Subject: Response to Bad Review [was Re: Fwd: not worth downloading]
From: Alan (horkana@tcd.ie)
Date: Mon Jun 18 2001 - 17:16:37 CDT
[In response to a bad review posted on CNET, mentioned on the devloper
list, i have CC this to the user list]
Some people just dont care about having access to the source. (Spyware,
ha!)
Some people just dont care about having a program that is incredibly
cross platform. (If only the rest of Gnome Office was so enlightened)
Some people dont care that the rest of the world does not speak the same
language as them.
Some people dont care about being able to import and export a plethora
of file formats. (Being able to bring your old documents with you
without having to convert them in some external program is a killer
feature.)
Some people dont appreciate a constistent and familiar interface (even
if Abiword is to an extent mimicking the de facto standard)
Some people are very harsh irrespective of the fact that a project is
run entirely by volunteers and not for profit.
Some people dont understand the pre version 1 softwafe is not perfect,
and the odd version numbers indicate unstable unsupported releases.
(Abiword is remarkably solid considering)
ChrisDigo@aol.com wrote:
> Sometimes I go to download.com and look at AbiWord user Review.
>
> ttp://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10026-601-5109226.html?tag=st.dl.10001-103-1.lst.uo
> There are many good reviews but here is a bad one:
> use only 4MB of RAM when launched. THE BAD: First of all, from the
> CNET
> download page the AbiWord homepage is not avaialable, when downloading
> from
(You probably already know this ...)
The abscence of the abiword homepage was temporary glitch due to Source
Gear changing the IP. <sarcasm>The DNS works so well</sarcasm>
Really you should not have even noticed the downtime but thats the
internet for you.
> CNET the primary site was not available, had to select an alternate
> site.
> AbiWord has no built in paragraph numbering. Although AbiWord has the
> ability
Paragraph numbering?
i dont get it, but i might submit an RFE later.
> to Insert Images the options are for PNG and BMP (who uses BMP
> anymore?)
windows users thats who, it the only image editor that comes with
windows and it is useful within its obvious limits.
> formats. AbiWord was only a 3.x someting MB download yet it installed
> nearly
> 6MB to the C: drive during installation. This is quite a large file
> for
If the person making the windows build could be convinced to use UPX we
could probably get the installer size down even more.
http://upx.sourceforge.net/
[i will submit a request for enhancement (RFE) regarding a minimal
install as soon as ive finished writing this mail]
As Abiword becomes more modular, a small build (with only the very basic
file importers and exporters, no help documentation, no clipart, no
templates or sample docs, no international language support) could be
made available.
[i will submit a request for enhancement (RFE) regarding a minimal
install as soon as ive finished writing this mail]
you can delete everything except the Abiword.exe and it will still run
fine (** in American English and if you try and acess the help nothing
will happen**) and that brings it down frim 5.6MB to 2.27MB. And
abiword stores all its files in one directrory, no where esle and
unstalls everything leaving hardly a trace on your machine.
> nothing more than MS Notepad on half a steroid. If you are interested
> in an
> alternative toMS Office and Star Office try searching for EasyOffice
> or
> EasyWord on the CNET download site. There are 2 versions of EasyOffice
> for
> download, a 27Mb and a 4Mb file. The 4Mb file is basically a
> wordprocessor
> and contact manager (not bad really) and the 27Mb file is a full
> office
> suite. Craig Knapp knappcek@worldnet.att.net "
I really dont like the look of Easyword, and i fail to get the whole
concept of contact managers but i know they are popular with business
types for some reason.
I am happy user of Abiword, i use OpenOffice/StarOffice if i need more
functionality.
The PAY version of Easy Office has some voice recognition which looks
interesting, but id rather spend my money on a dedicated Voice package
like IBM Via Voice and stick to Abiword for my word processing.
> Who wants to anwser at this guy and explain him that AbiWord is much
> much
> much more than "nothing more than MS Notepad" .... (gnnnh!! It make me
>
> mad!!!!!)
MS Notepad, Considering Microsoft bundles so much with their operating
system would it kill them to bundle a spell checker? Cheap Bastards.
Dont let it get you down, make it encourage you to make Abiword better
in anyway you can.
This reaction is perfectly understandable (although rather rude) from a
user who does probably does not do any programming.
No matter how much you may disagree be very careful how you _explain_ to
him, he is entitled to his opinion and flaming him wont help anyone. Im
not going to respond to him directly, perhaps when the next release
comes round we can add some reviews on CNET that hopefully address his
concerns.
Linux Advocacy Guidelines
http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue14/advocate.html
Tucows only gives it 4/5 (for version 0.7.13), hopefully it will get the
full 5/5 when Abiword supports tables.
Perhaps the Abiword web page should include negative reviews, with
counter arguements?
-- Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.----------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to abiword-user-request@abisource.com with the word unsubscribe in the message body.
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