KOffice vs. OpenOffice

[Paul Lemmons]

Willy K. Hamra wrote:
> I've read in Kubuntu's website about the new koffice beta released. Ever
> since i started using linux, i've been using openoffice, and i think
> it's a very nice suite, definitely better than Microsoft Office. but
> what about this koffice? i've never seen it or tried it yet. anything
> special about it? any more functionality? i guess it would behave better
> in KDE since it's designed using qt (if i'm not mistaken), so it would
> look and behave better than gtk apps, but anything fancy about it?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
>   
KOffice is nice and simple. It does 90% of what you want in an office 
suite, if you are a heavy office suite user. If you are a lite user or 
are just working with personal documents that percentage approaches 100% 
pretty quickly.

I think that the biggest difference between the two products is the 
philosophy driving both products. OOo's goal is to compete directly with 
the MS Suite. They read and write the MS formats transparently. Their 
programs compete on the feature level as well. It is their goal to be 
useful in a business or corporate environment where MS has a dominate 
footprint.

Koffice take a different track. They ask the question, what makes sense 
in a wordprocessor/spreadsheet/etc. Then they focus their efforts there. 
They do not necessarily see that compatibility with the MS Suite as a 
high priority. They want to make a good standalone product first.

This is a two edged sword, though. By focusing on the application they 
have created a fairly usable, simple suite that meets almost 100% of the 
needs of the average home user. They do this with a small footprint and 
be quite nimble about it. The downside is that it is not usable in a 
corporate environment. While it is pretty good and reading Word 
documents, it is not perfect. The last time I tried it it could not 
write Word documents at all. If you want to used alternatives to MS in a 
large business it must be able to play 100% with the MS Suite.

You may hear a little frustration here. I really like KDE. I really WANT 
to use the PIM and Office suites. I can't. While I respect their focus I 
believe that they have neglected the corporate user. Until their suite 
integrates well with the the corporate world, it will stay a tool for 
the hobbyist and home user. It is really too bad. It could be so much more.
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