How to safely remove OpenOffice.org in Ubuntu

You may be aware of some guides on the internet telling you how to do this, mainly using one of the following commands,

sudo apt-get purge openoffice.org*

sudo apt-get purge openoffice.org-* 

If you run either of the above commands the following packages will be REMOVED:

aspell* aspell-en* dictionaries-common* hunspell-en-ca* hunspell-en-us* language-support-en* language-support-writing-en* myspell-en-au* myspell-en-gb* myspell-en-za* openoffice.org-base-core* openoffice.org-calc* openoffice.org-common* openoffice.org-core* openoffice.org-draw* openoffice.org-emailmerge* openoffice.org-gnome* openoffice.org-gtk* openoffice.org-help-en-us* openoffice.org-impress* openoffice.org-math* openoffice.org-style-human* openoffice.org-writer* python-uno* wbritish*

STOP, DO NOT RUN THESE COMMANDS!

If you do, programs including Firefox will lose its ability to spell check because the above commands will erase some very useful packages (all those in green).

Fortunately you can easily reverse the damage by reinstalling the packages highlighted in green.


How to fix the damage

sudo apt-get install aspell aspell-en dictionaries-common hunspell-en-ca hunspell-en-us language-support-en language-support-writing-en myspell-en-au myspell-en-gb myspell-en-za wbritish

Lesson for next time, be cautious when following guides on the internet. Including mine, I am only human and sometimes can make typo errors or due to a lack of knowledge post garbage.

However, if you feel I have made a mistake please post a comment or email me.


So how can I safely remove OpenOffice.org in Ubuntu 10.04 (LTS) ?

sudo apt-get purge openoffice.org-base-core openoffice.org-common openoffice.org-core openoffice.org-style-human uno-libs3 ure openoffice.org-thesaurus-en-au openoffice.org-thesaurus-en-us openoffice.org-hyphenation openoffice.org-hyphenation-en-us openoffice.org-l10n-common

At this point I would assume you wish to install a newer version of OpenOffice from www.openoffice.org.


How to install OpenOffice.org 3.3.0 from www.openoffice.org


Ubuntu 10.04 (LTS) 64-bit users

Open a terminal

cd Downloads

wget http://download.services.openoffice.org/files/localized/en-GB/3.3.0/OOo_3.3.0_Linux_x86-64_install-deb_en-GB.tar.gz

tar -xf OOo_3.3.0_Linux_x86-64_install-deb_en-GB.tar.gz

cd OOO330_m20_native_packed-1_en-GB.9567/DEBS

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

cd desktop-integration

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Done.


Ubuntu 10.04 (LTS) 32-bit users

Open a terminal

cd Downloads

wget http://download.services.openoffice.org/files/localized/en-GB/3.3.0/OOo_3.3.0_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-GB.tar.gz

tar -xf OOo_3.3.0_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-GB.tar.gz

cd OOO330_m20_native_packed-1_en-GB.9567/DEBS

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

cd desktop-integration

sudo dpkg -i *.deb