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General discussion

Alternative to Micvrosoft Office

Sep 8, 2010 6:36PM PDT

I came accross a much cheaper non open source alternative to Microsoft Office - Kingsoft Office- Seems to have a lot of security issues. Has anyone tried it out ?

christy

Discussion is locked

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Just a note.
Sep 8, 2010 9:11PM PDT

Kingsoft is a Chinese company, based in Beijing established in 1989. But it is not a company I have heard of, and I prefer to stick with established and well known software companies. I'm a little surprised by the date because, as far as I can recall, China was still a deeply conservative Communist state in the 80's and private enterprise was generally not allowed. There was some relaxation to this hard line in one of China's other major cities, Shanghai, because China was beginning to realise the need for commerce with the West. But the web site says this company was formed in Beijing.

That makes me wary.

You say that it seems to have a lot of security issues. Can you elaborate?

Since there are free alternatives available, eg Open Office, I am not sure this is an option I would try.

Mark

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Re Security issues...
Sep 8, 2010 10:39PM PDT

Thanks for your reply. As for the security issues, a search on CNett on all forums resulted in THIS - [less our posts].

christy

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Ahh, good find.
Sep 9, 2010 5:14AM PDT

Sadly it doesn't surprise me. China has a reputation that it is going to have difficulty changing where software is concerned.

Mark

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Kingsoft Office 2010 is a real deal.
Sep 9, 2010 7:34AM PDT

There is USA distributor of this technology. You can learn more and download trial from http://www.binarynow.com/products/kingsoft-office/

Since this product was really developed in China, it is not very known in USA. True is that there are more than 50 million users (not from China! Wink, KSO is also popular in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, India..) who trusted this product in the past so there is no reason for not trusting it, especially if you can try it free. From our experience it provides better file compatibility and is much faster then OpenOffice and price is right.

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I see
Sep 9, 2010 9:50PM PDT
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BinaryNow is Kingsoft Office 2010 distributor
Sep 10, 2010 12:18AM PDT