To be sure, many efforts at commercial word processors for Linux have faded away with the rise in popularity of free software like ‘s Write and AbiWord. For those who want to test the waters first, free trial editions are often available. The investment in a commercial word processor for Linux might be worth it to you–or not–depending on your own particular software needs.

Typically, the commercial word processor available for Linux these days are components in crossplatform office suites that cost somewhere between one-quarter and one-half of the $150 you might spent for a license to the Home and Student edition of Microsoft Office 2007. Are you interested in a word processing environment that’s more or less the same across multiple PC desktop and mobile platforms–a Linux notebook and a Windows CE device, let’s say, or a Macintosh PC, a Windows XP netbook, and an Android phone? How about a word processor that comes with abundant tech support, or one that handles complicated documents relatively easily? If any of these capabilities cries out to you, you might be better off with a commercial product–the kind you pay for–instead of one of many free open source packages also aimed at countering the Microsoft Word stranglehold.

Open source word processing