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Nimble, Excel-Compatible Spreadsheets for *nix?

Posted by timothy on from the abiword-needs-more-imitators dept.

linguae writes "I'm running a FreeBSD desktop on a PC that has a 475MHz K6-2 processor with 64MB RAM. I use lightweight programs on my desktop such as Window Maker, AbiWord, and Firefox. I have been looking for a decent yet lightweight (and preferably Open Source) spreadsheet that is compatible with Excel, and also doesn't rely on dependencies such as GNOME or Java. I'm not an Excel power user, but sometimes I do have to share spreadsheets every now and then. I wonder if there is a spreadsheet equivalent of Abiword?"

3 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Firefox lightweight? by DAldredge · · Score: 4, Insightful

    url:http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/tips#ot h_memcache?

    Turn down the memory cache. Follow the steps at the link above and then fully restart firefox. It will make a huge difference.

    Their are a lot of config hacks at that link that will let you do a lot on really neat stuff.

  2. OO and Spreadsheet::ParseExcel (mostly OT) by angst_ridden_hipster · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is it just me, or does Open Office write something into its Excel-formatted files that breaks the Spreadsheet::ParseExcel package on CPAN?

    I find that some cells return the content type rather than the content when retrieving $cell->Value
    (e.g., "GENERAL" rather than "foo", which is the cell contents).

    If I use a spreadsheet saved from Excel it works; if I read it into OO, and save it out, I experience the problem.

    This is under Perl 5.8.1mumble on Mac OS X.

    --
    Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
    www.fogbound.net
  3. Re:nimble spreadsheet by yuri+benjamin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is why Linux isn't ready for grandma.

    The original Ask /. was from a BSD user. BSD is not Linux.
    There are lots of spreadsheets which grandma can use on linux just as easily as excel on windows, but not on a PC that has a 475MHz K6-2 processor with 64MB RAM (read the original question). Actually, quite a few spreadsheets will run on a PC that has a 475MHz K6-2 processor with 64MB RAM. Will windows XP? XP is not ready for grandma if she owns a PC that has a 475MHz K6-2 processor with 64MB RAM.

    The specs of the original question can run windows 98 with excel 97 quite nicely. It can also run FreeBSD with Gnumeric and Abiword quite nicely too. It can't run XP, or recent KDE or Gnome very well though.

    I know, IHBT.

    --
    You make the mistake of thinking you can educate the fundamental stupidity out of people. You can't.