Not a bug, but just an enhancement idea. I believe in OOo there was an option under the help menu to check for updates. Why can't we bring this back for LO? I have signed up on the mailing lists for updates on new releases, but many people have not so they have no way of knowing when a new version is released. It would be nice to have this feature on LO.
Thorsten, do you have any answer for this question?
This only makes sense for Windows and Mac IMHO - and especially for Windows, having patch updates at least for micro releases would be wonderful.
This might make a good enhancement for the 3.4 release. Thoughts?
In general I think developers are not too keen on this. It definitely is not wanted in any scenario where either: 1) there is package management that handles the system-installed (shared) files, like any LibreOffice distributed by a Linux distro, or 2) it is not the business of, or even possible for, end-users to update their software, like on Windows in large multi-user installation ("corporate") contexts with dedicated sysadmin staff and centralised push delivery of applications to end-user machines. Possibly there are other cases where having a "check for updates" (and then, presumably, an automated updating) is not desirable, but those two are the obvious ones for me now. As to patches mentioned in comment #2, Windows Installer (MSI) patching technology is a nightmare. My opinion is that we don't want to do it unless we have a committed person (basically, employed by a company committed to LibreOffice) who is an expert with several years in that specific field taking care of designing and implementing it. (Sure, MSI patching might seem straightforward and simple in very small and simple sample cases. But for something like LibreOffice, it is a nightmare. Trust me. Been there, tried that, have had to sweep up the broken glass from the floor.)
(In reply to comment #4) > In general I think developers are not too keen on this. It definitely is not > wanted in any scenario where either: > > 1) there is package management that handles the system-installed (shared) > files, like any LibreOffice distributed by a Linux distro, > > or > > 2) it is not the business of, or even possible for, end-users to update their > software, like on Windows in large multi-user installation ("corporate") > contexts with dedicated sysadmin staff and centralised push delivery of > applications to end-user machines. > > Possibly there are other cases where having a "check for updates" (and then, > presumably, an automated updating) is not desirable, but those two are the > obvious ones for me now. > > As to patches mentioned in comment #2, Windows Installer (MSI) patching > technology is a nightmare. My opinion is that we don't want to do it unless we > have a committed person (basically, employed by a company committed to > LibreOffice) who is an expert with several years in that specific field taking > care of designing and implementing it. (Sure, MSI patching might seem > straightforward and simple in very small and simple sample cases. But for > something like LibreOffice, it is a nightmare. Trust me. Been there, tried > that, have had to sweep up the broken glass from the floor.) I completely agree that it is not necessary for the Linux Distros. I had this in mind for Windows versions. My fault for forgetting to specify. As to your second point, and I'll defer to people far more knowledgeable than me for the answer, what percentage of LO installations are actually used in a corporate setting? If more than half of your distribution is to non-corporate entities, (such as students, small office settings, personal computers, etc.) then maybe it would be worthwhile considering. But again, I don't know the breakdown of how LO is used. Thanks for the answer!
imho, not only should there be something users can click on, there should also be the option, enabled by default, for LO to check for updates all by itself and let users know that an update is available. Nearly every convert from OOO to LO won't even notice that the suite needs to be updated manually, as they expect the suite to let them know about updates in the same way OOO let them know. A large number of other applications have this option (vlc, firefox, thunderbird, chrome, opera, etc, etc). If a corporate environment wants to disable this, that, too, should be an option.
> what percentage of LO installations are actually used in a corporate setting Well, of the *paying* customer installations, 100% are ;)
(In reply to comment #6) > imho, not only should there be something users can click on, there should also > be the option, enabled by default, for LO to check for updates all by itself > and let users know that an update is available. Nearly every convert from OOO > to LO won't even notice that the suite needs to be updated manually, as they > expect the suite to let them know about updates in the same way OOO let them > know. A large number of other applications have this option (vlc, firefox, > thunderbird, chrome, opera, etc, etc). I agree with you that the people should be informed if a new release is waiting to be downloaded and installed. Every big name has it nowadays, so why shouldn't LO have something similar ? You can upgrade the extensions, but not the main package ?! Hmmmm. One more option i'd like to see, would be upgrading to beta and/or nightly releases, like FileZilla.
I 100% agree. I have installed LibO on the computers of 3 people which are totally unlikely to ever update the software by themselves for reasons varying from "don't know how" to "don't want to know" or even "I do not ever update anything on my computer, it could break it". And I know of a lot of people who installed LibO and will never check if a new version is released At the very least, something should warn of new versions. At best, something should update the versions downloaded from the website (especially Windows & OS X). It may be turned off by default. About the nightlies and betas update, it is clearly overkill. Someone interested in them is likely to be able to make the job him/herself. I understand that due to lack of manpower, such a feature may not appear very quickly, but its importance should be acknowledged (ie not be considered as "low" as is currently the case).
[This is an automated message.] This bug was filed before the changes to Bugzilla on 2011-10-16. Thus it started right out as NEW without ever being explicitly confirmed. The bug is changed to state NEEDINFO for this reason. To move this bug from NEEDINFO back to NEW please check if the bug still persists with the 3.5.0 beta1 or beta2 prereleases. Details on how to test the 3.5.0 beta1 can be found at: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/BugHunting_Session_3.5.0.-1 more detail on this bulk operation: http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/RFC-Operation-Spamzilla-tp3607474p3607474.html
I've installed LibO-Dev_3.5.0beta2 on both Mac OS X (10.7.2) and Windows 7 64bit (6.1.7601) and now see that there is an option in prefs/settings to check for application updates. I also see that this is set, by default, to check once a week. Clicking Help also reveals a 'check for updates' entry. Both methods appear to work.
I also see the automatic update/notification mechanism back in LibO 3.5b3 (Windows 7), as documented here: http://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Check_for_Updates_1
Yes, option exists in LibO3.5.0rc1. Checking for updates has failed because of a 500 internal server error.
Temporary server error, should be working for 3.5 now.
Yes, works now!