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."

How did this not get binspammed?

[Excelcia]

Holy cow, how did this not get binspammed off of the submissions? Someone actually managed to get an advertisement as a story into Slashdot. Actually, it's sort of an impressive accomplishment. Off to the submissions I go to try and make some money!

Re:How did this not get binspammed?

[BitterOak]

Holy cow, how did this not get binspammed off of the submissions? Someone actually managed to get an advertisement as a story into Slashdot. Actually, it's sort of an impressive accomplishment. Off to the submissions I go to try and make some money!

I've heard OpenOffice discussed [slashdot.org] on Slashdot before, so why not this?

Paying for OO.o

[Totenglocke]

So essentially it's Open Office, except with only 3 programs (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation) and they want 70 euros for it? I'm sorry, but I fail to see why anyone would pay 70 euros (10 I could possibly see) when you can get Open Office for free.

Re:How did this not get binspammed?

[Anonymous Coward]

it seems to not support MacOS

MacOS X simply doesn't have the marketshare to make a port worth while. Unfortunately, companies simply can't support every niche operating system on the planet.

Re:How did this not get binspammed?

[Arker]

It has noticeably better MSOffice compatibility than OO.org

Noticeable? Really? I have yet to notice any problems importing MS files to OO so that's hard to see.

and it's much more lightweight, as well.

Well that part does sound good.

I suspect it would be something that quite a few Linux users could use - so long as they aren't morally opposed to shelling out $50 (or whatever it is these days) for software.

I have no objection to shelling out money (it's actually closer to $100 US but no matter) for good software, however best I can tell you dont actually get any software for your money here, just a binary blob. I wont pay for that.

Re:How did this not get binspammed?

[shutdown -p now]

All applications, free or not, ultimately compete in the "get the job done" market. For some, Google Docs does that. For others, OO.org does that. And others yet might not be content with OO.org, either for performance or compatibility reasons - in which case this thing may be the only one they can get for their platform for any price.

Re:It's 93 bucks

[EvanED]

This is completely off-topic (and definitely feel free to mod me such; it's not like I lack kharma), but your user name is incredibly awesome.

Re:How did this not get binspammed?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

I'm sure I've heard Microsoft Office discussed on Slashdot before as well.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe only open-source, collaborative projects that no one has to pay for are ever discussed here.