Bloatware in Linux

[vasa1]

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/the-five-most-bloated-linux-applications/1089

[J_L]

I've already removed all traces of Evolution and Banshee, but LibreOffice is essential. Can't seem to find any good alternative suite not based on OpenOffice, which is also bloated.

[Mrkvonic]

KDE is not an application, it's a whole set of. Besides, the linear comparison of bloatware from win to lin is meaningless. So what if a program comes with a lot of features. Are they all loaded into memory? If no, then no bloat.
Mrk

[vasa1]

-{ Quote: "I've already removed all traces of Evolution and Banshee, but LibreOffice is essential. Can't seem to find any good alternative suite not based on OpenOffice, which is also bloated." }-

If you don't need all the icons/buttons present in the toolbars, you can (reversibly) delete the ones you don't want; the space occupied by the toolbars will shrink (horizontally). If, you've deleted enough, you can even save one row, by having more toolbars per row and gain vertical space.

But the LibO guys should do their best to bring down the size because a few distros are opting out of having an office suite included on the CD. I think PCLinux is one such distro that has dropped LibO.

[Johnny123]

-{ Quote: " Can't seem to find any good alternative suite not based on OpenOffice, which is also bloated." }-Try SoftMaker Office. It's actually better than OpenOffice and not bloated at all. You can get the 2008 version free, which will do as long as you don't need to open the MS 2007 type of files, like .docx. This is only supported starting with the 2010 version, which costs money. You can download it here (http://www.softmakeroffice.de/index_en.htm).

[tlu]

-{ Quote: "http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/the-five-most-bloated-linux-applications/1089" }-

I wonder how relevant a guy's opinion is who says: "The latest iterations of Firefox are about as slow as can be. Not only in opening, but in rendering. At one time, Firefox was incredibly fast." That's ridiculous.

[linuxforall]

I fully agree with Mrk here, also there is a lighter version of KDE being developed for next release of Kubuntu.

[vasa1]

-{ Quote: "I wonder how relevant a guy's opinion is who says: "The latest iterations of Firefox are about as slow as can be. Not only in opening, but in rendering. At one time, Firefox was incredibly fast." That's ridiculous." }-

In the sentence before that, IIRC, he claimed to have problems with Chrome as well ???

[vasa1]

-{ Quote: "I wonder how relevant a guy's opinion is who says: "The latest iterations of Firefox are about as slow as can be. Not only in opening, but in rendering. At one time, Firefox was incredibly fast." That's ridiculous." }-

Here's a "software consultant" with 'phone number included (!!!) who also thinks that Fx 7 is slow! Though by the end of the thread (not shown) he seems to calm down a bit:

[cozumel]

The problem is that the average user desires bloatware and they want the bloatware sitting in memory (totally mad I know). Hence the reason some distros are Windowsfied. It is what Joe Public desires I reckon. Its kind of trying to convert Windows users to Linux by hiding the true power of Linux from them so they miss the point. lol

For the average Linux user, who is constantly yearning to be less of a novice (that covers the majority of users I think), it isn't a problem as we can pick and choose what is installed and how everything interacts with the hardware. I just hope to one day reach a level where I have advanced from Linux Novice to Linux Junior Cadet and that the journey continues to be enjoyable and rewarding...

[J_L]

-{ Quote: "Try SoftMaker Office. It's actually better than OpenOffice and not bloated at all. You can get the 2008 version free, which will do as long as you don't need to open the MS 2007 type of files, like .docx. This is only supported starting with the 2010 version, which costs money. You can download it here (http://www.softmakeroffice.de/index_en.htm)." }-
Forgot about its Linux version, but it's out-dated. I do view some .docx files.

[cozumel]

-{ Quote: "Try SoftMaker Office. It's actually better than OpenOffice and not bloated at all. You can get the 2008 version free, which will do as long as you don't need to open the MS 2007 type of files, like .docx. This is only supported starting with the 2010 version, which costs money. You can download it here (http://www.softmakeroffice.de/index_en.htm)." }-Do you use it? Does it keep the formatting say for documents that use checkboxes and other fancy formatting or macros? I've only ever found office suites that are at best 97/98% reliable when opening these documents and then I have to go through the whole document to reformat :'( A right pain in the posterior...

[Trespasser]

AbiWord opens and can save in .docx. For spreadsheet you can use gnumeric, though I've never had a need for spreadsheet (but my wife does). Both are small downloads.

Later...

[Johnny123]

-{ Quote: "Do you use it? Does it keep the formatting say for documents that use checkboxes and other fancy formatting or macros? I've only ever found office suites that are at best 97/98% reliable when opening these documents and then I have to go through the whole document to reformat :'( A right pain in the posterior..." }-I have the 2010 version and it works really well, although I have never tried it on documents with a lot of macros. It does very well on retaining the format. Having used both I can confirm that it's miles better than OpenOffice. Here's a review (http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/better-office-alternative-softmaker-office-bests-openofficeorg-445?page=0,0) that compares the two.

[J_L]

-{ Quote: "AbiWord opens and can save in .docx. For spreadsheet you can use gnumeric, though I've never had a need for spreadsheet (but my wife does). Both are small downloads." }-
Nothing for presentations? I could use Google Docs or something similar, but I'm not always online.

[vasa1]

-{ Quote: "AbiWord opens and can save in .docx. For spreadsheet you can use gnumeric, though I've never had a need for spreadsheet (but my wife does). Both are small downloads.

Later..." }-

I tried getting help for Gnumeric once. It wasn't easy. Maybe I didn't look in the right places or ask in the proper tone.

IMO, Gnumeric is quite limited (unless you know how to write your own sub-programs/macros/whatever) when compared to Calc.

[vasa1]

-{ Quote: "Do you use it? Does it keep the formatting say for documents that use checkboxes and other fancy formatting or macros? " }-

Fancy formatting is just that, a way to convince people that a particular software in important for communication. Macros had their age in the sun as spreaders of not-so-good things. I would politely refuse to accept a document which relies on macros.

[Trespasser]

Gnumeric will open xls file, but not xlsx, which is alright since MS Office 2010 will still open xls.

Our household uses LibreOffice 3.4. I am quite impressed with it. My wife attended a conference down in Charleston, SC just last weekend. She was concerned about using LibreOffice before she left (she wanted me to load Win 7 so she could use Office) because she will be exchanging xls and xlsx files with other attendees. I told her that things will be fine using Ubuntu/LibreOffice and not to worry. And things did turn out fine. No compatibility problems with Windows users at all.

LibreOffice takes up a lot of room but still nothing near that of MS Office 2007 or 2010.

MicroSoft has an on-line office suite that does it all (docx, xls/xlsx, etc.) that you might want to look into...

http://office.live.com/

Later...

[Johnny123]

-{ Quote: "Fancy formatting is just that, a way to convince people that a particular software in important for communication. Macros had their age in the sun as spreaders of not-so-good things. I would politely refuse to accept a document which relies on macros." }-You've missed the point. Any office suite will create fancy formatting. The question is whether they will retain the format (fancy or not) or mangle it after opening and saving it again. Here's a comparison (http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/office-compatibility-torture-test-302?page=0,0&source=fssr) with a couple of examples. I receive documents that I have to edit or translate. Since I'm getting paid to do it, I can't afford to bork up their documents or I'll be out of business.

Macros are probably not very important for home users, but no support for them would be a deal-killer in a corporate environment.

[vasa1]

-{ Quote: "You've missed the point. ..." }-
Quite probably.

My point is the interchangeability of information. Quite often, maintaining formatting is used to justify the use of proprietary software. Same for macros.

[cozumel]

-{ Quote: "My point is the interchangeability of information. Quite often, maintaining formatting is used to justify the use of proprietary software. Same for macros." }-The reason I was asking about fancy formatting is similar for that cited by Johnny, in that most of the work I do is funded by the government annually and all the forms, reports, etc are pre-formatted by government employees and sometimes include Macros (regardless of the security implications). I definitely would not recommend using Macros lol Far from it.

Your point about "interchangeability" is also valid and kind of links in with an earlier post when I talked about "Windowsfied"

[Johnny123]

-{ Quote: "Quite probably." }- Most definitely.

You obviously don't understand. It's a fact, whether it pleases us or not, that Microsoft Office rules the roost in corporations. If I use an alternative office suite for ideological reasons that isn't completely compatibile and trash a document that someone spent 20+ hours to create, do you really think they are going to send me any more? I have no control over what software they use, so it has nothing to do with imaginary justification for using proprietary software.

[cozumel]

-{ Quote: "Most definitely.

You obviously don't understand. It's a fact, whether it pleases us or not, that Microsoft Office rules the roost in corporations. If I use an alternative office suite for ideological reasons that isn't completely compatibile and trash a document that someone spent 20+ hours to create, do you really think they are going to send me any more? I have no control over what software they use, so it has nothing to do with imaginary justification for using proprietary software." }-Exactly. If I don't use their documents, I lose my funding, I don't get paid and then my bourgeois, capitalist, some would say fascist bully-boy way-of-life would be compromised....

[linuxforall]

Interesting, myriads of OO installs in organizations handling some heavy documents, presentations, this includes NGOs, schools, colleges etc. and not a single issue of document loss due to OO, have been using OO since its inception.

[cozumel]

-{ Quote: "Interesting, myriads of OO installs in organizations handling some heavy documents, presentations, this includes NGOs, schools, colleges etc. and not a single issue of document loss due to OO, have been using OO since its inception." }-Really? Zero corruption? If so, that implies it is my configuration of Linux &/or OO that is causing the problem **sigh**
I'm never going to become a Linux user who achieves Junior Cadet status at this rate.

[linuxforall]

-{ Quote: "Really? Zero corruption? If so, that implies it is my configuration of Linux &/or OO that is causing the problem **sigh**
I'm never going to become a Linux user who achieves Junior Cadet status at this rate." }-


I don't see reason for either, have you tried OO forums? Are you using latest version of OO, do you get the same corruption with OO in Windows?

[vasa1]

-{ Quote: "Exactly. If I don't use their documents, I lose my funding, I don't get paid and then my bourgeois, capitalist, some would say fascist bully-boy way-of-life would be compromised...." }-
There was a time a certain browser was regarded as the de facto browser. Things change. But I don't want to get involved in argument especially about the need for preserving status quo.

[cozumel]

-{ Quote: "I don't see reason for either, have you tried OO forums? Are you using latest version of OO, do you get the same corruption with OO in Windows?" }-I've honestly never thought of running OpenOffice in Windows.

As for the versions, the last time I tried OO was way back in '06 or '07 with a much older version of suse or ubuntu than I currently use. Guess I should give OO another try if you're saying you're not getting no problems/corruption. Thanks

[J_L]

I get very little, if any, corruption either. 2007 information aren't valid, especially in technology.

[linuxforall]

-{ Quote: "I've honestly never thought of running OpenOffice in Windows.

As for the versions, the last time I tried OO was way back in '06 or '07 with a much older version of suse or ubuntu than I currently use. Guess I should give OO another try if you're saying you're not getting no problems/corruption. Thanks" }-


I have it running now in corporate, government and academic environment and so far no issues.