My old machine's CPU supports only SSE, not SSE2. In the past, this issue prevented that CPU from running newer LibreOffice releases. There were attempts to fix the problem, and enable such CPUs to run newer LibreOffice releases. As far as I know, the provided solutions were only partial. Is this issue fully fixed with version 5?
I'd suggest trying it. I don't develop LO, so I don't know. And I don't have a machine that old to try it myself (SSE2 was introduced in 2001 and added to AMD in 2003). Just be sure you get 5.0.0 and apply the Rev 2 patch for machines without the VC12 runtime.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Installing 5.0.0 and applying Rev 2 patch over my old working libreOffice version seem to yield a working libreOffice.
In the past, even though I managed to get what was than newer libreOffice version to run, I had an SSE2 issue with one MS xls file. I hope I will stumble again at that file soon.
Looks like it might have been fixed with 4.4 and probably still OK in 5.0, haven't tried yet. For details see:
Bug 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. at https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=82430
Note one entry, there may be future issues with XP
Indeed, when installing LibreOffice Portable 5.0.0, the installation seem to succeed. I got the window that suggest to run the application, or just finish. However, accepting that window suggestion to run the application seem to do nothing. No error message, and and no application running. Manually running the application gave the same behavior: no error message, and and no application running. Only after installing the patch does LO seem to work as expected.
That's why I said: " Just be sure you get 5.0.0 and apply the Rev 2 patch for machines without the VC12 runtime."
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
drifting a bit, have you made a plan for when LO no longer works on your kit?
I mean, have you worked out if, say, AbiWord and GnuMeric would provide an ongoing solution (I've no idea which bits of LO you use but Writer and Calc seem to be obvious).
Wm