Slashdot Mirror

Try this:

LibreOffice
Apache OpenOffice
Softmaker FreeOffice
WPS Office
(they have a whole office suite, not just the word processor)
Abiword
SoftMaker Office
(again, they have a whole suite, not just the word processor)
Pages (for Mac)
(Apple does other office apps, too, but they don't seem to
market a unified suite)
Atlantis Word Processor

LibreOffice being the only viable alternative is a good reason just to use Word right off the bat.

Softmaker office

And their previous version (for free, even for business)
Gives Open/Libre Office a good run for their money.

Generally I like MS Office. I can't comment on LO-Writer, but recently in MS Word 2010 I created a document with inline images. Fragile at best is how I describe it. After creating the document and previewing it on screen I printed it out and gave it to a co-worker for review. One of the graphics moved down 6" on the page and was cut off. The electronic copy didn't have that at all.

My boss looked at the electronic copy. He changed one word and highlighted it. The entire document fell apart at that point. Line lengths inexplicably changed, moving page breaks, and even after hard page breaks (which should realign everything) inline graphics randomly moved around. I've decided I'm going to have to declare bankruptcy and start the document from scratch (export the text to plain text and rebuild it).

I have memories of working on document in Word 2003 many years back. I remember adding an inline graphic. I click to drag it up an inch. Suddenly it flew DOWN 6 pages in the document. Undoing and trying again resulted in the same thing.

All this said I know Excel is generally robust (though I've had problems interacting with charts from different versions, and cell colouring in different versions). In my experience it is a lot faster and stable than Open Office / Libre Office.

As far as alternatives, generally I've found Softmaker office works well. Better than Open Office / Libre Office
http://www.softmaker.com/english/

2008 Old version is free:
http://www.softmakeroffice.com/

It's not out yet, but following experience with Softmaker Office on Windows Mobile, I'd definitely keep an eye on that. Here's a comparison chart they put together regarding the word processor: http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofatmcomp_en.htm It looks like they're accepting beta testers here, might be worth a try: http://www.softmaker.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=182&t=9374

It's not out yet, but following experience with Softmaker Office on Windows Mobile, I'd definitely keep an eye on that. Here's a comparison chart they put together regarding the word processor: http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofatmcomp_en.htm It looks like they're accepting beta testers here, might be worth a try: http://www.softmaker.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=182&t=9374

I found once getting over the hump of the learning curve for the ribbon it is much better. As is Office2007 and 2010 in general. For starters Paste as plain text is much easier. My last job was 2007 and I got acclimatized to it. I just started a new job and they're still using Office XP (2002)! They're planning on switching to Office 2010 this summer.

But truthfully, if they want to pay me, I'll use WP5.1! Actually I noticed Word 5.5 for DOS has a ribbon.

I've also taken to supporting Softmaker Office I got a cheap upgrade from their free 2006 version to 2008, and just got a $16 offer to upgrade to their 2010 version. I find it much leaner than OpenOffice/Libreoffice with good MSOffice support.

Hah, I was wondering why the prominent screenshot on the TextMaker for Linux page was taken in Windows Vista.

Also, anybody saying that using system colours counts as KDE or Gnome "integration" needs to be taken out and shot. Even OO.o is integrated better than that.

Clearly you haven't tried to open a PPTX file in Impress; that import filter is barely alpha quality at best.

Clearly you haven't tried to open a PPTX file in SoftMaker - it doesn't even recognize it - only PPS and PPT.
See their blog for confirmation.

If you want a lightweight but good text processor and spreadsheet for Linux, and don't mind having to pay for a closed source application, SoftMaker Office is very neat. The text processor there is fast and more powerful that AbiWord, and way more compatible with MSOffice formats (I think it actually beats OO.org there).

Educational discounts for softmaker: 20 euros, US$ 25, see here . I think I'll check out the trial version and see what it's worth. Unfortunately, though, it's missing support for ODF.

• Comments are simply inserted in the text and cannot be applied to a range of text.
• Tracked changes don't support many operations that Word 2003 added, such as overlapping or certain types of nested changes, and changes in formatting.

That ODF mirrors OpenOffice.org so closely is no wonder. Before it became the world's "standard" file format, it was simply the storage format of OpenOffice.org. So, it has the same limitations and idiosyncrasies as OpenOffice.org.

I was going to recommend something like this basically.

If you drop the DVD-R requirement, any PDA or smartphone should do the trick, really. I recently got an HTC S730. The slide-out keyboard is actually pretty good for emails and notes, but I could imagine it'd get old pretty fast if your writing style approaches Neal Stephenson's levels of verbosity. As the parent suggests, this could solved with a bluetooth keyboard, although I'm yet to try that. Unlike the Nokia tablet however, this thing not only is a functional GSM phone, but also looks like one too. This means less attention to yourself since phones are much more common in 3rd world countries than shiny gadgets with huge touchscreens.

Still, if I were doing something like that, I'd probably also consider something more powerful. Like maybe a TyTN II, or better yet, something with a VGA screen. It's quite a bit more expensive than an S730, but also much more capable due to the tilting* touchscreen. I still have my old Asus A600 PDA, and there are things at which it's still much better than the S730. You could write your rants in a full office environment with something like SoftMaker Office, resize and edit the photos from your camera in PocketArtist before uploading them, etc.

I hope this doesn't sound like an ad, I've actually happily used all this stuff (except for the TyTN), and while I'm not sure if this would be my final choice for a trip like that, I'd certainly think about this solution.

PS. Looking at the HTC product listing, they also have some sort of weird laptop/tablet/PDA hybrid thingie called Shift which seems pretty small and light (7", 800g).

*The tilt feature could be useful if you put the device on the table while typing on the BT keyboard.

Right now, for someone who wants a desktop system, I would recomend that you look at PC-BSD (see: http://www.pcbsd.org/). It is not a fork of FreeBSD. It's FreeBSD with nice end-user add ons, such as a graphical installer and PIBs. PIBs are apps packaged and easily installed (much like on Macs or Windows). PC-BSD got a lot of positive reviews.

FreeBSD has more software than the other BSDs and has more commercial products being developed for it, such as some IDEs, back-up products, VMs (see: http://www.win4bsd.com/, http://serenityvirtual.com/), anti-virus (although geared toward corporate users, but see: http://www.kaspersky.com/kaspersky_security_mail_server?chapter=207716294) even an excelent Microsoft-Word commpatible Word Processor (see: http://www.softmaker.com/english/). Plus, Java certified by Sun.

Also, a nice feature of BSDs is the ability to run software for Linux on them. I have Maple 8 runing on my FreeBSD and I did it after the thing just broke with the Debian upgrades.

Not to be confused with Textmaker which is not ported to OS X yet.

I prefer OpenDocument, and I am putting my money into it: OpenDocument export is finally finished for our TextMaker word processor and will be released in a few days.

http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofp_en.htm

I am still waiting for the perfect (or even near-perfect) office suite. OOo is the closest, with open (if complex) code, and an open (and well-documented) file format.

I've bough a SoftMaker Office suite license for my FreeBSD, and I'm pretty satisfied. It's much more compatible than anything you'll be able to find (even more so for Unix/Linux). Opens complex Excel documents. Not perfect, but I've had it with OO.org. I can't be wasting time with stupid errors. Give it a try (it's a fair 69.95 - and they also have academic prices and bundles).

http://www.softmaker.com/english/

> Plus, for schools at least, it's significantly more expensive than Microsoft Office

You should read a bit more before you post stupid things. Softmaker is definitely cheaper for schools than MS:

http://www.softmaker.com/english/education/index_e n.htm

"I come to work and I have to look at this mess!"

why the text on the start button is capitalized in their screenshot of the Windows software???
http://www.softmaker.com/english/images/ofw06_en.p ng

Unfortunately, SoftMaker is only a Word and Excel replacement, and for many users, the level of Word and Excel support in OpenOffice, Abiword, or Gnumeric is probably more than they need. Sure, SoftMaker may have better support for the really complicated Word and Excel formats (see their comparison page for some examples), but how many people really come across 3-d graphics in everyday life?

The bigger problem for most people is PowerPoint slide decks, especially the ones generated by marketing departments that have sound and animation. This is where the shortcomings of OpenOffice hit me the hardest --- and unfortunately, SoftMaker doesn't have a solution. So is it worth it to pay USD $70 for a Word and Excel replacement which is more complete than what is currently available in the OSS world? Not for me. I'd much rather spend $40 for a copy of Crossover Office from Codeweavers and then get an old copy of Office 97 or Office 2000 that I have lying around (or which you can no doubt buy on Ebay for a relatively small change).

Koffice is optimized for KDE.
Hence things fire in a split second.
So for very quick jobs it can be neat.

OpenOffice takes ages to fire-up add Firefox to the list too.

Now for all you lovers of proprietory and closed-source software,
these guys used to code a neat fast loading Word/Excel alternative:
http://www.softmaker.com/

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

(too lazy to log in...)

I think amd should add a windows-less variant of the same box, with a reduced priced ofcourse (if the box would cost 199$ it would be a bit more fair).

It seems as though a Linux variant would not be that far of a stretch. Other than the base operating system and a browser, there appears to only be a couple of value-added office products included. The company (SoftMaker) making these products even already has a Linux version of them. My point being that such a setup should be trivial to assemble and would not carry the $50+ overhead of an MS OS while still providing all of the funtionality (probably more functionality knowing Linux hackers out there) of the original.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

Speed. Price. Multi-platform support -- there are even versions for Pocket PCs and Handheld PCs, and we are also working on a Zaurus port.

Currently, I have moved things to:

Main page
PlanMaker for Linux page
Comparison page Excel, PlanMaker, OpenOffice.org

Let's see how quickly you slashdot those.

You cannot download the beta right now because the Python scripts point to softmaker.de which is currently no way. Just look at the pictures instead.

If someone wants to mirror us, please contact me at info (at) softmaker.de . Please. Pretty please.

Martin Kotulla SoftMaker Software GmbH

Currently, I have moved things to:

Main page
PlanMaker for Linux page
Comparison page Excel, PlanMaker, OpenOffice.org

Let's see how quickly you slashdot those.

You cannot download the beta right now because the Python scripts point to softmaker.de which is currently no way. Just look at the pictures instead.

If someone wants to mirror us, please contact me at info (at) softmaker.de . Please. Pretty please.

Martin Kotulla SoftMaker Software GmbH

Currently, I have moved things to:

Main page
PlanMaker for Linux page
Comparison page Excel, PlanMaker, OpenOffice.org

Let's see how quickly you slashdot those.

You cannot download the beta right now because the Python scripts point to softmaker.de which is currently no way. Just look at the pictures instead.

If someone wants to mirror us, please contact me at info (at) softmaker.de . Please. Pretty please.

Martin Kotulla SoftMaker Software GmbH

... and this company is creating a /real/ word processor for it. Not like sucky Hancom Office. Yay!

... and this company is creating a /real/ word processor for it. Not like sucky Hancom Office. Yay!

Surely you jest.

Not that Hancom MobileCrap is much better, though.

Looks like there's ANOTHER office suite coming out of Germany ... this company is already beta-testing Textmaker, their word processor, and from what I've seen, it's much better designed than the OpenOffice WP. Oh, Textmaker's Word filters are much better as well.