What is (in y'alls opinion) the best word processor for Linux? I don't mean something to dash off a memo or two, but something that can handle large documents with multiple chapters, tables, equations, and embedded graphics. I'm currently using MS Word but would like to switch to a non-proprietary format. Suggestions?

Katie

if you have staroffice or openoffice it would be best choice.

Gotta agree with the staroffice suggestion. It is able to handle pretty much anything MS Office can, and it's alot cheaper (used to be free). If you can find a copy of the 5.2 version somewhere for d/l you ought to check it out.

Otherwise, there are several others that support all embedded graphics and such. Abiword (though I have never used it) looks like it might handle what you want.

Siag Office Looks like it might even be another good option.

Open Office 1.0 hasn't failed me yet.

anybody suggesting kword? i didn't use it yet

openoffice is the best call

OpenOffice is good if you're moving from Word. But for larger documents I prefer LaTeX (I sometimes use LyX, but it's really different from editors you know...).

kword is still thousands of miles from being usable (not fully developed yet).

For quick memos or simple docs: AbiWord.

For more complex docs or moving from MS Word: OpenOffice or StarOffice.

Prices are right and they work well.

I use _exclusively_ LaTeX for important documents, editing them with vi or emacs.

Ted is a great RTF processor for X. I use it for small (3 or 4 pages docs) or when I have to share work with Windows people.

I also run TeXmacs, which is a WYSIWYG (I never spell this correctly! ) editor for TeX (should try, it's great!!!).

I tried AbiWord, but it fails in Slack if you don't have glibc installed (make a test yourselves!), Siag Office is not very cool (it's interface is quite strange, but, however, it works), Open/StarOffice are wonderful, but too heavy for me (P166+32M+800M hdd). Maxwell could be great, if it compiles (the binary package the provide runs only in libc5 -- RH 5.2, f.e.).

Hancomm Office may be great, but it's commercial and I didn't try. LyX and KLyX, as Mara said, are good, but use a completely approach for edition... And LyX uses the, AFAIK, non free Xforms lib...

HTH

I use LyX whan I'm in hurry and I need a 50-pages document from pure text (that's how I write) to pdf. It's the fastest method. If I have more time, I use joe and paste LaTeX commands myself

For large, professions documents, Tex is the way to go. (Lots of options, do it yourself, WYSIWYG editors. Standard cross platform format. Etc. Etc. I only use "word processors" for quick 1 page run offs and memos

I suggest ABI word. The old versions would let you open MS .doc files. The new versions will also let you save in .doc files. Its a quality open source solution and isn't as heavy as OpenOffice and StarOffice. Its certainly worth a try.

I vote for OpenOffice Writer as well.

I'm using the pre-release version 6 (before they re-numbered to 1.0) and it works very well.

I use OpenOffice 1.0 at work primarily because of the M$ Office format compatibility, as almost everyone at work uses M$ Office.

I only wish it were a little faster to load, like abiword or gnumeric.

Thanks,
Manas

I also would say that the OpenOffice works "best", couse as manaskb, it's the one that can handle the M$ Office format best.

If you just whant a simple word processor I would recomend abiword 2.