SoftMaker FreeOffice 2018 is MS Office alternative compatible with Windows, Gnu/Linux

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by reasonablePrivacy, May 18, 2018.

  1. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    Great news for people who don't want to use Microsoft products, but also those who just want to reduce expenses. New version of FreeOffice is released.

    http://www.freeoffice.com/
     
  2. Romagnolo1973

    Romagnolo1973 Registered Member

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  3. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    And of course no Outlook compatible app
     
  4. Sampei Nihira

    Sampei Nihira Registered Member

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    Support for Vista and XP is over.
     
  5. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    I would be interested to know how the new FreeOffice compares with Apache OpenOffice, LibreOffice, etc. I've installed Apache OO for some customers, but there were problems with some Word documents not displaying properly. I wouldn't expect perfect compatibility with any of the Office alternatives. I'd be more interested to know how committed they are to fixing compatibility problems when they occur, and how much support there is for the free Vs paid version.
     
  6. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    Native format of documents in Apache OO and LO is Open Document Format, not Microsoft's OOXML. For LibreOffice OOXML is foreign format, which can be imported, but as you saw there are some problems.

    WPS Office and FreeOffice have better support for OOXML. Maybe there are some glitches, but there should be far less of them.
     
  7. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    Thanks for the information. I'll be installing FreeOffice 2018 instead of Apache OO going forward when people want a free Office alternative. I think I'll install it on one of my laptops too, for test driving :)

    By the way, do you know if all of these Office alternatives are built on the same code base? Perhaps the original StarWriter/StarOffice?
     
  8. Bob D

    Bob D Registered Member

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    Open Office was an open sourced version of Star Office.
    Oracle (owner of Sun) donated the project to Apache.
    Libre is a fork of OO.
    Softmaker, I believe, developed from it's own creation in 1987.
     
  9. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    I think I am going to post a survey about Outlook. I believe you need it, but I am curious whether it is really common.
     
  10. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi ReasonablePrivacy

    It's not just that it is an email client, but also that other software can communicate with it. For example I use Quickbooks and Quickbooks can send it's emails out via Outlook. Also Microsoft Maps can work as an Add in to Outlook, so I can select a list clients and map them in MS maps. Without that integration, just an email client would be of limited value
     
  11. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    using SO (license) since 2008 and nothing missing. regular usage, no VBS or any special. Portable: SO 2012/2016.

    if you want VBS then install Kingsoft Office (WPS) (need license).
    annoying: wants online, mandatory.

    i hope that TypeApp is going Windows in the near future - i have it running on android. it can use google functions like calendar. (instead em client)
     
  12. guest

    guest Guest

    SoftMaker FreeOffice 2018 gains Anniversary Edition update with dozens of new features and improved Office 2019 compatibility
    July 10, 2019
    https://betanews.com/2019/07/10/softmaker-freeoffice-2018-2/
    FreeOffice 2018 (Anniversary Update) (July 10, 2019)
    Website
    Download (Windows / Mac / Linux)
    Version History
     
  13. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Everything but Outlook and Access. Sigh
     
  14. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    Unfortunately none of the MS Office compatible suites offer an Outlook alternative AFAICT. Free Office is one of the best though for MS Word and Excel compatible apps.
     
  15. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi Victek

    I know, unfortunately, but Outlook and Access are the two office apps I need the most
     
  16. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    Yes, that's my problem too; I need Outlook. Recently I had to bite the bullet and buy Office Professional 2016.
     
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