An Industrial Strength Linux Office Suite
-- Warren Ernst
There's a feeling that one thing is keeping Linux from being a realistic alternative to Windows on the world's computing desktops: the lack of a serious set of "office tools." You know what I'm talking about: a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, a database, and maybe an electronic organizer. Offices and small businesses rely on these tools day in and day out, and Microsoft Office 97 and 2000 in Microsoft Windows have become the standard. Because Microsoft has been cagey about its plans for a Linux version of Microsoft Office, there's really little reason for anyone who deals with MS Office files daily to even bother trying Linux. That is, until now.
Enter Corel WordPerfect Office 2000 Deluxe for Linux, which packages the following programs: WordPerfect 9, Quattro Pro 9, Paradox 9, Corel Presentations 9, CorelCENTRAL 9, and Netscape Communicatior 4.7, along with 1000 True Type fonts, 12,000 pieces of clip art, 200 stock photos, and a copy of the Corel Linux operating system itself--in case you don't already have Linux installed somewhere. All for $159! In terms of sheer dollar value alone, Corel has a suite that deserves a close second look, along with a strong case to consider a "free" operating system like Linux in the first place.
The first question that comes to mind is, "What features and abilities from Windows do I lose in Linux?" Frankly, I am amazed to reply, "I don't really see any." Corel is making use of a set of programming tools called "WINE," which, in essence, permit software written for Microsoft Windows to run in Linux. As a bonus, the Linux version looks almost exactly like the Windows version. The upside is that the Linux version of Corel's Suite is basically compiled from the same source code as the Windows version, meaning the Windows and Linux versions are just about twins. Though some developers haven't had much luck with WINE, Corel seems to have figured it out--all the programs were very stable. Perhaps not as stable as Linux-native software (WordPerfect seemed to freak out after running for 4 days straight), but I would argue it's at least as stable as Windows software.
The next question is, "Well, hooray for Corel, but my business uses Microsoft Office. Can I really use MS Office files with this suite when I'm using Linux?" And again, I am amazed to reply, "Yes, you can." Corel seems to have realized that the battle for Office Suites is over, and Microsoft won. As a result, this version of WordPerfect speaks "Microsoft Office" fluently. I've never seen WordPerfect and Quattro Pro open complex Word and Excel files this well. Formatting was almost always perfectly duplicated, as were colors, formulas, graphs, and even basic macros. Corel is also smart enough to save files in the format they were created-you don't have to choose "Save As?Word 97" every few minutes in WordPerfect, for example. Corel Presentations was slightly less successful with a perfect translation of PowerPoint files, but only because these files are more likely to be using unusual fonts which Corel knows nothing about. I usually had to spend some time picking new fonts, but when I took the time to install the presentation's Windows fonts in Linux, they, too, opened correctly.
(click to see larger image)
Look familiar? WordPerfect 9 for Linux loses almost nothing from its translation from Windows.
WordPerfect also goes the extra mile to make Word users feel extra comfortable. Not only is there a special "Help for Word Users" item in the Help menu, but you can also change WordPerfect's menus and button bar to look right out of Microsoft Word 97. Combined with the Microsoft Windows graphical elements that WINE bestows on the entire suite, there were several times where I almost (but not quite) felt I was still in Windows 98 and using Word 97. Longtime WordPerfect users may cringe at such a thought, but one can also change the menus and buttons to look like older versions of WordPerfect. Or you can make new menus to suit whatever style you like.
When it comes to interacting with the rest of your office's Windows or Novell network, or even reading files from floppy disks, the suite is dependant on the "distribution" (or, if you like, the "version") of Linux you're using--and this may be Corel's biggest hurdle. When installed onto the Corel Linux distribution, network integration was outstanding, because Corel Linux almost "automagically" finds Windows Networking servers and printers (but not Novell Netware without some extra modules), which then allows all the WordPerfect Office 2000 programs to use them. Similarly, Corel Linux makes accessing floppy disks as easy as Windows. Other Linux distributions may require that you install and configure other modules to gain this useful functionality, and if you (or your administrator) don't, then WordPerfect Office will be that much less useful. Thus the reason, more than any other, that Corel includes a basic version of its own Linux with its Suite.
Though it may seem I'm gushing over Corel's latest offering, it should be noted that in most respects, I found the suite to be vaguely comparable to Microsoft's last version of its Microsoft Office suite, Office 97, not the current version, Office 2000. This is certainly not a bad thing; there are plenty of folks still using Office 97 every day who are perfectly happy with it. However, if you've grown attached to Office 2000's internet collaboration tools, HTML-as-native file formats, or self-modifying menus, or Microsoft Exchange-based group scheduling, you'll miss them here.
The suite does have its own unique tools and features, however, that Microsoft doesn't yet have. WordPerfect offers a slick type of automatic scrolling as you work, and shows previews of how fonts and formatting selections will look before choosing them. Quattro Pro makes creating functions with toolbar buttons simple and quick. All the tools export universally compatible HTML and PDF files rather than HTML files that only work correctly in Internet Explorer.
In a head-to-head shootout with Microsoft Office 2000, WordPerfect Office 2000 might come up a little short. But in Linux, Corel's Suite is the only game in town and, as such, is a genuinely great office suite. It indeed brings Linux a step closer to a useful Desktop operating system alternative in the modern office environment.
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