AbiWord: Reviews

AbiWord is a great word processor, and has attracted a lot of attention. Here are some of the things that people have had to say. If you know of any more reviews, please tell us.

TechVine - A Great Multiplatform Word Processing App - August 13, 2012

"The creators of Abiword should be proud. They have created a solid word processing application, one that is fast, cross-platform, and comes with most of the bells and whistles you can find in other commercial packages. Give it a go today!"

LinuxPlanet - AbiWord: The Underappreciated Word Processor - May 25th, 2010

"AbiWord's best feature, hands down, is its collaboration support. When talking about collaboration in other word processors, its dependent on one person working on the document at a time, then sending it to others with markup and comments. AbiWord, on the other hand, provides real-time collaboration."

Daily News - AbiWord is free MS alternative - July 16th, 2008

A quick report about AbiWord existence.

RedHat Magazine - AbiWord team interview - May 8th, 2008

Marc and Martin are inteviewed by Rahul Sundaram for RedHat Magazine.

DesktopLinux.com - Abiword 2.6 -- You've come a long way, baby! - April 10th, 2008

Henry Kingman write about the new release: Anyway, to make a long story short, Abiword 2.6.2 really *does* look impressive. There are amazingly futuristic features, like hooks into Web services, pop-out font previews, and presentation mode, combined with a dead-simple interface that is miles better than OO.org's. Just a real pleasure to use.

Linux.com - New AbiWord looks solid but suffers from age-old Linux problem - April 9th, 2008

Mayank Sharma is reviewing AbiWord 2.6 for Linux.com. "But make no mistake about it, AbiWord 2.6 is a hallmark AbiWord release -- cholesterol-free, fast, and with a couple of jaw-dropping features that you won't find in any other word processor."

Linux Journal - Editors' Choice 2006 - November 1st, 2006

AbiWord 2.4.4 has been selected as Editors' Choice 2006 for Linux Journal. "We want a word processor that is lean and mean, starts up faster than OpenOffice.org Writer, imports Microsoft Word files adequately and offers all the features we need. [...] AbiWord has all of what most people will need in a word processor and then some, without the bloat and long load times of OpenOffice.org Writer."

Linux.com - Viewing Word files at the command line - March 1st, 2006

Recipes on how to read MS-Word files from the command line.

ZDNet - UK school showcases Linux suite - January 18th 2006

A British school in Essex use recycled PC and a live CD Linux distribution to provide computers to students. AbiWord is amongst the software that is being used.

Tagesanzeiger - Texten mit der Word-Alternative - March 14th 2005

The Swiss daily newspapser Tagesanzeiger has published an AbiWord review. It states: "Abiword ist ideal für Leute, die «einfach nur schreiben» wollen", which means: "AbiWord is ideal for people who just want to write".

Flexbeta - AbiWord vs. MS Word - September 1st 2004

Flexbeta reviews AbiWord from a non power-user perspective and sees how well it stacks up to MS Word.

TechTV - Download of the Day: AbiWord - April 20th 2004

TechTV reviews AbiWord in its Download of the Day show and is quite possitive: "AbiWord is sure to make you happy and save you money." (Watch online).

chip-online (Germany) - AbiWord - June 9th 2003

AbiWord got a 5 stars rating on chip.de download section.

Salon.com - AbiWord up - November 15th 2002

Andrew Leonard does not really review AbiWord, but instead choose to talk about the roots of the project and its community aspect.

01net. - Abiword 1.0, d'Abisource Inc. : un très bon traitement de texte gratuit - July 4th, 2002

Micro Hebdo editors review AbiWord 1.0 in French: (translated) "Of course, Abiword 1.0 is not perfect, but, in general, it is complete and allow easily creating complex documents." (Babelfish translation...).

MSNBC - Word processing for everyone? - May 13th, 2002

Gary Krakow reviews AbiWord 1.0.1 for MSNBC: "If you use a word processor for only basic needs (writing, saving, cut and paste, etc) then AbiWord is for you.

Kuro5hin - AbiWord - Word Processing For Everyone (Almost) - April 23rd, 2002

Kuro5hin editors reviews AbiWord.

TecTimes - La oficina alternativa - April 1st, 2002

The alternative office suites or how to replace office. In spanish (from Argentina) by Marcelo Ruiz: "AbiWord is recommendable for those who need a light and simple to use word processor." (Babelfish translation...).

O'Reilly Network - AbiWord: Open Source's Answer to Microsoft Word - March 17, 2002

This article is more a background article than a review. It is really informative and expose the original ideas of the project as well as the future of it. Written by Howard Wen.

Bankgok Post - The word on word processing - March 04, 2002

Nick Wilgus reviews the alternive to Microsoft Office. He mention AbiWord: "This product calls itself ``Word Processing for Everyone'' and so it is. It's popular, and it's free. See www.abisource.com for more information."

Linux Journal - Stocking the AbiWord fire - February 24, 2002

Phil Hughes says: "Does this mean vi and Troff are out of my life? Certainly not. While my use of Troff has declined over the past few years, it still has its place. And even if Troff went away, I still need a comfortable text editor for my programming tasks. So vi and probably Troff are here to stay in my life, but I see AbiWord as an important tool to add to my toolkit."

HollyLisle.com - AbiWord -- One Sweet Word Processor, With a Couple of Kinks - December 14, 2001

Holly Lisle calls AbiWord "absolutely wonderful" in an overwhelmingly positive review. "My first, general, and overall impression of AbiWord -- I love it. It seems to have been designed with a writer in mind -- clean interface, fast, not a lot of business features but all the text and formatting features you could want."

PC World - Word Processing Wonder, AbiWord - December 6, 2001

James E. Powell calls AbiWord a "Word Processing Wonder." A short review, but a very positive one. "While Microsoft's Word grows fatter with seldom-used features, AbiSource's AbiWord holds appeal as a trim yet capable, no-cost program."

c't - Komfortables Schreibwerkzeug - September 2001 issue

c't magazine, Germany. (Babelfish translation...)

The Observer (London) - It's enough to make an agnostic believe - August 5, 2001

John Naugton mentions AbiWord very briefly, but positively, in a discussion of the growth of Free Software.

Bangkok Post - Tool for you, the publisher - August 1, 2001

Wanda Sloan reviews the alternatives to Microsoft software. She says about AbiWord: "AbiWord is yet more proof, as if any were needed, that open source software is brilliant, user-friendly and consumer conscious. Like all such projects-Linux is a great example-you can have the program source code, rewrite it and reassemble it to your own specifications if you wish.
[...]
AbiWord not only gives you a top flight word processor, it also leaves you with a fistful of money you can spend on some worthy cause such as several nights on Ratchada."

LinuxPlanet - The StartX Files: An AbiWord to the Wise - July 3, 2001

Brian Proffitt over at LinuxPlanet.com takes a look at version 7.14-2 on Linux. "There are a lot of areas where AbiWord has positioned itself very well against [Microsoft Word]. I look forward to seeing more out of this strong open source project."

Heise.de - Komfortables Schreibwerkzeug - April 14, 2001

Ulrich Schmitz reviewed AbiWord, and said lots of nice things about it. He emphasized our cross-platform nature, and our ability to handle lots of different formats. The major complaint is the lack of macros, but they still like AbiWord. The article is in German.

Linuxpower AbiWord: Free Word processing on all platforms now! - March 23, 2001

Christian Schaller interviews lead AbiWord developer Dom Lachowicz. Great information on Abiword features and back-end. Talk about file filters and cross platform issues, and "friendly competition" from OpenOffice.

LinuxOrbit - Making Linux Work In The Workplace: A Few Words On AbiWord - January 7, 2001

Terril West has more than a few words to say about AbiWord 7.11. "AbiWord has set out to become a lean, mean multi-platform word-slingin' machine. And for the most part, it has succeeded."

Linux.com (link dead) - September 9, 2000

Rob Thomas takes a look at at AbiWord 7.10 as part of a series on Linux Word processing apps. "Abiword is a very capable product... more funcionality is added with every release."

LinuxPlanet - Word to the Wise: Reviewing Linux Word Processors, AbiWord 0.7.8: A Promising Development - May 14, 2000

LinuxPlanet reviews AbiWord as part of a series of Word Processor reviews. The quote that blew me away was when LinuxPlanet referred to the AbiWord community as "an active community of developers making continual improvements to what may be one of the most anticipated projects in Linux."

OnlineLinux - April 19, 2000

OnlineLinux takes a quick look at AbiWord 0.7.8. This review is of the X Windows version, but what makes AbiWord great is that the Windows and Linux version are always feature for feature compatible. [Sadly, OnlineLinux is no more, but the review was real.]

C|Net - Build a Basic Office Suite - November 11, 1999

C|Net lists AbiWord as one of the essentials for starting a business without laying out $400 for an office suite. The exact words were "a top-flight word processor." *blush*

RocketDownload (link dead) - October 18, 1999

Nick Smith takes a look at AbiWord 0.7.5. It's great to see that the cross-platform approach that AbiSource is taking is being recognized. This is a short review, but it is well-done, accurate, and complete.

Linuxpower - A (P)Review of AbiWord - August 26, 1999

A thorough review from featuring a number of screen shots of AbiWord in action. Reviewer Jeremy Katz takes the time to mention subtle usability features, like infinite undo/redo, which frequently get taken for granted (except when they don't work).

The Linux Journal - July 26, 1999

Describes AbiWord as "an elegant, open source word processor that delivers the Word functionality most people use."

WinInfo - Free word processor challenges Microsoft Word - July 6, 1999

This was a great piece from the perspective of a Windows user. AbiWord is not as well known in the Windows community, but it didn't take Paul Thurrott long to realize what kind of an impact a cross-platform Open Source word processor could have.

The Linux Gazette - AbiWord's Potential - July 1, 1999

Quite a thorough piece about AbiWord 0.7.1. We are flattered that Mr. Ayers took the time to recognise the strength of choosing XML as our native file format.