"Openn sauce wrd procesors ar e rubishh." Well, at least that is what I planned to say but I seemed to have messed it up a bit. And frankly the word processor I am using is none the wiser. Which brings me to the topic closest to my heart this week - open source word processors that are all flash and very little substance.
When it comes to open source word processors, it would appear that developers have very much taken their eye off the ball.
Losing focus
I recently upgraded one of my Linux boxes from Mandrake 7.2 to Mandrake 8.0. The upgrade was painless enough but the process has resulted in some side issues, not the least of which is the fact that I now only have a semi-functioning version of my preferred word processor.
When it comes to word processors, my needs are surprisingly simple. I don`t need flashy graphics. I don`t need the option to build tables and design award-winning publications. What I do need is a word count function, a spell-checker and speedy operation.
Feature overload
When it comes to open source word processors, it would appear that developers have very much taken their eye off the ball. Instead of designing tools that are truly functional, developers appear to be trying to emulate the Microsoft Words of the world and include as many features as possible into every new iteration of their software.
A good case in point is the KWord application. What on earth possesses an obviously talented group of developers such as the KDE project to build a word processor without a word count? The countless menu bar options alone attest to how much work the team has done on this application, but frames and tables are of little use to someone who merely writes for a living.
AbiWord, on the other hand, is a very promising application although it too suffers from some fundamental oversights. To be fair though, AbiWord is still in pre-version 1.0. Nevertheless, when I first found AbiWord, I suspected I had found exactly what I was looking for -- a small, quick word processor with just enough features to get the job done. Unfortunately, it turned out that while there was a spell-check option in the menu system, there was very little behind it. The imminent version 0.9 should, however, fix this.
Fluff-free
The other obvious choice is StarOffice. But frankly I know hardly anyone who actually uses StarOffice and I suspect that most people have the same issue with it as I do: the overheads are just too big. Again, I don`t want all the fluff, just the functionality.
Which brings me, finally, to an example of what I do like: NEdit. NEdit is small, fast and carries none of the overheads most of the other tools do. Obviously it is not going to impress the Microsoft Word crowd, but it does everything I need it to do.
And when I take off my writer`s cap and don my other personality, that of the weekend programmer, NEdit gracefully turns into a code editor with all the line numbering and syntax highlighting I desire.
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