SoftMaker Rolls Out Office Suite for BSD, Linux, and Others

martin-k writes "Commercial office suite software is coming to FreeBSD, Linux, Windows, Sharp Zaurus and Windows Mobile. SoftMaker, a German developer, recently released SoftMaker Office, a multi-platform office suite that excels in Microsoft Office compatibility, claims to be much leaner and faster than OpenOffice.org and works on many operating systems, down to PDAs." While SoftMaker certainly isn't new, it is nice to see them roll out a finished suite as opposed to one-off programs.

Comments

how much better than OpenOffice?

[yagu]

I'm downloading the trial version now.... more on that in a minute. My question would be, "How much better is it than OpenOffice, and how razor thin is the difference between it and Microsoft Office, and how compatible compared with Open Office?"

I've had expectations raised many times in the past and while always initially excited found myself not using any products that had rough edges. For the longest time that basically meant I used Microsoft when I had to, vi and vim the rest of the time :-). Open Office was the first product with sufficient polish and compatibility, so much so I could pretty much plug and play replace Office for people with little fear they would have trouble adapting.

Anything that falls short of that is likely to have problems gaining purchase in market share. I've used all of the KDE products, ABISoft, etc.... none of them really measured up. That isn't to they were bad products, many of them would be considered excellent in and of themselves, but that isn't the yardstick the buying public uses (and will use).

Well, I've downloaded and installed the trial version. I know it's not fair, but here is my five minute review (which is about all I have time to give for new products competing with products with which I already have perfectly good solutions):

Download and install went flawlessly, a requirement for any product anymore -- if the install doesn't go seamlessly, I won't spend a lot more time trying to figure out why. The program fired up cleanly, and was easy and intuitive enough to use especially if you've used any word processor or spreadsheet before. The graphics, layout, and presentation were good but the icons were not crisp as Microsoft's or Open Office's.

I don't have a suite of files to test for compatibility with Office and Open Office, but as I indicated, I have a solution for this type of work (Open Office), and I'm not inclined to spend much time beyond apparent return on investment.

PROS: Easy download and install, very similar to Microsoft Office (though that will change with the new Microsoft Office, not necessarily a bad thing), inexpensive comopared to Microsoft Office, established company, multi-platform and multi-form factor (for PDAs, though other than browsing, I'm not inclined to do much word processing and spreadsheeting (verb?) on PDAs).

CONS: Expensive compared to Open Office, not enough better (in my opinion) to warrant the switch, expensive to add typefaces, "compatibility" with Microsoft is a moving target -- one for which there is no guarantee of currency.

Cool that there's another player... Would I switch? Probably not. YMMV.

Re:how much better than OpenOffice?

[swillden]

My experience with OpenOffice has not been nice. Two years ago, I used for serious stuff and, boy, did I regret it. This friggin' bug made me loose all pagination. They told me OpenOffice was production-ready. So they told me. They lied, they were just a buch of free software fanboys who never wrote more than 20 pages with the thing. So, this is from someone who actually had to used OpenOffice for more than 20 pages.

Interesting.

This is precisely the reverse of my experience.

When I'm working on large, complex documents (100+ pages, lots of headings, lists, tables), I'm constantly terrified that Word is going to crash on me and destroy my work. I save frequently, and make backups every few hours.

That's *why* whenever I possibly can I don't use Word. OpenOffice is so much more reliable, there's just no comparison, and it has been for the last three or so years. Especially when documents get big. Lately I'm leaning toward using LyX/LaTeX, which I think is an even better option for large, highly structured documents that need to be consistent and nice-looking. But I have a lot to learn before I can do that. LaTeX documents look so much prettier and more professional than any word processor output I've seen that I think it's worth the effort.

Re:how much better than OpenOffice?

[misleb]

Indeed. People should not be using a word processor as if it were a desktop publishing or layout application. That is what Quark/InDesign/PageMaker/etc are for. Word processors are for.. processing words. But people shouldn't use email to share large files or use spreadsheets as databases, but they do anyway. Unfortunately, Microsoft crams so many features into Word that using it for desktop publishing is just too tempting for some people. I've even seen people use Word to produce web pages! Ack!

-matthew

Is there a space in the market ?

[quiberon2]

What makes Softmaker think there is room in the market for their product ?

As far as I know, there are only 2 forces in the world; 'love' and 'money'

OpenOffice.org has a monopoly in the 'distributed for love' channel.

Microsoft Office has a monopoly in the 'distributed for money' channel.

Who will buy Softmaker Office, and why ?

Re:Is there a space in the market ?

[rduke15]

What makes Softmaker think there is room in the market for their product ?

I don't know how much room there is, but I can tell you why I use TextMaker:

Because I never liked MS Word which is terribly complicated and unpractical, and it is also very expensive.

Because OpenOffice Writer is an abomination of an awkward and slow as molasses would-be clone of that MS Word which I don't like.
(Yes, I guess this will modded flamebait, but I really hated OpenOffice every time I thought I would give it another chance)

TextMaker brought some fresh air into my (simple) word processing needs: it is extremely fast, it has all the features I need, and the ones I use (styles and occasional frames) are much more practical than in Word. Styles are accessible from the right-click menu, frames seemed much easier to work with than when I had to use them in Word, etc.

The only thing I don't like in TextMaker is it's proprietary default document format. I wish they would switch to ODF. (But maybe ODF is also an abomination like the OOo programs? I wouldn't know but I certainly hope not. We need an open document format)

(I bought the Windows version. Haven't tried the Linux version yet.)

Word is the route through these other things.

[aussersterne]

Go to any Windows publishing house (and this includes most of the major ones, a bunch of whom I've worked in or with). How do you make a PDF? Well, you start with a Word file and you run it through Acrobat. So making a PDF for such people involves... Word.

And yes, the book goes into Quark before going to press, but do the authors or editors work in Quark? Do the page designers even work in Quark? No, they all work in Word. It's the lonely guy at the end of the hall doing final layout that dumps everything into the formatter/publisher application just before it goes to press for a full run.

Until that point, all the way through most of writing, editing, and design, everything is in Word. Word gets used much more than I think people in IT realize. Word/Excel/Powerpoint are the bedrock of corporate America. Most small and medium size companies (and a few large ones, too) do all of their publications with Word, all of their PR with PowerPoint, and all of their databases as Excel sheets. That's just the way it is, like it or hate it. That's all people (all the way up through management) know.

Just try to get them to change... Or to let you bring something novel to the table. You'll be shown the door.

Re:Word is the route through these other things.

[Mike Rubits]

I have worked in a Windows publishing house. I have worked in a Mac publishing house. I've visited countless shops throughout Rochester. The majority of the print workflow you describe is frighteningly inaccurate.

The original source can come from anything from a text file to a Word document. Most often, it's Word. You're right there. However, the writers aren't concerned with that too much, they use what they are comfortable with. They use a Word processor to.. process words.

The book goes into Quark BEFORE going to press? If by every step afterward you mean it goes into Quark, then yes, you'd be correct. There are several hundred thousand dollar solutions dedicated to managing your Quark & InDesign files, and your assets. Check out Xinet and Dalim and Documentum and etc. The authors are out of the chain by this point. The page designers work in the page layout programs. They upload their changes to Xinet, where it is opened by the editor, marked up, changed, and approved or sent back. It's only THEN converted into a print-ready PDF. That lonely guy at the end of the hall you describe is actually 2/3rds of the workflow.

The only people that use Word are the original authors. The page designers wouldn't subject themselves to doing page layout in word. That notion is just preposterous.

I honestly can't say where you got your impressions from, but they seem to be extremely off base. This is coming from someone who went to college for print, has talked to people throughout the print industry, and now works in print.

No OS X version?

[Yvan256]

...FreeBSD, Linux, Windows, Sharp Zaurus and Windows Mobile.

Great. They take the time to make a version for a pratically non-existant marketshare such as the Sharp Zaurus, but they skip over OS X? What are they smoking? And don't tell me that Microsoft Office is available for Macs, because it's also available for Windows and that didn't stop SoftMaker from making a version of their office suite for Windows. It's also not about a dev. suite cost, because it's bundled with all Macs, even the Mac mini.

Bah, if they're aiming for "Microsoft Office compatibility", that means more Microsoft-formatted documents, not less. Vote with your usage, stick with OpenOffice and their open formats.