KOffice comes to Windows: A brief loook at KOffice 2.0 Alpha 8

Filed under: Windows, Linux, Office, Open Source

KOffice comes to Windows: A brief loook at KOffice 2.0 Alpha 8

by Brad Linder Jul 4th 2008

The K Desktop Environment, or KDE, is best known as a user interface and software suite for Linux. But for the past few months a team of developers has been hard at work porting KDE applications to Windows. When we looked at the KDE on Windows project earlier this year, it was still in the early stages and there honestly weren't many applications worth running. Now that's all changed. The problem today isn't that there isn't any software you want to run, the problem is that the applications are still pretty buggy.

A few weeks ago, the developers of KOffice, an open source suit of office applications released KOffice 2.0 Alpha for Windows, Mac, and Linux. In order to install the Windows version, you need to download and run the KDE on Windows installer utility and then select the KDE applications you want to install. To install KOffice, select the package labeled KOffice-msvc. Once it's installed you should be able to access KOffice applications like KWord and KSpread from your Windows Start Menu.

While we were able to get KWord up and running, it did crash periodically. KSpread and several other applications were non-starters. We kept getting error messages telling us that files or components were not found, which is a shame because the whole point of using the KDE on Windows installer utility is to automatically download and install any dependencies necessary to run the software you select.

The Kate and KWrite text editors seem to work pretty smoothly. But applications take a long time to start and are prone to closing unexpectedly. We wouldn't recommend replacing Microsoft Office or OpenOffice.org with KOffice on Windows just yet. But KOffice 2.0 is still in Alpha, and the KDE on Windows project is still in the early stages. Perhaps one day this little office suite could konquer the world.

[via Slashdot]

Tags: kde, koffice, office

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Wil said 7:56AM on 7-07-2008

It's nice to know they're getting closer. Thanks for this story.

On the other hand, there are a lot of freeware office options out there, including of course, OpenOffice. And for those people (like) me, who use only bits and pieces of software "suites," there are plenty of choices for word processors, etc.

Raj said 10:28PM on 8-21-2008

OpenOffice lacks the columns spread in it calc app which has 1024 columns in version 3.0. This is a serious lack and since MS Excel 7 now has 16,384 only KSpread offers a more serious challenge with 32,767. Why does open office not extend it column per sheet. Revolver one is of course unlimted all round.

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