After the command line for debian archive set, here is the one for rpm to have a standalone runable OOo 2.0 version "out of the box", running with other already existing OOo2 versions

for aFile in *.rpm;do rpm2cpio $aFile|cpio -ivdum ;done

This will create a directory (/opt) in the current directory containing the runable version
Remember to handle userEnv correctly to avoid installation mixing

This time, i wanted to have multiple OOo binaries of the same version to conduct some tests. By default, this is not possible as the packaging system uninstalls all 1.9.x version before installing the new one.

I am building my own OOo (a rather long process i hope to speed up soon) under debian generating .deb installation files.

Here is then the simple command line i used to unpack all the .deb files. The result is an OOo that can be used out of the box, without any install and that run with other 1.9.x versions (see my blog on -env:UserInstallation to be complete and avoid user directory troubles)

for aFile in *.deb;do dpkg --extract $aFile ./targetDir;done

OOo2 slightly changed its installation layout. Here are some notes i took while trying to launch multiple instance of the same installation, under the same user but using different settings.
These tests have been, conducted under OOo1.9.122 but will remain the same in the future (or at least a near future). I'll only speak here about OOo official releases. I let you search for your distro-specific-install ;)

Installing OOo2.0

By design, OpenOffice.org 2.0 is now installed in admin mode as root. The usual directory under Linux is /opt/openoffice.org1.9.122. Note that this directory contains a program and share sub-directories.

Once the core program installed, a user (name it Gooffy) can now launch
    /opt/openoffice.org1.9.122/program/soffice
The first time, he will be driven throughout a wizard for its personnal information collecting. All the datas will be stored in its home directory, under an hidden directory
    /home/Gooffy/.openoffice.org2
Note that this directory contains user subdirectory and no program nor share ones

Concerning the settings priority, the structure is the same as OOo1.1.x
    - share level : where all common parameters are set. Dictionnaries, Fonts, OOo registry settings can be store in this directory structure. They will be accessible to all users using this OOo installation. They are located in /opt/OpenOffice.org1.9.122/share and can then only modified by authorized users (root usually)
    - user level : unless settings are blocked at share lever using the finalize attribute in the xml node, the settings located in user registry sub-directory override the default ones of the share level. In this directory can also be stored user-specific dictionaries or fonts
    
For windows users, obviously the path are different but replace /opt by "Program Files" and .openoffice.org2 by "Documents and settings\Gooffy\Application Data\openoffice.org2 " and you should not be too far. The spirit remains the same    

And that's all. Gooffy user has only the use of one set of OOo.
Moreover, normal packaging of OOo2 do not allow to install an other version (no problem with 1.1.x branch though). It is possible though using some self-made packaging from its own build

Multiple Instances

If you try to launch more than one time the /opt/openoffice.org1.9.122/program/soffice program, you always will end with only one instance (with a multiple document view) of OpenOffice.org based on the user installation settings /home/Gooffy/.openoffice.org2.

How does OOo know he has to use /home/Gooffy/.openoffice.org2 ?

When launching, OOo looks at /opt/openoffice.org1.9.122/program/bootstraprc file
Doing the same, we see a line like
    UserInstallation=$SYSUSERCONFIG/.openoffice.org2
So, changing this will allow to change the default behaviour
    UserInstallation=$SYSUSERCONFIG/.GooffyOOoSettings2.0

If you now launch OOo2, a new directory will be created and the user will again be driven through the first launching wizard.

$SYSUSERCONFIG is used by OOo to resolve the user home directory /home/Gooffy

Note that if you want to use fully qualified path, thy need to be noted as an URI    
    UserInstallation=file:///home/Gooffy/.GooffyOOoSettings2.0
    
Be carefull that this setting will be used by all OOo users. So, if an other user launches OOo, he will use these settings but will probably run into access rights problems ...   
    
While we managed to redirect user specific datas to an other directory, ending with 2 different directories for one user, we are only able to use one as the parameter UserInstallation remains global to the OOo installation.

Nevertheless, an undocumented command line argument, comming from udk bootstraping features, will allow us to create and use a specific UserInstallation parameter, overriding the bootstrprc one

Now, the user can launch 2 command lines
    /opt/openoffice.org1.9.122/program/soffice -env:UserInstallation=\$SYSUSERCONFIG/.GooffyOOo1
    /opt/openoffice.org1.9.122/program/soffice -env:UserInstallation=file://home/Gooffy/.GooffyOOo2

Note that the $ sign has to be escaped and remember that UserInstallation parameter is an URI (this point is now adressed by a RFE)  

Two different instances of OOo2 will be launched, with two startup wizards, leading to 2 independant user settings (eg. one instance in french, the other in english)

So using the -env:UserInstallation command line argument lets us define multiple OOo2 configurations and allow to launch more than one OOo instance using the same installation under the same user account.