Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Wilhelm · Joined: 29 Dec 2013 Posts: 7 Location: Costa Rica

Please do not include unstable software in Puppies people will use to do actual work!

I just lost my work because of an Abiword 2.9.4 failure using the new Slacko 5.6 (the non PAE version). Mad

After this highly annoying experience, I checked http://www.abisource.com/
As per this website, on February 4th 2014:

"Our latest development release is version 2.9.4. Development releases are aimed at developers, or people willing to test unstable software. They should not be used in a production environment."

My experience with Slacko Puppy has taught me that it is has always been one of the most reliable OS for doing my work, without having to worry about failures or unstable things Smile

... Until now. Crying or Very sad

I am going to use 5.5, which has proven to work perfectly, just to make sure I do not discover that other programs are also unstable versions, when it is already too late.

Please consider including unstable software only in Quirky Puppies, or clearly indicate that the version is not intended to be used to do any real work.

slavvo67 · Joined: 12 Oct 2012 Posts: 557 Location: The other Mr. 305

While this is an older post, for the record.... ABI Word is not stable regardless of the version. 2.8.6 is said to be the stable version but many have had issues with that, as well. Please look in the forum for other word processors that might better suit your needs.

Most believe Libre Office is the way to go but it is large, so you have to way the advantages / disadvantages. Meanwhile, Gnumeric is a very nice spreadsheet program and I haven't seen any real issues with that one.

Colonel Panic · Joined: 16 Sep 2006 Posts: 1578

I think Softmaker Office is a good way to go instead of Libre Office. A lot of people like the free version, which has nearly all of the features of the paid for one, but Office 2008 is still very useable as long as you don't want to edit or write Office 2010 files.

Even the full, paid for version is very affordable if you can pick it up at a discount (it's occasionally offered at a reduced price).

It's a real shame though that Abiword is still so buggy; I don't know what's gone wrong there.

rufwoof · Joined: 24 Feb 2014 Posts: 540

MochiMoppel · Joined: 26 Jan 2011 Posts: 553 Location: Japan

Puppus Dogfellow · Joined: 07 Jan 2013 Posts: 721 Location: nyc

MochiMoppel · Joined: 26 Jan 2011 Posts: 553 Location: Japan

Maybe I should have added that I'm interested in a Linux version... Laughing

rufwoof · Joined: 24 Feb 2014 Posts: 540

Puppus Dogfellow · Joined: 07 Jan 2013 Posts: 721 Location: nyc

mikeb · Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 9464

Abiword.... yes a long term unstable application that been with puppy for years... never saw the point myself and always the first thing i remove. Its ok if you only want to handle documents of 1 to 2 pages.

Softmaker office... surprised to hear of instability... we use it pretty regularly now and never had a problem and even barry's weird gtkdialog approach to running it should not affect that. Shame as its size for the word processor only is about the same as abiword.
Mind you we use older linux so perhaps its one of those precise mysteries.

My libre office sfs 3.4.4 sfs is around 100MB ... but its just its clunkiness and slow launching that puts the family off compared to softmaker...I'm sure a quad core gives better performance. As for compatibility it and softmaker give similar results.

Mike

rufwoof · Joined: 24 Feb 2014 Posts: 540

My mistake. I scanned the directory size (right click, properties) and just noted the size, forgetting that I'd made a backup copy of the main compressed file and also 2 copies of the UK dictionary.

I'm finding that its pretty quick, especially if you leave the quicklaunch tray thing active (that does however disappear each time a jwm -restart occurs) i.e. start it with LibreOffice33portable -quickstart &

First time to load text editor 3 seconds, Subsequent loads near instant (single core PC).

Quicklaunch seems to use around 28MB of RAM

slavvo67 · Joined: 12 Oct 2012 Posts: 557 Location: The other Mr. 305

My one argument in keeping ABI Word around it that it may actually handle some document conversion better than Libre. Meaning when converting from one file format to another, ABI seems to keep the original more true to its form (at least in some instances).

I'm still testing that theory....

rufwoof · Joined: 24 Feb 2014 Posts: 540

mikeb · Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 9464

Barries 'fix' is just a complicated and dependency heavy (gtkdialog 4) way to take the user to sign up at the softmaker website...A little pointless really so nothing to do with the program itself as far as i can tell.

From google

rufwoof · Joined: 24 Feb 2014 Posts: 540

I've tried adjusting dpi and a load of other things. Even messed around with config (.ini) file values in /root/.softmaker but no luck.

I believe I saw in another thread that under openbox it did pick up the theme, so maybe its because jwm uses a 'non-conventional' approach.

Shame. Otherwise seems good. I do have a magnifier icon as the third icon in my tray by default, but I really don't want to be having to use that to see what the text editor options are.