KOffice 2.1 Ready for Testing, Karbon Ready for Use
About a half year after big technological changes, the KOffice project has released version 2.1 of its office suite, even if it's not quite ready for everyday use.
One aspect of KOffice 2.1 that is ready for prime time is the Karbon vector graphics program. According to Nuno Pinheiro, designer of the Oxygen KDE theme: "I have tested Karbon and it is definitely usable for real work even if [it] lacks a few advanced SVG features."
The remainder of the program package reflects more on its current development state and isn't so much targeted at end users as developers, testers and avid software experimenters. The KOffice 2.x branch, based on new technologies including Qt 4, still doesn't provide all the features of KOffice 1.6 and not all programs are included in the suite. Versions 2.2 and 2.3 should change all that.
Developers took on some improvement work for 2.1, such as rework of the ODF open document format. One item was fixing list formatting. KOffice, next to Open Office, is the second largest implementation of the ODF standard, which is also used in Maemo to show documents on mobile devices. Through work on Nokia's N900 devices, advances in importing MS Word and Powerpoint files were also made.
The KWord application received a new table design treatment, which unfortunately isn't quite complete. A new function allows users to follow through with changes to documents by color-coding additions, deletions and reformatting. The KPresenter application now provides an unlimited workspace and numbered sheets. The KPlato project management tool also made some marked improvements. Other components got bugfixes and minor enhancements.
KOffice 2.1 source code and binary downloads are available. Project developers urge everyone to report bugs, especially those related to crashes and ODF support. The project is also eager to hear about non-UNIX platform bugs, since developers themselves use Linux and don't as a rule keep track of bugs on other platforms.
Comments
comments powered by DisqusIssue 272/2023
Buy this issue as a PDF
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
News
-
An All-Snap Version of Ubuntu is In The Works
Along with the standard deb version of the open-source operating system, Canonical will release an-all snap version.
-
Mageia 9 Beta 2 Ready for Testing
The latest beta of the popular Mageia distribution now includes the latest kernel and plenty of updated applications.
-
KDE Plasma 6 Looks to Bring Basic HDR Support
The KWin piece of KDE Plasma now has HDR support and color management geared for the 6.0 release.
-
Bodhi Linux 7.0 Beta Ready for Testing
The latest iteration of the Bohdi Linux distribution is now available for those who want to experience what's in store and for testing purposes.
-
Changes Coming to Ubuntu PPA Usage
The way you manage Personal Package Archives will be changing with the release of Ubuntu 23.10.
-
AlmaLinux 9.2 Now Available for Download
AlmaLinux has been released and provides a free alternative to upstream Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
-
An Immutable Version of Fedora Is Under Consideration
For anyone who's a fan of using immutable versions of Linux, the Fedora team is currently considering adding a new spin called Fedora Onyx.
-
New Release of Br OS Includes ChatGPT Integration
Br OS 23.04 is now available and is geared specifically toward web content creation.
-
Command-Line Only Peropesis 2.1 Available Now
The latest iteration of Peropesis has been released with plenty of updates and introduces new software development tools.
-
TUXEDO Computers Announces InfinityBook Pro 14
With the new generation of their popular InfinityBook Pro 14, TUXEDO upgrades its ultra-mobile, powerful business laptop with some impressive specs.
Karbon vs Inkscape
I've never used Karbon, but I quite like inkscape, sometimes its a little fiddly, when it comes to absolute positioning and sizing, it assures me, i actually want 9.012 not 9. lol.
And a couple of the dialog windows could probably do with a spring cleaning, as some of them i find a little un-userfriendly.
But what does everybody else think?
Does Inkscape have a competitor, or does Karbon control the vector sector? Or perhaps I missed a project out, which will blow both projects away?