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Native KOffice for Mac OS X
bsharitt writes "A preliminary version of KOffice has been built natively on Mac OS X. It looks like a lot of the hard part is over, and now a lot of cleaning up and bug fixes stand between Mac OS X and a free full featured office suite." There's also a story on the dot.
...to pay your $699 licensing fee you cock-smoking teabaggers.
I've made the transition from Mandrake on a Desktop to OSX on a Powerbook. Surprisingly, KDE has some apps that are very good and designed well enough to compliment an OSX environment.
Example 1: KMail! If you haven't ever tried this email client, try it NOW. It has some of the most killer email filtering speed I have ever seen in an email application. It nicely integrates with GnuPG. It has good keyboard shortcuts. It's set up not to download images from emails. It stores emails with maildir by default. It's pretty. Did I mention that it's fast? Up until 10.3's much improved mail.app, I would have killed to have KMail running naitively on OS X.
Ex 2: KOffice. I've never used it, but it's absolutely essential that OS X has a free naitive-running office package. Unless the OO.org aqua port gets back up, this package will likely be KOffice.
Ex 3: Konqueror is a very good file manager. While the OS X file manager is very good, there are a couple of areas that it misses. For example, I can use konqueror to select all items matching the file pattern '*foo*.bar'. In OS X, I have to drop to a terminal, and loose the trash can functionality, or switch views and sort by type, which takes longer. As another poster said, SMB apparently works better in konqueror than Finder (thanks, I'll have to try that!). If konqueror can run, then so can any other KDE app, especially when you consider that Konqueror is the most (featureful | bloated) app in KDE.
So that's why people bother. Props to them!
--gnaa
There already is free full-featured office suite that runs on Mac OS X. Openoffice.org has run on Mac for a couple releases now. Having used both open office and Koffice(koffice on Linux, openoffice on Linux and Windows), I find openoffice to be more versatile. It is all a matter of opinion though
Finally, an alternative to Micro$oft Office!
Praise be to the gods!
Isn't there a build of OpenOffice.org for osX? Wouldn't that be considered a "free, full-featured office suite"?
But no, a version that requires you to load an X server doesn't count.
Congratulations to everyone who's worked on this.
Blogging Weight Loss, Distance Education, and more at verlin.com
Given the price of a Mac, is *free* that big of a deal? Open source I understand, but it doesn't seem that anyone who can afford a Mac can't afford an office suite.
KOffice comprises the customary litany of applications: KWord, a word processor, KSpread, a spreadsheet, KPresenter, for making presentations, KChart, for converting data into pictures, KIllustrator, for making vector graphics, and KOShell, which provides a unified workspace for all the applications, ala StarOffice (though unlike StarOffice before version 6.0, KOShell is optional--the applications can run without it). These are the applications that by default consensus are thought to be required by businesses. Whether these, beyond word processor and spreadsheet, actually are what businesses typically need is probably debatable, but they seem to be the applications necessary to achieve the official stamp of approval of the Office Suite Advisory Council or whoever it is who decides these things.
It is in this respect that in its initial versions KOffice seemed to me to be a little bit unfocused, (and maybe a little unsuited for OS X in that regard). Yes, there are applications that fall into all of the Official Office Suite categories, except for a database application, which, fortunately, is under development (I'd bet money that more companies use databases than make charts and presentations or, for that matter, draw pictures). Vector graphics are great for computer artists and hobbyists, but they're scarcely essential to business.
I am not a spreadsheet expert by any means. I rarely use them and never use their advanced features. In discussion with people who do use spreadsheets a lot and who have taken KSpread for a spin, I've gotten the impression that it's a very nice little application that does not match the features of Excel, or 1-2-3, or late versions of Quattro Pro, or even the spreadsheets in StarOffice or Applix. This is not necessarily a bad thing, in my view, because such applications have suffered from such feature bloat that their original intent often seems lost.
But I do use word processors, a lot. I've written these columns in KWord for months now, and KWord has steadily gotten better. I haven't explored all its features by any means. But I have used many word processors on many platforms, and not just Macintosh.
It has a couple of attributes that annoy the hell out of me. First, its import-export filters are all but useless. (When I finish this comment, as I comprise them before posting in alternate applications, I'll save it as a text file, then open StarOffice to format it before saving it there as HTML. When opening the text file, I'll have to go through it and replace the pound signs it uses to denote tabs with actual tabs.) Second is an ease of use problem that is inexcusable.
It is now standard pretty much everywhere: when one is editing a document, if one highlights a word or section and then begins typing, the new typing replaces the highlighted text. This is true largely throughout KDE2 as well, in such applications as KMail and Konqueror. Not so in KWord. Highlight some text, start typing, and you're typing next to the highlighted text. This is inconsistent with every modern word processor--and for no good reason.
Likewise, it would be nice to be able to actually configure the thing and save the configurations from session to session. Here, at 1280x1024, I need the magnification set to 200 percent. Not sometimes but all the time. I use a U.S. Letter layout, not sometimes, but all the time. Yet there is no way of making these the defaults--indeed, the only things one may semi-permanently set is whether or not a couple of toolbars appear.
I simply cannot imagine any business that has a choice electing to use KWord at this point in its development.
So, really, who is KOffice's target audience? Is it Mac users?
Sometimes this can be determined by playing around with an application for awhile, but this doesn't work with KOffice: It's not especially easy to use, but it's also not so feature rich that it can be said there are rewards in store for those who master it. It's plenty stable, so it can't be thought of as a beta. No, the impression is that it is a competently executed thing that nobody devoted much time to designing. But that doesn't mean it's bad.
I managed to get some nice pretty Aqua screenshots of KDE and KOffice on Mac OS X. http://212.229.115.84/tripod/images/kofficemac/.
Slashdot: when news breaks, we give you the pieces.
it looks nice but why would they use kde toolbar icons if they're porting it to OSX?
> "I allege that SCO is full of it" -Linus
Eat cock mac fagotry
So, will Microsoft continue to snub the Mac or is will Redmond try to counter this move? Free software on Linux is one thing, spreading to other platforms is another. We could hope they will take the opportunity to improve their products and approach, but I'm rather cynical these days, I expect dirty tricks -- maybe they'll invest in some company hanging on by a thread who claims some intellectual property made it's way into KDE/KOffice and start suing.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
So even thought some of the other screenshots are in the ugly Motif theme they will soon be all re-taken using the OSX theme.
Also notice how in the Dock the KDE applications icons show up (and scale wonderfully!). We have a script that generates OS X .app directories of the KDE applications and also generates those directories with the proper icons. You can see some of them in the background of the screenshot in Finder.
-Benjamin Meyer
Do you changes clothes while making the "chee-chee-cha-cha-choh" transformation sound?
"...hard part is over, and now a lot of cleaning up and bug fixes..."
Does only me finds this funny? NOW the hard BORING part starts...
The text of this post is swiped from the "Konqueror on OS X" discussion here.
Breakfast served all day!
Perfect opportunity for Apple to do what they did with Safari and Darwin. Extend it, make it better, include it as an Apple branded product, and give the changes back to the community.
I wonder how long it will be before Appleworks is nixed in favor of a kOffice - based product. Microsoft Office for the Mac is actually a really good product, and Appleworks doesn't touch it. Get to work Apple!
This is going to potentially have more impact on the popularity of Open Source software than anything to date. Office X on OS X has some really annoying "features" like the finking on it's self through a LAN. If this is solid and "Mac-like" it could prove to be a very popular alternative for Mac users who want to be free of Redmond.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
3 fucking dupes on the front page today, guess that "give a shit about my job" resolution didn't last long.
you lick GNAA sweat
This feels like an early christmas present to me.
(And I'm not even Orthodoc)
As a Mac user I like it that these apps don't require X-windows and that they already look quite a bit like native OSX applications.
really, excellent work.
A friend of mine has Openoffice running on his powerbook, indeed it "works" but since it doesn't look as slick as the native OSX apps, I am not that eager to try it.
I hope that now a lot of other K-software will be ported!
best regards, Tom
Unfortunately, in almost all Open Source projects the 'hard' and 'easy' parts are reversed...
The challenge and glory is done, now all that's left is methodical, monotonous bug chasing. Who's up?
Wah!
Koffice still very buggy and the project needs more developers.
It copies and pastes lame responses to any story with iKrap in them.
Do not mod this guy up. He is posting a blatant ripoff troll as AC, then using his logged in account to point out it is a troll to collect Karma points for being the "Good Samaritan"
Well, the reasons for porting KOffice to Mac OS X natively and the reasons why someone would want to use Konqueror on OS X may be different.
.war files (I do not know if this is an exclusive Konqueror feature or not, and I don't care - it is extremely useful).
Konqueror is not just a browser. It is also a file manager (kind of like Windows Explorer on SuperMan steroids). It suppors io-slaves, which gives Konqueror network transparency that I do not think is paralleled by any other file browser right now. Also, some people dislike the OS X Finder and would prefer to use Konqueror instead.
Konqueror is pretty cool - it has all the latest features such as tabbed browsing, but it also allows to split any view into two (and then again) - you can make it look like Norton Commander if you like.
Konqueror also supports archiving web pages as
So, there are many reasons someone would want to use Konqueror, and not just on OS X or Linux.
The reason to port to OS X could be so that KOffice were less dependent on X11 hacks and used Qt API more thoroughly, I don't know. The thing is - the more portable the code is, the fewer bugs there are (unless of course they start #ifdef-ing everywhere, then it just turns into a mess of duplicated non-portable code).
Paul.
How about /. just be honest and put a "+1, anti-Micro$haft" category for moderation, if not an additional automatic bonus, like the karma one?
"now all that's left is methodical, monotonous bug chasing. Who's up?"
Apple? Like they did with khtml.
One missing thing is standardization accross OSS. When koffice supports oo files, then we might see increased usage. Also, i personally can't think of a use offhand that these software suites can't already do. Once they become standardized, then more people will actually try to bundle them with computers.
Why... when I was your age, karma had numbers!
what a great marraige... finnally the world renouned ease of use and power of KDE Office gets the wide distribution it deserves on the market dominating OS X platform.... oh wait...
Well, the reasons for porting KDE to Mac OS X natively and the reasons why someone would want to use Konqueror on OS X may be different.
.war files (I do not know if this is an exclusive Konqueror feature or not, and I don't care - it is extremely useful).
Konqueror is not just a browser. It is also a file manager (kind of like Windows Explorer on SuperMan steroids). It suppors io-slaves, which gives Konqueror network transparency that I do not think is paralleled by any other file browser right now. Also, some people dislike the OS X Finder and would prefer to use Konqueror instead.
Konqueror is pretty cool - it has all the latest features such as tabbed browsing, but it also allows to split any view into two (and then again) - you can make it look like Norton Commander if you like.
Konqueror also supports archiving web pages as
So, there are many reasons someone would want to use Konqueror, and not just on OS X or Linux.
The reason to port to OS X could be so that KDE were less dependent on X11 hacks and used Qt API more thoroughly, I don't know. The thing is - the more portable the code is, the fewer bugs there are (unless of course they start #ifdef-ing everywhere, then it just turns into a mess of duplicated non-portable code).
Paul.
When I judge a post based on proper spelling and punctuation vs. the message you are trying to get across, your post loses every time.
When I see a post citicising another for spelling (and incorrectly for grammar) then I see they have little contribution other than to bait the parent. Certainly nothing valuable, on topic or intelligent.
This is a great milestone but...
Trolltech needs desperately to update the OSX port of QT. The widget have a cumbersome appearance and need to be updated to Panther style. Text alignment is in need of some fixing up. This isn't a complaint... the OSX version is still in its infancy and I'm sure time will allow a more integrated look... I'm just anxious.. because QT really is a great toolkit / API.
Good Job!
Eddy.WriteLinux.Com
Hasn't Openoffice been released for mac os x? Doesn't that count as a open office suite or am I missing something?
My UID is prime is yours?
Yes. Karma is now capped at "Excellent" This was done to keep people from running up insane karma scores, and then being immune from moderation. Despite some theories to the contrary, the karma cap applies to every account.
Answered by: CmdrTaco
Last Modified: 1/24/02
Post: Sigged, for your pleasure.
Even more important than the look is the feel though, and one example of something that needs to be fixed is the position of the OK and Cancel buttons in dialogs.
I know it's Gnome that uses the Mac style and KDE uses the Windows style, and that's fine on Linux when working with other apps in the same DE, but that won't fly in a native Mac app.
I'll bet these guys already have there inboxes filled with mail from Mac users about this.
An unreleased partial hack port doesn't count. what counts is a fully funcitonal version, tested and available to the general public. ie, its OO.o who was first. a few quotes: "Bits of KOffice work now!" *bits* ... ie: not the whole thing.
"For those of you wondering how to get it, there's no binaries yet, probably won't be for a bit until things get cleaned up more."
sorry... who was first??
If you can't even get your mac to work... www.blackcider.com
Yeah, and look how it 'devastated' the Mac community. :)
I'd say MS needs Apple more than the other way around - I've heard the Mac business unit at MS is among the most profitable, compared to how much they spend on development. Probably a lot less piracy going on in Mac-land.
Michael wrote: There's also a story on the dot.
:-)
He really should have linked to the story on dot.kde.org
"The dot" is "news for KDE-freaks - stuff that matters" so to speak. Hop on over, it's a nice place
Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.
Lets be nice and send fresh underwear to all the product executives at MS. They need it after this news.
If the Mac platform loses MS Office, they lose any chance of selling systems where reliable interoperability is an issue. By which I mean, where people need to be able open and edit Office files natively, without getting the formatting all munged up by import/export filters. This means no more workplace Macs (except maybe the art department) and no Macs purchased by people who need to take their work home. The pundits says this would probably mean the end of the Mac, and I don't see any flaw in their logic.
And yeah, you'll have reliable interoperability when all those PCs get Windows and Office overwritten by Linux, KDE, and KOffice. Which would be a nice change but one I'm not holding my breath for.
Is that you?
I've used KOffice, and Open Office and the Full Featured Free Office Suite that was installed the first time you turned your MAC on! Oh yeah and Apple Works runs natively. On OS9 too!
It's great to port *nix apps to OS X. It is. It's great for many reasons, one being to make *nix heads more comfortable on a mac. Really though, is Apple Works that bad? I think it's far superior to MS Office for mac.
Yes they are.
Please stop trying to equate laptops and desktops. Even if we do use laptops:
Dell Inspiron 5100: $1,860 (15" LCD/2.66GHz P4/512MB/DVD-CD-RW)
Apple PowerBook: $2,198.00 (15" LCD/1GHz G4/512MB/DVD-CD-RW)
I'll even allow that the G4 may be more powrful than the P4, but not 2.66 times as powerful, so the PC wins power and price (though arguably loses in both cool-factor and the ethereal 'usability').
Build me a very powerful desktop Mac for less than $1000, inculding a 19" CRT. I did this 2 months ago. PCs are cheaper b/c there is more than 1 vendor - and isn't that why everyone hates MS? They only have one monolith to bitch at? As usual w/the Apple crowd, there's a double standard.
-bZj
PS: I hate MS just as much as anyone who uses computers for hours a day, but facts are facts.
.sig
I'm glad that Ben and Ben (and if you're in the Fink project, Ben and Ben and Ben and Ben) have finally succeeded with their port. Good job Bens!
Yeah, but does your Dell have:
A built-in dual head video card?
Built-in firewire 400 AND 800?
Built-in USB 2.0?
An internal antenna for a wireless card and a dedicated slot for it so you don't have to use up a PC Card slot?
A back-lit keboard?
4 hours of battery life?
No, the Dell (with the exception of the USB 2.0 and Firewire 400, POSSIBLY) doesn't have those. Let's make sure our systems match in comparison.
I just bought a new Powerbook G4 after comparing systems from PC vendors, and since the Apple delievered on all those (It's replacing a dual-head system and I have a wireless set up at home) PLUS came with the best Unix desktop I've ever used in my life, the Mac won hands down. And yes, I'm a linux and *bsd user as well, but let's face, the Mac seriously, JUST WORKS.
Well, from the Dell website: "Weight: From 3.3 kg", Apple: 2.5 kg (sorry, I don't understand non-metric measurements).
Battery life: Dell: "Approximate operating time: Up to 1.5-3 hours per battery (depends on usage)", Apple: "46-watt-hour lithium-ion battery (with integrated charge indicator LEDs) providing up to 4.5 hours of battery life (15-inch models".
A year ago I made the mistake of thinking that an "inexpensive" PC laptop with a shitload of MHz would be a good choice. 11 months later, my back still aching and driven insane by the practically nonexistant driver support for their lowspec hardware (let alone support for alternative OSes), I admitted my mistake and made the best decision in my life: I went and bought a Powerbook. At least for me, it's not all about speed/buck.
How is it a company with 3% market share can get 80% of the fucking press? I'm so fucking sick of hearing about Apple. Fuck Apple. Fuck Apple hard. I hope they go out of business in 2004.
I intend to give this suite a try regardless, but just curious: is there an automated system a la Mozilla to provide bug info back to the development team when an application crashes? I'd like to help further this development along, but this is about the extent of what I could provide right now.
sig != null
Objectively, price is a factor too -- in which case MS Office loses every time.
. . . the hard part is over . . .
Not by a long shot. It's hard to say this without sounding like a troll, but what most open source developers just don't get is that the hard part isn't the coding, but putting on the polish so that the app is useful to someone else. Looking at the screenshot, I can pretty much tell you that no Mac user is going to be comfortable using what clearly is not a well-designed Mac app. The fake widgets are out of place. The nested tab views (or two rows of tabs, depending on how you see it) is a terrible interface error straight out of Windows. I imagine trying to use this thing would show it to be even more clunky than the X11 version, where a user would more understand what they're getting into.
Apple gave a very public lesson on the proper way to port OSS when they did Safari. This port clearly took nothing from that lesson. I don't really want to come down on the developers who got it working, because I know the kinds of efforts involved, but I have to say that if anyone thinks this will be of real help to the average Mac user, they are very much mistaken.
yes
That is what is holding it up.
photosMy Photostream
I was, in fact, trying to keep this as similar as possible. Included on the Dell:
"IEEE 1394 integrated port;
2-USB 2.0 (Universal Serial Bus);
Video: 15-pin monitor connector;
S-Video: 7-pin mini-DIN connector;
Internal TrueMobile 1400 Dual Band Mini-PCI card".
Can't find an estimate time for the Dell battery. The PowerBook didn't have the backlit keyboard option. So, all you got was FireWire800 for your extra $342 (as far as hardware goes).
Again, nothing against the Mac, but facts are facts. Macs cost more. (And I'll even ignore the software availability issue.)
And you're still ignoring the desktop issue, which is not insignificant, since most personal computers are desktops (though that too is changing).
-bZj
.sig
Since partially completed ports apparently count, I recommend checking out the developer Aqua release of OpenOffice.org, Neoffice. Downloads of a test binary have been here for awhile.
Moreover, just yesterday, lead developer Dan Williams posted this state-of-the-port message on what still needs to be done to have a complete port of OO.o in Aqua:
All in all, these aren't problems that require all that much technical expertise, just a lot of trial and error, and a bunch of debugging. A lot of the issues that we have had for a long time, like the widgets and menus and the event loop, are actually solved; we simply need to convert our old hacks over to the new frameworks or clean up the code as it is. We can of course do this, but as always it requires more manpower.
So? Volunteers?
W
-------------------
This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Sidenote: how does the PowerBook hardware stand up to that 'alternative OS' test? Are there working drivers for the Mac hardware for those alternative OSes, or have you tried?
-bZj
.sig
Bad: "embracing" an existing standard, extending it incompatibly behind closed doors, flooding the marketplace with incompatible software and claiming it supports the standard.
Appropriating existing application software (not exactly standard in the same was as, say, TCP/IP), developing it thoroughly, and contributing the useful changes back to the original development teams is a bit different. It could be done badly, yes, but Apple doesn't seem to have a poor track record lately in this respect.
When I judge a post based on proper spelling and punctuation vs. the message you are trying to get across, your post loses every time. When I see a post citicising another for spelling (and incorrectly for grammar) then I see they have little contribution other than to bait the parent. Certainly nothing valuable, on topic or intelligent.
When I see a post piggy-backing on another one by copying the format and changing around certain words and I see they have fucked up trying to close the italics tag, umm, fuck you :D?
Apart from Airport Extreme (currently a common problem with about any
Of course this is simply because those targetting Apple laptops have exactly two product lines to support (as opposed to the n+1 manufacturers with n+2 models).
But now that I have a decent, vendor-supported *nix, I don't really care all that much about alt. support anymore. On the PC side, they were simply a must, because Windows actually made some of my work (most notably unix software development on the go) practically impossible.
As the other reply noticed this is a copy from the last article on Konqueror for OS X.
I'm not holding my breath.
You might not need to. See The State of the Aqua Port 2004 message from developer Dan Williams.
W
-------------------
This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Where can I donate specifically to the team of programmers working to bring KOffice up to finished, final release quality on OS X?
I would gladly pay to encourage their efforts.
How long until MS starts suing for using "Office"???
Can't we find better names for projects that won't get sued?????
You can easily see how they build the gui. Ctrl-click on Safari->Show Package Contents->Contents->Resouces and double click on any .nib file you see..look its part of the gui..the toolkit that they use is closed but other than that it is pretty damn open. There is nothing stopping you from modifing the gui to suite your tastes either..distributing it however might pose to be a problem.
Jisho - A Japanese English German Russian French Dictionary for the rest of us.
the problem i have with office is simply the closed file formats. i couldn't care less if the program is closed source. i use keynote everyday in my class. it is an awesome program. however, it uses an xml-based file format. and other programs can generate xml files, and can extract the data. in fact, apple publishes the specs. yet keynote is closed. word's format is designed to make you use word. and they change it to make you upgrade. that i have a problem with. free is a pipe dream. sure, it'd be nice, but open is the key.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
Thanks for the info.
-bZj
.sig
How come nobody wants to do a MS Office clone? I don't mean just file formats, but the whole shebang--the same menues, the same dialogs, same icons. Users will have no reason not to switch, since it works just like their favorite program, it has years of user interfacing studies done on it, and it'll be FREE.
In Soviet Russia, articles before post read *you*!
OK, I've done GUI's and am usually totally anal about compliance, but here I have to agree with the post: the hard part is over.
You have here a free and native alternative for Office.
No money. People will use it if it is reliable. Because it's free. That's great!
Maybe, if the programmers want to have more people use it and everybody to stop bitching, yes, it would be a good - no, a great idea to make it more Mac-compliant, but they don't have to, really. They've already made it FREE.
People will be plenty happy already when the bugs and kinks are worked out.
So congratulations!
BTW, now please give us a free and easy (meaning no coding) database program and we're in HEAVEN!
xxx
I think, therefore I am...I think.
I wish Apple would consider porting OS X to the x86 platform. That would be the best of all worlds to me. X86 - Speed, Unix - Reliability, OS X - Usability. Who couldn't win with that combination?
If Apple charged the same price as Windows XP Professional (~$250+). I'm sure many people would be happy to choose the Apple OS over Microsoft and Apple would be making a pretty good margin. It would exponentially increase their market share. Just imagine if they got OEMs to preinstall it!
Don't tell me it would be too hard to port either. Darwin is ported to the X86 platform already. The foundation is there. Besides they are going to have to port so much stuff to natively support the new G5 hardware anyway. Why not port it to the hardware that will really make you money.
I tried and it is AWFUL!
Working on my Master's coursework I wrote some documents using Apple Works. Saved them in MSWord format (only format the Univeristy officially accepts - although I later discovered my tutor is also a Mac-head and would accept PDF), anyway, saved it in MSWord format. Came back to edit it later. All the formatting has been lost !!! OK so put it all back, cross fingers, save in Word format again. Come back later to edit, this time AppleWorks crashes each and every time I try to load a file IT HAD WRITTEN! That was the last straw so I went and bought MSOffice- and discovered the Entourage is actually quite a good email client (although now Mail has folders I've switched back to that).
Edward
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
I doubt this will happen. Mac OS, formerly System 7, goes back to the days of the Lisa... that is a lot of code that Apple has tried and invested in, why would they throw it out? I expect a major updating of the Mac OS, splitting it to 2(Client / Server) OSes that all use a similar GUI.
I just don't see Jobs throwing out Mac OS, and moving to NextStep (or BeOS, which is just as possible an alternative). It wouldn't make a lot of sense.
1. The AppleWorks is greatly out of data in many areas. Including good interface, features, and coding. I normally go to Text Edit to write any documents then AppleWorks because Text Edit has more features and is easier to use. AppleWorks is an Ugly program and Apple should be ashamed to have it with their logo attached to it. I think Apple is letting it die and replacing it with a new better one. Probably based off Koffice or some other type.
2. OpenOffice.org, has the features But it works and feels to Unix Like. Which is good on a unix system but OS X (although based off of a unix core) is not setup like a Unix system. OpenOffice.org need a complete new interface to it and many design changes to it so it works like a new program.
Koffice and KDE itself is more Mac Like then any other active project out there, so most of the code is better designed to be prorted to Mac.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
This is a great thing for sure, but I have to question the Nativeness of Native here. For one thing I would have least expected it to use the native OSX widget set instead of a themed QT... and does it run without the need to have an X server running atop of aqua?
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
Can't we find better names for projects that won't get sued?????
What, and miss out on all the free advertising?
I think, therefore I am...I think.
I bought an iBook for my wife's mom for christmas and it came with AppleWorks installed and ready to use. It also came woth the PowerBook my friend bought two months ago.
Look at it, it's basically Microsoft office in sheep's clothing.
I used OOo to write a few rather lenghty works and it's more or less the same approach. Ok, some stuff is moved around but I bet if you wanted to you could move them so they're in the exact same places as in Microsoft. It basically has all the same buttons and does all the same things. There's no difference in my book.
This is mainly why I deleted OOo and just installed that $5 copy of MS Office I get from the University. It's just as "functional," arguably more stable because of code maturity, and vastly faster on my low end machine. Plus it doesn't FUX up file formatting for when I want to take a copy to print in the computer lab. Sure, OOo makes super small files and can save to PDF which looks all professional. But those are more novelties than anything else.
I think OOo needs something like the Firebird project for us normal people. Take the engine and strip out the entire interface. Rewrite it in XUL and only include controls for the most basic functionality. Have Javascript plugins for extra functionality and add back features from the main project as you find out which ones you REALLY need. Simple, it really is like the metaphorical death and rebirth of the Phoenix.
You've also got to remember what did BeOS in. In the beginning they were a PowerPC shop and made their own hardware just like Apple. Then they got into some trouble with Apple so they ported BeOS to x86 (hey, I'd switch now!).
Sad truth is BeOS was a very, very small company and they could barely keep up to date on one hardware configuration. Now they had infinite configurations. They were buried in writing drivers so they fell behind in development. Not to mention lots of people got a sour introduction to BeOS when it wouldn't work with their machines.
No, unless Apple hires like 50 times more programmers they don't stand a chance bringing OS X to x86.
point well made.
Microsoft's sales figures for Mac Office are secret, but we can make some good guesses. Apple claims to sell 2.5 million Macs a year. Let's assume that Mac people who don't buy Office are evened out by Mac people who keep the software on their old Macs current. Which will probably give a figure that's way too high, but we have to start somewhere. Microsoft gets about $125 for each copy of Mac Office, so we're talking income of about $315 million per year.
That's a lot of money to you or me, but it's peanuts to Microsoft -- less than 1% of their income! Plus they have to work relatively hard for that money. They probably save a little money from overlapping code bases, but enough to account for a customer base that's 30 times smaller?
pretty please! This would be so great, a good visual DBase app with a serious backbone...
While Filemaker is great - OK, it isn't, really - there is a huuuuge lack of simple but still moderately powerful database apps for the simple stupid mac crowd.
In fact, as far as I can see (disclaimer, I'm not an expert, but I've been looking for quite some time now) there's nothing that comes even close to kexi on the mac.
There are some pricy alternatives, or one could follow courses in actual dbase encoding and programming, but let's not go there...
If you were to port kexi *and* make an easy "typical mac" installer (with the option to install and setup mysql!!!!!) you'd become famous and immortal, I'm pretty sure.
Seriously. Parades, naked people, beer, chanting of your names for hours on end, it could happen!
I think, therefore I am...I think.