It's funny how these days, "small applications" are becoming a novelty and selling point. I can recall having to use AbiWord because my machine at the time (PII-266 laptop, 96M of memory) wasn't robust enough for StarOffice (back before it became OpenOffice) or TeXmacs. I rather wish they had mentioned TeXmacs-- while it's way more a niche product, it fills it remarkably well. When I was using it, nothing else came close for math-oriented work (LyX is conceptually similar, but hardly WYSIWYG, and most regular office suites either rely on incredibly clunky math layout tools, or "scripting languages" to draw equations (WordPerfect 8 did this, as I recall) -----Original Message----- From: Mike Schwartz To: PLUG-discuss mailing list Cc: Mike L Schwartz Sent: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:15 am Subject: OT: (maybe): [computerworld.com]: "Free and cheap software that outdoes the big guys" The link to the article: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9069738&source=NLT_PRN&nlid=2941 Here are some "sample" juicy quotes: << " AbiWord What would Microsoft Word look like if you stripped it of all the buttons, features, and gimmicks you've never used, and if you kicked out the obnoxious menus that forced their way into the 2007 edition like rowdy wedding guests? Such a stripped-down Word would remind many longtime users of the simpler, faster, easier Word of yesteryear. Instead of merely yearning for the old days, however, you can download a free copy of AbiWord, a Gnu open-source word processor that behaves much like a time capsule for Microsoft Word at its prime. Regardless of whether the unsung programmers who've developed AbiWord intentionally set out to resurrect an older, better word processor, that's what they've done [...] " >> << " Gnumeric You'll find absolutely nothing fancy, colorful, exciting, or gee-whiz about the open-source spreadsheet Gnumeric. But do you believe that a thesaurus is essential to crunching numbers? Microsoft's Excel has a thesaurus. Gnumeric doesn't. How about translating from one language to another? You can do so in Excel. You can't in Gnumeric. Do you need to calculate the modified Besseli function in (x)? Excel lets you. Gnumeric...oh, hold it...Gnumeric will, too. In fact, when you get down to the more obscure spreadsheet operations that I, and possibly you, have never heard of before, Gnumeric can be as esoteric as the best of spreadsheets. The important thing is whether Gnumeric gives the right answers. Frankly, I'm no judge when it comes to financial derivatives, Monte Carlo simulations, linear and nonlinear equations, or, for that matter, balancing my checkbook. Gnumeric's developers had math whizzes in to check the program out, and this application got the same answers as the high-priced spreadsheet did, only faster. I do give credit to Excel for its fancier and more colorful graphs and charts, no mean consideration if you hope to get approval for your new project by wowing the board with drop-dead graphics instead of merely dead numbers. For pure number-wrangling ability, however, Gnumeric makes installing Excel unnecessary. Download Gnumeric (Free) [link to "http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,70236-order,1-page,1/descripti on.html"] " >> (sent in by:) -- Mike Schwartz Glendale AZ schwartz@acm.org --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss