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Office Suites for Unix/Linux | View information about Office Suites for Unix/Linux within our Technology Website Directory section by reviewing this area of our website. We provide a wealth of information online to help our visitors become better informed about Computer Buzz. |
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Office Suites for Unix/Linux
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There are not just a lot of commercial office suites available for users of Linux/BSD/Solaris/Unix, and there's a reason for that. Aside from the fact that these folks rarely wear matching socks and have trouble locating their own cars in a small parking lot, they tend to have a deep and abiding distrust of any form of software that smacks of capitalistic profit. They worship the holy grail of free and open softwear. Now don't get us wrong--we here at Computer Buzz love a free lunch just as much as the next bum. In fact, there's a big sign on the computer lab wall that reads: "The three sweetest words in the English language are: FREE, TAKE ONE!"
Long story short: most office suites for Linux and Unix are freebies. But that doesn't mean that they're not ready for prime time. One of them, OpenOffice.org, is arguably the best software deal in the Solar System.
Click the adjacent image, and let's take a look at what's available.
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Star Office
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StarOffice is Sun Microsystems' proprietary office suite software package for the Windows, Linux, and Solaris operating systems. It is the basis of the free and open source OpenOffice.org package, and contains some additional features.
StarOffice was originally developed by the German company StarDivision in 1984. The company, copyright and trademark of StarOffice were acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999 for US$73.5 million. Sun soon offered StarOffice 5.2 as a free download for personal use. Sun then released most of the StarOffice source code under a free/open source license. The resultant free/open source software codebase is developed as OpenOffice.org. In August 2007, Google started offering StarOffice as a free download as part of its Google Pack application.
StarOffice supports the XML file format, including the OpenDocument standard, and can generate PDF and Flash formats. The program comes with templates, a macro recorder, and a software development kit.
The program includes:
StarWriter word processor
StarCalc spreadsheet
StarImpress presentation program
StarDraw drawing tool
StarBase database
Computer Buzz strongly recommends StarOffice and its sister app, OpenOffice.org. We use it in-house on a daily basis.
Official Website: www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/
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OpenOffice.org
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OpenOffice.org (aka OOo or OO.o) is a free software office suite available for multiple operating systems including Linux, Windows, MacOS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenVMS and IRIX. It supports the OpenDocument standard for data interchange, and can also read and write files from other common office software packages including MS Office.
This package is informally referred to as "Open Office," but project organizers report that this term is a trademark already registered, thus requiring them to adopt the clumsy "OpenOffice.org" as its formal name.
OpenOffice.org is based on StarOffice, an office suite originally developed in Germany and acquired by Sun Microsystems in August 1999. The source code of the suite was released in July 2000 with the intention of reducing the dominant market share of Microsoft Office by providing a free, open, high-quality alternative.
Computer Buzz finds that OpenOffice.org is easy to learn, and if you have ever used another office software package, you'll take to OpenOffice.org right away. If you already have files from another office package, OpenOffice.org will read them with no difficulty.
Best of all, OpenOffice.org can be downloaded and used entirely free of any license fees, because it is released under the GNU Lesser General Public License. This means you may use it for any purpose domestic, commercial, educational, or whatever. You may install it on as many computers as you like. You may make copies and give them away to family, friends, students, and employees anyone you like.
OpenOffice.org has four main components:
1) Writer is the word processor.
2) Calc is the spreadsheet.
3) Impress is the presentation package.
4) Draw is the tool to create graphics and drawings.
At a cost of zero, OpenOffice.org may very well be the one single most valuable software deal in all of cyberspace. Computer Buzz can not recommend this program loudly enough.
Official Website: www.OpenOffice.org
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KOffice
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KOffice is an office suite originally developed for the K Desktop Environment (KDE). All its components have been released under free software/open source licenses. The latest version of KOffice is 1.6.3 and was released on June 7, 2007. The suite is released separately from KDE and can be downloaded at the KOffice homepage at: http://koffice.org/
The current KOffice 1.6.x series is designed for Linux/Unix, but the upcoming 2.0 release (expected sometime in 2009) should add compatibility for Mac OS X and Windows. KOffice applications use OpenDocument as their native file format whenever possible.
The KOffice suite includes the following components:
--Kword: A word processor with style sheets and frame-support for DTP-style editing of complex layouts.
--Kspread: A spreadsheet app with multiple sheet support, templates, and more than 100 math formulas.
--Kpresenter: A presentation program with image and effect support.
--Kivio: A programmable flowchart drawing program.
--Karbon14: A vector drawing application with a variety of drawing and editing tools.
--Krita: (Formerly known as Krayon and KImageshop) A bitmap graphics manipulation program, primarily designed as a painting program, with some image processing features.
--Kugar and Kchart: Integrated report and chart generators.
--Kformula: An integrated mathematical formula editor.
--Kexi: A data management app, like MS Access or FileMaker; can be used for designing databases, processing data, and performing queries; has limited compatibility with the MS Access file format.
--Kplato: A project management application that can create Gantt-style charts.
The superior quality and outrageous value of the free KOffice suite inclines Computer Buzz to overlook the infuriatingly stupid tendency of the developers to name everything about it with artificial words beginning with the letter "K." We "rekommend" it.
Official Website: koffice.org/
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Gnome Office
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GNOME Office is a free software office suite, originally written for the GNOME desktop environment, which consists of the AbiWord word processor, Gnumeric spreadsheet, and GNOME-DB data base.
Integration is achieved chiefly through the Bonobo component technology. The integration between the various applications in the suite is rather loose, causing many observers to consider GNOME Office to be merely the collection of desktop productivity applications written for the GNOME environment rather than an office suite in the usual sense.
Computer Buzz recommends GNOME Office very highly. It is stable, well thought-out, and full-featured without being bloated. We particularly like the word processor module.
Official Website: www.gnome.org/gnome-office/
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ThinkFree Office
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ThinkFree Office by Haansoft ThinkFree Co. Ltd. is an office suite written in Java that runs on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh platforms. The package includes a word processor (Write), a spreadsheet (Calc), and a presentation program (Show). ThinkFree Office reads and writes to Microsoft Office file formats (.doc, .xls, and .ppt) and has a look and feel similar to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint,.
Computer Buzz has evaluated this package. We like it, but we're not crazy about it. The Write program is a little clunky, and there are some line spacing problems (especially at large point sizes) that may be typeface/font-related.
ThinkFree Online is a web-based version of this same office suite.
You can think "free" all you like; the Haansoft folks are thinking "fifty-dollar bill." For that price, ThinkFree Office is a bargain.
Official Website: www.thinkfree.com/
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Evermore Integrated Office
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Evermore Software is China's leading developer of Office software. A joint venture between the Chinese and American investors, Evermore Software was founded in 2000 and currently employs over 400 software engineers. Evermore Software is one of the largest independent Java developers in the world and the biggest single project software development team in China.
The flagship product, Evermore Integrated Office, was first released in 2002 as a fully integrated Office system. Written in Java, EIOffice runs on Linux, Windows, and Macintosh operating systems. MSRP is $99.
Not yet evaluated or rated by Computer Buzz.
Official Website: www.evermoresw.com/
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Kingsoft (WPS) Office
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Kingsoft Office 2007 (previously known as WPS Office) is a Microsoft Office compatible suite of applications. It consists of Writer, Presentation, Spreadsheets modules (W-P-S; get it?), all of which have a close resemblance to the familiar layout and functionality of MS Office. Kingsoft comes to us from Beijing, China, and this software outfit has been around since the 1980s.
Kingsoft's download demo version comes with the longest trial period we've ever heard of 180 days! Oddly enough, the inscrutable orientals don't give the purchase price of the package anywhere on their website. The capitalistic concept of "Get the money!" has apparently escaped them.
Not yet tested or rated by Computer Buzz.
Official Website: www.OpenOffice.org
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SoftMaker Office
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SoftMaker Office is an office suite for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Windows CE, and the Pocket PC, developed since 1989 by the German company SoftMaker Software GmbH (Nuremberg).
Up to and including the 2006 release, the proprietary suite included:
--TextMaker (word processor)
--PlanMaker (spreadsheet)
SoftMaker Office 2008, currently in beta for Windows, adds two new applications:
--SoftMaker Presentations (presentation graphics, compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint)
--BasicMaker (a VBA-like programming tool)
SoftMaker Office lacks a presentation program, a communication program, and a graphics program. It uses its own native formats and is highly compatible with MS Office file formats. The user interface is based on MS Office's look and feel. In comparison, it starts and runs faster and needs less memory than MS Office.
MSRP is a very fair $70.
Official Website: www.softmaker.com/
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602 Suite
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The oddly-named 602 Suite uses the same document formats (.DOC & .XLS) as MS Office and has the same look and feel. And you can export to Adobe Acrobat PDF (Portable Document Format) directly from any 602 Suite application for quick and easy online distribution. This package is excellent for creating, editing, and viewing documents and spreadsheets. Many of its features work the same way as MS Office.
602 Suite also includes an app to edit, restore, enhance, print, and share your photos. It's not the most full-featured office suite around, but at 40 bucks for a single-user license, it's a good deal for most folks. Eighty bucks gets you a license for three users, and 400 dollars less than the price of a single installation of MS Office gets you a license for 25 users! And each multi-user license purchased for an organization allows installation on an employee's home computer! A simple, one-time software registration is required for the entire organization.
Official Website: http://www.software602.com/products/pcs/
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Lotus Symphony
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Lotus Symphony from IBM is a set of applications comprising:
-Documents, a word processor
-Spreadsheets, a spreadsheet program
-Presentations, a presentation program
Symphony supports the OpenDocument format (ODF), as well as Microsoft Office and Lotus SmartSuite formats, but not Microsoft's Office Open XML format, which is used by Microsoft Office 2007. It can also export Portable Document Format (PDF) files.
Symphony is now available for Linux and Windows, with a Mac OS X version currently in public beta. It is based on OpenOffice.org 1.1.4 for the core office suite code. Symphony requires 512 MB of RAM and 540 MB of hard drive space.
IBM plans to incorporate code from the latest version of OpenOffice.org into version 2.0. Symphony 2.0 will also include modules that are already part of OpenOffice.org, including an equation editor, database software, and a drawing program, as well as other modules specifically provided by IBM.
Computer Buzz is pleased to see IBM hopping on the open software bandwagon. (Who'll be next, Microsoft?) All the same, we would just as soon use the genuine OpenOffice.org software and cut out the IBM middleman.
Official Website: http://www.symphony.lotus.com/
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Siag Office
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Siag Office is a free software office package for certain flavors of Linux. As best we can tell, it originates somewhere in Europe, and we're not thinking about England. It consists of the spreadsheet Siag, the word processor PW, the animation program Egon, the text editor XedPlus, the file manager Xfiler and the previewer Gvu. It is extremely light-weight, hence well suited for very old (such as 486, 16MB) systems. Consequently, it lacks many of the features of office suites like OpenOffice.org or MS Office. Siag Office is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Siag is the name of the eponymous spreadsheet. The program has existed in several incarnations including text-based curses for SunOS, Turbo C for DOS, and Xlib-based for Linux.
PW (Pathetic Writer) is an X-based word processor for Linux. Support for RTF (Rich Text Format) allows documents to be exchanged between Pathetic Writer and legacy Windows applications. HTML pages can be loaded and saved, making it possible to publish PW documents on the web.
Egon Animator is the X-based animation development tool for Unix. The idea is that "objects" (rectangles, lines, pixmaps, and so on) are added to a "stage" where they are then made to perform by telling them where they should be and when.
At this time, Siag Office is available in binary form for Red Hat (rpm) and Slackware (tgz) versions of Linux only. Source code is reportedly available for Mac OS X and OpenBSD, but we're not having any of that "compile-your-own-software" crap.
Not yet tested by Computer Buzz.
Official Website: siag.nu/
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