Sean,
Sorry to see that you are not getting much response to your question,
and so I'll venture to pipe up despite my very real limitations.
There have been some survey-reviews of the question. Sorry I don't
have any citations other than
www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/1762/1/ .
It considered briefly Maxwell, AbiWord, ApplixWords, Starwriter,
WordPerfect, and mentioned some others. I found it to be a useful
review.
I find that it is very useful to recover the distinction, now obscured
(by MS Word and WordPerfect) between a simple word processor and
desktop publishing. It might be useful to combine these functions, but
then again, perhaps not. I'll leave it to others to debate.
As for desktop publishing, the initial approach seems to me to have
been WordPerfect. I currently have no (simple) choice, and so use it
for DTP. Although I'm a WP fan from DOS days, I really don't like
Corel's version for Linux. It seems really unstable and unpredictable;
a bit of a dog. Perhaps due to it's not being (as far as I know) a
real Linux application, but one run on top a Linux virtual machine.
The real alternative would have been Adobe's port of FrameMaker to
Linux. I learned how to use it and it was great. But Adobe
unceremonially droped the project in late beta, and didn't think to
allow the beta to function or to make it open software.
The alternatives seem to be iceSculptor (commercial) and KWord (open
software). But both are too limited for DTP (no leading or kerning,
for ex.) despite claims to the contrary. The former is perhaps a
beginning, but like KWord, many important DTP features not
incorporated. A new version (complete rewrite) of KWord is about to
come out, and my sense is that KWord will end up being better, but
still far from a real DTP program. Have no sense of iceSculptor's
potential, but found it to be little more than an alpha. Both can be
used, of course, for daily word processing, and you might consider
them if you are inclined to wed the two functions. But try to let both
products mature first. Incidentally, a key issue to keep in mind is
the state and progress of import and export filters.
Worth mentioning is LaTeX, which is fascinating and fun, but more for
typesetting. I don't think it is really well suited for what we mean by
desktop publishing. But if you generate a lot of text in traditional
formats, give this classic a look. It is open software, and there is a
GUI for it if you like.
If you would prefer to run a simple daily word processor separately
from a full DTP application, then there's are a fair number of
choices. I've played a bit with abiWord, and find it nice. Some will
recommend sticking with vi or emacs, and there's something to be said
for that. Although I do everything else in emacs, I've never thought
of using it for simple word processing formats, such as letter or
report. I'd be interested in hearing of the experiences of those who
tried it.
Your question specified console, and I guess that leaves it to LaTeX,
vi, emacs, or one of the simpler editors like joe. I have (largely)
discussed GUI applications because the thread broadened to include
them, but I'd really like to know what kind of text formatting can be
achieved in vi or emacs.
In combining applications, there's always the question of file
format. RTF was kind of universal, but it often fails me. Over the
years I've managed to end up with large collections of files in
formats that are not my current one, and even run a machine or two
just to access them. You probably want to avoid MS Word format (even
though it's beginning to look like KWord's import filter works
somewhat) because I get the feeling there's going to be a legacy
problem in coming years. Here again, I hope someone with some
knowledge of this matter will chime in.
Haines Brown
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