Official download page and select to download the Debian package from the pull-down menu shown.

Similarly, you can run the following command on the terminal to download the Debian package.

$ wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/openofficeorg.mirror/files/4.1.7/binaries/en-US/Apache_OpenOffice_4.1.7_Linux_x86-64_install-deb_en-US.tar.gz

Now you have to extract the downloaded the tarball file:

$  tar -xvf Apache_OpenOffice_4.1.7_Linux_x86-64_install-deb_en-US.tar.gz

Once extracted, you will end up with a folder called en-US with a subfolder called DEBS that contains all the Debian packages that need to be installed. Therefore navigate to this sub-folder.

$ cd en-US/DEBS

Next, install OpenOffice using the following command as shown:

$ sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Finally, set up the desktop integration feature for your installation by navigating to the desktop-integrations directory

$ cd desktop-integrations

To install the desktop integrations feature, run the command:

$ sudo dpkg -i *.deb

How to install OpenOffice in CentOS/RHEL/Fedora

The installation of  OpenOffice in CentOS & RHEL is pretty much similar to the installation of OpenOffice on Ubuntu and Debian distros. After uninstalling LibreOffice, head out to the OpenOffice download page and select to download the RPM package.

Or you can download the package on the terminal for the specific version:

$ wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/openofficeorg.mirror/files/4.1.7/binaries/en-US/Apache_OpenOffice_4.1.7_Linux_x86-64_install-rpm_en-US.tar.gz

Next, proceed and extract the tarball file.

$  tar -xvf  Apache_OpenOffice_4.1.7_Linux_x86-64_install-rpm_en-US.tar.gz

This yields a en-US directory in your current working directory with the RPMS sub-directory that contains all the RPM packages associated with OpenOffice.

Navigate to ‘en-US/RPMS’ sub-directory.

$ cd  en-US/RPMS

Install OpenOffice as shown:

$ sudo rpm -ivh *.rpm

The last step involves setting up the desktop integration for your OpenOffice setup. There’s a desktop-integration directory in the RPMS directory. Navigate into it.

$ cd desktop-integration

Finally, execute the command:

$ sudo rpm -i openoffice4.1.7-redhat-menus-4.1.7-9800.noarch.rpm

Lanching OpenOffice

Once OpenOffice is installed, Launching it is quite easy. You can do it either via the terminal or using the application menu. On the terminal, run the command:

$ openoffice4

If you are using the application menu, simply search for the keyword ‘OpenOffice‘.

Next, click on the installation icon which is second from the left:

This will open the welcome page as shown. Click on the ‘Next‘ button to proceed.

In the next step, fill out your username and provide the initials. Then finally click on the ‘Finish‘ button

Apache OpenOffice will start initializing and loading its components for the first time.

Next, select the software application that you’d like to launch from the list of applications that bundle with Apache OpenOffice.

Conclusion

In this article, we have shown you how to install OpenOffice on Linux. While not as popular and feature-rich as LibreOffice, OpenOffice suite still offers you a decent ability to open and work on various office documents such as spreadsheets, Word documents, and slide presentations. We do hope that you can comfortably get OpenOffice on your Linux system.