Linux Office Suites

Cowculator writes: "Sun Microsystems will release the beta version of StarOffice 6.0 in October, with the development version already available. This ZDNet article has some more details, including a link to the development version..." Other submitters sent in notes about Gobe Productive and Hancom Office 2.0, not to mention KOffice and the Gnome office applications. As far as I know all of these are lacking the single most important thing, a robust and complete set of import filters for Word, Wordperfect, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.

Comments

The only chance the industry has against microsoft

[PhotoGuy]

...is StarOffice, in my opinion. If these guys can prevent MS from having the only application suite that can properly handle their monopoly-induced standard file formats, then there is *choice* in the industry. If StarOffice fails, then it's MSWord, MSExcel, and PowerPoint, for the forseeable future that will dominate business communications.

I think StarOffice got off to a wonderful start. I'm very concerned about their progress. The next major version will really be a turning point in the industry one way or the other. If it's solid, and it rocks, with great compatability, then there is a great alternative to office. If it's buggy, or doesn't work well with office formats (especially Excel, where it's the weakest), then MS will win. And I'm going off to live on a deserted south pacific island.

Sigh... If I had to bet, it's depressing where I'd probably put my money... Sun's dropped the ball a few times lately.

Tip to the folks working on it: cool object oriented design is neat, but it's usability, stability, and compatability that will make StarOffice a success. Don't try to do things beyond MS Office, just match it on all fronts! Anything else is an esoteric waste of time.

-me-

That's what rtf is for

[gperciva]

Word processors dating back to the DOS days can read Rich Text Format. If you're sending it to a windows newbie who panicks when it doesn't say ".doc", tell him to open it anyway -- word will understand it.

Re:That's what rtf is for

[chill]

RTF doesn't support tables, embedded objects, headers/footers, TOC, index, etc.

Completely unacceptable for most companies.

Great for simple documents to retain tabs, bold/underline/italic, etc.

Re:That's what rtf is for

[msevior]

That is total crap! RTF does support Tables, headers, footer, TOC, index. I should know. I'm implementing these for abiword.

Don't believe me. Put those features in an MS Word document, save it as an RTF.

Read it back. See your document perfectly again.

You can find full specs for RTf at www.whatisit.com.

Martin Sevior

AbiWord - Word Processing for everyone.

Re:Just as important

[Surak]

I should also point out that the link to the "StarOffice source code" is a link to a very old verison of OpenOffice.org. Those seeking StarOffice source code should go here to get the latest build.

Re:The only chance the industry has against micros

[savaget]

According to this article, the integrated desktop and probably the start button will be gone in version 6.0.
quote

OpenOffice, and its predecessor StarOffice, are integrated office packages and include a word processor, web browser, and spreadsheet tools. In fact, StarOffice 5.2 contained just about everything a desktop user could need, including an integrated desktop. But with the adoption of desktop environments such as GNOME and KDE, future releases of StarOffice and OpenOffice will no longer carry the integrated desktop.

end quote

The above quote is from the following source:

LWN.net