Alternatives Openoffice

[Artemis]

Hello,

I was wondering if there a good alternatives for Openoffice, and what is basicly similar as Office.

[andover]

microsoft office

[chadr6]

I would just go with OpenOffice, it works well and most people don't want to pay all the money for Microsoft Office that does the same thing.

[ilja]

A whole office suite is hard to get. Star Office is based on Open Office (or OO is based on SO, who knows ;) ), as word-processor there is Abiword.
Why are you not content with OO.o?

[ghaefb]

microsoft office
:)

Abiword is a great "word" replacement.

[pdxplm]

I like Open Office, but need to use gnumeric for my spreadsheet. I bring home work that needs more than the 32K of rows that OO provides...now if they would just up their rows I would be a happy camper!

[Chas.H]

microsoft office
Just a hint...
microsoft.* is almost never an answer here unless we are talking about keyboards or fonts. :)

[ilja]

Just a hint...
microsoft.* is almost never an answer here unless we are talking about keyboards or fonts. :)
Why not?
.........

[Chas.H]

Why not?
.........
Let me see if I can answer this without getting negative and in 10 letters or more. ;)

In my experience there are 2 groups of people that use linux.

1. Unix veterans who are well familar with the O/S and like the way it works and its stability.

2. People like me who got so fed up with M$ windows they wanted to have a fresh start and found this to be a way better system for no money.

It seems logical to me. Pay over and over again for something that is shakey at best or use a free system that works well and is secure and stable. Most M$ and windows software has a free and usually better alternative in Fedora.

BTW (off topic) is VfL Wolfsburg still on top and aren't they playing Bayern right now? :)

[foolish]

There are 3 major office suites for linux.

1. OpenOffice.org
This is the defacto standard today. It's advanced, it has a lot of features, it's a complete suite and the interface sucks bigtime. It has little to no integration with the rest of the desktop. The best part about this is the huge backing it has, you'll find schools, offices and such using this. Very good xml-based default file formats.

2. KOffice
This is the KDE Office suite. It's very well integrated to KDE and it does have some nifty features. It's almost a complete suite with a word processor, spreadsheat, presentation tool and so forth. I haven't played with this that much. Has its own formats.

3. Gnome Office
This is an ongoing effort to create a native office suite for GNOME. Using the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines for good gui. Integration is a big deal here. This suite is not complete. It consists of Abiword, the word processor, gnumeric, which is a spreadsheat, GIMP, which is the most powerful image manipulation program for linux and some smaller elements. Gnumeric is supposed to be good, but as I've learned and used excel in school I'm having trouble adapting. Abiword is amazing.

The fourth option would be to run Microsoft Office via CrossoverOffice, but this solution involves using expensive software and it's evi. EVIL!!

Hope this helps you.

[ilja]

1st) OT: Yes they are : http://www.bundesliga.de/liga/tabelle/ And atm they lose 2:0 http://www.bundesliga.de/inc/popups/liga_live_ergebnis.php
2nd)

Let me see if I can answer this without getting negative and in 10 letters or more.

:p

3rd)
Ok, I agree, but MS still remains there and can't be forgotten. It can be seen as an alternative. As an example: The macro support of OO can't mess with the one of MSOffice. And also the grammar-check function. Not yet maybe, but you can't say that Microsoft is a evil, or to ignore it completely.

[Artemis]

Why are you not content with OO.o?

It's just for my mom, she not into OpenOffice but she is familiar with Office (environment).

[ilja]

does she need all the functions of it? Or just the word processor?

//OT: Can I ask you where in NL you live?

[Chas.H]

Ok, I agree, but MS still remains there and can't be forgotten. It can be seen as an alternative. As an example: The macro support of OO can't mess with the one of MSOffice. And also the grammar-check function. Not yet maybe, but you can't say that Microsoft is a evil, or to ignore it completely.

You might notice I tried not to be negative and I never said evil. I leave that to superbnerd.
:)
I will say that Microsoft Office is hardly an alternative in linux, right?

Thanks for the audio. I can only understand a little(names, fouls, foosball terms) but it's fun to hear. :p

[ilja]

I will say that Microsoft Office is hardly an alternative in linux, right?

You are right you never said it is evil. And it is a problem to run it in Linux, but it still remains a theoretical alternative :p


Does anyone of you guys know a skin that let OO look like MSoffice, so maybe Artemis's Mom will feel better, if it looks like something she is used to.

[PeTzZz]

I leave that to superbnerd.
superbnerd seems to be banned.

What does it more exactly mean that software is badly integrated with the desktop?

[Artemis]

does she need all the functions of it? Or just the word processor?

//OT: Can I ask you where in NL you live?

Nope, just the word processor.

I live in Emmen.

[ilja]

Teach her vim :p

Ok, so maybe Abiword is the right thing for her.

[Artemis]

Teach her vim :p

Ok, so maybe Abiword is the right thing for her.


Does abiword support the .doc format saving and so on.

[sailor]

Star Office 7 (free for students)
TexMaker (retail MS word clone for linux)

[GreyGeek]

Ok, I agree, but MS still remains there and can't be forgotten.
Sure they can. I forgot them 7 years ago. :)

It can be seen as an alternative. As an example: The macro support of OO can't mess with the one of MSOffice. And also the grammar-check function.

OO Macros don't claim to be drop-in MS replacements. There is an excellent book on OO macros by http://www.pitonyak.org/book
And, how many times does one have to be told to avoid the passive voice? :)

.... but you can't say that Microsoft is a evil, or to ignore it completely.
Yes I can: http://www.billparish.com/msftfraudfacts.html
They have a history of stealing IP from small companies. Their MO: MS proposes a "partnership" and the pidgeon corp, blinded by visions of $$$, quickly agrees. Their tech people 'echange ideas' (translation: the pidgeon exposes all his eggs, MS exposes nothing). MS cancels the partnership and a few months later the pidgeon finds themselves competing with an MS product that is identical to their own. MS even does this with embedded cell phone technology, to mention just one. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/01/06/microsofts_masterplan_to_screw_phone
http://www.asianlaws.org/cyberlaw/archives/08_03_ms.htm
http://www.base.com/software-patents/articles/stac.html
http://www.winnetmag.com/Article/ArticleID/19078/19078.html
www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113474,00.asp
and there are thousands more references to their misbehavior.

They were even caught lying in court (DOJ case, which they "lost") with a doctored tape supposedly demonstrating how easy it was to remove IE from their OS. Gates showed no respect for the law or the rights of others when he was arrested in Abq New Mexico. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/gatesmug1.html How often does one get arrested and mugged for a 'traffic violation'? The reports I remember at the time were that he trashed a motel room and skipped. The silly grin of a spoiled rich kid who knows his dad will bail him out.

[ilja]

You can let there software unused, but you can't ignore them. I know that they steal a lot of ip. But the name Microsoft isn't a tabu and shouldn't be a tabu here.

[imdeemvp]

i dont know if abiword is downloadable i know i comes with slack 10.

[engwnbie]

Ok don' hate me I like and use OO and all the others and I think they are great. But for Artemis's mom why not install wine and then install MS Word. Just look at the http://www.fedorafaq.org/#wine

[ilja]

Ok don' hate me I like and use OO and all the others and I think they are great. But for Artemis's mom why not install wine and then install MS Word. Just look at the http://www.fedorafaq.org/#wine
Word is no application that has no, even better, alternatives in Linux, so it would be very much overkill to use wine or crossoffice for it.

[Shadow Skill]

Abiword is probably the best bet if you only need a word processor, it even handles password protected word documents ith no problems. It also functions te same way word does th general interface is indistinguishable from word. It also appears that all of the drop down menus are located in the same places as they are with word. [in short this program is great if you are plotting an eventual forced migration of your parent's machines to linux..hehehehe.]

Ps. I think that the version of abiword available for fc2 (stable) has trouble handling password protected word documents, but the one I got through yum for fc3t2 handled them with no problems at all.

[kosmosik]

I will say that Microsoft Office is hardly an alternative in linux, right?
nope... it (MSO 2K) works like charm with CrossOver Office - I know few people who use MSO on Linux because they like MSO - so when they like it and like Linux why shouldn't they use it? to be honest I know MSO is far better then OOo. OpenOffice.org is like sufficient but it is not great, MSO is great, it is far more easy to use and more powerfull... but when it comes to price I don't really need MSO to do my work (I don't really need OpenOffice.org either :P).

[ilja]

(I don't really need OpenOffice.org either :P).
kosmosik works with ed :p

[Shadow Skill]

MSO is actually a very good program it is one of the in house Microsoft products that doesn't truly suck, in terms of it's functionality.

[imdeemvp]

abiword comes with fc2 and you can install if not installed during installation....i learned it last night. :D

[IceNine]

I LOVE Abiword.

[Bradlis7]

I personally like openoffice, just because you can customize your documents a little better. I used abiword on windows and fedora before, and it's good, but I wanted to do something on a document once, and it wouldn't let me, so now I use open office.

[Chas.H]

I started to use Open Office 1.1.0 at work on my win2000 box mainly because I like to have alternatives. I only wish there was a more graceful way to print envelopes.
It isn't any better in version 1.1.1 at home on FC2.

[Shadow Skill]

Funny signature Bradlis

[Artemis]

I installed abiword now and I like it....

[ilja]

I installed abiword now and I like it....
I thought it is not important what you like, but what your mum likes :D

[Artemis]

I thought it is not important what you like, but what your mum likes :D

:) I'm only testing it.

:D

[Bradlis7]

Thanks shadowskill :).

Back on topic, Abiword is a really good word processor in my opinion, and it blends in with other gnome applications well.

It's only my personal preference to use OOo, but it's a lot more complicated than abiword you could say. It has more options, and you kind of have to play around with it to get used to it.

Abiword has enough preferences to be understandable by the non-computer literate. It still has some work to make it perfect, but I haven't ever seen any office suite that's perfect (Not even M$ Office ;)).

[imdeemvp]

i like both but i notice abiword opens up faster....and Oo take 5-7 secs....abiword as soon as click on it.

[Optimistic]

i like both but i notice abiword opens up faster....and Oo take 5-7 secs....abiword as soon as click on it.


My thouhghts exatly. I like both, but Abiword is light weight, which makes it nice for some jobs. The one thing that I don't like about Abiword is that it is too desktop specific to a certain extent. I don't like Gnome and I don't like KDE so I lose a little respect for those apps which are tied closely to either environment. I'm worried that one day there will be a killer app, but in order to run it I'll have to install an entire desktop environment.

[jzke]

I agree with you who say Abiword is the best because it is lightweight. If you don't need an advanced features, then it's perfect. I use Abiword all the time for all my school work, and I've never needed an extra features. I don't mind OO.o but it's interface looks a littl cluttered, and not mathced to the rest of my desktop. What changes to the UI will be made in version 2?

[PeTzZz]

What changes to the UI will be made in version 2?
You can find concepts for features in the next release here (http://development.openoffice.org/releases/q-concept.html).

The paragraph (http://development.openoffice.org/releases/q-concept.html#4.2.3.Modern%20Look%20&%20Feel|outline) you might be the most interested in although you can find info about new user interface also elsewhere in that conception.

[ghaefb]

The weird thing about Abiwork is that you can't set font size less than 8 :)
Or am I wrong?

[Artemis]

The weird thing about Abiwork is that you can't set font size less than 8 :)
Or am I wrong?
Not in my opinion.