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ZDNet Reviews KOffice

Posted by timothy on from the doesn't-kill-makes-stronger dept.

Spotted over at dot.kde.org -- this review of KOffice. The review isn't overwhelmingly positive or negative -- seems like a rather balanced picture of both what's up to par, and what's still missing, for mainstream acceptance in the Normal Workplaces of the world.

9 of 268 comments (clear)

  1. Re:staroffice is java based? huh? by questionlp · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to Sun's StarOffice FAQ:

    12. Is StarOffice 5.2 software written in the Java language? Will Sun rewrite the StarOffice suite in Java technology?

    StarOffice 5.2 software includes components written in the Java language, and provides the Java Virtual Machine for running software based on Java technology. However, the majority of the StarOffice 5.2 code is written in C++. Sun does not intend to rewrite StarOffice 5.2 in Java technology. The Sun Webtop architecture relies heavily on Java technology for the interaction between the browser-enabled client and the application services running on the portal.

    The FAQ can be found here: http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/5.2/fa q.html#12

  2. Yeah but the price is right! by Robber+Baron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    M$ Office: $200-300
    K Office: N/C (comes bundled with various distros)

    That in itself is an important feature...

    --

    You're using her as bait, Master!

    1. Re:Yeah but the price is right! by Ghoser777 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually, a lot of linux apps would proabably get more acceptance from the business community if they actually cost something. Business people know you don't get something for nothing; there are almost always strings attached. That makes them a little cautious about Linux.

      Also, productivity could be a more important issue. Even though KOffice functions a lot like it's counterparts in the non-open source world, there are definite differences. Just getting copy and paste to work right is a chore. And any time you use different software, you need training. Training costs money, so biz people would probably defer to something they know does exactly what they need, even though it costs way too much.

      F-bacher

      --
      James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
    2. Re:Yeah but the price is right! by __aahlyu4518 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As Ghoser777 pointed out in a response to your post: companies just know there is a catch... and (for now) there is:
      - No Support desk (in the traditional way)
      - No books (Koffice in 24 hours, Koffice for dummies etc). How is their secretary ever going to learn this thing ???
      - No courses. As with the books... How are their employees going to learn ? Want to take classes on MS-Word ? Open the yellow pages and take your pick.
      - Every time a new employee comes to work for the company they have to train that person. Using MS-Office in the company ? 95% of the new employees will know how it works allready... that will save them heaps of money.

      Yeah yeah.. I know.. learn through experience, helpfiles, irc etc etc... That is not how businesses work people ! Learning 'the hard way' really is the hard way... It takes a lot of time, and time is money.
      A good way is for people to get used to it at home and when a lot of people use it at home, they want to use it at their job as well, which will be less of a problem because they don't have to be trained.
      Staroffice/OpenOffice has a better chance than Koffice IMHO, because of the big SUN behind it (which will be trusted by companies more easily) and because it is multi-platform. That way people can use it more easily at home, because most of them will probably run a MS-OS....
      But I guess there is a place for both of the suits... Choice is good, and should be encouraged... It will keep office-creators from getting lazy ;-)

      -

  3. Good Article by krmt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I thought the article was very fair. It didn't seem to expect the world out of KOffice, and made the point that it was a volunteer effort.

    Having recently fired up KOffice for the first time since the 1.1 release, I've got to say I'm really happy with where it's going. The team has done a great job on getting component embedding working (although it crashed on me when I started pushing it around a bit) and I really think this will shape up to be an incredibly powerful suite.

    Of course, these things don't happen overnight. It took Linux about 8 or 9 years to start gaining more widespread acceptance in the server area. KOffice is a tremendous project, and it'll take a long time to get to the point where it can compete with MS Office. Remember, software like this doesn't just happen overnight, it has to evolve. MS Office has had over a decade to get to where it is. I have a feeling we'll start seeing KOffice as a real alternative to MS in a few years.

    --

    "I may not have morals, but I have standards."

  4. Impressions by Greyfox · · Score: 4, Interesting
    There were several complaints about lack of import/export functionality. This is largely due to lack of file format documentation from Microsoft. It's pretty well documented that they have no intention of being interoperable. Hopefully part of the upcoming DOJ spanking will be a requirement that they completely document all file formats.

    Many of the issues addressed should be easy to fix. The lack of an automatic spelling checker and a thesauris in KWord, for instance, should be easy fixes. Likewise the case sensitivity in the spreadsheet program, though most UNIX people won't tend to view that sort of issue as a bug. The customer is always right and all that.

    On a quick side note, I still prefer TeX/LaTeX over any GUI word processor I've ever run across. I believe our documentation people 'round these parts still use SGML. Not something a normal user will ever look at due to the learning curve, but once you get a set of styles down, you can rattle off any old document you deal with on a regular basis with almost no effort devoted to the formatting of the document -- you just work on the content.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  5. Re:Two Things that will Help... by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "Rich text format seems to be the preferred document format among open-source word processors"

    "Heck, even MS-Word can read and save RTF!"

    RTF is a Microsoft format. It's essentially a text version of DOC. Modern versions support the same macro and embedded COM object capabilities that DOC does.

    It's true many independant vendors have implemented the Word2 or Word6 version of RTF, but that doesn't make it an open or completely documeted spec by any means.

    Your post does highlight the issue that there are no standard formats in the OSS/Unix world, and nor are there 'standard' applications (as MS Office has become on Windows and Mac), and that OSS/Unix users have to fall back to Microsoft formats to interoperate with each other.

    --
    Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
  6. Exchange: More than EMail by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 4, Insightful


    What about sendmail (or many others) instead of Exchange server, and KMail instead of the MS email client?


    Exchange does something other mail servers don't do. And it does it well.


    I was going to say "groupware". But that's a bit of a misnomer. It does have various groupware functionality - but its specifically scheduling that it does well. Other groupware aspects are almost a brief afterthought.


    Sure - there are other scheduling competitors out there. But I watched Cisco Systems gravitate towards Exchange despite their heavy investment in a Unix mail infrastructure and the problems a diverse desktop OS user base causes for functionality with Microsoft products (Cisco endorses Win2k, Solaris, and Linux as supported desktop options for their employees).


    Its a shame that Exchange forces one to pick up all the usual MS bagage along with an otherwise top tier product.

  7. SO5.2 might as well be in Java by hatless · · Score: 5, Interesting

    StarOffice 5.2 is so resource-hungry and slow that it might as well have been written in Java 1.1. Waiting a solid minute or so for it to fire up on a P2/300 with 192MB RAM, and running into its native widget set, it's easy to unserstand why someone might think it was written in Java. Less easy to understand is why ZDNet seems to have fired all of its fact-checkers.

    The OpenOffice development snapshots are definitely peppier, so StarOffice 6.0 should be fine in this regard.. but 5.2.. eek.

    Where Java does enter the StarOffice picture is that 5.2 has an open interface that lets you pick a JVM--or install one--to use as yet another macro language. This is a nice touch for all the Unix shops and others that have Java programmers on hand more readily than VBA people. You can use a nice, fast 1.3.x JVM with it, and develop with your existing tools and components. The other nice "Java" feature is SO 5.2's ability to use JDBC throughout for database access instead of native drivers or ODBC. Very useful and very elegantly cross-platform on Sun's part.

    And incidentially, the "other" major SO5.2 scripting language is a VB clone, both in syntax and coding environment. SO has a different document object model, so MS Office macros won't run unmodified, but at least VBA skills can carry over. KOffice's use of DCOP for automation allows the use of any available language, potentially doing things one better--but without integration with a development tool as one gets with VBA and StarBasic, it remains at a disadvantage. Maybe bidirectional KOffice-to-KDevelop hooks (for C++) and KOffice-to-Netbeans/Forte (for Java) are a way to go.