Comments on: 5 Must-have Linux office applications

By: Jo-Erlend Schinstad

Jo-Erlend Schinstad — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:28:07 +0000

It would be nice with a comparison between different FLOSS financial accounting systems.

By: MK

MK — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:27:23 +0000

I had terrible experience with OpenOffice Impress. When it crashes, it doesn’t revert to the previous version, nor that it has recovery feature. Instead, it blanks out all the changes I have made.

Any alternatives?

By: Dotan Cohen

Dotan Cohen — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:34:33 +0000

Thanks, Jack. An Inkscape tutorial would be great too, while we’re on the subject.

In the FOSS nature, maybe you should have a post of community-voted apps to review. I would personally like to see the review of more commercial software on Linux, to disspell the idea that a program must be “free” to run on Linux.

By: Boycott Novell » Links 11/02/2009: New JBoss Product; Lots of Censorship

Boycott Novell » Links 11/02/2009: New JBoss Product; Lots of Censorship — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:33:17 +0000

[...] 5 Must-have Linux office applications If you work in a business environment then you know the value of the office application. And if you have ever thought about using Linux in your office you know there are boundaries to adoption. The good thing is those boundaries are growing smaller and smaller with every year. The reason those boundaries are shrinking isn’t dictated by an ever-improving kernel. Nope. The acceptance of Linux in the office is directly proportional to the amount of outstanding office applications available. [...]

By: jack

jack — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:32:49 +0000

I could add a sixth and put Scribus in the mix. I thought I did an article on Scribus here. Maybe I haven’t. Just did a search and I haven’t. My mistake. I will do a “get to know” article on Scribus. It is an amazingly powerful PDF creation tool.

By: Danny

Danny — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:32:25 +0000

Yes, I know. But not all office documents are created from OO.o apps. For such documents, you need a general purpose PDF printing tool.

By: Dotan Cohen

Dotan Cohen — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 07:21:23 +0000

@Danny: Open Office can write PDF files, and can import them in a limited fashion.

By: Danny

Danny — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:38:42 +0000

While not Linux-specific, I’d add PDF Creator as a must have open source office app. For a small business, it’s a great app for creating PDF files for sending documents. Also, any PDF reader for Linux (can’t remember the one in Ubuntu) is a must have. When you have clients and suppliers sending you invoices, technical data sheets, and other business-related documents in PDF, it’s imperative that you be able to access the content with a competent PDF reader. Finally, Truecrypt is a definite must have for office security. With the ubiquity of USB flash drives and laptops containing sensitive corporate data, it makes sense to protect them with “military grade” encryption.