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Andrew

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Andrew

Andrew

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Is it better than OpenOffice?

I've never used Softmaker office.

You should be using libreoffice instead of openoffice. Openoffice was abandoned by the community.

http://www.libreoffice.org/

 

Libreoffice 4.0 will be released in February, and will be a major upgrade.

http://blog.documentfoundation.org/2012/12/08/the-libreoffice-community-organises-a-6-day-test-marathon-to-help-preparing-the-new-4-0-version-of-libreoffice/

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MrFlibble

MrFlibble

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Is it better than OpenOffice?
It is certainly a lot faster, and eats up less system resources. There's is no "quickstarter" option which requires additional RAM, yet SoftMaker Office programmes start up very fast, even on old hardware. You don't need to have a Java machine installed for advanced options either. Also the distributive is only about 60 Mb in size, whereas OpenOffice/LibreOffice comes in about 200-250 Mb, plus documentation must be downloaded separately.

FreeOffice supports both Microsoft Office and OpenDocument formats. In fact, I picked SoftMaker Office 2008 free because it was the only among similar software (including OpenOffice) to correctly open my old documents made in Microsoft Word 2000/2003 (others would screw pagination of large documents one way or another, or mess up graphical objects and other stuff). FreeOffice can open the dandy new DOCX etc. formats, although it can't edit them.

Also there's an option to install a portable version of SoftMaker Office on a USB stick, I don't know if OpenOffice/LibreOffice has similar functionality.

MrFlibble

MrFlibble

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Posted
I don't think this link has been posted yet. Someone on reddit created this list of "must get" software:

http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/1234th/what_would_you_say_is_must_get_software/c6rt0ki

The list makes an impression of lacking an internal structure, as if the links were piled on as they were discovered by the author. A little Goolging can provide better sources on popular and/or free software with better categorization. (There's also Wikipedia, which can also help a lot.) There are no explicit criteria of how the software was picked as "must have".

Also this:

The following can all be downloaded using Ninite - an easy downloading software that will download and update programs for you:
I totally hate any programme that can "download and update" something without the user's knowledge. Not to mention that for the most of the programmes listed there it is not necessary to use any external downloading or updating utility.
Andrew

Andrew

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Most of the items in the reddit list I've heard of and are good (some not). He incorrectly picked foxit pdf and not sumatra pdf. A common mistake.

 

I used ninite when doing a fresh install this week. Made things very easy to do. I like it. Need to install 10 programs, but don't want to sit on front of computer to download each one and install each one? ninite solves that problem.

Gobalopper

Gobalopper

Posted
Posted
The list makes an impression of lacking an internal structure, as if the links were piled on as they were discovered by the author. A little Goolging can provide better sources on popular and/or free software with better categorization. (There's also Wikipedia, which can also help a lot.) There are no explicit criteria of how the software was picked as "must have".

That is likely from how it was created. He first made his own list and then everyone replied and he added their "best of" programs.

MrFlibble

MrFlibble

Posted
Posted
I used ninite when doing a fresh install this week. Made things very easy to do. I like it. Need to install 10 programs, but don't want to sit on front of computer to download each one and install each one? ninite solves that problem.
That is understandable, but I usually perceive such tools as reducing user control over what's going on. Perhaps this particular programme is configurable enough to prevent unexpected things from happening (as it should really), but still such utilities are like adding an extra variable to me.

Simplicity for the user doesn't always coincide with structural simplicity, and I believe the latter is more important after all.

Andrew

Andrew

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The good thing about ninite is that I've never had it install any of that toolbar crap than can come with app installers. Which is one reason why ccleaner was removed from niinite as the developers of ccleaner weren't making enough $ from the adware installs.

 

I find it does a good job with the default installs. Usually just a desktop/start menu entry.

 

I've usually been weary of the all-in-one program installers that have been around for couple decades, ninite does it best.

  • Upvote 1
  • 2 months later...
MrFlibble

MrFlibble

Posted
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Found this interesting archiver tool:

HaoZip

Essentially, it's a pretty straightforward clone of WinRAR, made in China. It doesn't allow to create RAR archives (only ZIP and 7zip), but supports most popular formats and has a very similar interface to WinRAR (down to many details, but not completely identical though). It also comes with some other utilities like a built-in disk image virtual drive, and a graphics viewer. The programme is free. Another difference from WinRAR is that it is quite a bit more resource-demanding (probably because of the built-in extras), but I suppose it isn't as noticeable on modern hardware anyway.

Here's an alternate download from Softpedia: [link]

THE AQIB

THE AQIB

Posted
Posted
Found this interesting archiver tool:HaoZipEssentially, it's a pretty straightforward clone of WinRAR, made in China. It doesn't allow to create RAR archives (only ZIP and 7zip), but supports most popular formats and has a very similar interface to WinRAR (down to many details, but not completely identical though). It also comes with some other utilities like a built-in disk image virtual drive, and a graphics viewer. The programme is free. Another difference from WinRAR is that it is quite a bit more resource-demanding (probably because of the built-in extras), but I suppose it isn't as noticeable on modern hardware anyway.Here's an alternate download from Softpedia: [link]

the software is awsome thanks for sharing....

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