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AbiWord 0.7 release

Posted by Hemos on from the download-run-get dept.

thomasd writes "AbiSource have just released development version 0.7 of their GPLed wordprocessor, which runs on Unix, Windows, and BeOS. There's still a fair bit missing, but it's now quite usable for producing simple document, and it's starting to look very polished. For the lazy, there are now binary packages as well as source code. "

2 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. But _are_ they making money? by Zico · · Score: 4

    At least, more money than they're spending/losing? I haven't seen any financial numbers for this company, so if you're just assuming that they're in the black, I'd say that's a pretty big assumption. Even the CIO of Burlington Coat Factory, who's planning to buy over 1000 Linux boxes from Dell (if they haven't done so already), says, "I suppose Red Hat's business model makes sense to somebody, but it makes no sense to us."

    FWIW, AbiSource's president (who I would hope knows his way around Linux) wrote an article on the joys of installing Red Hat Linux 6.0, which is worth a read for the goofballs out there who think that everyone should throw away their Macs or Windows software and start installing Linux.

    Cheers,
    ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
    Slashdot Realist

  2. AbiWord notes by Camelot · · Score: 5
    For those who are not familiar with the economics of running a start-up company, it should be pointed out that aren't necessarily making any money, and it's not altogether necessary that they should at this point. Like their FAQ says,
    We will be selling...
    Who knows what else these guys are doing while are waiting for the business to start blooming ? It doesn't matter if you doubt their business model as long as their investors don't.

    Secondly, using XML as a native file format is one of the most brilliant ideas, as far as I am concerned anyway. This would mean that I could do less abiworddoc , and, if necessary, I could write some quickie perl script to do some processing and formatting for output myself if AbiWord wasn't available. (Does it look like a document format like this would make sense to MicroSoft ? Didn't think so). Of course, in an ideal case, I wouldn't need to.

    I, for one, will support the development of AbiSource if for no other reason than helping them set an example (if there is such an example to be set after the success of RedHat). It should show that Open Source is the best development model - not because it brings the most money to the company, but because it brings out the best software - which is what every user should want.