[X4U] Alternatives to MS Word

[Randy B.Singer]

Zane H. Healy said:

>>For the many folks who have complained that they would like an
>>alternative word processor to Microsoft Word, this news item is very
>>interesting:
>
>Maybe they should take a look at AbiWord.


I don't think that its that there are no alternatives to Word.  There 
are.  Some, like AbiWord, NeoOffice/J and OpenOffice, are even free.  And 
they are quite good, though, as you said, they have significant quirks.

But none of them are backed by huge companies that can afford to put a 
lot of money, and effort, into supporting and improving the product, like 
Microsoft does with Office.  And none of them has the real potential to 
become a standard among business users like Office.  Sun and Google might 
be able to do that.

For now it is just pie in the sky.  I only brought it to folks' attention 
because it has the potential to be very entertaining to see Sun and 
Google go at it with Microsoft.  

Just last week people were speculating that MS was interested in 
acquiring AOL as a way to destroy Google.  It's nice to see that Google 
isn't going to sit around waiting to be destroyed.



Randy B. Singer
Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)

Documentation: (n.) a novel sold with software, designed to entertain the 
operator during episodes of bugs or glitches. 
- Tonkin's First Computer Dictionary