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What about Excel?
Authored by: Ipstenu on Jan 11, '05 03:09:57PM

Darn it, I don't see a nice spreadsheet tool in that iWork yet, and that's going to remain my hangup. For $79 I may pick it up anyway, but I'm gnashing my teeth about an Excel clone.



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What about Excel?
Authored by: shavenyak on Jan 11, '05 03:58:13PM

I figured I was the only one thinking the same thing, since I hadn't seen any other rants. I'd think the average consumer can make better use of a spreadsheet than a presentation tool. I wonder if Apple is planning to remedy that later, or if they just don't think their target market needs a spreadsheet? If I'm still stuck with Office to get a decent spreadsheet, why would I buy iWork?



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What about Excel?
Authored by: jmschaeffer on Jan 12, '05 08:12:05AM
Ever hear of the free Openoffice clone for OS X? NeoOffice.

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What about Excel?
Authored by: maddys_daddy on Jan 13, '05 12:32:18AM

Or how about just OpenOffice, since it's already been ported to OS X?



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What about Excel?
Authored by: jmschaeffer on Jan 13, '05 01:26:14PM

Yes it has been ported to OS X, but not to the extent of NeoOffice. OpenOffice still requires X11 and does not run as a native app.

Here's text direct from the OpenOffice site regarding mac development:

For the last year and a half all engineering work focusing on a native Mac OS X OpenOffice.org version has been concentrated in the NeoOffice/J project, using a combination of Java and Carbon technologies to replace X11.
Due to various licensing, political, and fundamental engineering difficulties it is likely, for the near future, that native Aqua porting work will be based off of the NeoOffice.org project and not under the direct aegis of OpenOffice.org.



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What about Excel?
Authored by: Ipstenu on Jan 14, '05 10:00:21AM

Yeah, I've used NeoOffice (and a couple other freeware/open source sites). My real issues with them is that I'm picky about the interface (I like 90% of Mac's native stuff) and it's still in Beta. Also, I tried it once and had weird issues going between XP and OSX (it's not my fault! It's my work!) enough that I went back to MS Office.

But the point is this: If you're making an 'office' product with a 'powerpoint' tool and a 'word' tool, what sense is it to leave out 'excel'? More low tech users are likely to use a spreadsheet tool than a presentation one, and if you're pimping a MacMini for the masses, as well as an improved Pages tool, put in the spreadsheet.



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What about Excel?
Authored by: MorganizeIT on Jan 27, '05 10:23:46AM

NeoOffice/J is a great freeware product. I switched around 10/2005 and haven't used MS Office since. Yes, the interface looks awful, but I'm happy to live with that in order to stop using expensive, buggy, MS bloatware.



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