Here is MY Linux Word Processor Roundup... (I gotta post this on my website after spending so much time putting this together).
ApplixWare has a great word processor.(
screenshot,
screenshot2) .. this is a well established Unix office suite ( I used it back in 93 or so on Solaris)..very good a reading Microsoft files too.
http://www.vistasource.com *COMMERCIAL but worth it for many*
Sun's StarWriter is part of the StarOffice package.. (
screenshot) its a pretty good word processor and very full featured, not the fastest thing in the world, but its not slow enough to be annoying or anything at all.. It also does a very good job at reading Microsoft file formats. The price is right too.
FREE for download here:
http://www.sun.com/products/staroffice
OpenOffice is the open source version of StarOffice... Openoffice is to Startoffice what Mozilla is to Netscape... the breeding ground for new development and ideas, which eventually get put into StarOffice. The OpenOffice.org suite can save to and load from an increasing number of different formats, including MS Word 95 and 97/2000, Excel 95 and 97/2000, and PowerPoint 97/2000.
Download:
http://www.openoffice.org
AbiWord looks a lot like Microsoft Word (
screenshot1 screenshot2, so its interface should be familiar to many users. I've been following AbiWord for a few years and it keeps getting better and better, as shown by the
features list ***This is my current word processor of choice***.. FREE for download:
http://www.abisource.com/
SIAG Office (
screenshot) is a bit of a curiosity. Scheme In A Grid (Scheme is a dialect of the LISP programming language) started out as a spreadsheeting tool for computer scientists -- but has grown into a full-blown office suite. It's open source, but written principally by one developer (Ulric Eriksson). The complete suite consists of a spreadsheet (SIAG), a word processor (PW -- Pathetic Writer), an animation program (Egon), a text editor (XedPlus), a file manager (Xfiler), and a postscript file previewer (Gvu). Download and info:
http://siag.nu/
Word Perfect (
screenshot) has a much smaller disk and memory footprint than the integrated packages -- taking about 6Mb of memory to run and 55Mb of disk space for a full install. It's also fairly economical in terms of screeen real estate; it should be fine on smaller, older systems. Despite this, it isn't short on power features. In terms of word processing facilities, Word Perfect is the equal, or superior, of any of the integrated packages. In addition, it has some basic typesetting controls that StarOffice and ApplixWare lack (such as kerning and word/letter spacing controls), which make it fundamentally better suited to lightweight DTP work. I was on the beta test for WordPerfect Office 2000 and its a really nice product..probably one of the best commercial office suites available for Linux.
Check it out at Corel's website
LyX (pronounced "licks") and the KDE version, KLyX (
screenshot), is not a word processor. It's a graphical front-end for the LaTeX typesetting system; you can get it from
http://www.lyx.org or
http://www.klyx.org. In use, it behaves much like a word processor, and you use it for the same purpose -- producing neat printed documents. But the differences are fairly drastic, once you run up against them.
Word processors all attempt to emulate typewriters to a greater or lesser extent, because back when people began writing the first word processors, typewriters where what the users expected. You type a line of text and maybe underline bits of it, or plop markers into the text to indicate that the selected chunk is in a different typeface.
LyX won't let you do that, because LyX is a front end for the TeX typesetting package. TeX is a compiler; you feed in a file containing instructions and text, and it emits postscript (or an intermediate format, called DVI) containing the human-readable text formatted in accordance with those instructions. Its very hard to use if you are used to word processors, but rewarding once you learn it... sort of like coming from Notepad and learning VI.
Its very good at doing very high-end type of work, such as typesetting a book, or phd thesis, etc.. and there is just something about the output of Lyx... Man... when you print a LyX document it looks SOOOOO much better than a word processor document... crisper, tighter, more like a professionaly printer book... its undescribable.. The main thing going in LyX's favour is that the quality of output it produces is unsurpassed.
Their structurally-based approach to documents means that they'll throw a few curves to the inexperienced user who's used to making all the decisions about document appearance. On the other hand, once you learn to stop fighting their control of appearance and start appreciating the time you have to simply write content, you may find they beat the word processor you've been using hands down.
KOffice has KWORD (
screenshot, but I don't think it's really ready for prime time yet, so why am I writing about it? Simply put, because I think it represents the future. But this product is moving at LIGHT SPEED, its just now becoming "usable" for light duty work, and the developers are rocking and rolling on getting this puppy towards excellence.. I think that eventually. this will someday be the "standard" Office Suite for Linux and many people will never load another package.
Maxwell (
screenshot is the project of three programmers who initially planned to release it as commercial software. For whatever reason, they decided not to do so, and have instead released the source to their project under the GNU copyleft. Maxwell is a word processor for those who have fairly light needs and are interested in following an ongoing project or contributing bug reports and feature requests. Novice users and people with serious productivity needs should avoid Maxwell. If development continues on this project, a solid foundation is clearly present, and it's easy to imagine Maxwell eventually becoming something of a favorite because of its free software license and open development. Homepage:
http://www.eeyore-mule.demon.co.uk/
THREE interesting commerical NEWCOMERS are about to show up on the Linux scene...
Ability Office Looks very sharp and functional. Ability Write
screenshot is compatible with Microsoft Word documents - you can import and export documents from and for Word 95, 97 and 2000. Not only that, but Write's user-interface is very reminiscent of Microsoft Word, as you can see from the screenshot. Write is a very solid word processor which might not have all the features Word does, but it has most of the important ones and it will more than suffice for both general home and business use. The best thing of all about the program is that it's priced so darn cheap. Orginally a Windows product, now in ALPHA test for Linux... download here:
http://www.ability.com/linux/
Hancom Office (
screenshot has created quite a bit of stir in ASIA... and they just started distributing in the US... Its a full featured office suite with some excellent applicatons and I hear is quite fast. Info and download of preview:
http://www.hancom.com/en/product_service/office.html#
Gobe Productive (L=screenshot]http://www.gobe.com/images/examplepage3.jpg[/L] I AM VERY EXCITED about this product... this product was probably big on the BeOS scene, and now they are porting their office suite to Linux.. Its a commercial product, but I really LIKE their LICENSE:
Gobe Productive is sold with the "Gobe Family License", allowing owners to install Gobe Productive on every computer in their home, as well on one computer where they work. More info:
http://www.gobe.com/products/productive/gobeproductive.html
A LONG SHOTt:
Thinkfree Office .. How about an officesuite on line?? Kind of an interesting product... take a look might fit your needs.
http://www.thinkfree.com/