Re: can't get LibreOffice to run on XP Pro SP3

VanguardLH wrote:
> Paul <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> James Wobanwu wrote:
>>
>>> I have an old Toshiba Pentium II with XP Pro SP3 and I am trying to get 
>>> LibreOffice to run on it.  ...
>> Worth a try, if it's an SSE2 problem.
> 
> Can't be an SSEv2 problem.  SSEv1 wasn't available until Pentium 3.  The
> OP said he has Pentium 2.
> 
> No SSE in Pentium 2 which launched in 1997.
> SSEv1 introduced to Pentium 3 which launched in 1999.
> SSEv2 introduced to Pentuim 4 which launched in 2000.
> 
> The OP has a Pentium 2.  No SSE for Pentium 2.  In trying to find if LO
> had/has an SSE requirement, I found:
> 
> https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/LOWN/5#LibreOffice_4.3_is_not_usable_on_.3C_SSE2_CPU
>  
> and
> 
> https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=82430
>   LO 4.3.0 for Windows crashes on CPUs that do not support SSE2: 
>   Application Error soffice.bin, version 4.3.0.4, module sal3.dll, 
>   version 4.3.0.4, address 0x000268d5.
> 
> That spurred me to go to their Bugzilla ticket site, and did a search on
> "SSE2", which only gave me the above ticket.  A search on "SSE" (with
> and without double quotes) yielded over 500 hits.  Bugzilla's search
> sucks.  No word search (i.e., no whitepaced string search, no word
> search, no /b for word boundary search, no selection of search range,
> like just in Subject and NOT in body).
> 
> Once LO started using Microsoft's Visual Studio, SSE became required.
> From:
> 
> https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/BuildingOnWindows#Install_Visual_Studio
> 
> Visual Studio was used starting in LO v4.4 which confirms the above
> articles.  LO also does not include the C++ runtimes in its installs, so
> the OP will have to install Visual C++ 2015 runtime lib.
> 
> The OP only considered the system requirements for LO regarding
> supported operating systems.  He didn't check the hardware requirements.
> His old Pentium 2 laptop won't run a *LOT* of programs because SSEv1
> became a requirement by many, and that dictates having a Pentium 3 at a
> minimum, and many jumped quickly when SSEv2 showed up a year later, and
> that dictates having a Pentium 4 at a minimum.  The OP's old Pentium 2
> doesn't have the instruction set required by a lot of software that came
> out after 2000.  LibreOffice didn't fork from OpenOffice until 2010, so
> it is highly likely that LO always had the SSE hardware requirement on
> the Windows platform.

I wouldn't think there'd be enough RAM on the machine for LO.

I would open Task Manager and watch the memory graph.

LO also likes OpenGL, rather than DirectX.

I tried a copy of StarOffice, but it appears to be nagware.

*******

There's always something like Gnuplot.

https://ctan.org/tex-archive/graphics/gnuplot/5.2.6

    gp526-win32-mingw_2.exe    26 MB    2019-01-26
    gnuplot.pdf                 2 MB    2019-01-02

*******

My first PC, shipped with 64MB. But, it would also
accept 256MB sticks. I wouldn't want to be shopping
for RAM today though, because you'd be left with
used stuff. Maybe a local computer recycler would have
a bucket of SODIMMs from the era.

    Paul