Native KOffice for Mac OS X

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Posted by michael on Friday January 2, 2004 @10:59AM from the microsoft-office-not-good-enough-for-you dept.

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.

13 of 335 comments (clear)

OpenOffice.org by Valegor · 2004-01-02 11:00 · Score: 5, Informative

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
1. Re:OpenOffice.org by Hanji · 2004-01-02 11:08 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Yes, OOo is a `` free full-featured office suite that runs on Mac OS X''. However, the important difference is that this port of KOffice runs natively on OS X - it does not require you to be running an X11 server.
  
  For some people, that may not be a big deal, but most of us on OS X hate to have to use X11, and would *much* rather use native apps if we can at all avoid X11. It's not that it's bad, it's just that it's an inconvenience and doesn't blend in well with the rest of the environment.
  
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2. Re:OpenOffice.org by Valegor · 2004-01-02 11:24 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  When I judge on a pruely objective basis, regarding the abilities of various office products (not I am looking at the product only) then MS Office wins every time, every application.
  
  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.
3. Re:OpenOffice.org by geoffspear · 2004-01-02 11:39 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Projected OS X native availability of OpenOffice.org 2.0 is currently Q1 2006. - from porting.openoffice.org. I'm not holding my breath.
  
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4. Re:OpenOffice.org by squiggleslash · 2004-01-02 11:58 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  While this version of KOffice does, indeed, not require X11, I hesitate to agree that it is a "native" port. A quick look at the buttons, scrollbars, etc, suggests that this version of KOffice does not use the OS X widgets. In other words, this is as native as, say, Mozilla, rather than, say, Camino.
  Which is odd because I thought the QT for Mac was supposed to use the OS X native widgets.
  I don't want to suggest this means it's useless. Obviously, having an application you can place anywhere in the file system, double click to run, associate with files (with a file, as the default for a type of file where the file isn't associated, and used for Open With...), etc, is infinitely better than an X11 version, but, well, I suspect most of those with MS Office or even AppleWorks will probably stick with their proprietary apps for now. Which is a shame.
  
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I really expected OpenOffice.org to be first... by Fortunato_NC · 2004-01-02 11:02 · Score: 5, Informative

But no, a version that requires you to load an X server doesn't count.

Congratulations to everyone who's worked on this.

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OSX Theme by IceFox · 2004-01-02 11:07 · Score: 5, Informative

And the *really* important feature: The native OSX theme I got working the other day: here
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

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Opportunity by blackmonday · 2004-01-02 11:08 · Score: 5, Interesting

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!
90/10 rule in effect by MrEd · 2004-01-02 11:10 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.

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? :)

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Re:I'm ignorant... by Boltronics · 2004-01-02 11:18 · Score: 5, Informative

OpenOffice on OSX has fallen behind. They are only up to 1.0.3, when other supported platforms are up to 1.1

The installation process on the Mac is much harder than other platforms also. X11 (and a few other dependencies) are included in the download, making it a whopping 173MB! That's roughly 100MB more than Windows and GNU/Linux versions.

I'm certain if KOffice was ported better than OpenOffice on OSX, it would be a more popular choice for those looking for a free office suite.

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Re:Free not important? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-02 11:26 · Score: 5, Insightful

Man, is that ever an uniformed post. How does being able to afford a Mac equate to being able to afford Microsoft Office too? After paying $2600 for a Powerbook, the last thing I need is to pay another $400 for software I rarely use. Just to make it perfectly clear to you, the idea of people who buy Macs being rich is a STEREOTYPE. I'm not rich, but I did get a Mac, because it is a very worthwhile expense. Every aspect of it is well designed, from the hardware to the software. Based on what I've heard from people using sub-500 MHz Macs, and from what I've seen with Panther, I fully expect this system to only improve over time. I bought a Mac because I want a high quality computer, not because I had pocket change to burn.

I expect I'll use a word processor on my personal system four or five times a year. Therefore, spending $230 on Word would be a complete waste. I welcome a free word processor.
Widgets need updating... by Kaypro · 2004-01-02 11:29 · Score: 5, Interesting

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!

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Re:OpenOffice.org (Aqua State Of The Port) by VValdo · 2004-01-02 14:16 · Score: 5, Informative

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

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