# Excellent free office software



## rmoe (Dec 8, 2014)

I just got notified about the annual charity action of Softmaker GmbH, a German software company who produces "Softmaker Office".

During this action (until December 24.) Softmaker Office for Linux, Android and Windows can be downloaded *for free* and on top of that Softmaker GmbH makes a small donation to betterplace.org for each download.

Softmaker Office is somewhat less rich than LibreOffice or MSO but it's also _way_ more modest in resource needs/usage. Furthermore I experienced it to be reliable and performant. It includes a word processor and a spreadsheet (and the Windows version also includes a database plus manager/GUI).

One of the reasons I was attracted is the fact that it runs perfectly fine on FreeBSD (no linuxolator needed) without any special steps or workarounds, that I can use (and feel "at home") on all major platforms I'm using, and that it also offers a very capable mobile version for Android.

Disclaimer: I'm in no way, form or shape linked to, working for or with, or otherwise related to Softmaker GmbH. I'm merely a "long" time (well, since a couple of years) very satisfied and happy user.

More information and the download at http://www.loadandhelp.de/home-en.html

Enjoy!


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## wblock@ (Dec 8, 2014)

How does a Linux binary run on FreeBSD without Linux emulation?


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## Oko (Dec 8, 2014)

wblock@ said:


> How does a Linux binary run on FreeBSD without Linux emulation?


Maybe it's Java bytecode


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## rmoe (Dec 8, 2014)

Damn, wblock@,

You are right, of course. It's my habit to have the linuxolator installed anyway (for development reasons) and so I obviously had no problems and Softmaker Office just ran without any further requirements. What a stupid mistake of me! Apologies to all.

I BTW found out about another mistake I made: Softmaker Office also includes some kind of presentation application which I forgot because I never used it.

Anyway, as it's a fine office suite and working fine on FreeBSD (with Linux emulation) and currently free, I thought it was a good idea to inform you about their current action.

BTW it's a quite honest and fair offer. As far as I remember the difference between the free and the full version isn't that significant; you really get almost the full functionality.


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## roddierod (Dec 9, 2014)

About five or six years ago Softmaker Office had a FreeBSD version and I bought it. I thought it was a pretty good word processor and spreadsheet.  They dropped FreeBSD support by the next release.  I'm interested to see how it has progressed.


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## rmoe (Dec 9, 2014)

My impression is - and I might be dead wrong as I use office software in a rather primitive way - that there is not much progress in terms of featuritis and most of their work is spent on enhancing quality and performance and on sensibly introducing really needed features in a solid way. And then, of course, there was the major undertaking of creating an astonishingly functional mobile version for Android.

I also like them because they don't make lots of marketing noise but rather concentrate on convincing by their product which BTW is very attractively priced and no-nonsense licensed (e.g. a license includes three work places). Another reason for me to "support" them (by buying/upgrading the pro version and by spreading the word) is that they are a small _E_uropean (_G_erman) company and actually understand - and care about - the needs of small and medium companies; I remember enough ugly situations with Lotus and Microsoft both of whom were focused on large enterprises (and didn't treat small guys well). When talking to Softmaker's support, you feel that the developers are just one room away and can be asked.

But then, frankly, they are in an awkward position. On the one hand there is the MSO behemoth and on the other hand there is _L_ibre/_O_pen_O_ffice, also a behemoth. It's not that large or comfortable a niche they've got for themselves.

My major criticism of Softmaker is that there somehow was (and somehow seems to be for Windows only) a pretty useful database application (in a way a modern dBase kind of thing with a GUI) which they, for whatever reason, don't seem to fully implement on all (desktop) versions although obviously many people would love to have something like that.

Anyway, the current action gives you a chance to get it for free and to test it, be it with _L_inux emulation enabled or in a VM. Is it worth its price? Obviously I think yes; for instance, the spell checking included is high quality ("Duden") and costs by itself already the price of Softmaker _O_ffice.


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