The added layer of Wine code -- an open-source implementation of Windows 95/Microsoft Windows NT application programming interfaces -- causes native Windows applications to run more slowly and with less stability on Linux, says Richard Manly, director of product marketing for Applix. But this is not the case with Applixware because the software is native to Linux. Expect Applixware at the end of March, and not a day later, he promises.
"Applixware is better because it's built for Linux," Manly says. "It's memory-efficient and stable."
The $US99 suite includes six applications: Words for word processing; a vector and bitmap drawing tool called Graphics; Presents to create presentations and slide shows; Spreadsheets for number crunching and graphics; Data, a database tool; and Mail, a mail client.
At the Applix booth here at the LinuxWorld Expo, the company demonstrated features new to version 5.0, one of which is the GTK toolkit, or Gnome toolkit, a library that helps to create a consistent look and feel to the graphical interfaces.
Other new features include an autofill function in Spreadsheets, on-the-fly spell checking, and "Microsoft-like" horizontal rulers that provide a graphical interface for table, tab, indent, margin, and page-size manipulation for Words.
Can't wait until the Applixware 5.0 release is in stores? Download a prerelease version from SmartBeak.com, and report any bugs or problems back to the company through the Applixware 5.0 Milestone program.