Christopher I make two observations.
First, I am sorry to have to note that you repeatedly digress and go off-topic. Issues such as, first, apport (which clearly does not work properly) and, then, Microsoft Office are entirely besides the point. The point is the incompetence of the Compare Document functionality in LibreOffice Writer. This is all the more remarkable and disappointing, because OpenOffice in version 3.2 had finally made at least some significant progress here just when LibreOffice was forked. Second, I am, amongst other things, first-line responsible for, at the last count, close to 18,000 installations of Ubuntu and -- since the investment-destroying and inefficient Unity iphone-lookalike desktop -- Xubuntu at over 100 clients across the world. This gives me a reasonably balanced picture of the most common issues clients struggle with. For (X)Ubuntu, top-ranking at present is Network Manager when using 3G dongles on netbooks (see bug 796872 which is still awaiting attention and remains unresolved). Second in key parts of the world still comes the absence of a synthetic fax modem simulator for Skype or similar. For LibreOffice, the primary issue still remains the dysfunctionality of Compare Document (this bug) and the regression here relative to OpenOffice. For us, it is quite all-right if the LibreOffice developers wish to use LO as a toy to hone their software writing skills. Just tell me, and we'll put clients back on Microsoft and on Macs, systems still run by the vast majority of our clients. Specifically, in post #18, you meander off in a complex attempt (a) to assert the equivalence of Microsoft Word and LibreOffice Writer or even the superiority of the latter; as well as (b) to claim our ignorance of how LibreOffice actually performs document comparisons. No doubt, as regards (a), you can construct a scenario with a carefully crafted text and/or manual intervention which happens to support your claim, but in general the assertion is both false and, more importantly, it is completely besides the point. As regards (b), the document compare described in my earlier posts here was carried out by the book and to the letter. (See also LO Writer Help. And please don't bother and scare routine users of Office applications in a document production environment with terminal commands, otherwise I'll be more than happy to dish out some rolls of paper tape and stacks of uninterpreted punch cards left over from my earlier days in computing long before it was called IT.) You even go so far as to use your assertion to bump the matter and simply declare the issue invalid. The key point, however, and I am sorry to have to repeat it, is this: (1) A precise, complete, effective and efficient LibreOffice Compare Document functionality is an absolutely elementary function in any real document production environment where routine version management and control are standard and where document quality and integrity are important or even vital; (2) LibreOffice Compare Document has unnecessarily and avoidably regressed since LibreOffice was forked from OpenOffice; and (3) LibreOffice Compare Document is badly in need of fundamental overhaul, radical improvement and proper fine-graining, and this also includes the removal of its implicit exclusion of frames, footnotes, headers, fields and other essential items of information contained in documents. I am attaching a single random document which once more illustrates these three points I am making. Since LibreOffice Document Compare is so bad that it in fact makes even this short document crash, I can only salvage it in the form of three screen grabs. I have compiled these in a single png image with added explanation and comments. It very much saddens me that this presentation is by no means an advertisement or recommendation for LibreOffice. Open source software is an invaluable phenomenon. However, it can only make true and broad inroads beyond hobbyists and servers if the developers, on the one hand, and those like us, on the other, who promote it and actually put it in the workplace -- often in key production-critical contexts -- work hand in hand and in sympathy to effectively and efficiently resolve the issues reported by actual users of the systems and applications. We resolve almost all such issues in- house, but some are elusive, defying practical work-arounds, and often systemically rooted in key core components and applications. We do our very best to support open source and to get it deployed wherever suitable. But when the effort proves one-way and when positive feedback sincerely aimed to improve matters routinely falls on deaf ears and is left unattended or, as in this case of LibreOffice, simply bumped and dumped, then, I am very sad indeed to say, we are clearly on the wrong track. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to the bug report. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/782406 Title: LibreOffice Writer Document Compare (regression) Status in “libreoffice” package in Ubuntu: Invalid Bug description: Binary package hint: libreoffice Comparing two files has reverted to the old OOo behaviour of flagging entire long sequences of paragraphs as different, when in fact they are actually identical except maybe for just one or two minor typographical differences. 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