[SOLVED] Calligra vs. LibreOffice

turboscrew · 05-03-2015, 05:29 AM

I'm running Slackware 14.1 on an oldish laptop (StinkBad T42), and I wonder if I should get rid of the Calligra and get LibreOffice instead.

Any comments?

Are there areas where Calligra much better than LibreOffice?
I understand that OpenOffice has become more or less obsolete.

At least my experience on the above mentioned machine is that Calligra is "once per boot" SW. When you close a file and try to open another one, it seems to freeze. Does it leak memory or something?

Which one is in general lighter?

DavidMcCann · 05-03-2015, 10:55 AM

I've never used Calligra, but I did read a couple of reviews, both of which described it as not reliable enough for professional use.

OpenOffice is certainly not obsolete: many of us prefer it to LibreOffice for various reasons. Even though it's not the default for any Linus distro, it has millions of users for the Windows version, as well as the Sun version. I use OpenOffice on my Thinkpad X31 with Salix Linux and have no problems. Of course, if your Slackware is KDE, that will slow things down compared to my Xfce.

Timothy Miller · 05-03-2015, 11:22 AM

I've used Calligra a few times, and IMO, the reviews David read are correct, plus the interface is...weird. If you're not used to MS Office, Calligra might be great, but if you're used to years and years of using MS Office, Wordperfect Office, etc, it's difficult to get used to Calligra.

turboscrew · 05-03-2015, 12:21 PM

My Slacky is Xfce too, but Calligra was there by default.

I guess OoO and LibreOffice are more stable too.

I have used OoO on a windows machine because it handles PDFs far better than LibreOffice, but maybe I had old versions? Especially LibreOffice couldn't read in PDFs to be edited (I think).
I had to edit my CV that I wrote at work with MS Office and saved as PDF.

The OoO version (Windows) is 4.1.1. I think I tried with LibreOffice on Linux, but don't remember the LibreOffice version (or the machine I tried it on).

turboscrew · 05-03-2015, 12:30 PM

So the OpenOffice is back on the table.
Which one you'd recommend - oldish laptop, quite some docs from M$ world too.

[EDIT]
I guess I'd try OoO, but maybe LibreOffice noticeably is lighter?
[/EDIT]

knudfl · 05-03-2015, 01:10 PM

For best compatibility with M$, I'd still prefer the good old (commercial) TextMaker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TextMaker
"" Development of TextMaker started in 1987 under MS-DOS.
The program aims at utmost compatibility with Microsoft Word,
(adding some proprietary features like an object mode for working with frames or a simple built-in database functionality) ""

. http://www.freeoffice.com/
. http://www.freeoffice.com/en/downloa...le-office?id=1
>>> softmaker-freeoffice-697.i386.rpm , 62.7 MB
and softmaker-freeoffice-697.x86_64.rpm, 62.8 MB.

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turboscrew · 05-03-2015, 02:35 PM

@knudfl: Not THAT many docs from M$ world. ;-D
(But thanks for the hint. A couple of my friends might find it useful.)

knudfl · 05-03-2015, 03:20 PM

@turboscrew.

... And there are other advantages with Textmaker :
Small footprint, opens very fast, the new 2015 update -697 : 2 - 3 seconds.
And can do tricks that Word(2003) / OpenOffice couldn't do.
.. Like 1 line space between lines : More lines each page.
( I used that for a one page manual for some equipment.)

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turboscrew · 05-03-2015, 04:34 PM

Suddenly... that name "Textmaker"...
It doesn't happen to have something to do with the old FrameMaker/PageMaker?

I might try Textmaker later, but at the moment I've been wrestling with tables
(trying to make some sense about ARM instruction encodings).
And I'm working on Slackware. I don't think there is a package, and I'm not into
putting together one now. And if I don't, and if I'd like to remove it, it'd be a
PITA.

knudfl · 05-03-2015, 08:08 PM

Re #9.

Please follow the Textmaker / Softmaker links in post #6.
To know what it is.

Slackware comes with the 'rpm' command.
And you can do : # rpm -Uvh --nodeps softmaker-freeoffice-697.<arch>.rpm
The terminal reply is :
. ........
... ... installing softmaker-freeoffice-2012-697 ################## [100]

And you have these new entries in the Menu :
>> Office > { FreeOffice Planmaker, FreeOffice Presentations, FreeOffice TextMaker }.

Removing : # rpm -e softmaker-freeoffice-2012-697

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Timothy Miller · 05-03-2015, 08:14 PM

As a user of softmaker office (commercial version of free office), I'm fairly certain there is a package that will work with Slackware. I'm pretty sure I have it on my external drive for when I'm setting up others machines. Just FYI if you want to try it out. I will say free office (or softmaker office if you wanted to pay) has WAY better compatibility with ms office then LO or OoO. Not even funny how much better the compatibility is.

turboscrew · 05-04-2015, 01:54 AM

@knudfl, Timothy Miller:
Yes, there seems to be rpm installed. I didn't know that.
I already installed OoO, but I think I'll try FreeOffice too.

turboscrew · 05-04-2015, 02:59 AM

I'd still like to get answers to the original question.

knudfl · 05-04-2015, 06:47 AM

Re #13.

Old hardware : Textmaker wins over LibreOffice.
Calligra : Never used it.

turboscrew · 05-05-2015, 05:29 AM

I'm not totally convinced...

Code:

bash-4.2# rpm -i softmaker-freeoffice-698.i386.rpm 
warning: Generating 12 missing index(es), please wait...
error: Failed dependencies:
	/bin/sh is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libX11.so.6 is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libXext.so.6 is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libXmu.so.6 is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libXrender.so.1 is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libc.so.6 is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.0) is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1) is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1.3) is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2) is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libdl.so.2 is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libdl.so.2(GLIBC_2.0) is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libdl.so.2(GLIBC_2.1) is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libm.so.6 is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.0) is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
	libstdc++.so.6 is needed by softmaker-freeoffice-2012-698.i386
bash-4.2# which sh
/bin/sh

bash-4.2$ pwd
/usr/lib
bash-4.2$ find . -name "lib*.so.6" -print
./libFLAC++.so.6
./libICE.so.6
./libXaw6.so.6
./libXt.so.6
./libXmu.so.6
./libFS.so.6
./libtasn1.so.6
./libstdc++.so.6
./libxfce4util.so.6
./libkactivities.so.6
./libk3blib.so.6
./libXaw.so.6
./libSM.so.6
./libkdegames.so.6
./libXext.so.6
./libX11.so.6
./libfreetype.so.6
./libXau.so.6
./libXtst.so.6
./libffi.so.6
./libXaw3d.so.6
./libweather_ion.so.6
./libk3bdevice.so.6
./libgphoto2.so.6
./libXp.so.6
./libXdmcp.so.6
./libXi.so.6
bash-4.2$ cd ../../lib
bash-4.2$ find . -name "lib*.so.6" -print
./libc.so.6
./libm.so.6