KOffice vs. OpenOffice

[Willy Hamra]

2008/9/29 Paul Lemmons <paul at lemmons.name>:
> 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.
>

you convinced me! no, i don't need it for a corporate environment, nor
am i the kind of people that types more than a dozen page a day, only
4 or 5 pages a day. OOo is full of features, which even though i
rarely use them, they can come in handy sometimes, for a certain
document. but i guess having a lighter and faster program is more
important to me than these rarely used features.

the only downside is if this new version is also incapable of dealing
with MS office files as you mentioned. and someone mentioned it has
problems with OOo files? i hope not.
can koffice save or export as PDF?


-- 
Willy K. Hamra
Manager of Hamra Information Systems
Co. Manager of Zeina Computers and Billy Net.