Linux.com: SoftMaker Office 2006 Beta: Not a Killer App

“German software developer SoftMaker has released a free 30-day
download of the beta GNU/Linux version of SoftMaker Office 2006, a
proprietary office suite that retails for $70. The suite includes
word processor TextMaker, spreadsheet PlanMaker, and subsystems for
databases and drawings. These tools are fast and robust, and
include a moderately complete features list–somewhat less than the
equivalent tools in OpenOffice.org, but greater than those in
KOffice or GNOME Office. However, where TextMaker is a
full-featured application with only a few areas where functionality
is basic, PlanMaker is sparse to the point of often being
inconvenient.

“The SoftMaker 30-day beta comes in two tar files: one for
TextMaker and PlanMaker, and another for language files that
contains 17 European languages or their variants, including UK and
US English. Since SoftMaker is self-contained, you do not need to
extract the tar files as root unless more than one user on the
system wants to try the software. Instead, all you need to do is
extract both files to the same directory…”

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