KOffice 2.0.0 released [LWN.net]

The KOffice 2.0.0 release is out. "KOffice 2 is a much more flexible application suite than KOffice 1 ever was. The integration between the components is much stronger, with the revolutionary Flake Shapes as the central concept. A Flake Shape can be as simple as a square or a circle or as complex as a chart or a music score. With Flake, any KOffice application can handle any shape. For instance, KWord can embed bitmap graphics, Krita can embed vector graphics and Karbon can embed charts. This flexibility does not only give KOffice unprecedented integration, but also allows new applications to be created very easily. Such applications can e.g. target special user groups like kids or certain professions." The announcement also compares this release to KDE 4.0, in that not all features are there yet.

(Log in to post comments)

KOffice 2.0.0 released

Posted May 28, 2009 17:25 UTC (Thu) by aseigo (guest, #18394) [Link]

For apps like Krita, Karbon and arguably Plato it's a non-issue. For an app like Kexi it's a very nice feature to have, but not critical (database apps are traditionally separate silo monsters). For KWord, KSpread and KPresenter it is an issue ... but this is an early release and the filter system already in place allows such things to be added by interested parties.

KOffice 2.0.0 released

Posted May 28, 2009 18:17 UTC (Thu) by boudewijn (subscriber, #14185) [Link]

Well, actually, we do have support for file formats like .doc and .xls --
it's the .docx and .xlsx file formats for which we don't have support. But
then, Microsoft doesn't support ooxml either, and they have started to
support ODF...

(The .doc file format support got quite a lot better, by the way, during
the past summer of code.)

KOffice 2.0.0 released

Posted Jun 1, 2009 15:05 UTC (Mon) by jhardin@impsec.org (guest, #15045) [Link]

Oh, good. Thanks!

If only the KDE4 developers were as honest

Posted May 29, 2009 7:44 UTC (Fri) by jmayer (subscriber, #595) [Link]

> It is not aimed at end users, and we do not recommend Linux
> distributions to package it as the default office suite yet. [...]
> It is noteworthy that KOffice 2.0 does not have all the features that
> KOffice 1.6 had. [...] Also, not all applications which were part of
> KOffice 1.6 made it into KOffice 2.0. The missing [applications and
> features] will return in 2.1 or possible 2.2.

I'm very impressed (no sarcasm!) with these statements. If only the
developers of KDE4 had been as honest with themselves and their users.

What I failed to find is a list of not yet ported/rewritten apps and
features. Does it exist in some readme or via a specific bugzilla search?

If only the KDE4 developers were as honest

Posted May 29, 2009 8:37 UTC (Fri) by boudewijn (subscriber, #14185) [Link]

We don't have a full list of missing features, but the missing apps are
mentioned in the release announcement: Kexi (the database app), which will
likely return for 2.1, since the maintainer has resumed work on it.

Kivio (the diagrammer), for which the future is uncertain since there is
no maintainer anymore. A pity, since most of the difficult things for
Kivio are now done in the library, it's a matter of UI, import/export and
a nice shape selection widgets.

Further, KFormula got completely broken half-way through the development
cycle and then the maintainer disappeared -- but we've got a gsoc student
working on under the auspices of the previous maintainer.

KChart -- it used to be both an embeddable object and a standalone
application. The embeddable object is in fine shape, the app isn't
bundled.

As for features, the big regressions are in KWord, where for instance the
table feature is missing. Again, we've got a gsoc student working on that.
There are some regressions in file format compatibility, but I'm not sure
which formats got temporarily dropped. PDF import in KWord is one of them,
I'm afraid. Krita lost the watercolors simulation and the magnetic outline
tool. But in general it's hard for applications like kword, kspread or
karbon to review missing features, since they got rewritten almost
completely.

If only the KDE4 developers were as honest

Posted May 29, 2009 15:44 UTC (Fri) by jospoortvliet (subscriber, #33164) [Link]

Yes, the wording of the 4.0 announcement wasn't good enough, we realise that now, and I share blame for that. Then again, we were enthousiastic, very much so. We've done a lot better with the 4.1 and 4.2 release which proves we do learn from our mistakes ;-)