"Carlos E.R." wrote:

I'm looking for a simple free (or gratis) program to replace Word. Me, I
use LibreOffice without a doubt, but it is not for me. I need something
simple, that ideally saves in word 97-2003 format by default, so that
the user doesn't have to think.

I was considering AbiWord, but to my dismay it has abandoned the Windows
version for lack of volunteers.

Are there other possibilities I should consider?

If I'm not mistaken, Word comes with the full Office suite; I know two
versions: one that you pay once about 200¤ and keep, with no upgrades,
another called Office 365 that is a yearly subscription, and I think I
heard about a gratis version, perhaps online inside a browser. Is this
correct? If that is so, perhaps I should suggest my friend to use that
online version and not spend an euro.

If the implied "other user" knows Word, why can't they use Writer in
LibreOffice? It can be configured as to which is the default output
document format. LibreOffice has a new but experimental ribbon bar that
mimics the one in the Office components; see:

https://www.howtogeek.com/294439/how...n-libreoffice/

Abiword has not bothered to update their site certificate. When I go to
abisource.com, I get an error regarding lack of support for TLS 1.2.
TLS 1.0 was just SSL 3.0 with different handshaking, so they are
incompatible. SSL 3.0 was deprecated because it was insecure, which
also means so, too, is TLS 1.0. TLS 1.2 is the minimum supported by
most web browsers, but there may be workarounds, like a setting to
enable the older versions of TLS. Most sites have moved up to TLS 1.3.
They probably don't need a site certificate because I can't see why they
would need to encrypt anything from their site. Downloads are public,
their site content is publicly accessible by anyone, and they probably
don't have any accounts to log into. A bit foreboding that a site
thinks they need a certificate when nothing must be encrypted; however,
lots of similar sites use a cert to identify you have reached the site
you intended to visit.

Why does the Word alternative have to be supported? I'm using an NNTP
client that was abandoned 15 years ago. AbiWord is open source and
free. That usually means no support, so it's not like the "other user"
is going to contact AbiWord for help. Likely they rely on peer support
in a web-based forum, if they even operate one.

You can buy Word alone, or buy a standalone suite that includes Word.
With Microsoft 365 (aka Office 365), you get a suite of products, not
just Word, along with a 1 TB storage quota in OneDrive, and a 60-minute
quota of SkypeOut. You can look at Microsoft 365 as either buying
Office and getting a free 1 TB OneDrive quote, or as buying the 1 TB
OneDrive quota and getting Office 365 for free; however, whichever way,
you are buying into subscriptionware.

FreeOffice.com is Softmaker's free version of their office suite. As
such, it is crippled, but many users find the free version more than
sufficient for their needs. They have a free vs paid comparison at
https://www.freeoffice.com/en/freeoffice-comparison, but it doesn't list
all differences. I remember back a couple years ago when I trialed it
there was some function missing that I wanted, so I would have to buy to
get a more robust product. The payware edition has customizable
ribbons, but not in the freeware edition. You can see more detailed
comparison at:

https://www.softmaker.com/en/compari...ftmaker-office.

Be aware they sell both a subscriptionware ("NX" edition 1-year license)
and lifetime license versions of their product. With a subscription,
you get updated to whatever is the latest version. Microsoft Office 365
costs $100/year (but you can find cheaper licenses elsewhere) while a
Softmaker Office costs $40/year. Their lifetime licenses are a lot
cheaper, too. Start with FreeOffice to see it is satisfactory for your
"other user", and let them decide whether or not to buy it. You never
mention the budget for the "other user". Do they demand the product be
free (after all, they are now paying for Microsoft Office), or have they
budgeted for a payware alternative? As for the default output document
format, I suspect that's a user configurable option. If the "other
user" only accepts freeware alternatives, and besides LibreOffice which
you don't specify why it is not an alternative, you can check the
manuals at https://www.freeoffice.com/en/download/manuals; else, you can
view the online manuals at https://www.softmaker.com/en/manuals for the
payware edition. Softmaker is a German company.

I've trialed WPS Office (back then they were called Kingsoft). Used it
for several months, and then WPS turned it into adware, so I uninstalled
it. A year ago I still saw user complaints about WPS showing ads when
you load their software. Alas, that's the affliction with many
freewa you accept their ads (whether for their own products or for
others) as the price you pay for their, ahem, "free" ware. See
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/detect...onal-kingsoft/.
Kingsoft (or WPS as they now call themselves) is a Chinese company.
Avast (a Czech company) has a free version that lots of users employ,
but also had ads, especially when their Marketing group decides to start
another ad campaign to push popups at their users. WPS has a ribbon bar
that mimics the one in later versions of MS Office. The 1-year WPS
subscriptionware license is currently cheaper (for their sale price
however long that lasts, but becomes more expensive) than for Softmaker
Office NX, but the WPS lifetime license is significantly more expensive
than for Softmaker's lifetime license. Obviously their freeware edition
is the same price as Sofmaker's FreeOffice: zero (unless you count the
ads in WPS as a price). At the WPS site, I saw no link to online copies
of the manuals, just a bunch of FAQs.

FreeOffice/Softmaker Office and Kingsoft/WPS Office are not open source.
However, you did not mandate FOSS as a requirement for alternatives.
You're already using one, LibreOffice, which you should already know can
be configured regarding the default output document format. Look at its
Load/Save settings.