14 DAY TRIAL // SoftMaker Office 2016 is a commercial suite of applications that are available for Windows and Linux systems. The company making it, SoftMaker, decided to provide it for free to schools, teachers, colleges and universities worldwide.
In a world where LibreOffice is doing all that it can to wrestle the control from the hands of Windows Office, it's difficult for another proprietary application to make any kind of significant impact. LibreOffice is free, and it incorporates a large number of tools, covering pretty much all of the users' needs.
There is only one solution for SoftMaker if it wants to compete with LibreOffice and Windows Office. It has to go free, but that's difficult to do for a company that needs the sales to survive. So, they did the next best thing. They made it free for schools, teachers, colleges and universities.
SoftMaker Office 2016 is now free, for some
A new major office suite that's free will put some pressure on competitors, which will have to do better in order to keep their places. SoftMaker is an old-school application, and it looks a like something that was available 10 or 15 years ago, so it might not be suited for everyone.
"SoftMaker has ramped up its support for educational institutions in the UK over the recent months, providing SoftMaker Office 2016 for Windows free of charge since last autumn. Now, the software developer added its Linux version, SoftMaker Office 2016 for Linux, to its portfolio of no-cost offers for educational institutions. It may be used on all computers in educational institutions permanently," the developers have explained in an email.
It's worth noting that SoftMaker Office 2016 can now also be bought by students with £7.50 ($11) instead of the regular price of £52.99 ($77).
SoftMaker Office 2016 is capable of handling any kind of files, including from Microsoft Office 2007 to 2016, and can even export EPUB files. Also, the suite integrates the email client Mozilla Thunderbird by default.
