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No Abiword For Mac?

Posted by Hemos on from the the-end-of-abiword-for-mac dept.

aliya writes "With Abiword's version 1.90 coming out, their cocoa developer has announced that he will no longer work on a Mac version of the software because he doesn't want to support the company which treated him so poorly. There is a still a somewhat-supported X11 version available, though it is not kept current, and it appears that Abiword will join the abundant ranks of 'almost supported' word processors for Mac OS X."

4 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot by sco08y · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who on Earth would want to advertise their sour grapes to every prospective client or employer?

    If you're pissed, just say, "look, I'm having difficulty negotiating a good deal with these people" or some kind of euphamism.

    But don't let everyone know that things got messy!

  2. Killer App? Just How Much Does This Matter? by TheWanderingHermit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the cited post: "I had no reason to be a loyal customer (sort of like I was until 1988) and offer them what could *possibly* be a killer app on
    MacOS X    "

    I should point out that AbiWord was a VERY integral part of the software system that got my business going. I can't say that the overall system, and therefore my company, would never have gotten off the ground without AbiWord, but the open document format and load of command line options/commands made it possible for me to save months of work by just dropping in command line uses of AbiWord in Perl scripts. The AbiWord programmers are great to work with and have been very kind and helpful to me.

    However, I recently changed the entire system over to OpenOffice.org. While AbiWord has some wonderful features, OOo has a fully documented programming language and API. It's a full blown office suite -- if, by chance, anyone didn't know.

    While AbiWord was very important to me and I have nothing but the utmost respect for the programmers and people behind the project, I cannot see anyone realistically seeing it as a "killer app."

    To be honest, while I love choice and all the options in OSS, I think Linux in particular and OSS in particular, would be much more widely adopted (and would be much more of a competitor to Micro$oft) if, instead of having so many OSS word processors and spreadsheets, all that effort had been focused on creating one kick-ass office suite. Once done, different groups could take the code from that suite and customize it to their hearts' content, much like what's happened with Mozilla -- one browser, but many groups have taken the source code and created their own versions (like Galeon and Konqueror).

    While no AbiWord on OSX is not good news, I think the actual number of users (in proportion to the total number of Mac users) who will be effected by this is very low. I'm sure most people that spend the extra money on a Mac tend to either buy their own word processor, or use OOo, since it is almost out of beta for OSX.

    While AbiWord is a great program, it is hardly a killer app.

  3. Is it my imagination... by Llywelyn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...or is this guy talking more about his /dedication/ than the /quality of his work/ as to why they should have kept him?

    I don't know why this guy got fired--perhaps they weren't satisfied with his work, perhaps there were politics involved, perhaps they needed to trim their staff and he wasn't valuable enough to keep--I don't know. What I do know is that he seems to be saying that he deserved to keep the job because he wanted the job and was dedicated to it--not because he was particularly qualified to keep it.

    Also, this has just marginarlly above a 0% chance of become "the killer app" on MacOS X. A good app? Perhaps. Widely used? Maybe. A killer app that everyone downloads right after getting a mac? Not a chance.

    I've used Abiword. It's good, but it isn't *that* good.

    --
    Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
  4. Possability by Llywelyn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Too bad, obviously the guy was fully capable of programming yet Apple thought he was "incompetent"."

    Maybe "incompetence" referred to some other, more nebulous, quality. Maybe they were unsatisfied with his hygine, or his appearance. Perhaps he is a damn good coder but can't keep to documentation or follow orders. Perhaps he is a God of Programming(tm) but can't communicate with others (and the managers were getting sick of slipping pizza boxes under the door).

    We, as outsiders, can do nothing but speculate but don't assume that "incompetence" had anything to do with the quality of his code.

    --
    Integrate Keynote and LaTeX