Comment Why linux needs a comparable office suite (Score 1) 420
I see why a lot of people don't want to have MS Office on Linux. I also know through experience why many posters think it would be a blessing. You see, I've been writing papers, stories, and manuals in Word for 8 years. I have been experimenting with Linux for about 3. Granted I haven't a recent install of StarOffice, KWord, etc. to play with.
But while we may not need/want Office, Linux desperately needs a *comparable* office suite with perfect conversion filters. (Making Microsoft reveal its format details would be a good idea.) I personally dislike Wordperfect, and I could not manage to make StarOffice install on Linux. I don't really care if the Linux office suite is Appleworks or whatever, but it must fulfill these requirements:
-it must be a word processor in concept, not a LaTeX type-thing. In other words, a reasonably familiar interface: menus, toolbars, rulers, document-writing space.
-it must have an interface as wonderfully customizable as Word's. You can rewrite the toolbars and menus in that thing to be *exactly* what you want. If you can find the function in a menu or have a macro for it, you can make a button for it. Moveable toolbars are NOT good enough.
-it must be equally capable. Detailed page layout options. Foot and endnotes. Show paragraph marks and things. It *MUST* have tables as good as Word's. Text boxes, overlays, graphics toys and other tools so that you can do page layout. Spell and hopefully grammar checking, maybe a thesaurus. Whatever the heck there is in Excel, Powerpoint, etc. (You can see that I worked in Word mostly.)
As so many have said in here, letter-to-grandma word processors do not cut it for any but the most casual non-programmer user. We *need* something as capable as Office/Word that is not too foreign. Without it we cannot switch.
Until I get one, I'm using Office.
But while we may not need/want Office, Linux desperately needs a *comparable* office suite with perfect conversion filters. (Making Microsoft reveal its format details would be a good idea.) I personally dislike Wordperfect, and I could not manage to make StarOffice install on Linux. I don't really care if the Linux office suite is Appleworks or whatever, but it must fulfill these requirements:
-it must be a word processor in concept, not a LaTeX type-thing. In other words, a reasonably familiar interface: menus, toolbars, rulers, document-writing space.
-it must have an interface as wonderfully customizable as Word's. You can rewrite the toolbars and menus in that thing to be *exactly* what you want. If you can find the function in a menu or have a macro for it, you can make a button for it. Moveable toolbars are NOT good enough.
-it must be equally capable. Detailed page layout options. Foot and endnotes. Show paragraph marks and things. It *MUST* have tables as good as Word's. Text boxes, overlays, graphics toys and other tools so that you can do page layout. Spell and hopefully grammar checking, maybe a thesaurus. Whatever the heck there is in Excel, Powerpoint, etc. (You can see that I worked in Word mostly.)
As so many have said in here, letter-to-grandma word processors do not cut it for any but the most casual non-programmer user. We *need* something as capable as Office/Word that is not too foreign. Without it we cannot switch.
Until I get one, I'm using Office.
