Word Proocessing Software

[jon787]

What is some good word processing/office suite software for linux? I'm now back in school and I have to type a paper.

Preferably free (as in free beer and free speech)

[ 05 September 2001: Message edited by: jon787 ]

[dgcartel]

openoffice and abiword to name two.

Openoffice = Suite
Abiword = Single App.

[jon787]

Thanks my dad is trying to prove that windows is better than Linux. I need an office app to show him otherwise.

[sym]

StarOffice52 is the closest I have seen to comparing with MS Office functionality. Free for personal use.

It reads and saves in MS formats to if you want (for turning in papers to MS Office users and such).

Somewhat bloated, but very usable.

Version 6 beta should be out soon, they say that it will be less bloated.

[kapwfm]

Two thumbs up on StarOffice 5.2. My only gripe about it is that depending on your system settings, it may start up slow, BUT other than that no complaints! It does work with MS files really well from my experience. I've also heard the latest verson of KOffice has made some major improvements, but I can't remember if it's MS compatible or not.

Oh, and tell your dad that unlike Windows, Linux doesn't give you the blue screen of death or crash every time you try to do something useful with it! :)

[Rebob]

If you want something that will be similar in functionality to MS office, yeah, I guess Staroffice would be a good choice... but if you want something that kicks MS word's sorry butt you should learn to use LaTeX.

[Strike]

vim + LaTeX :)
or
vim + DocBook :)

[The Ghost Of Ille Pugil]

I use star office all the time, in windows and in linux because I'd rather spend the 10 bucks and get it on cd and support something open source (and feel better about it) than use a copy of a $100+ MS product. It works really well, especially on anything PIII 450 and up

[[k]]

Star Office is pretty good... there's also Koffice. It's not bad either! :)