I just got AbiWord compiled on my Sparc 5 running Solaris (SunOS
5.5.1). While I *am* a software developer, I don't plan on doing any
developement for AbiWord. I do plan on playing around with AbiWord
and reporting any bugs I find.
I also have a 486dx66 at home running linux. I plan to give AbiWord a
whirl there too. I've noticed that AbiWord is a bit slow on my Sparc so
I have little hope that, in its current unoptimized state, it will be
useable there.
I looked over your feature set and I didn't see the following (perhaps
it is there and I just missed it)
* Comments/Annotations: My officemate uses MSWord and he (and his
co-workers) uses Word's "Comments" feature extensively. So, to win
folks like my officemate over to AbiWord, I would highly recommend
implementing this feature and trying to make it compatible with
MSWord. In particular---being able to read, edit, and write
comments in MSWord documents. This really is a nice feature. If
you are not familiar with it I recommend you give it a test drive.
Also, do any of the core developers have experience using FrameMaker?
Frame does many things much better than Word (and its brethren) and
therefore might provide some inspiration for AbiWord.
Currently I'm in the process of setting up a second 486 with linux and
WordPerfect for my kids to use for writing school reports. As soon
(if ever) AbiWord becomes useable on a 486 for their needs I'd love to
switch them over to using it.
Cheers and good luck,
--Jonathan