A Last Look at ApplixWare 75
Linux.com (Also owned by VA) is taking a look at the once widely popular office suite, ApplixWare. From the article: "Passed to a subsidiary of Applix called VistaSource that later became independent, ApplixWare was repositioned as a combination of a basic office package and a developer's toolkit running from a common main menu. For a while, it was even renamed AnyWare. Now at version 6, ApplixWare is back to its original name, with versions available for AIX, GNU/Linux, and SPARC Solaris, with earlier versions still supported for Windows and FreeBSD. The trial download for GNU/Linux shows ApplixWare's age, but it also shows a trick or two that its newer rivals might learn from."
VistaSource? (Score:1, Funny)
I hadn't heard of a subsidiary of Applix called VistaSource.
But a quick google finds that VistaSource is 60% imcomplete
Thank you, thank you - try the salmon.
Welcome back? (Score:2, Interesting)
Just imagine (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Just imagine (Score:4, Insightful)
Just imagine if they opened up the source for Word Perfect 5.1 for DOS. There were third part font managers for it os in about a year you would have something that would talk to your X font server or read your True Type font directory. Some people want the WISIGY, and I don't know how the graphical preview mode could be ported over to the console mode, but these problems could be solved if we could get the code for the SCO port as well.
Re:Just imagine (Score:1)
I'd settle for a Carbonized version of MS Word 5.1.
Re:Just imagine (Score:1)
Oh, boy, that would have been really cool. One of the greatest word processing programs. Ever.
For word processing, of course. Not particularly a good program for lame attempts at doing DTP, even if it had rudimentary support for that too.
Somewhere along the way, people forgot that, ultimately, word processing and typesetting are separate tasks, and if you really look at the current contenders, they're not really good at either...
Re:Just imagine (Score:2)
Very insightful comment.
I would add that there are three separate tasks being done by M$-Weird and its ilk. In addition to word processing and typesetting, the third task is long technical document preparation, with TeX and Lotus Manuscript being a couple of notable examples.
I have fond memories of using a conte
Re:Just imagine (Score:3, Informative)
Print to Postscript, display directly or as PDF. I use some older DOS DTP apps (running under Windows), mostly I work in their own interface, but instead of printing to the actual printer to check layout I do PDF proofs most of the time now; simple enough to automate this.
Re:Just imagine (Score:1)
Re:Just imagine (Score:1)
Got me threw the first year of college it did. (Score:2)
Re:Got me threw the first year of college it did. (Score:4, Funny)
Apparently basic English literacy wasn't a requirement of your course.
Re:Got me threw the first year of college it did. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Got me threw the first year of college it did. (Score:2, Funny)
Must be. You can see the Joycian influence on his spelling and sentence structure. Absolutely brilliant.
Re:Got me threw the first year of college it did. (Score:1)
Re:Got me threw the first year of college it did. (Score:2)
Would it be MUCH harder than getting applix to work on an old linux running on an emulation layer runing on modern linux?
Can you give us some results for other things you haven't tried as well?
Oh the sweet dripping irony, your devilish embrace suffoca
Re:Got me threw the first year of college it did. (Score:1)
I haven't messed around with Linux in a few years. I do know there are twisty passages in all directions (so damned many 'distros',) and that xyzzy won't bring me anywhere useful.
Re:Got me threw the first year of college it did. (Score:2)
Wildly Popular? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Wildly Popular? (Score:3, Insightful)
I can understand your confusion however - that is what I read at first too.
No PowerPC version for a while (Score:5, Informative)
Much to my surprise, my old comrade señor Carro declared PowerPC dead after our little adventure collapsed, which happened after I left, leaving him alone on the sinking ship. In realistic terms, with Apple's switch to Intel processors, he's right. There's still lots to do with embedded and server PPC, though. Good luck whoever's still working on it; nods to Cort, Ben H, Paul M, Gary T, Dan B and K.S.
Re:No PowerPC version for a while (Score:1)
What's going on with the timestamps over there? (Score:3, Interesting)
Wittamore apparently posted it fifteen minutes before the story was posted.
Re:What's going on with the timestamps over there? (Score:1)
Applix file dialog (Score:5, Insightful)
The applications also share a Save dialog -- or "Directory Displayer," as ApplixWare calls it -- with several features that I'd like to see on modern programs, including a complete directory tree, a history, and the ability to set permissions as a file is saved.
While I think a complete directory tree is unnecessary (personally, I think the way GTK 2.6 and KDE/QT handl directories are both fine, with the "bookmarks" along the left side like in Windows XP file dialgs, though I am partial to the GTK 2.6 dialog), I do think that adding the ability to set permissions on a file would be a welcome addition to the GTK 2.6+ dialog box.
A bit of GNOME abuse :) (Score:3, Insightful)
> addition to the GTK 2.6+ dialog box.
I'm afraid the first questions a GNOME developer would ask is "Does Windows have that? Does Apple do that? Would idiots know what it is useful for?" Then you would be laughed at and the proposal ignored. File permissions are a 'legacy UNIX' thing and have no place in a 'modern graphical environment'. Which is why I'd dearly love to see some UNIX folk get together and rethink a
Re:A bit of GNOME abuse :) (Score:2)
Re:A bit of GNOME abuse :) (Score:2)
True enough, but only admins appear to be supposed to use them. In theory Windows users could get just as much use out of them as us UNIX folk but their customs and usages don't encompass anything related to security. And neither does GNOME. Look at
Re:A bit of GNOME abuse :) (Score:2)
UNIX + GUI = CDE ? (Score:2)
Just wondering, why wouldn't you get SunOS? Isn't that what Solaris was, prior to them shitcanning CDE in favor of Gnome as a window manager? It certainly seems like the likely contender for the "graphical UNIX" honor. I guess you'd have to share credit with all the CDE platforms: SunOS, HP-UX
I guess it's arguable that there's some Windows/MacOS influence in CDE, but when you look at the list of companies
Re:UNIX + GUI = CDE ? (Score:2)
Mostly. Of course it was a piece of designed by corporate committee closed source crap, but other than that it was ok...... for the early 1990's. Big hunks are closed still although Motif was opened once it was too old to be relevent. Had they opened it in say 1995 it could have been a contender, since it would have been allowed to evolve.
Openstep is a potential contender but a real dark horse right now.
Re:UNIX + GUI = CDE ? (Score:1)
Re:UNIX + GUI = CDE ? (Score:2)
Re:UNIX + GUI = CDE ? (Score:2)
Applix (Score:3, Informative)
The original company, Applix [applix.com], has gone through some interesting transformations. After ApplixWare, it focused on CRM for awhile, but has since returned to focusing exclusively on TM1, its OLAP database. Once upon a time, you could buy TM1 for Linux for $100; now, licensing a TM1 server cost 5 figures and the primary platform is Windows (I think there is still some development for HP-UX and maybe one other Unixy platform). It's pricey and somewhat buggy, but has some OLAP capabilities (speed, flexibility, Excel integration) that make it unique.
There's an open-source project PALO [opensourceolap.org] with similar features that looks promising. It went 1.0 about a month ago.
Re:Applix (Score:2, Interesting)
Weird. I used ApplixWare for years and found it very similar in style to Word 6, with the big difference that it would run for weeks on end.
I only moved because it seemed to have ceased development and OOo's Word filters are *much* better.
John
Blast from the Past (Score:1)
Re:Blast from the Past (Score:2)
Besides, I'd rather use TAMU.
They are named Vistasource? (Score:2)
Since VistaSource have existed for years and both Microsoft and VistaSource are software makers, I can almost smell a trademark lawsuit. VistaSource had better hurry up as well. If you don't protect your trademark you will lose it.
worked on financial libraries for applix (Score:2)
http://fintools.com/WebHelp/index.html?bondsanalyt ics.htm [fintools.com] . We had to have arguments like a, b, c, d, etc. Arg.
Comparing to Openoffice (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Comparing to Openoffice (Score:1)
I once paid for the 5.0 version to run on FreeBSD (Score:2)
I wish, they'd release either a more modern binary package, or the source code so that a proper port could be made...
Re:I once paid for the 5.0 version to run on FreeB (Score:3, Funny)
Jesus H. Christ in a sidecar carrying a crutch and bouncing on a pogo stick, if that's "just works" then I'd seriously hate to see what "works with some difficulty" looks like...
Re:I once paid for the 5.0 version to run on FreeB (Score:2)
Re:I once paid for the 5.0 version to run on FreeB (Score:2)
I see this as a reminder (Score:1)
Try Abiword (Score:2)
Re:I see this as a reminder (Score:2)
-matthew
Re:I see this as a reminder (Score:1)
Wow, it's a free download. (Score:2)
Turns out, though, that it's now apparently downloadable for multiple platforms, though I haven't seen the EULA yet (I'm gonna download it now and we'll see what the license terms are...)
Link to download page is here [vistasource.com].
Re:Wow, it's a free download. (Score:1)
You don't talk about the sig.
The great-grandparent can change his sig to something completely different at any time, and this change would retroactively apply to his comment. Should he do this (and he probably will sometime after the next election), your comment will look even more idiotic than it already does. The convention of not discussing the sig is reasonable, and I hope you will decide to follow it in the future.
Brings back memories (Score:2)
I bought ApplixWare in 1996 or 1997 from Red Hat. They had a price reduction back then, making it affordable for me. (Red Hat accidentally charged the full amount to my credit card, maxing it out. But that was corrected quickly.)
After being frustrated by Word 6.0 for a few years, this was heaven. No more crashes.
I still have it on my hard disk, but it's been years since I last used it.