Though it's still a little rough around the edges, AbiWord has
the potential to be a truly good and useful word processor, reports
Brian Proffitt in the first part of his series of Linux word
processors.
"AbiWord, for good or ill, has clearly positioned itself in
terms of functionality against the Microsoft Word product. Not that
there's anything wrong with that. After six years of putzing around
with different word processors, I have generally found that these
applications fall into one of three groups: Word-derivatives,
WordPerfect-derivatives, and Everything Else. AbiWord falls into
this first group. It is, in this stage of its life, the Dr. Fresh
to Word's Dr. Pepper."
"This may not be something we want to hear, since All Things
Microsoft are Evil, blah, blah, blah. But, I figure if AbiWord
wants to be in this position, then its only fair to hold it up to
the product its trying to emulate."
"If you don't wait for the hoary details, the short answer is:
it will not be a poor imitation at all, once it a full 1.0 release
is made."
