KOffice v/s OpenOffice.org ::.. I am confused..

[//siddhartha//]

Well, while installing Fedora Core 3, I installed both KOffice and OpenOffice.org from its DVD. Well, now what would I do with two office suites?
So, which one should I uninstall ??

[gauravnawani]

Its a matter of choice. I suggest you make few documents on both and see which gives you better usability, especially the type of work you will possibly be playing with an Office suit.

You might hear arguments from borh sides, but at this point in time OO is much more feature rich and polished than KO. And its completely overhauled and more advance version 2 will be releasing soon.

[GNUrag]

I haven't used KOffice for daily documents, but its a good project. As posted by tuxfan, they are now working on a standard file format which is compatible between OO and Koffice.

I personally do not prefer OpenOffice due to its extremely slow speed. My choice would be the GNOME Office suite. ( http://www.gnome.org/gnome-office/ ) If you have a .doc document and want to just read and throw away then u'll find that Abiword just fits the bill. Similarly Gnumeric can read spreadsheets and is extremely fast.

[ujjwal]

Check this for a nice comparision of office suites for linux -

http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialOfficeSuites.html

Open Office has lots of good features, but it is quite slow, expecially in terms of load times. KOffice I haven't tried, but if speed is what you are looking for, Applixware is a nice (non-free) option. But the vistasource has only version 4.4.3 of the office suite, I am on the lookout for the Applixware 5.0 suite, based on the GTK+ toolkit.

[tuxfan]

I would suggest stick to OpenOffice.

4 reasons for this.

It will work equally well under GNOME and KDE and XFCE and .....
It is made by a group dedicated to developing only OpenOffice. KOffice is by KDE group and their attention (and resources) could be divided or diverted. Pace of development may be slow.
It is available under Linux as well as Windows. So if you need to port documents/spreadsheets/presnetations, you can easily do that.
KOffice is not as feature rich as OpenOffice. MS Office is the best in terms of functionality and OpenOffice comes nearest to it. OO.o is shortly coming up with version 2.0. I really look forward to it.

And as GNUrag pointed out, have a look at this thread (http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24468). Its all about OpenDocument standards now.

[GNUrag]

It is made by a group dedicated to developing only OpenOffice.
That is Sun Microsystems . They are hell bent to include their proprietary java technology into the office suite. Even though it is open to the community, but Sun still has control as to what features can go into OO.o

[tuxfan]

I agree. But recently there have been moves to ensure that Java stays away from OOo. Sun still controls the feature set, but OOo is a test bed for their StarOffice (the way Fedora Core is for Red Hat). So its most likely that they will try to make it more and more feature rich to compete with MS Office.

The GNU Compiler for Java (GCJ), a free software implementation of Java, has been in development for seven years, but with the Free Software Foundation's recent call for volunteers, the project is suddenly receiving more attention than ever before. For many, GCJ is seen as a means of ensuring that the next version of OpenOffice.org does not require non-free versions of Java for full functionality. Yet the scope of the project goes far beyond this immediate need.

You can read the full article here (http://programming.newsforge.com/programming/05/06/01/2055245.shtml?tid=54&tid=132)

[GNUrag]

hmm, i read this at Stallman's blog. The moment FSF called in for volunteers to start a new branch of Oo.o which works on FSF's gcj platform, OpenOffice developers contacted FSF and said they will make sure that java features included in Oo are compatible with gcj.

If they really mean what they are saying then in the end gcj project is going to benefit :-)

[tuxfan]

Cheers!! :)

[vignesh]

Koffice is really a small office suite than OoO.

[//siddhartha//]

Well, I have tried Abiword, its fine though its margin settings are always wrong..
KOffice has good looks though. BTW, can anyone tell where is Applixware 5.0 available? [I mean can we expect it in the DIGIT DVD/CDs soon??

[vignesh]

What is applixware ?

[//siddhartha//]

Well, I really don't know. It is something @ujjwal mentioned, and the name suggests that is some good Office Suite. Plz correct me if I am wrong...

[ujjwal]

Heh well yes, it was one of the best office suites for linux a few years ago, but it must have been overshadowed by open office, which has better features.Check the Yolinux article for a comparision. Still, I am yet to see a faster office suite than it. Too bad it isn't free beer, though I think some parts of it have some kind of a restrictive open source

[sba]

IMHO OOo is the best open source office suite out there. Everything else just follows...

[khandu]

I think Openoffice should suffice

[//siddhartha//]

Alright, OpenOffice.org rulez.... Fine, but its nice that there are so many office suites. Even though MS-Office is the best. It will have to sulk.. :sulk: