From kde-devel  Thu Sep 02 05:13:31 1999
From: Frank Baumgart <godot () uni-paderborn ! de>
Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1999 05:13:31 +0000
To: kde-devel
Subject: Re: the end of KOffice?
X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-devel&m=93625663319691

Rob Kaper wrote:
...
> The only important issue might be compatibility with document formats. The
> suite that can handle Office documents the best way probably has an
> advantage over the other.
> 
> Can anyone tell me how well Koffice and SO handle these formats?

SO5.1 for Linux can acceptably import Word97 and Powerpoint files, 
at least to a degree I do not consider starting Word right next at
the VMware desktop when I only want to show or copy from them.
For further work on imported dox these SO5.1 import filters are not 
quite good enough, though this might "just" be a font mapping issue.
(hints or RTFM anyone?)

Regarding Koffice, Reginald already said it is being worked on, 
meaning really, it is absolutely not usable by now. So SO5.1 is 
probably your best bet.

In terms of stability, well, SO5 crashed just 2 times on me since 
it appeared while I used it extensively for much work, most notably 
but not only I wrote my Diploma Thesis with it, ~130pp and about 30 
images, some tables, much referencing, many footnotes etc. Add to 
this quite a few spread sheets and (mostly imported) presentations.
This is far better than Word for Windows ever was.
In contrast, Koffice did never stay up longer than 2 minutes for me.
As you most probably know, as a developer you avoid dangerous edges
in your own programs, consciously or not so crashes can occur much
less if you know what you (can) do.
I'm looking forward to see Koffice progress, though I'm missing an
image/paint application more than a WP. Unfortunately, there is not
much in this area, the KDE programs I have seen are not useful at
all while the GIMP is very powerful but usability-wise a piece of
crap (sorry). So the best bet is still xpaint (sigh).
(Yes, I know they address different areas)
The same goes for image viewers, there is no KDE-app even near xv 
feature-wise as well as usability-wise.

Frank