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http://en.hancom.com/index.html This company already fought against MS Office back in late 90's with their own korean word processor. Now they became a linux company..I think they should fight against MS again.

* It's used by an office suite that is free as in beer, yet there is also a commercial variant available

So is .doc for the most part. .doc is used in every office suite and other non-word processors as an export option.

* It's used as default format by different office suites (OO and KOffice, hopefully Abiword will join in a couple of years)

So .doc isn't the default but it is an exportable option in every word processor

* It's an ISO-standard (= great for government contracts)

That is the only advantage, if you can call it that. As long as the format is published, like .doc is/will be, there's not a problem. It might not be ISO-standard but it is defacto-standard.

* It's also a standard that will not change with every version. That's the biggest advantage.

You mean how Microsoft office can save as either a format compatible with 97/2000/XP or the newer 2003 format? A format that spans three versions and 5 years doesn't sound like such a big change to me.

* It's available everywhere, not just on the latest versions of Windows. It's also available on older versions of Windows, Linux, MacOSX and Solaris

MS Office is available on the two established commercial platforms - Windows and Mac OS. There are compatible office suites on avery other major platform. While they may not all be free, most are decent priced. Hancom Office, Ability Office, Corel Office, Star Office, etc.

* It's used by OO which is pretty good backwards-compatible to MSO

OOo is pretty good backwards-compatible to MSO using .doc.

Free software won't save the world. MS Windows, MS Office, and every other piece of evil software isn't going anywhere.

http://en.hancom.com/products/hancomoffice20.html
http://www.ability.com/index.php?ln=us

Actually,Korea is making alot of cool stuff lately. Check out the Linux distro Hancom from Korea too, it's a company which employs 95 ppl and produces some bitchin' proprietary software to compliment their os.

Actually,Korea is making alot of cool stuff lately. Check out the Linux distro Hancom from Korea too, it's a company which employs 95 ppl and produces some bitchin' proprietary software to compliment their os.

If you are looking for cheap, maintainable, stable software to replace your current Windows environment, then look into this :

Slackware Linux.
KDE.
OpenOffice (maybe StarOffice or Hancom Office or KOffice).
Mozilla (or maybe Netscape 6 or Opera).
The GIMP.
XMMS.
MPlayer.
GNUCash (or maybe Kapital).
Evolution.
NEdit.

Or if you need anything else, check out Freshmeat.

Hancom Office costs $59.95, cannot export to Word .doc format, cannot do fonts anti aliasing, and works only with standard (RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake) Linux distributions.

On the other side - CrossOver Office costs $54.95, and it's running your own copy of Office 97 & 2000 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, even Outlook and Explorer!), does fonts anti-aliasing, runs on all Linux distributions, reads/writes .doc formats perfectly, and your money supports the biggest code contributions to WineHQ tree.

Now - could someone explain to me why would I need to buy Hancom Office?

Here's a great example -- what is this stupid "confirm" thing and why does it not work right? (Not to mention asking for Male/Female -- probably so they can sell my address to pr0n spammers.) I put in all my info, it tells me I have to confirm, so I hit confirm and nothing happens. NOTHING! I hit register again, and it tells me I need to confirm. Often, there is no working link to let someone know the page is broken. Do I ever return?

NOPE!

Has anyone else tried HancomOffice?

It is a non-java MS Office clone that seems excellent from what I've seen so far. And it's less than $50! (It used to be less than $30!!) I haven't used it very much yet (I'm not much of an office software kind of guy; I'm a geek) but it seems stable and it has correctly understood every MS format file I have tried to use with it. It supports MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.

It's a Qt based application; works great on KDE.

No, I'm not associated with them in any way other than having used the software.

I smell a job opportunity

Jobs at Hancom in English And these are only the current US listings. Korea anybody? The food is awesome!

• HancomEasyDB 2.0 == Rekall
• HancomEnvision 2.0 == Kivio
• HancomWebBuilder 2.0 == Quanta
• HancomQuicksilver 2.0 == Aethera

• HancomEasyDB 2.0 == Rekall
• HancomEnvision 2.0 == Kivio
• HancomWebBuilder 2.0 == Quanta
• HancomQuicksilver 2.0 == Aethera

• HancomEasyDB 2.0 == Rekall
• HancomEnvision 2.0 == Kivio
• HancomWebBuilder 2.0 == Quanta
• HancomQuicksilver 2.0 == Aethera

• HancomEasyDB 2.0 == Rekall
• HancomEnvision 2.0 == Kivio
• HancomWebBuilder 2.0 == Quanta
• HancomQuicksilver 2.0 == Aethera

• HancomEasyDB 2.0 == Rekall
• HancomEnvision 2.0 == Kivio
• HancomWebBuilder 2.0 == Quanta
• HancomQuicksilver 2.0 == Aethera

Does HancomOffice have open file formats, so that other office suites (e.g. Star/Open Office, KOffice, GNOME Office) can easily create import/export filters? As a completely side note, it would be nice if the above office-suite projects would get together and form a unified file format spec. That way there would only be one format each suite would be targeting for word-processors, for example. Just a thought...

Some of you might already have heard of it, but there is a Linux-based PDA which has just been released in Korea. It's called 'Yopy' and is based on Intel StrongARM and 'X WINDOW SYSTEM,' which means it should provide more compatibility to established Linux software base.

Yopy information here

For those who want to stick to Zaurus, a full-fledged office suite is being developed by Hancom targeted for Zaurus platform(I've been to a demo session last December). Quick summaries are on their website.

Hancom is about to release their Linux/Win32/MacOS X office package very soon. It's all build with Qt meaning it will blend in very well with the KDE environment (cut and paste, etc...).

Given the cross platform nature of it, it is also very likely you'll see it stocked on shelves where as pure linux apps tend to be neglected by retailers due to their low sales. Hancom Word is a very mature application and is quite popular in Asia. The pro package a will contain applications from theKompany who contributes to open source(especially with their very usefull PyQt). Even tho it isn't open source it should be a good thing for linux in general.

Bloated office is a good thing (as an option). For those wanting trim Office try Hancom (linux/windows/mac).

Probably unlikely, but you might want to keep an eye on hancom office 2.0. The boxed edition will come with win,linux and mac versions all in the same box. Based on koffice and theKompanies apps. Looks pretty nice, but still in the beta stages. Light weight too.

Likewise with the people who can seriously suggest that the GIMP is a workable replacement for Photoshop, which is a laughable notion for anything except web graphics.

Well not really laughable, but definitly not a viable replacement for some commercial use, I have to agree. The thing that gets to me about your post is that you just don't seem to realize these are small size development teams that produce these applications for linux. There are just a handfull of KOffice developers while in a commercial setting there would be whole developments departments and teams dedicated eight hours a day to just one application of an office package. Comparing one against the other us as unfair as comparing a Ferrari fundedFormula One car to the '67 Camaro with the rebuilt 427 your neigbor just dropped in. That said the very fact that some linux applications are actually competitive to commercial appz is awe inspiring, to say the least.

The other thing that gets me about your post is that it's always the easiest to make wish-list or spot "the right direction". I'm sorry but unless your contrubiting, keep those thoughts to yourself or post them where developers can view them, /. already gets way too much of that and most developers don't read /. (if you dont beleive me look and the lack of posts in the developers only articles).

end rand...

Commercial solutions are on thier way. Hancom is releasing what is seamingly (pre-emptive-screen-shot-only-assumption) a robust office package for linux, windows, mac os X. If you're looking for a microsoft alternative you may want to give them a shot.

I didn't now about this one until today, but there
is a company called HancomLinux which apparently has an office suite for KDE. It's not free software though. Has anyone tried it? Version 2.0 screenshots look impressive (it must be good it's got loads of buttons!). Comments anyone?

I didn't now about this one until today, but there
is a company called HancomLinux which apparently has an office suite for KDE. It's not free software though. Has anyone tried it? Version 2.0 screenshots look impressive (it must be good it's got loads of buttons!). Comments anyone?

So forgive me for saying so but he can blow it out his you know what. Who in their right minds are using Netscape on any platform anymore? Konq it up baby, the Linux Desktop is just being born.