The big news in this suite is the addition of Calligra Author, a specialized tool which aims to help authors through the process of creating eBooks, including the ability to add interactive content (animations, embedded web content, scripting, and more).
Application enhancements see spreadsheet application Sheets finally gaining a Solver, while Stage now allows you to create and work with animations in your presentation slides, and Krita adds support for the OpenColorIO color management system.
Document compatibility improvements mean that Calligra 2.6 is now better at handling Microsoft Office documents. The suite can also now load and save 3D shapes and annotations, and is able to export documents to EPUB2, while MOBI exporting is apparently scheduled for inclusion in 2.6.1.
And of course there’s the usual stack of smaller tweaks, including an improved layout for Words, more reliable CSV import and export in Kexi, various Krita speedups, more chart customizations (you can now set the fonts for titles, labels and so on), as well as a lengthy list of bug fixes.
As previously, the Calligra team only provide the source code, so obtaining the package may require a little work. The official release announcement provides more details.
Of course there are also builds of Calligra available for OS X and Windows, but they’re best treated with caution. Even the developers describe them as "preliminary" and "highly experimental", and our initial tests of the current Windows build suggest that nothing much has changed -- it’s packed with problems. So while the Linux suite works well, the Windows version is only really worth a look if you’ve a particular interest in Calligra or want to see how it’s developing on other platforms; it’s not yet something we’d want to use on a regular basis.
~ Mike Williams
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