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SoftMaker Office 2010 For Linux Nearing Release

Posted by timothy on from the put-your-words-in-a-row dept.

martin-k writes "SoftMaker Office is a Microsoft-compatible office suite that competes with OpenOffice.org. Its creator, German software publisher SoftMaker, is nearing completion of the latest release, SoftMaker Office 2010 for Linux. This new release offers document tabs, high-quality filters for the Microsoft Office 2007 file formats DOCX and XLSX, and presentation-quality charts in the spreadsheet. It also brings integration into KDE and Gnome, using the system's colors and fonts. A release candidate is available as a free download."

18 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. What's this, by euyis · · Score: 3, Funny

    Slashad?

    1. Re:What's this, by spikeb · · Score: 3, Funny

      they're called slashvertisments :)

  2. How did this not get binspammed? by Excelcia · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Holy cow, how did this not get binspammed off of the submissions? Someone actually managed to get an advertisement as a story into Slashdot. Actually, it's sort of an impressive accomplishment. Off to the submissions I go to try and make some money!

    1. Re:How did this not get binspammed? by BitterOak · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Holy cow, how did this not get binspammed off of the submissions? Someone actually managed to get an advertisement as a story into Slashdot. Actually, it's sort of an impressive accomplishment. Off to the submissions I go to try and make some money!

      I've heard OpenOffice discussed on Slashdot before, so why not this?

      --
      If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
    2. Re:How did this not get binspammed? by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Maybe because it's an ad for a product that's actually useful to the point where it has no real competitors? It has noticeably better MSOffice compatibility than OO.org, and it's much more lightweight, as well. I suspect it would be something that quite a few Linux users could use - so long as they aren't morally opposed to shelling out $50 (or whatever it is these days) for software.

    3. Re:How did this not get binspammed? by markdavis · · Score: 4, Informative

      Let's see:

      1) It lacks vector drawing (Draw)
      2) It lacks database (Base)
      3) It is closed source
      4) Although it supports Linux, it seems to not support MacOS
      5) It costs a lot more than OpenOffice

      Sorry, it is hard to get all that excited.

    4. Re:How did this not get binspammed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      it seems to not support MacOS

      MacOS X simply doesn't have the marketshare to make a port worth while. Unfortunately, companies simply can't support every niche operating system on the planet.

    5. Re:How did this not get binspammed? by Arker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It has noticeably better MSOffice compatibility than OO.org

      Noticeable? Really? I have yet to notice any problems importing MS files to OO so that's hard to see.

      and it's much more lightweight, as well.

      Well that part does sound good.

      I suspect it would be something that quite a few Linux users could use - so long as they aren't morally opposed to shelling out $50 (or whatever it is these days) for software.

      I have no objection to shelling out money (it's actually closer to $100 US but no matter) for good software, however best I can tell you dont actually get any software for your money here, just a binary blob. I wont pay for that.

      --
      =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
      Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
    6. Re:How did this not get binspammed? by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2, Insightful

      All applications, free or not, ultimately compete in the "get the job done" market. For some, Google Docs does that. For others, OO.org does that. And others yet might not be content with OO.org, either for performance or compatibility reasons - in which case this thing may be the only one they can get for their platform for any price.

    7. Re:How did this not get binspammed? by BrokenHalo · · Score: 4, Informative

      Q: I've heard OpenOffice discussed on Slashdot before, so why not this?

      A: Because OpenOffice is an open-source, collaborative project that no-one has to pay for.

      As an aside, this Softmaker product probably needs a serious amount of advertising to generate any kind of traction in the Linux market. Until today, I had never heard of it, and I've been using Linux for something like 15 years. I would suppose that it might appeal to new users of Linux who are accustomed to having to pay for any software they find useful, but I can't see it appealing to older hands.

  3. Look at Evermore. It's got lots of potential too by bogaboga · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This office suite has got lots of potential too. Now if only they could release a Linux version.

  4. It's 93 bucks by wonkavader · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's $93, at today's conversion rate for euros to dollars.

    1. Re:It's 93 bucks by EvanED · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is completely off-topic (and definitely feel free to mod me such; it's not like I lack kharma), but your user name is incredibly awesome.

  5. Re:Look at Evermore. It's got lots of potential to by Citizen+of+Earth · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Germany is a first-world democracy. China is a paranoid third-world totalitarian dictatorship. Do the math.

  6. Re:Look at Evermore. It's got lots of potential to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wait wait wait... did "boogahboogah" just respond to "bogaboga"?

    Small world.

  7. I might be interested in an openoffice alternative by lotho+brandybuck · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Openoffice causes me trouble occasionally when I've got a document with a lot of figures in it. The worst is when I accidently try to edit a picture, and it crashes because it can't find a Java VM. In my experience... Openoffice has been a little bloaty and a little crashy sometimes, generally at the worst of times. (big report that I'm just about done with)

    I'm running OO 2.4 at work, 3.1 at home.. I'm scared to upgrade at work until I've got time to really sit with it.

    I don't run OO because its free, I run it because it runs on Linux. I am willing to pay for software to run on Linux... I am running Cadsoft Eagle for board layout, and Varicad for mechanical. I probably spend more time in front of OpenOffice than both these put together, so getting something that could make me look better and improve efficiency wouldn't be a bad deal.

    I'm also nervous about what Oracle is going to do with OpenOffice... I'd like to see them take it on and improve it, maybe fund some good fonts. Maybe do some tearing up and fixing up for stability and speed. But I'm not sure our definitions of "improve" would be the same, and I'm not at all sure I trust Oracle anyways.

  8. Objective comparison with OO.o by chrae · · Score: 5, Informative
    I downloaded and installed SoftMaker Office 2010 Beta (rev 580) and ran a comparison to OpenOffice.org version 3.1.1. My system is a stock Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). It has dual-core atom processors with 2gb of ram.

    Startup speed:
    • From a fresh reboot: SoftMaker Office, 12 seconds; Open Office, 9 seconds.
    • From cache (opened again after closing): SoftMaker Office, 6 seconds; Open Office, 3 seconds

    Compatibility with Microsoft Office 2007:

    • Powerpoint 2007 .pptx files (I used some sample shapes and text with some of the new shape effects): SoftMaker Presentations would not even open at all; OpenOffice.org Presentation opened the file, loaded the text and shapes of my test file, but failed to load some special shape effects like the halo.
    • Word 2007 .docx files (I used some sample text with a funky font, a table with some formatted borders, a graph, a diagram, and a shape): SoftMaker TextMaker failed to load the font correctly, improperly formatted the table, failed to load the graph, failed to load the diagram, and loaded the shape fine; OpenOffice.org Word Processor failed to load the font correctly, imported the table perfect, failed to load the graph, failed to load the diagram, and loaded the shape fine.
    • Excel 2007 .xlsx files (I created a column with conditional formatting, a column with a colored background, and a column with a border around it): SoftMaker PlanMaker failed to load the conditional formatting, but showed the column data. Failed to load the column with the colored background entirely, showing none of the data. Failed to load the border around the last column. Open office failed to load the conditional formatting, but showed the column data. Loaded the column with colored background perfectly. Loaded the column border perfectly.

    Conclusions:

    OpenOffice.org is faster, more compatible with Office 2007, blends in well with my native theme, and is Free. SoftMaker is slow, not as compatible as OO.o, uses it's own theme and widgets, and is 70 Euros.

  9. Re:Look at Evermore. It's got lots of potential to by aussie_a · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Considering the Chinese government pays hackers to steal foreign companies secrets and spread propaganda to their own people, who knows what they've paid the company to insert into their office software. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps something. Why take that risk?