Excel Clone for Linux Now in Beta 393
Martin Kotulla writes "SoftMaker, a German software developer, has released the first public beta of PlanMaker 2004, a native-Linux spreadsheet that is highly Excel-compatible ... in fact, this app is basically Microsoft Excel ported to Linux, including Excel-compatible charting and even AutoShapes. Here is a chart comparing Excel, OpenOffice.org, and PlanMaker." Update: 05/07 19:07 GMT by M : Softmaker.de is temporarily down; the site can still be reached at softmaker.com.
Works on other free unixes (at least 1) (Score:5, Interesting)
in fact, this app is basically Microsoft Excel ported to Linux,
A port? Did Microsoft gave the developers access to the Excel source code? Anyhow, that nitpicking aside the package seems to be working perfectly well on my OpenBSD desktop w/Linux compatibility enabled.
Nice.
Good... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:The wrong path (Score:5, Interesting)
Uh, by "cloning" a "closed" file format, you actually "open" the format to other uses. When you get a large number of vendors using the "closed" format, the original vendor now has to consider very carefully additional changes to the format for fear of breaking competitor's products. The fear is not breaking the other products but reducing compatibility of their own product. Using "closed" formats is a good thing, depending on market conditions.
Crossover (Score:5, Interesting)
But what about the Macros? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The wrong path (Score:3, Interesting)
With more users and more developers and more attention you will be able to convince R&D departments to spend more money on creating this better product for Linux.
Re:The wrong path (Score:2, Interesting)
data analysis lacking? (Score:2, Interesting)
No ANOVA, regression analysis, t tests, correlation, etc.? No pivot tables? That's most of what I find Excel useful for!
Hopefully someone can tell me I'm wrong and that these features are included.
How does OpenOffice compare in terms of data analysis? (I've <gasp> never used it).
Re:The wrong path (Score:3, Interesting)
In the case of this product, yes it is copying the UI AND the file format of Microsoft. What does this mean for the average user? It means they don't have to buy Microsoft Office to work with .xls files, they just need to get this application.
This reminds me of like Lindows^H^H^H^Hspire; it's oriented towards users who are comfortable with Microsoft's design, and have learned how to do things using Microsoft products. Those kind of users want something they're familiar with, so they will be more likely to use something that is familiar to them. We still have our KOffice and OpenOffice.org spreadsheet applications; is there something wrong with this approach?
If this application didn't exist, people would just run Excel in Crossover Office. That's what I do actually, so this app may allow me to throw off Microsoft Excel completely, if it functions as advertised (currently slashdotted to hell).
I think it's rather silly to say "No! Never will I support anything Microsoft!" when the majority of users use it. This application may allow users to take another step away from Microsoft lock-in. The goal isn't to "embrace" Microsoft's technology, the goal is to create a viable alternative, that will create the minimum amount of fuss in transition.
Re:The wrong path (Score:4, Interesting)
But that edge is lost when changing the format drives away your customers when they can no longer interoperate with users with competing products. It's a critical mass issue. When so many people are using MS's format with competing products that MS can't change the format for fear of a user backlash of not being able to interoperate, you've frozen the format and can now move into "open" formats with greater functionality... functionality MS has to duplicate just to stay in the game. Now who is copying whom?
Re:What surprised me most (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't consider myself any sort of "power user" with Office products either. If a simple Word document won't open I can't believe your comment that "they picked the 5-6 things that OO can't do" is valid.
Re:The old Look and Feel problem? (Score:1, Interesting)
Uh, from someone who actually is trying it . . . (Score:4, Interesting)
Seems to be in a niche between OO which allows you to save to xls and gnumeric, which I didn't think allowed you to save to xls format but is very light and quick.
Oh, and it seems to support OO's calc format.
No, maybe it will not save the world, but it just may help a handful more people move to Linux and reward a commericial developer for supporting Linux. Though, I am sure it is not for EVERYONE.
The Microsoft Language Project (Score:3, Interesting)
I believe, if you look closely and not always brashly at what you see, that Microsoft is a Master at language-control propaganda methods.
Microsoft "Windows", "Word", "Excel", "Passport". They have, using copyright/trademark registration backed up by the full force of the U.S. Government, usurped a significant chunk of the English dictionary and grafted their own contemporary definitions.
The "he inserted microsoft in the socket behind his ear" pun of Gibson&co. is a delicate stab at this issue, which has been ongoing for quite some time.
Software "registration" of common English words, and the commercialized property now granted as a result of it, is taking its toll on English as a language
{I find this aspect of their 'leadership' of the computing industry to be detestable, and this is why I don't ever use Microsoft products. Ever.}
Re:The wrong path (Score:2, Interesting)
Why not? If you're spending a lot of money, then minor things like file formats won't make any difference to a sale. If you've got a good quote and the ability to supply what they want, then who's going to break-off a sale because you say "any chance of sending that as CSV?", or as a screenshot.
Being offended because someone won't open your preferred spreadsheet format is far more petty and unprofessional than you'd expect from someone in charge of making large purchases, and there's a good chance that such worries are overstated.
Re:The wrong path (Score:3, Interesting)
A single user cannot start asking everyone to send them docs in OOo, they will be laughed at.
Well, no need for that. OOo does a pretty good job reading proprietary word and excel files, oh an powerpoint files as well.
The thign is that the OOo user will have to remember to send files to MS Office users that they can actually read.
company that wants to do business will have to send in an open format such as OOo, CSV, HTML, PDF, etc.
Last time I looked, PDF is quite owned by Adobe.
Yes, there are open implementations of PDF writign and reading code,, and quite good ones for that matter.. but hrm..
Kets say it is about as open as lots of the stuff from the 'Open' group..
At any rate, it works well for publishing your texts since everyoen can read it and it will print as you want it.
Re:But what about the Macros? (Score:3, Interesting)
Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH
VBA scripting (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder if any non-Microsoft®Office® spreadsheet program supports VBA scripting? Being able to run such useful Excel® programs as Pacelman [geocities.jp] and Excellence [pouet.net] would be very important for the FOSS community. Apparently there has been some effort to make a Visual® Basic® interpreter for Linux [sourceforge.net], but the project doesn't seem to have made any progress.
Does no one remember Lotus Improv, or Javelin? (Score:3, Interesting)
Let us _please_ move past that limitation --- you've got companies that have to _require_ that all ranges used for calculations (even of a single cell) are given names --- Lotus Improv w/ it's cool tear-off ``item dispenser'' instead required one name things as they were made, so that formulas read like:
profit = sales - expenses
Cloning is boring and uninteresting --- contrast LyX (http://www.lyx.org ) to Word for an example of how an opensource app can change the concept and do much better.
For those running Mac OS X, look up http://www.quantrix.com
For those w/ systems running NeXT or OPENSTEP, well, you've already got Lotus Improv or Quantrix already, right?
William
The only thing... (Score:4, Interesting)
Think of it - pre-defined variables (cA_1, cA_2, etc...), pre-defined functions, pre-defined graphic routines, pre-defined everything just about - except for the stuff written by the user. You don't have to worry about if the program will work or not on a given platform, you could do straight-line programming or oop programming, and displays are already standardized. They all look like spreadsheets.
Re:The wrong path (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't know what kind of engineer you are but in the Real World (TM) you will find lots of engineers doing some quick & dirty calculations in Excel.
Back in my scientist days, we only used one of a small number of custom written applications. (Named "paw" and "mn_fit" plus a few others less commonly used.) Excel cannot even dream of producing the kinds of plots that I had to produce for my dissertation. Of course, these tools were command-line driven, but that gave the power to iterate on a plot, to view arbitrary plots of N-tuple data, to change the scales and so on. MUCH more power than Excel gives. I had scatterplots with many tens of thousands of points. (Took a LOOOONNNNNGGGGG time to print on laser printers of that day!)
But as you say, for quick and dirty stuff, Excel and the like are fine. I haven't figured out how to do two dimensional error bars -- the cross shapes showing the uncertainty in each variable -- and complicated stuff like that, but maybe Excel can do stuff like that as well. But if I were doing a scientific or engineering paper, I would not use Excel.
bad business plan (Score:3, Interesting)
So why do you pick a business plan as bad as creating an Excel clone? There are zillions of interesting software products you could make. But you pick a product that competes head-on with Microsoft and with open source software. Do what you like, but don't come around bellyaching later when your product fails; you will have neither Microsoft to blame, nor OSS, only yourself.
Re:bad business plan (Score:2, Interesting)
Oh, they don't. This is a good business plan. Excel is very important to businesses, and this product will only make it easier for users to migrate to Linux on the desktop.
Idiot.
Re:Since 1987? Impressive. (Score:3, Interesting)
I have no problem competing with open source software, and authors of open source software usually don't have that towards commercial software. There is much more zealotry among the user base than under developers...
Martin Kotulla SoftMaker Software GmbH