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Gnumeric Now Supports All Excel Worksheet Functions
unmadindu writes "The latest beta release of Gnumeric has been released. According the the developers, it is now ready and stable enough for general use and deployment, and the final 1.2.0 release will be made on September 8th. This release also marks the realization of a major milestone -- all of the worksheet functions in the U.S. version of MS Excel are now supported. I have been using 1.1.19 for quite some time now, and it is incredibly fast, and hugely improved compared to Gnumeric 1.0."
--LordKaT
So how long before Microsoft chanages Excel to be totally incompatable with their old file format and/or functionality, just to screw the open source community yet again?
It damn well will happen... It's just a matter of how long.
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Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
Because few users will switchfrom Excel to Gnumeric if their old files don't work on the new software.
It's like asking why Abiword or Openoffice is spending resources to be able to open .doc files.
Worksheet functions are great, but a lot of Excel's draw comes from its embedded VBA. Companies that rely on workbooks with embedded VBA probably wont be willing to switch to Gnumeric until it has support for VBA, or something very similar.
"Open the pod by doors, Hal" > "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave" sudo "Open the pod bay doors, Hal" > alright
because openoffice is written in some custom toolkit called uno that was probably proprietary when gnumeric was first released. Gnumeric uses GTK
gnumeric is annoyingly slow on my dual 1ghz with 720Mb RAM
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
And even on technical merit, Gnumeric is behind in some important aspects, Excel file compatibility the most dire one.
The awful truth is that some very large corporations are run on cobbled together Excel worksheets.
The situation is this: Take some very intelligent people, and provide them with a braindead tool that can, in the end, get the job done. Very few of them will have enough time to find something better, or even to know that there is something better. They will use the tool, and inadvertantly create a nightmare for whoever has to clean up after them.
A multidimensional array of variant, often executable data, with links to a broken-by-design half-object-oriented crudfest of a language, and a horrific hack of the C++ type system, is clearly not the route to computing nirvana.
The world would be a nicer place if these people knew about Python, Haskell, and Prolog, for example, which would accomplish their goals in a cleaner, more efficient and maintainable but ultimately less approachable way.
How do we get this to happen? Education. Only when computing (not "How to use some applications"), and multiple models of computing (procedural/OO, functional, and logical), are taught in schools at a young age ( 11 upwards), as a basic subject as fundamental as other sciences and humanities, will people do things "right" from the beginning.
Will it happen? Doubtful. All we can hope for is that someone comes up with something that strikes a balance, and lets people do their work easily, without creating a horrific mess. Also doubtful.
Linux started with GNU gcc version 1.37. Wow, does that seem like a long time ago. There was not even a working curses library at the beginning. Only stuff which relied on the standard C libary could be made to work, and not even all of that.
So while this Gnumeric milestone deserves a "hats off" to all the wizards on the Gnumeric team, let's not forget all those who over the years toiled away at improving the GNU toolchain -- compilers, linkers, libraries, debuggers, and all those who worked to make XFree86 as stable as it is today. They layed the groundwork for Gnumeric and all the great software to come.
From the graphing functions to its statistical capabilities, I consider Gnumeric to be on part with Gimp itself as an example of the quality that the Open Source model can create.
Any idea whether there is a windows version? Now that would be a good idea. I don't know why there isn't more work Open Source development being done for windows. How about giving Microsoft their own taste of "embrace and extend" by using Open Source on Windows as a means of reaching those who aren't likely or able to move over to Linux? I for one was VERY glad to see that Gimp had been ported to windows. I kept getting asked by windows users if there was a good alternative to Photoshop and now I can finally say yes without qualifying my answer with "but it only runs on Unix."
Microsoft isn't nearly as afraid of Linux as it is of the Open Source / Free Software movement/model itself. The technical quality of Microsoft's products is often lackluster, but when it comes to business strategy its leaders are grand-masters. They'll bankrupt you using an inferior product nine times out of ten. So far open source products like Linux have frustrated their ambitions to move up into the enterprise server arena but that isn't the same as going after them in their own backyard. Linux CAN be every bit as useful as a desktop OS as anything Microsoft or Apple has to offer, but it isn't quite there yet. Soccer moms and secretaries simply aren't going to move over to Linux because it isn't what their computers ship with and it isn't what everyone else is using. It also requires a degree of technical acumen that almost no-one posesses. The same is true of Windows of course, but that doesn't work against it since it's already in the dominant position. Those of use who do posess skill and talent with computers often forget just how mysterious the things that seem obvious to us are to most people. That is why Linux is stuck in the server room and will be for the forseeable future. If we can't displace Windows on the desktop, why not use it against its masters? Imagine if all the open-source application work that has been done for Unix was targeted at windows as well? Everyone who owned a computer would be using open source software in some capacity, and many would be aware of it. This would make it much easier to move people off of windows onto something better.
Before this movement to something better can occur however Linux needs to be made more luser friendly. Before you can sell something to someone you have to show how it is better than what they are already using and how what they are using is detrimental to them in some way that the replacement is not. Just making a better mousetrap isn't good enough when your potential customers have already invested in another model. Your mousetrap has to kill more mice AND include a feature whereby human fingers will never be smashed by it accidentally. Right now Linux is comparable to Windows as a desktop os in most ways. It needs to be better than windows and not plagued by the problems that windows is burdened with, or at least those problems that end-user clueless types consider to be important. Creating end-user apps for the platform where our end-users are is the very best way I can think of to gain insight into what they consider to be important. By ignoring windows as a platform for open-source development we're only helping Microsoft keep the barrier to use of Open-Source products artificially high.
Lee
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
For christ's sake, slashdot, GNOME has had a new logo forever. Can you please update it?
The whole open source movment (GNU etc ..) have to ask themself , what is the biggest gain for us , emulate Microsoft or trying to inovate. Emulating Microsoft formats is just futile, they just have to change file formats , APIs or standards to break years of efforts. I urge every one to try to think out of the box , you dont have to be MS compatible if you have an offer thats really good. If you strive to be compatible you will end up with a second rate , somewhat compatible product that's best can be described as "it kind of read/write MS files" ....
You make a very very good point that I like to harp on a lot. As far as working with numbers and text, just about any MS alternative spreadsheet is just as good. Graphics are where they ALL fall short. It is just so much easier to graph in Excel. Not only that, but Excel spreadsheets and graphs will embed inside a word document. I can't tell you how many times this has been so extremely handy to me. Why go back and forth between Excel and Word just to change a few data points or equations for a graph when you can do it all in one?
Not only that, but the graphing feature in most alternatives just plain sucks. For example, I haven't been able to figure out a way to get OpenOffice to let me choose which axes I want data to go on. It seems that data from the left-most column you are trying to graph automatically goes on the X axis and you have no choice (or on the y axis automatically...can't remember offhand). Gnumeric's graphing abilities are only marginally better. The zoom feature is sort of cute, but I've had problems trying to properly display multiple data sets on the same graph. On top of that, Gnumeric's way of graphing is *completely* non-compatible with Excel, which is a major problem for me because I am always exchanging data sheets and graphs with Excel user.
Project Steve
I know alot of business that are not going to be ransomed to Redmond anymore, they will either just keep using their old copy of Office, or switch to Star Office or retrain their staff to use simple linux desktops. Gates is about to get what he deserves a consumer revolt from his best customers the little guy. Thats why the adverts for server 2003 stress how cheap it is, ya right! Until after you actually buy it. It will be the same thing with the site license rental scheme coming for Office 2003 get them on it then stick it to them when they try to put it on another desktop. Total bullshit, and a complete ripoff.
The fact that you have to use MS office to communicate, and send financial data and reports to other businesses should be grounds for a monopoly break up of the Microsoft cartel. The fact that it has not happened simply means that they have far too much pull with the US Republican government, and need to be chastised by their customers in the same way their monopoly took out IBM, Digital Equipment, Corel, and many others. Next on the list is Adobe, that is the heart of the .NET strategy.
How many people are out of work because of them? MS is getting ready to outsource coders also, just look at the big picture MS has caused depression, cutbacks and layoffs everywhere except Redmond, and Washington State. Not to worry Gates MS and Redmond either way you are next. Because of the Gates inspired .NET stupidity.
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
Once you define yourself as a competitor, then you can start adding the cool stuff that differentiates your product.
MS knows this as well. Excel just didn't materialize from thin air. Spreadsheets started with Visicalc on the Apple ][. It was a truly innovative program that, to the people who understood it, justified the purchase of the machine. In much the same way that the graphics capabilities justified the purchase of a Macintosh, even if it had barely enough memory. The one truly imaginative thing MS has ever done is was combine the spreadsheet concept with the Macintosh concept. The original Excel was a truly beautiful and a deserving successor to Visicalc. But Excel was only a successor, not an original. And since them MS has lost the beauty in a bunch of extraneous crap.
I cannot say the same thing about word, as MacWrite was a superior product for many years.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
to interoperate with all those people who did go past Office 97.
You left Lotus123 out of your "history".
What does "-2^2" equal in Gnumeric? Excel claims it's 4 (as in (-2)^2) which is VERY wrong, as "-2^2" is actually "(-1) * 2^2".
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
Many (most?) people also don't want to know how to add, solve a quadratic equation, spell "ridiculous" and "then" properly, learn the history of their country and their political system, how they evolved, or to speak another language.
Does that mean the education system should not try to teach them these things?
Democracy is a horrific way to run an education system.
"I think we should learn how to tax dodge in school!"
"I want my sons to know how to get away with a bit of date rape!"
Computing is a pervasive aspect of modern life. To leave it to the few people who can be bothered to seek it out is purposefully lessening our ability to progress. The level of computing taught in schools is excremental, they are taught as if a computer is an appliance - not a general problem solver.
The point is not to get people to use spreadsheets better. Its to get them never to consider spreadsheets in the first place, as they are very rarely the best tool for anything even mildly complex.