SoftMaker Office 2010 For Linux Nearing Release

martin-k writes "SoftMaker Office is a Microsoft-compatible office suite that competes with OpenOffice.org. Its creator, German software publisher SoftMaker, is nearing completion of the latest release, SoftMaker Office 2010 for Linux. This new release offers document tabs, high-quality filters for the Microsoft Office 2007 file formats DOCX and XLSX, and presentation-quality charts in the spreadsheet. It also brings integration into KDE and Gnome, using the system's colors and fonts. A release candidate is available as a free download."

It's 93 bucks

[wonkavader]

It's $93, at today's conversion rate for euros to dollars.

Re:How did this not get binspammed?

[markdavis]

Let's see:

1) It lacks vector drawing (Draw)
2) It lacks database (Base)
3) It is closed source
4) Although it supports Linux, it seems to not support MacOS
5) It costs a lot more than OpenOffice

Sorry, it is hard to get all that excited.

Objective comparison with OO.o

[chrae]

I downloaded and installed SoftMaker Office 2010 Beta (rev 580) and ran a comparison to OpenOffice.org version 3.1.1. My system is a stock Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). It has dual-core atom processors with 2gb of ram.

Startup speed:

• From a fresh reboot: SoftMaker Office, 12 seconds; Open Office, 9 seconds.
• From cache (opened again after closing): SoftMaker Office, 6 seconds; Open Office, 3 seconds

Compatibility with Microsoft Office 2007:

• Powerpoint 2007 .pptx files (I used some sample shapes and text with some of the new shape effects): SoftMaker Presentations would not even open at all; OpenOffice.org Presentation opened the file, loaded the text and shapes of my test file, but failed to load some special shape effects like the halo.
• Word 2007 .docx files (I used some sample text with a funky font, a table with some formatted borders, a graph, a diagram, and a shape): SoftMaker TextMaker failed to load the font correctly, improperly formatted the table, failed to load the graph, failed to load the diagram, and loaded the shape fine; OpenOffice.org Word Processor failed to load the font correctly, imported the table perfect, failed to load the graph, failed to load the diagram, and loaded the shape fine.
• Excel 2007 .xlsx files (I created a column with conditional formatting, a column with a colored background, and a column with a border around it): SoftMaker PlanMaker failed to load the conditional formatting, but showed the column data. Failed to load the column with the colored background entirely, showing none of the data. Failed to load the border around the last column. Open office failed to load the conditional formatting, but showed the column data. Loaded the column with colored background perfectly. Loaded the column border perfectly.

Conclusions:

OpenOffice.org is faster, more compatible with Office 2007, blends in well with my native theme, and is Free. SoftMaker is slow, not as compatible as OO.o, uses it's own theme and widgets, and is 70 Euros.

Re:How did this not get binspammed?

[BrokenHalo]

Q: I've heard OpenOffice discussed on Slashdot before, so why not this?

A: Because OpenOffice is an open-source, collaborative project that no-one has to pay for.

As an aside, this Softmaker product probably needs a serious amount of advertising to generate any kind of traction in the Linux market. Until today, I had never heard of it, and I've been using Linux for something like 15 years. I would suppose that it might appeal to new users of Linux who are accustomed to having to pay for any software they find useful, but I can't see it appealing to older hands.