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    OpenOffice will not be dead - in the worst case,
    there could be a different license model

in my opinion Apache is big enough, that any ever released OO version will be
available on the official OO download page for a "really" reasonable time.

What the 'better integration' of LibreOffice into Ubuntu and the version
management of Ubuntu, as well which 'pre installed' Ubuntu versions to
choose for a laptop, i would recommend:

    first make sure that your Ubuntu version is a version with 'long time support'
    (marked in the version overview as "LTS" e.g. '10.04 LTS'
    
    the desktop version is fair enough for any user, who does not want
    to run a 7*24 hour web server (what you normally would do on a
    desktop machine)
    
    don't do any update to an intermediate version
    
    don't update the 'version' of your Ubuntu online - just install the fixes
    for your system and the software you use
    
    (although it is recommended by Ubuntu to update always to the 'newest'
    version online - this resulted for a desktop machine of friends in a
    system what didn't boot
    
    trying to fix the system and setting up a 'fresh machine' and to restore
    the data backup took more time than
    
    backup data - setting up from a installation medium (DVD) - restore data backup)
    
    *never* - really *never* install *any* updates, if you have to do time critical
    mission on your machine - this 'rule' is valid for 'any' operating system
    
    there is always a way to install "third party" software (either commercial
    license or under one of the "free" license models as long as your operating
    system is supported by this software)
    
    this is - as far as i know - true especially for OO on newer versions of Ubuntu
    
As a resume: "be smart enough to read the manuals and to maintain your operating
system by yourself" - or get advice from some friend, who has proven to be able
to run a 'clean' machine for a reasonable amount of time

- Ralf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28operating_system%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ubuntu_releases