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In fact there is a full office suite from Thinkfree recently shipped. Its pure java and commercial. I used their 2.2 version offline on OS X and Win32.

3.0 version runs in browser. http://www.thinkfree.com/

One office program that costs money, which is available for Linux is ThinkFree. It may not be free, but the compatibility of MS Office documents is great! It beats OpenOffice hands down.

http://www.thinkfree.com/

Don't ignore a program because it's not free on Linux.

Another awesome graphics program available for linux is Pixel Image editor. It is a excellent graphics program, I'd say better than the Gimp.

http://www.kanzelsberger.com/pixel/?page_id=12

Where is .NET runtime for OS X?

I am not speaking about "geek" (!) stuff. I am speaking about a desktop oriented commercial OS.

They have recently shipped ThinkFree _office suite_ which can run in browser. Check it: http://www.thinkfree.com/

It's coded in Java 2 with some propitiatory (but JAVA!) extensions and can work on all platforms. It's not a very simple notepad.jar type thing, thing can save full feature adobe pdf files.

That is a thing I expect from a "runtime," write it and runs anywhere. I would have a Solaris box, and it could still run (even faster) with exact same features etc.

It _really_ doesn't make any sense if it runs on win32 only. If we speak about Mono etc... No, nobody will compile a tar.bz2 source...

Unless there is a .DMG distributed by Microsoft having end user friendly readme, installer in it, Microsoft has different things in mind for .net.

Lets say. MS office as a yearly subscription service?

I bought it in my windows days when Sun Java for Win32 started to rock, now on OS X, I still use it and thanks to java maybe, its one of the rare programs did not need a update etc to run on tiger.

It plain works.

Version 3 comes in weeks, http://www.thinkfree.com/

It passed very evil tests here, like editing a very bad formatted pro movie script. When I saw the 450 kb .doc file, I knew what was coming but thank god it worked.

Another problem with them would be? er, whitelist thinkfree if you buy/trial it. They are now Korean company ;) You know what I mean. Besides jokes, they now have a huge Korean company at their back, Haansoft. I wish they try "webtop" type office again some day.

First days of Thinkfree, you could run it from IE, using JVM 1.1. No wonder we must be impressed.

How much quicker could we have had NeoOffice on MacOS if it were written in an easily-ported language like Java?

ThinkFree Office is written entirely in Java and has been available for years. Much as I like Java though, I have to say that ThinkFree is simply awful - not so much slow as it is simply unreliable. In my (paid) experience it managed to hopelessly corrupt documents, and when I wanted to use it for a presentation at ADHOC, I discovered that its full-screen presentation mode didn't work (and that this was a known bug).

So yes, Java means you can have it sooner. But it's not clear whether ThinkFree's wretchedness comes from implicit Java limitations, problems in Apple's Java implementation, or (most likely) the company's own failings.

--Chris (realinvalidname)

I do know that there is a java Office Suite applicaion available, I just don't remember it by name.

You're either thinking of ThinkFree Office (non-free, $49), or the ongoing Aqua/Java port of OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice/J. NeoOffice/J may be our only hope for seeing a truly native Aqua port of OOo, since the main OOo team have abandoned the idea of making their own Aqua port. Just recently they've managed to make it support the native Mac menus and widgets, and it supports the native Mac fonts and printing, so it can almost pass as a real Mac application. They are continuing to work on it. OOo is large and slow, but it's free and getting better.

I tried ThinkFree Office a couple of times and wasn't impressed. Too Windows-oriented to function well in a Mac environment, and because it's some kind of cross-platform Java application the interface is almost as weird as using an X11 application. Blech.

I licensed thinkfree http://www.thinkfree.com/ since it was friendlier with unicode as its a pure java app.

Its a office suite, I only use word processor portion of it. Launches in 5-10 secs which is funny considering its an advanced java application.

Its $50 or something.

I first thought about Apple Works but thank god I checked web about it and read about the nightmares with international chars etc.

Sorry, I generally agree with what you're saying, but you tweaked my feathers on one point:

Compare a nicely-fleshed-out Windows application, with automatic visual styles and Direct3D and OpenFileDialog boxes, with wonky Java applets that might run in a browser, and might just break.

NOBODY and I do mean NOBODY writes Java Applets any more. Java Applications are what have been working to displace Windows dominance. A few examples:

Azureus Bit Torrent Client
Thinkfree Office Suite
DataDino Database Explorer
Disk Analyzer

Games too:

Wurm Online
My 4K games
Big game list

So PLEASE don't mention Java Applets. You're likely to get stoned for it.

• AbiWord; appears to require X11, although the pages aren't clear from a skim.
• ThinkFree Office; java based. I think it might be ok, but only you know if it has the sophistication of features that you need.
  
  FWIW, a place to look for this sort of stuff is the Apple Products Guide as they'll list pretty much anything that works on the Mac. That means a lot of crap in the hits, but it's better than doing a "macintosh word processor" in Google. Usually.

Before being able to voice my opinion on the software I need to try it. From what I can tell there is no demo, so that make it a little harder. I would only be willing to shell out that money if I feel it is worth the expense. Currently I have tried MS Office, AppleWorks (previously ClarisWorks), Think Free and Open Office. MS Office, despite what many here may think of it, is still a reference for completness, functionality and interface design (the Mac version at least). I am willing to try another solution, but first I need to get a feel for it. Until an 'EIOffice 2004' demo is available, all I will say 'nice to see another contender, but it is worth the case?'.

These are of course significant, but I wouldn't call them "apps". "Apps" are word processors, mail clients, web browsers, file-sharing software, etc.; in short: client stuff.

They may lack market share, but there are mail clients, web browsers, file sharing, and numerous word processors available. In fact, if you follow those links you will find a couple of complete office suites written in Java. IBM/Lotus used to offer eSuite, which was an entire office package written in Java. Oracle has a huge marketshare and is very focused on Java/Linux as well.

You may not have personally used any of these programs, but give them a shot before you write off the language. Chances are many people use Java applications with no knowledge that they are doing so (Limewire users come to mind). If the language lacks applications, it is the fault of developers, not the language. That is the point of ESR's letter: there would be much wider use/acceptance of Java if it were open and the incompatibilities between the implementations were fixed.

Well considering Java's startup time removes it from all manner of applications, it's a bit of a strawman to argue that startup time doesn't matter.

*cough* *cough*
Bullshit
Bullshit
Bullshit
Bullshit
Bullshit
Bullshit
Bullshit

Please take your bullshit trolling elsewhere. There are those of us with work to do.

Java's a big thing now, Java's everywhere, Java could probably use a wordprocessor.

Like... Thinkfree Office? Perhaps this is what Java Wordperfect could have been, a fairly popular cross-platform office suite. The last time I tried it, it was still heavily tied into their online services, but someone seems to like it nowadays.

You could always ask the ThinkFree developers that same question. Unlike Corel, they are actually selling their product.

Haven't used it myself, but ThinkFree Office is supposedly halfway decent.

If you want an "alternative" office suite for OS X, consider ThinkFree Office. It's not open-source, but it's a working, Aqua-style office suite that's not made by Microsoft. No free downloads, though (it costs $50).

I saw this demo'd at the NY Macworld and it looked pretty good...
http://www.thinkfree.com
...And low cost too!

While not free (as in beer or speech) ThinkFree Office is an alternative to Office.X. And it's only US$50. Of course, it's quite slow (Java-based) but it supports the MS file formats that I've thrown at it (Word and Excel v.X) and is quite stable. Of course, I've already sold my soul to Office.X but ThinkFree Office *is* a decent alternative.

Remember, in the end MS is out there to make money. Ruling the world is just a means to that end.

Release Notes, with lots of info.

Perfomance wise, it's pretty snappy. On Mac OS X, the initial startup is somewhat slow, but only if you haven't started a JVM previously. Subsequent startups are quite quick.

Looks like it's a subscription model, but you can run it offline.

Release Notes, with lots of info.

Perfomance wise, it's pretty snappy. On Mac OS X, the initial startup is somewhat slow, but only if you haven't started a JVM previously. Subsequent startups are quite quick.

Looks like it's a subscription model, but you can run it offline.

As reported in Slashdot this morning, Evolution 1.0 Released and ThinkFree Office an MS 2000/XP Office compatible suite that works in Linux. Combine these with the TransGaming's WineX software, there is no longer any reason to use MS on the desktop.

Thre is one here
and another one here

There are also several IDEs written in java and at least one quicken like program.

Check them out.

Try these for Word: NuoMedia.com and ThinkFree.com both have browser accessible office suites available today. In addition, you can expect Sun's StarOffice Portal to be resold on about a zillion sites when it comes out, and there are doubtless others as well that I don't know about. (If nothing else, these should defuse the "no productivity apps" objection to alternative OSes - the OS really doesn't matter anymore...)

These are getting good enough to be considered as a serious option: I'm thinking of completely ditching Windows at home and using these services instead, since (except for Visio) they do what I need from Windows. I've even recommended NetLedger to some folks here recently as the best of all possible worlds for small business accounting - I really think we're just starting to see the tip of the ASP iceberg...

In another year or two, Joe Doaks may balk at any software that isn't available with a web UI. Why would he want to get locked in again?