Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

X11: GIMP and OpenOffice

Platform

Platform

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Dec 30, 2004
2,880
0
I have used both OpenOffice and GIMP 2 on a wintel system but how are they on the mac since they have to run under X11 :confused:
Also have MS Office and Photoshop

Is the performance at a good level or ?
How would it compare to MS Office and Photoshop ?

Can I use them as an alternative on the mac platform because I don't want to pay the HUGE amount of money if there is no need :p

Thanks
 
GIMP runs fine under X11. I've used it a fair bit. It's not as easy to use as photoshop, mainly (I think) because of limitations of the X11 interface, but if you're not using it all the time, it's a fine program.

Another alternative, if you're buying a new mac, is the new iPhoto, which does a lot of the things people tend to use GIMP for. You may not need to bother.

dcollierg is right--NeoOffice is the way to go.
 
Platform said:
I have used both OpenOffice and GIMP 2 on a wintel system but how are they on the mac since they have to run under X11 :confused:
Also have MS Office and Photoshop

Is the performance at a good level or ?
How would it compare to MS Office and Photoshop ?

Can I use them as an alternative on the mac platform because I don't want to pay the HUGE amount of money if there is no need :p

Thanks
Click to expand...

Rather than OpenOffice, take the other poster's suggestion and try NeoOffice/J (which is the native aqua port). It works very well here (I've been an OpenOffice/StarOffice user on various platforms since version 4 and Neo is by far my favorite incarnation yet =])

Gimp - go get yourself gimp.app (you'll find it at versiontracker), which is a pre-compiled binary package that you can launch from the dock. It still needs X11, but seems to run very well (I'll admit I haven't used it much, however).
 
wordmunger said:
GIMP runs fine under X11. I've used it a fair bit. It's not as easy to use as photoshop, mainly (I think) because of limitations of the X11 interface, but if you're not using it all the time, it's a fine program.

Another alternative, if you're buying a new mac, is the new iPhoto, which does a lot of the things people tend to use GIMP for. You may not need to bother.

dcollierg is right--NeoOffice is the way to go.
Click to expand...

Thanks but does iPhoto do "clone stamp" feature :confused:
 
baby duck monge said:
both of them will work under x11. however, i have not used GIMP enough to tell you how that runs, and OOo is fairly slow in my experience.
Click to expand...

Thanks

Is it slow becasue it has to run under X11 ?

And is there any other great free apps for OS X/X11 the is not slow?
 
tersono said:
Rather than OpenOffice, take the other poster's suggestion and try NeoOffice/J (which is the native aqua port). It works very well here (I've been an OpenOffice/StarOffice user on various platforms since version 4 and Neo is by far my favorite incarnation yet =])

Gimp - go get yourself gimp.app (you'll find it at versiontracker), which is a pre-compiled binary package that you can launch from the dock. It still needs X11, but seems to run very well (I'll admit I haven't used it much, however).
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for that :D
 
Platform said:
Thanks

But how does it work since it is only beta :confused:
Click to expand...
I've been using NeoOffice/J for about a year, and haven't had any major problems. Just some minor excel formatting problems. Otherwise it's been fine. I also run OOo in X11, also without any major problems.

OOo isn't being maintained well due to the lack of volunteer developers, and they've requested any developers that can help to please do so. See the OpenOffice Mac port web page.
 
GIMP

I used Photoshop for years, and switched exclusively to GIMP....it does everything I need, and runs very well on my PB 1.5 Ghz with 512 ram. It took me a bit to figure out the interface, and it takes getting used to, but now I'm used to it and it feels like PS to me. For the record, I don't use it for professional work, it's mostly for manipulating pics I want to put on the web.
 
GIMP is pretty useable on an iBook G4/800 also. I found it more useable than OpenOffice or NeoOffice/J. It is relatively stable, and the nuisances that are associated with using the X wm (different keyboard shortcuts, disconnect with copy/paste buffer, funny window attention because you have to focus on the X mgr from Aqua instead of on GIMP to get back to GIMP, etc) are all relatively minor. I've used it quite a lot to clean up photos and also to do the playing around kind of stuff here on MR. :)
 
huck500 said:
I used Photoshop for years, and switched exclusively to GIMP....it does everything I need, and runs very well on my PB 1.5 Ghz with 512 ram. It took me a bit to figure out the interface, and it takes getting used to, but now I'm used to it and it feels like PS to me. For the record, I don't use it for professional work, it's mostly for manipulating pics I want to put on the web.
Click to expand...

Thanks

That is mostly what I do as well ;)
 
mkrishnan said:
GIMP is pretty useable on an iBook G4/800 also. I found it more useable than OpenOffice or NeoOffice/J. It is relatively stable, and the nuisances that are associated with using the X wm (different keyboard shortcuts, disconnect with copy/paste buffer, funny window attention because you have to focus on the X mgr from Aqua instead of on GIMP to get back to GIMP, etc) are all relatively minor. I've used it quite a lot to clean up photos and also to do the playing around kind of stuff here on MR. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks

Does anyone know how the NeoOffice compares to iWork and PS to GIMP :confused:
 
Platform said:
Thanks but does iPhoto do "clone stamp" feature :confused:
Click to expand...
I don't think so.

Re: speed comparison -- I don't see much difference Photoshop/GIMP. Both are quite fast. But I don't work with huge images--that might be where you notice it more.

Re iWork, do some forum searches here; there are quite a few user reviews. I'd say if you're used to OpenOffice, you'll be quite happy with NeoOffice.
 
wordmunger said:
Re: speed comparison -- I don't see much difference Photoshop/GIMP. Both are quite fast. But I don't work with huge images--that might be where you notice it more.
Click to expand...

Yeah, with GIMP for whatever reason, speed is not that much of an issue. The interface likeness to using a native app is not as high as it is in Windows (or, if you really want it...if you were using Linux and mwm ;)) but other than that, it's fairly speedy... Certain filters take a long time, and saves take a fairly long time. But most tools are very responsive....
 
wordmunger said:
I don't think so.

Re: speed comparison -- I don't see much difference Photoshop/GIMP. Both are quite fast. But I don't work with huge images--that might be where you notice it more.

Re iWork, do some forum searches here; there are quite a few user reviews. I'd say if you're used to OpenOffice, you'll be quite happy with NeoOffice.
Click to expand...

Thanks

The "clone stamp" feature is proberly the tool I use the most :p
I don't do big files have never had anything above 50MB's
 
I use NeoOffice and Gimp, for NeoOffice the word processing part is fine, though I have had some problems with powerpoint presentations.

As far as Gimp is concerned that is good too. I would say that neither are as good as the professional programs that you pay for, but it depends on how much you are prepared to put up with for the money you save.
 
Abiword

Platform said:
WOW Thanks

Look's great and for so many Platform's as well :D
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I've found Abiword to be a little quirky. Word documents with footnotes don't import right at all, and sometimes text doesn't update on the screen while scrolling until I select it (although I sometimes get that from Word too...)

Pages is nice, not spectacular but solid so I'm using it. NeoOffice is fine but takes a while to start up and doesn't feel like an OS X app, in my experience.
 
ricebag said:
Unfortunately, I've found Abiword to be a little quirky. Word documents with footnotes don't import right at all, and sometimes text doesn't update on the screen while scrolling until I select it (although I sometimes get that from Word too...)

Pages is nice, not spectacular but solid so I'm using it. NeoOffice is fine but takes a while to start up and doesn't feel like an OS X app, in my experience.
Click to expand...


Thanks

Anyway if I have to go for something like iWork it is a lot cheaper than MS Office and native apple app too
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back