Portable OpenOffice.org 2.01 Released

VeryVito writes "Portableapps.com has released Portable OpenOffice.org 2.01 -- the complete office suite you can run from a USB drive for complete access to both your files and your office apps -- anywhere you go. More than just a neat idea, some say it's a perfect example of "the kind of innovation developers can make when they don't have to worry about selling as many licenses of their work as possible." I don't imagine we'll see a portable Microsoft Office suite any time soon."

Comments

Re:Slashdot deal with Microsoft?

[trezor]

And some people are paranoid.

Get some sense of proportion. It's a link. It's actually a link to a product you have to buy. And do you honestly believe that there still are people on this planet using computers that haven't heard about MS Office yet?

Christ. Talk about overreaction.

Portable Microsoft Office

[putko]

If Microsoft runs an online service, then the browser (modified, perhaps) will be all that will be required to run Office on any computer (with internet connection).

Any computer will have a browser (and connectivity), therefore MS Office will be omnipresent. You won't need to carry it around on a flash driver.

Re:Portable Microsoft Office

[Just Some Guy]

That presumes people are willing to run their business-critical apps on someone else's remote server. That looks good on paper every time someone proposes it, but Gmail is about the closest I've seen to it actually succeeding.

I think it may be a while before someone edits CorpFinancialsAndCustomerList.doc at a rented terminal.

Re:Portable Microsoft Office

[no reason to be here]

If Microsoft runs an online service
Isn't that a pretty big 'if' at this point, still?

then the browser (modified, perhaps) will be all that will be required to run Office on any computer
I somehow doubt that M$ are going to put out an online version of Office that is accessible through Firefox/Seamonkey/Safari/Opera/Konqueror/etc. At the very least online Office would require the latest and greatest version of IE. If they do go the WebApp route, I wouldn't be surprised to find Redmond charging for special client-side software to access the online apps. They could easily get business to buy into it, too, by saying that it makes the WebApp service more secure.

Any computer will have a browser (and connectivity), therefore MS Office will be omnipresent. You won't need to carry it around on a flash driver.
I see part of the attraction of this project is that it's not just a portable office suite, but also you get to keep your files. All of the proposed online Office ideas I've heard (including an online OO.o) usually have files saved on a remote server accessed over the Internet as a feature. I personally, and I think many others besides (especially many businesses and professionals), would prefer to keep their files stored locally.

Re:Portable Microsoft Office

[gi-tux]

They could easily get business to buy into it, too, by saying that it makes the WebApp service more secure.

And then when you read the fine print, you see that there is a clause that says that Microsoft now owns all rights to any data that is produced in this application. And for it to truly be portable, the data would have to be stored on their server as well, so how could you argue with the fine print after you discover it. Your document would simply disappear if you started to argue with them. Because they own the server, the application, and control the data.

Translation

[estoll]

From the article:
"This is exactly the kind of innovation developers can make when they don't have to worry about selling as many licenses of their work as possible"

Translation:
"This is exactly the kind of innovation developers can make when they don't have to worry about how many people find their software useful."

Re:Translation

[Anonymous Coward]

I can see that your comment could be modded "funny", but "insightful"?

For the mod who thought the comment was insightful: the comment should be translated as

"This is exactly the kind of innovation developers can make when they don't mind if people copy their software."

Please mod me "obvious".

Author AND reference

[Wubby]

OK, did anyone else notice that the author of this peice, VeryVito, uses himself as a reference. The "some say" link is to his own blog. Come on, if your going to plug yourself, be open about it!

Oh, and the portable apps site seems to be 403. Slashdotted, maybe?

MS Office does not need to be portable....

[bpuli]

it is already on every PC out there.

Re:Slashdot deal with Microsoft?

[menkhaura]

I believe I read "lightweight" referring to OpenOffice... oooh the hangover

Down from 206MB

[CritterNYC]

It's at 144MB down from 206MB with nothing left out. The JARs are compressed to max with 7zip. The DLLs and EXEs are UPXed. We're working on recompressing the included PNGs (which may buy us another 5MB or so) and a few other things along those lines.