OStatic

AbiWord, my long-time favorite open source word processor, is out with a new version 2.6, including many useful new features. If you haven't used this application before, give it a try, and if you already do, the upgrade is worthwhile. You can browse through the release notes to see how many new additions there are. In particular, many users will appreciate the ability to open files on remote shares, much more flexibility with import and export filters, and improvements to the clipboard and drag-and-drop functions. Many of these improvements make the interface cleaner and snappier.

There are times when all we need to do is write. Really crank out the text. (For me, that's most of the day.) We don't need distractions and we don't need a bloated, expensive word processor with way too many features and way too slow a load time (I'm looking at you, Microsoft Word).

What we need is a minimalist, distraction-free word processor - and being the cheapskates that we are, we want it free.