Article:		Macworld Wish List for Steve
Subject:		iOffice
Date:		2003-12-30 18:00:27
From:		anonymous2
Response to: iOffice
Apple ought to do a nice, Aqua port of OO.O. The current X11 version is very cludgy and horrible to look at. The same, of course, goes for Gimp, but Apple shouldn't piss off Adobe too much. But, as they have shown with Keynote, they are capable of developing in house office applications that are better than what the Free software community can do. OpenOffice is valuable, but not perfect. I would really like to see a word processor geared more towards writers than business. Like Ulysses, but smoother, and more intuitive.

Showing messages 1 through 4 of 4.

• iOffice
  2003-12-30 23:45:37  kollivier [Reply | View]
  
  
  The problem with OpenOffice, and actually the reason we have not seen a native Aqua port already, is that the GUI is emulated, not native. OOo's GUI toolkit is not really designed to give users the native look and feel that Mac users expect - it is designed to provide the same look and feel on every platform. (In fact, the OOo developers are currently trying to create Aqua-looking controls to emulate an Aqua interface, but whether or not the controls will ever behave 100% like native Mac controls is anyone's guess...)
  
  Apple would be better off writing the app from scratch using Cocoa instead of trying to massage OOo's VCL to work with Aqua. They could of course incorporate some of the particularly useful bits of code.
• iOffice
  2003-12-31 01:41:50  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  If cost is the larger issue, and speaking for myself, it usually is, what is the big deal about having the existing OpenOffice GUI less the native Aqua controls? Other than looks, is there that much difference to the average consumer in the bottom line usefulness of this program given its free price? Mabye it's a matter of education, and people understanding there is something for free, with a hidden cost, i.e. things don't look "pretty". OpenOffice may look a bit generic, but it's not that bad.
• iOffice
  2003-12-31 20:49:30  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  The problem I see with Open Office for the Mac is its size, load time, and the fact that some of it's dialog boxes (such as save )don't always have the buttons labelled (intermittently). Also, on a single Mac with mutltiple user accounts it is necessary to configure .rc files for each account -- not something the average user will want to do.
  Also, last I checked the Aqua Dev track was essentially moribund with a target of 2006 (yes, six) for the first Aqua release.
  
  rjv

• iOffice
  2003-12-30 21:06:31  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Considering OSS achilles heal has long been usuable desktop productivity software for the so-called "point and drool" masses, I'd say OpenOffice looks like an amazing first step in the right direction. Personaly, I don't find its interface horrible to look at, and so far it's never crashed on me and has successfully imported all my .doc files with one exception, which was a document that had an embedded MS Visio file. The Excel piece looks pretty much like the real deal, at least from a usability standpoint, and the Word clone seems pretty decent. And, after all, it is free. I don't know how much something like iOffice would go for, but I can say that I'm highly inclined to make do with OpenOffice if the price is anywhere near what I think it would be. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Keynote - it's a pretty good tool from what I can tell, and I'm not a OSS zealot, I just like the idea of usuable software that isn't going to wipe out my piggy bank.