“KOffice takes advantage of the KParts architecture, meaning
that it can be extended and improved with relative ease. It is
possible to develop not just for KDE2 but for KOffice itself, and
there are several people and groups doing just that. This means
that KOffice has the potential to become both powerful and easy to
use.”
“What will make it so is the establishment of intelligent
standards. KDE2 in general benefitted from the participation of
someone at Corel Corporation who did little but find and holler
about inconsistencies among applications. As a result, KDE2 has a
consistent design. Because Corel also markets its own office suite
for Linux, it did not provide this service to KOffice, and it
shows.”
“What’s necessary now is for the same kind of polish to be
applied to KOffice that is evident in most of the rest of KDE2 —
making the applications behave in a consistent fashion that doesn’t
depart from de facto standards without there being a good reason to
do so. The architecture of KOffice is just fine, but the gargoyles
are here and there a little ghastly….”
“So yes, the framework is in place, the design intelligent and
thoughtful. The applications are a little rough-edged and limited
and it’s not likely that this incarnation of KOffice will grace
many offices. But what this version does demonstrate is the
enormous potential of the KDE2 office suite. It’s to be hoped that
it’s enough to bring many others onto the bandwagon, producing at
last a good, fast, and free set of professional quality
productivity applications for the Linux desktop.”