Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

AbiWord vs. MS Word, For Now

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the abiword-is-an-unsung-hero dept.

Gsurface writes "If you have decided that it is time to kill MS Word, then it is time to look for an alternative. Flexbeta.net compares AbiWord, part of a larger project known as AbiSource, with MS Word and asks: is AbiWord a worthy MS Word replacement? Not to ruin the ending but according to the article the only draw back to AbiWord is that it currently does not feature a grammar checker, though a plug-in is in the works." (Also on this front, AbiWord's native Mac OS X version is labeled experimental, but seems to work very nicely.)

3 of 511 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I can understand hating IE and looking to repla by bizpile · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...but why am I supposed to hate Word? Seems a decent product and the sharepoint shared workspaces has turned out to be real popular with my users.

    If you already have Word/Office, then you shouldn't hate it. However, if you don't have it and can't afford it, then you may need an alternative. I personally can't afford MSOffice, so I go with OOo.

  2. Re:Not worth the time to read it, summary below... by BenjyD · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's also $200 or so (unless you get it with a new computer).

    I'd call randomly corupting files and moving images around more than annoying quirks. The fact is, Word's only killer feature is 100% Word compatibility. Combine that with a monopoly, saturation advertising and restrictive licensing deals with OEMs and you have a WP that's hard to beat.

  3. Re:Not worth the time to read it, summary below... by soybean · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sorry, but word just does NOT have 100% word compatibility. Give me ANY two versions of word, and I can generage a doc on one version that doesn't load properly on the other version.