Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Softmaker

Hi :)
When things don't seem to have a license i sometimes point them
towards an appropriate copy-left form of copyright.  In my work that
would be suggesting the Creative Commons licenses but for programs the
GPL seems most apt.  If they GPL'd it then it might be interesting!
I thought "public Domain" was only valid in the USA?

As for why bother to try other Office Suites or other programs there
are many possible reasons;
1.  curiosity
2.  to see if their claims have any validity
3.  you are probably already at least fairly familiar with at least 2
office suites and that is likely to make it easier for you to poke
around at another one and that increases your flexibility helping you
stay "future proof"
4.  gain better understanding of why certain things are done in a
certain way or to see possibly better ways of doing things that might
be good to post as "feature requests"
5.  to see if you stumble on interesting functionality (err this is
same as 4 really)

In this one's particular case it might be handy to have it installed
jic you get a document in an MS format to see if it does look
different.  Each version of MS Office implements it's formats in
slightly different ways.  Those differences are not publicised so it
takes a lot of work to find out and implement those changes.  Becoming
more compatible with one version of MS Office presumably sometimes
involves becoming slightly less compatible with another.  If our
long-term view was to keep chasing MS then it would mean ensuring that
MS is always in the lead.  if someone else is doing that better right
now then it might be good to take advantage of the short time they
remain viable.  If they can save in a more reliable format that other
programs can open with less hassle then they might provide a good
stepping-stone for a while.

ODF usage is on the rise and maybe a stepping stone might smooth the
way for a while.  Hopefully as uptake of LibreOffice (and the other
programs that also use the same format natively) increases then some
of that will increase the usage of our native formats.  On my
company's server we now have quite a few documents in ODF formats that
open reliably on every machine alongside other documents in MS formats
that don't always open well in different versions of MS Office.  The
MS ones keep needing to be redone.

Regards from
Tom :)



On 20 November 2013 10:02, John R. Sowden <jsowden@americansentry.net> wrote:
> On 11/19/2013 06:10 PM, Jay Lozier wrote:
> > On 11/19/2013 07:30 PM, Virgil Arrington wrote:
> > > FreeOffice is interesting. In many ways, it resembles LO or OOo. Does
> > > anyone know if it was some form of fork or dirivative?
> > >
> > > Virgil
> >
> > Virgil
> >
> > I believe FreeOffice is proprietary and is the free version of SoftMaker's
> > office suite.
> >
> > Jay
> > > -----Original Message----- From: Doug
> > > Sent: Monday, November 18, 2013 7:10 PM
> > > To: users@global.libreoffice.org
> > > Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Softmaker
> > >
> > > On 11/18/2013 06:36 PM, Jay Lozier wrote:
> > > > On 11/18/2013 06:32 PM, Doug wrote:
> > > > > On 11/18/2013 03:40 PM, Charles Smith wrote:
> > > > > > On 11/18/13 11:58 AM, Doug wrote:
> > > > > > > This list may not like the suggestion, but Softmaker has a free
> > > > > > > version
> > > > > > > of its word processor and spreadsheet. You might find it less fiddly
> > > > > > > than LO.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > --doug
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Hmmm...No Mac version and not free--unless I overlooked something on
> > > > > > the
> > > > > > website.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Charles
> > > > > No, not for Mac, but it sure is available for Linux. Look here:
> > > > >
> > > > > http://www.freeoffice.com/en/
> > > > >
> > > > > AFAIK, it is only short a few fonts compared to the paid version.
> > > > > I have it on my laptop, and it works great.
> > > > >
> > > > > --doug
> > > > Checking the website, I only saw Windows and Linux versions.
> > > That's what I said. I didn't realize you need a Mac program.
> > > --doug
> I dropped them a note requesting a copy of the license.  They responded
> saying there is none.  Does this mean that the free version is public
> domain?  I'm not up on German law to know.
>
> John
>
>
>
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