SoftMaker for Linux

[Abarbarian]

https://www.linuxinsider.com/story/85018.html?survey_id=152&opt_id=854

The latest beta release of SoftMaker Office 2018 is fully compatible with Microsoft Office. It offers a completely redesigned user interface that allows users to work with either classic or ribbon menus.
SoftMaker offers a complete line of free and paid office suite products that run on Android devices, Linux distros, and Windows or macOS PCs.

Check out the free beta of the commercial version. A completely free open source-licensed version called "SoftMaker FreeOffice 2018," will be available soon. Switching is seamless. The FreeOffice line is distributed under the Mozilla Public License.

The FreeOffice 2018 release will have the same ribbon interface option as SoftMaker Office 2018. The exact feature list is not finalized yet, according to Sales Manager Jordan Popov. Both the free and the paid versions will contain fully functional TextMaker, PlanMaker, and Presentations, just like the paid Linux SoftMaker Office 2018 release. The Linux edition has the Thunderbird email management client.

The value here is that the free open source and both commercial versions of the 2018 releases are true 64-bit products. Previous releases required some 32-bit dependencies to run on 64-bit architecture.

The easy access to the free download of SoftMaker Office 2018 gives you nothing to lose in checking out its suitability as a Microsoft Office replacement. If you decide to upgrade to the paid Linux release, you will pay $69.95 for a proprietary license. That is the same price as the Home and Student editions of Microsoft Office 365.

If you opt for the free open source version, FreeOffice 2018, when it is released, you still could have a top-of-the-line alternative to other Linux tools that play well with Microsoft Office.

This looks like a very interesting alternative to LibreOffice or Microsoft Office.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Interesting yes, but I'd have to look at the difference between paid version ($70) and free version before deciding whether to switch from Libre Office and MS Office 2010.

I now use Libre Office all the time and picked up MS Office 2010 for about £15 legally which I keep should I have to send customers correspondence in the Microsoft format.

$70 will still mean about fifty quid so although this looks - as you say - interesting, I'm still wary.

My goal is not to champion Linux and it's compatible software but to get by in the real world as economically as possible.

While I'm here, do you know of any Linux software that will take several video files of different file extensions and burn them collectively to a DVD or Bluray disc with a user menu that gives the option to access each file on disc load? If so I could use something like that.

 

[Abarbarian]

Interesting yes, but I'd have to look at the difference between paid version ($70) and free version before deciding whether to switch from Libre Office and MS Office 2010.

I now use Libre Office all the time and picked up MS Office 2010 for about £15 legally which I keep should I have to send customers correspondence in the Microsoft format.

$70 will still mean about fifty quid so although this looks - as you say - interesting, I'm still wary.

My goal is not to champion Linux and it's compatible software but to get by in the real world as economically as possible.

While I'm here, do you know of any Linux software that will take several video files of different file extensions and burn them collectively to a DVD or Bluray disc with a user menu that gives the option to access each file on disc load? If so I could use something like that.

Apparently the free version is almost as fully featured as the paid for versions. You miss out on a thesaurus and some templates and fonts I think nothing which would be a deal breaker.

I use Libre Office too on the very rare occasion I need such a tool. Was posting as it seemed like a decent freebie.

I have the flu and am stuck in loads of games and can not be bothered to install any more and learn how to play them so am surfing and posting as it stops me from surfing and buying.

 

[bootneck02]

Sorry to hear you are not well Abarbarian, get well soon.