“The KDE Project today announced the release of KOffice 1.2.1. KOffice 1.2.1 is a stability and enhancement release, with the principal improvements over KOffice 1.2, released last September, occurring in the spreadsheet program (KSpread)” Read more at KDE.org.
I would like to see Kivio get some more attention, i use it at the moment but it is behind the vastly superior Visio, shame. I really wouldn’t recommend it yet to others as an alternative either.
Ok Ok, Koffice is a good piece of work. Though, instead of having 5 office projects in linux use (and tradition), could we have a group of developers fixing up the openoffice UI (I would love some KDE theming), and making it faster?
Maybe I should just complaing to Sun instead.
It boggles my mind to think what sort of office suite we would have for Linux if all the developers from the different suites worked on one. Instead of 3 good ones we could have a single not-live-without one!
Oh the beauty of Open Source…
To all those who keep complaining about “unifying” the efforts of OSS developers, you have to stop trying to shoe horn OSS software into a traditional commercial perspective. OSS developers are free to work on whatever software they want. If the KOffice developers weren’t working on KOffice, they probably wouldn’t be working on Open Office instead. If someone is working on a particular project, they’re doing it because it scratches their itch, not to make a “product.”
Besides, all three office suites address different market segments, so it’s not like there is a lot of overlap.
1) Open Office: The full featured MS Office clone. In theory, it shares most of Office’s strengths (features up the wazoo) and also it’s weaknesses (proprietory widget set, bloat).
2) KOffice: Frames based, lightweight office suite. A lot more like WordPerfect than MS Office. Excellent layout features, and superior integration with KDE including great component support.
3) AbiWord: Lightweight, simple, and ultra-portable. In the future, it’ll have some GNOME integration.
These suites are aimed at totally different market segments, and a lot of their decision decisions are not compatible. For example, you can either have great KDE integration, like KOffice, or you can be portable, like AbiWord. You can have tons of features, like OpenOffice, or you can be lightweight, like KOffice or AbiWord. You can use a MS Office style layout engine, like AbiWord or OpenOffice, or you can use a WordPerfect style layout engine, like KOffice. It’s very difficult to have an office suite that does all these things, and not even MS Office can (it’s not very well integrated with Windows, and it can’t hold a candle to WordPerfect’s layout capabilities).
I find Koffice a bit behind feature wise than other product offerings.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a bit faster improvments to it. They have a really good product. Of course they are allowed to work on it at their speed.
Does Koffice read Word Perfect Documents?
It seems so…
http://koffice.org/filters/1.2/index.phtml
CrackedButter: I would like to see Kivio get some more attention, i use it at the moment but it is behind the vastly superior Visio, shame. I really wouldn’t recommend it yet to others as an alternative either.
TheKompany donated Kivio. TheKompany stop developing Kivio due to lack of money. TheKompany then made Kivio mp which is way better, end user perspective. Besides, all apps in KOffice can be considered inferior to Microsoft’s equilivents.
anopenscroll: Though, instead of having 5 office projects in linux use (and tradition), could we have a group of developers fixing up the openoffice UI (I would love some KDE theming), and making it faster?
Any of these open source office suites started before OpenOffice.org came about. Fixing the UI and making OpenOffice.org faster is possible, but at least for KOffice developers, it isn’t worthwhile. Go check out the code behind OpenOffice.org. It is so messed up. I may not know much about C/C++ programming, but looking at the sourcecode and comparing with either AbiWord or KOffice tells me exactly that.
Most of the developers in OSS projects are doing it for fun. And for them, OOo isn’t fun.
theBare: It boggles my mind to think what sort of office suite we would have for Linux if all the developers from the different suites worked on one. Instead of 3 good ones we could have a single not-live-without one!
If you see the programming styles of the different office suites, you thank god they aren’t in the same project. OOo among the rest have way more manpower, yet it is moving so slowly. That could be atributed back to its code.
Rayiner Hashem: 1) Open Office: The full featured MS Office clone. In theory, it shares most of Office’s strengths (features up the wazoo) and also it’s weaknesses (proprietory widget set, bloat).
Of course, while having less features, it is more bloated (as in slower). Just trying to show more features doesn’t mean more bloated. If Microsoft were to invest in a Office rewrite, guess what? I’m quite sure it would be faster, take less space on the memory and hard disk. Both Office and OpenOffice.org have been commercial products, and this is why they are like that.
Rayiner Hashem: 2) KOffice: Frames based, lightweight office suite. A lot more like WordPerfect than MS Office.
That’s KWord, I find KSpread and KPresenter more influence by Excel and PowerPoint than Quattro Pro and Presentations 10.
Richard James: I wouldn’t mind seeing a bit faster improvments to it. They have a really good product. Of course they are allowed to work on it at their speed.
Actually, their development is extremely fast considering the manpower (only in KWord, KSpread and KPresenter, the rest are still at their infancy). A year ago, AbiWord have way more features than KWord, now it is the other way around.
Quake: Does Koffice read Word Perfect Documents?
Yes. In fact, if you are having Office friends, and like using KWord, I would recommend just saving in WordPerfect format.
Opensource developers are not some herd of cattle to be managed and proded towards whatever project you feel is best. If someone wants to create “yet another text editor”, than so be it. It’s not for the masses to say what itch someone who devotes their time for free should scratch. This isn’t how OSS works.
“Oh the beauty of Open Source…”
Hey troll, how’s the trolling?
This would benefit all the office application and their developers.
No, it would benefit no one. Office suites/apps need their own formats because they have their own features. Now just say all the open source office altenatives start using a standard XML-based format, it wouldn’t help things. For example, KWord being more influenced by WordPerfect and FrameMaker, would write files using this layout. Other office apps may not be able to render it correctly. What happens if the users, on the other hand, uses OOo and writes a document using a lot of OOo-only features? Chances are that it might not open perfectly on other office apps.
This is an area where XML namespaces come into their own. The common functionality can be in one namespace, while the application specific stuff can be in another.
Rich.
I wonder why people keep complaining about Linux having various Offices suites, various painting programs, various text editors, etc… Where the hell are/were these people when, lets say, 602 Suite or Easy Office or WordPerfect Office or StarOffice were released for Windows? Seems like diversity is a problem only when it relates to Open Source.
Why they just doesn’t go bash the developers of these applications asking them to merge their code with Microsoft Office, turning it into a must-have application? Why don’t they ask Real to close the doors and Apple and its QuickTime player mess with their own business because Windows already have its Media Player?
You can find plenty of shareware for Windows in CNet’s Download.com but if a Linux distro includes two or three different image viewers, it is non-sense. It is bloat.
If you guys like having a featureless OS which doesn’t offer even an Office suite, image viewers, media players, cientific apps and much more in a default instalation, that’s OK but you should understand that Open Source Operating Systems are completely different things and that they should follow their own way.
Sorry about the rant…
Cheers,
DeadFish Man
I think the speed that Koffice can be developed at is all thanks to Qt. Man, Qt was developed just to speed up programming! And of course excellent programmers.
You can find plenty of shareware for Windows in CNet’s Download.com but if a Linux distro includes two or three different image viewers, it is non-sense. It is bloat.
Yes, they are available on Download.com. Great. But it is optional. But if a distro by default installs several different competing products, I would call it bloat. If Microsoft installs two different versions of, for example, Windows Messenger with Windows, I would call it bloat.
You can find plenty of shareware for Windows in CNet’s Download.com but if a Linux distro includes two or three different image viewers, it is non-sense. It is bloat.
Yes, they are available on Download.com. Great. But it is optional. But if a distro by default installs several different competing products, I would call it bloat. If Microsoft installs two different versions of, for example, Windows Messenger with Windows, I would call it bloat.
OK, I understand that. But almost every distro these days let you choose categories for installation like Desktop, Workstation, Server or Custom and in most cases, each category don’t install more than one or two programs which looks and functions as equals. Only if you choose Custom you have the option to install everything and the kitchen sink by hand.
And some even are streamlining their options to make them easier to use to newbies like RedHat 8.0 that organize its menus more intuitively(?), hiding the applications’ true names (Web Browser instead of Mozilla) but still offering options to these programs under the Extras menu or Lycoris, which seems to be a KDE/QT-only distro and very easy to use.
Ask the Open Source community to end their efforts to create new programs would be as weird as asking those companies to stop making their programs because the game is over and Microsoft Office won.
If one think that’s bloat, then one should choose a distro like Lindows, Xandros or Lycoris because they try to mimic the Windows look-and-feel or perhaps keep using Windows, because is Windows that they want. To the rest of us, having options is great and I think changing this wouldn’t help at all. Like I said before, Open Source OS are different from Windows. To use and appreciate them, people need to understand this.
No hard feelings, OK? And please forgive any mispellings because we don’t speak English here in Brazil… :-))
Cheers,
DeadFish Man
But almost every distro these days let you choose categories for installation like Desktop, Workstation, Server or Custom and in most cases, each category don’t install more than one or two programs which looks and functions as equals.
“Most”? I support these kinds of distros, like Red Hat. but major distributions like Mandrake still don’t follow this. I don’t mind having the whole wide world of software on that ISO, as long as it doesn’t get installed when I don’t need it.
Look at your argument, you are practically agreeing with me. I disagree with installing just about every software one could find on Freshmeat BY *DEFAULT*. They should be optional. I like having options. But if they don’t mind, I much rather just exercise my right to have options when I feel like I want to. I don’t want to be slapped with 500 email clients, 3000 word processor, 6 billion web browsers. I would like to choose myself. And before I choose, I would like to have the default only. When I want to choose, I know how to choose.
I wish all car manufactures would work together, image what kind of cars they could build if they all cooperated instead of competed. Just look at what they achived in the USSR, everybody working together to build the one and only brand of cars: the very impressive lada. No More Competetion!
Look at your argument, you are practically agreeing with me. I disagree with installing just about every software one could find on Freshmeat BY *DEFAULT*. They should be optional. I like having options. But if they don’t mind, I much rather just exercise my right to have options when I feel like I want to. I don’t want to be slapped with 500 email clients, 3000 word processor, 6 billion web browsers. I would like to choose myself. And before I choose, I would like to have the default only. When I want to choose, I know how to choose.
That’s is the biggest advantage in having options IMHO: If Mandrake is too much for Joe Doe, he always can turn to Lycoris LX or LindowsOS. By choosing any of these, he will have only one web browser, only one e-mail client, only one IM, only one media player, etc. (You got the picture). He will be imediately productive with his choice.
But when Joe Doe finds himself a little bit more experienced user, he always can fire his APT utility or even download and install RPMs all by himself (but only if he want it).
If Open Office is too much for him (or demands too much horse power from his machine), he might be more comfortable with KOffice or even Gnome Office.
Cheers,
DeadFish Man