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A Last Look at ApplixWare
Linux.com (Also owned by VA) is taking a look at the once widely popular office suite, ApplixWare. From the article: "Passed to a subsidiary of Applix called VistaSource that later became independent, ApplixWare was repositioned as a combination of a basic office package and a developer's toolkit running from a common main menu. For a while, it was even renamed AnyWare. Now at version 6, ApplixWare is back to its original name, with versions available for AIX, GNU/Linux, and SPARC Solaris, with earlier versions still supported for Windows and FreeBSD. The trial download for GNU/Linux shows ApplixWare's age, but it also shows a trick or two that its newer rivals might learn from."
I know after deploying Applix some years back, I do miss having it around. I thought it was simple to use and quite nice for the users. The fact that all my users were on Solaris boxes helped though.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
Just imagine if all the work that has been going into cleaning up the behemoth OpenOffice codebase had instead been directed at an open source version of ApplixWare. Maybe the world would be a slightly better place today, but obviously the Applix guys have decided to take their office suite to the grave with them.
When the alternatives were the Motif or Sunview provided text editors and a Framemaker version that cost about the same as a PC, I guess Applixware might have been "wildly popular" in the same way Yugos might be wildly popular among those who had been waiting for three years for their Trabant to be delivered. Applixware sucked then and it sucks now.
I noticed some time ago that the PowerPC Linux version of ApplixWare had been dropped. Getting them to port to LinuxPPC was a point of pride for me, and the product of my work with ApplixWare's Richard Manly. (Where are you, brother?) It sold fairly well by our standards, and assuming you've still got a LinuxPPC box, ApplixWare 4 is still a very usable package. (I don't know why you would, but you could. ;-)
Much to my surprise, my old comrade señor Carro declared PowerPC dead after our little adventure collapsed, which happened after I left, leaving him alone on the sinking ship. In realistic terms, with Apple's switch to Intel processors, he's right. There's still lots to do with embedded and server PPC, though. Good luck whoever's still working on it; nods to Cort, Ben H, Paul M, Gary T, Dan B and K.S.
-- haaz.
Apparently basic English literacy wasn't a requirement of your course.
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Anyone else notice that Mr. Wittamore's comment is timestamped "By pwittamore (221609) on 2006.04.26 7:45 (#88706)" while the story itself is timestamped "Wednesday April 26, 2006 (08:01 AM GMT)"?
Wittamore apparently posted it fifteen minutes before the story was posted.
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
FTFA:
The applications also share a Save dialog -- or "Directory Displayer," as ApplixWare calls it -- with several features that I'd like to see on modern programs, including a complete directory tree, a history, and the ability to set permissions as a file is saved.
While I think a complete directory tree is unnecessary (personally, I think the way GTK 2.6 and KDE/QT handl directories are both fine, with the "bookmarks" along the left side like in Windows XP file dialgs, though I am partial to the GTK 2.6 dialog), I do think that adding the ability to set permissions on a file would be a welcome addition to the GTK 2.6+ dialog box.
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Man, the ApplixWare I used (vintage 1998 or so) made Office 97 look stable. I liked it otherwise, though.
The original company, Applix, has gone through some interesting transformations. After ApplixWare, it focused on CRM for awhile, but has since returned to focusing exclusively on TM1, its OLAP database. Once upon a time, you could buy TM1 for Linux for $100; now, licensing a TM1 server cost 5 figures and the primary platform is Windows (I think there is still some development for HP-UX and maybe one other Unixy platform). It's pricey and somewhat buggy, but has some OLAP capabilities (speed, flexibility, Excel integration) that make it unique.
There's an open-source project PALO with similar features that looks promising. It went 1.0 about a month ago.
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No, that's *how* applix got him threw college. ;-) It corrected all his mistakes :-p
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
It is super fast to load and run. I remember buying and running it long time ago in mid 90s. Liked it quite a bit. Then in next couple of years came StarOffice (now OpenOffice). Which was bloated, slow but feature rich. Anyway, it is interesting to see that Applixware is still hanging out there.
> I do think that adding the ability to set permissions on a file would be a welcome
> addition to the GTK 2.6+ dialog box.
I'm afraid the first questions a GNOME developer would ask is "Does Windows have that? Does Apple do that? Would idiots know what it is useful for?" Then you would be laughed at and the proposal ignored. File permissions are a 'legacy UNIX' thing and have no place in a 'modern graphical environment'. Which is why I'd dearly love to see some UNIX folk get together and rethink a desktop for UNIX instead of our current fashion of imitation Mac/Windows.
It was clear Applix was designed as a UNIX app. It encouraged a 'toolkit' approach, even allowing bash scripts to populate spreadsheet cells. It has its odd bits but I have to give it props for being the closest thing to a true UNIX graphical 'office suite' written to date. My previous laptop had a copy installed but this one doesn't, too much trouble installing ancient compat libs. But my boss still has a copy on hers to access the documents created with it.
(And no, STFU you KDE fanboi waiting to pounce into the conversation because KDE is just as bad only different. GNOME wants to clone the guts of Windows with a braindamaged Mac like face while KDE wants the Windows look and whatever plumbing TrollTech delivers.)
Democrat delenda est
Jesus H. Christ in a sidecar carrying a crutch and bouncing on a pogo stick, if that's "just works" then I'd seriously hate to see what "works with some difficulty" looks like...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"