Google Docs Replaces OpenOffice In Ubuntu Netbook Edition

uneuser writes "Digitizor reports that the Ubuntu developers have dropped OpenOffice from the default installation of Ubuntu Netbook Edition (UNE) 10.04 and replaced it with Google Docs. Documents in Ubuntu Netbook Edition will now be opened in Google Docs by default."

Comments

Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[BlueKitties]

I think this is good, it leaves more space on your already small disk to do other things. This is a net-oriented device, afterall. If you want a full-fledged computer, then get a full-fledged computer. This sounds exactly like what a NETbook should do.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[ipX]

This is a net-oriented device, afterall.

Yes, with terrible wireless reception. :P

If you want a full-fledged computer, then get a full-fledged computer

It's more like... if you want full functionality, install the package yourself?

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[Darkness404]

The thing is, I don't see really any benefit for this. Google docs doesn't exactly offer more features, most netbooks come with at least 20 gigs of storage (even the SSD based ones) and performance is only increasing. It might have made sense for some of the early netbooks, but with faster and faster netbooks, I just don't see the point.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[vajorie]

on your already small disk to do other things.

Hi there 2007,

The netbooks in the future (2010, welcome) have 160GB+ space... Oh, also

This is a net-oriented device, afterall.

No, it's not.

When are you going back home, by the way?

Sincerely.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[Daengbo]

It's also strange to switch from Google to Yahoo! (search) and OO.o to Google Docs in the same release.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[nmb3000]

This is a net-oriented device, afterall. If you want a full-fledged computer, then get a full-fledged computer. This sounds exactly like what a NETbook should do.

Except that netbooks are also designed to be ultra-portable. Unless you're always around an available wireless access point, not having office productivity software installed might be pretty annoying on that flight, bus trip, on the road, visiting family, etc.

If these NETbooks had some kind of always-available Internet access (say a 3G modem or something else) then I'd probably agree with you, but unfortunately lots of people use these devices while not online. I'm not sure this decision makes a lot of sense given the way the devices are actually used, their misleading name notwithstanding.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[ozmanjusri]

Google docs doesn't exactly offer more features

For many people in the netbook market, that IS a feature.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[Darkness404]

The netbook market is comprised of about three types of people

A) People who go "Oooohhhhh look a cheap device that runs a real OS for hundreds less than a "real" computer" (this is most people.
B) People who go "Ooooh this is tiny I can take this on vacations/business trips/etc" (this is some people)
C) People who go "Oooh this cheap thing is going to be online 24/7, never going to be offline and I want to run no local apps on its 160 gig HDD!" (just about no one)

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[Darkness404]

Because it is a good money maker for Google. Release an OS for free with good support, mine user data, boost user stats of Google's programs. Profit.

Plus, it doesn't require much work (basically they can take Linux and Android experience and rework it) and Google has the name that everyone knows (compare how many people know Google's name compared to Ubuntu, Red Hat, Debian, etc.) so they can market it to device makers.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[ChipMonk]

My netbook (EeePC 901) has no problem running OpenOffice.org; it has more power than the system I first installed StarOffice on (Windows 95 in 1997, converted to Linux in 1998). That was a full-fledged computer, as much as my netbook.

Or are you assuming it has to be something made since 2007? If you want to jump on the three-year upgrade cycle, there's a company in Redmond that would be very interested in doing business with you.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[rtb61]

5 types of people.

D) People who need a cheap portable 2nd computer that wont be too painful when they drop it, step on it, run it over, spill coffee on it, one they expect to replace about once a year. Hmm, I wonder if they will start selling netbooks as an option without any drive at all so you simply plug your old drive from your dead unit into it, maybe a 2nd drive slot.

E) Millions and millions of school children, similar to 'D' but not the same.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[PopeRatzo]

The question is not if google bothers with Chrome OS but if anybody actually _uses_ Chrome OS.

It's only been available a short time. You'll see plenty of devices using ChromeOS in the coming year.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[Anonymous Coward]

with terrible wireless reception. :P

Every netbook has terrible wireless reception? What?

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[phantomcircuit]

Hmm, I wonder if they will start selling netbooks as an option without any drive at all so you simply plug your old drive from your dead unit into it, maybe a 2nd drive slot.

How often is the drive the part that survives?

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[pj81381]

The netbook market is comprised of about three types of people A) People who go "Oooohhhhh look a cheap device that runs a real OS for hundreds less than a "real" computer" (this is most people. B) People who go "Ooooh this is tiny I can take this on vacations/business trips/etc" (this is some people) C) People who go "Oooh this cheap thing is going to be online 24/7, never going to be offline and I want to run no local apps on its 160 gig HDD!" (just about no one)

What about tablet PCs and "smartbooks"? Manufacturers seem to think the market is trending towards C. This change makes sense especially considering tablet PCs' limited functionality as a productivity tool, as well as (relatively) limited hard disk space. Even following your assumption that just about everybody is or will be in category A, this change still makes sense for UNR. People in category A can still install OpenOffice or whatever other applications they want, just like they would on say Windows...or (perhaps more appropriate wrt your comment) just install Ubuntu Desktop.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[hairyfeet]

I agree with you and go one step further...if all they cared about was the space why not go with Abiword? It is small and light, thus great for Netbooks, runs on all the major OSes, again great because if one likes it they can use it at home as well as on the road, and gives you a full featured word processor without the bloat.

Who knows, maybe Google cut them a check. But it seems to me Abiword would be a better fit for a netbook than Google Docs. Can anyone tell us how Google Docs runs on ultra low powered devices like low end netbooks? Because I have run Abiword on machines as low as 400MHz and it was quite snappy and very comfortable to work in.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[Hadlock]

The drive is the only part I port over from computer to computer. My primary drive (just the OS, I use a different drive for the swap and data) is an ancient 7.2gb drive that still loads XP in under a minute. Yeah its kind of strange to have a 7gb boot drive in the same computer with a 500gb "apps" drive and a 1tb "data" drive, but once windows from the 7gb drive is loaded into ram it just spins down and isn't used again. Makes reinstalling windows a snap after a virus too (since all the drivers are local on another hard drive). Hard drives also can withstand insane G-Forces considering all the moving parts (and their impressive precision) they have.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[techno-vampire]

Its not practical that it does not even have a grammar check.

Not everybody needs a mechanical grammar checker. In your case, however, I can see how that's a concern.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[geminidomino]

Hmm, I wonder if they will start selling netbooks as an option without any drive at all so you simply plug your old drive from your dead unit into it, maybe a 2nd drive slot.

How often is the drive the part that survives?

Pretty often, if compared with the screen.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[blind biker]

I agree with you and go one step further...if all they cared about was the space why not go with Abiword [abiword.com]?

I'll make a guess: they didn't select Abiword, because it's probably still instable and bug-ridden. I try Abiword from time to time, and it usually crashes when trying to open even the simplest Word document, or while I try to edit a formula, or while I try to do something even slightly exotic (read: anything that isn't just plain text without formatting). In my view, anyone who praises Abiword, hasn't used it very much.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[blind biker]

Google docs doesn't exactly offer more features

I am a big OpenOffice fan AND user. I think it's great and I will continue to use it for my scientific documents, presentations and drawings. It's a nearly unbeatable package for many reasons. That said, Google Docs does have ONE feature that none other office suite has, at least not quite as well implemented: groupwork. Google Docs allows concurrent editing in a way and scale that I have not seen anywhere else, and the only reason people are not crazy about it, is (I guess) because it's a paradigm shift in way of working. If/when people realize the potential of groupwork offered by Google Docs, this office suite could become one of the most popular, without actually replacing the others. It could also increase the popularity of OpenOffice and the other office suites that save in ODF formats. I can imagine doing part of the work with Google Docs for parallele editing with a co-author, and then finalize it with OpenOffice. For example.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[priegog]

And to be perfectly honest (anal) about it, you CAN turn on "offline mode" in google docs so that you can access your files offline and create new ones. So, on the contrary to most people here, I don't quite disagree with the "online" side of it, but rather, with the "Google" side of it. Sure, probably everyone on /. has a Google account, but most normal people don't. My granny certainly doesn't (she has hotmail like most of the "vanilla" computer users out there), and she just bought her second netbook. Why should she be forced to create an account with some company to be able to use the office suite? I do agree with the people here who were suggesting abiword, if hdd space and cpu power REALLY were the reason Oo got shafted. This will just hurt Ubuntu

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[icebraining]

I can think of two benefits: Google Docs is generally quicker than OpenOffice and it takes up less space. If you're talking about a relatively underpowered computer with a small hard drive, then I can imagine preferring a lightweight, quick office suite rather than a fully-featured one.

Doesn't that hold true for Abiword, though? It's faster and definitively smaller (30MB with deps) than OO.o, and supports .doc and .docx.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[hairyfeet]

I don't know what exactly has been going wrong with your Abiword, but I just used the latest version to open a test doc I keep around for seeing if a word processor or other text editor is gonna choke. This thing is 2.5Mb of headers and footers and page numbers and links and images. A really nasty doc cooked up with no less than 3 versions of Office and 1 version of Open Office. How did it do?

While it took it a little over a minute to open that mess up on a 1.8GHz Sempron, when it did the doc looked correct and was easily edited and saved. Maybe you got a bad install, maybe there is some other problem, I don't know. But if it will open this mess of a doc without spewing word salad or crashing I consider it a pretty decent piece of software and certainly better than giving up my privacy and sending all my work straight to Google.

And as for the other poster who wanted to know if Abiword did spreadsheets like Google docs...uhhh...why exactly would you be working on spreadsheets in a word processor? For spreadsheets there is Gnumeric which is also free, light, and according to the wiki has earned itself a niche in statistical analysis and other scientific jobs due to its accuracy. Sounds to me like a better choice than throwing away privacy and trusting everything to the Google cloud, wouldn't you agree? And for those that want to share and edit documents over the web Abiword has AbiCollab

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[Omestes]

I actually think its a decent idea, and I will probably go scurry off and buy a ChromeOS netbook (or Tablet!) when they come available. It seems that the netbook market has lost touch with the idea that made it attractive (to me at least), that of very small, light, simple portable computers. Instead they are now somewhat cheap, underpowered, laptops for people not willing to spend a lot on full laptops.

To me the ideal netbook would be the one that has the least bloat, is the smallest (10.1" is too big, and 9" seems to gone the way of the dodo), lightest, and uses the least possible amount of power and storage. Ideally, it would fit in a cargo pocket of my pants, have a battery that lasts 6+ hours, and be light enough to not pull down the previously mentioned pants without a belt on. It would not run some complex OS with tons of features (Windows) by default, saving me the work of having to stick Ubuntu on it, which isn't optimal either (being another hideously complex OS).

My ideal netbook won't have a full, memory and resource heavy, office suite. Google Docs is perfect.

I have a rather powerful PC for the heavy lifting. I have a rather midling old laptop for running around doing weighty tasks on the road (okay, gaming), I'd rather a netbook didn't try to fill these roles. I'd rather it be a cheap, light, energy efficient, simple device that I can take with me to work (or coffee) for light web browsing, and lighter still work.

In short, I want the simplest "information appliance" possible. ChromeOS seems wells suited to this.

Yes, my opinion isn't universal. Yes, other people want other things. But, also, I'm sure I'm not alone in this.

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[techno-vampire]

I don't like to be a grammar nazi, but if you think the OP's post was grammatical, maybe you need a grammar checker yourself. (Hint: take a better look at the first word of what I quoted.)

Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook.

[BrokenHalo]

You just reconnect and you've got all of your data again.

You mean Google has it. If you're happy with that, I guess you're lucky. I just can't bring myself to trust Google with my data, no matter how inconsequential it may seem.

A little heavy for a netbook

[HangingChad]

I use OpenOffice at home but it would be a tad heavy for a netbook. I think that was a good choice and if you needed a lighter weight word processor, you could always opt for Abiword.

Re:A little heavy for a netbook

[Darkness404]

Um, what are your specs? While OOo was -slightly- sluggish on my first-gen netbook (EEE 701 with a 633 Mhz Celeron M CPU and 512 MB of RAM), it should work just fine on any modern netbook. The thing about a word processor is that its so essential to have a good one for a lot of basic tasks for the older generation. About the only thing I use my word processor for is to write papers, however a lot of older people I know use it to mail physical letters and such.

Re:A little heavy for a netbook

[PCM2]

Even with an SSD the lauch time is unacceptable.

Well, that "even with an SSD" is a little misleading, since the SSDs that ship in Eee PCs are really slow. On my Eee PC 901, the secondary drive is so slow that its write speed is actually a bottleneck when downloading over a fast Internet connection. The boot drive is faster, but not impressively so.

Re:A little heavy for a netbook

[tftp]

People are so used to programs loading instantly on modern hardware that they forget that it used to be normal to wait a good 30 seconds for a typical program to load

Yes, they forgot the DOS days, and they are happy about that. Why in the world they'd go back if they don't have to?

think that waiting 2-3 seconds for a program to load is a crime against humanity.

I have a reasonably fast Vista notebook (Windows score 4.2.) MS Word 2003 starts in ... let me measure ... 4 seconds, and I can start typing. OpenOffice starts in ... let me measure ... in 25 seconds. Now, 5x difference is a major one, and this notebook has 2 GB of RAM (a netbook may have less than that - RAM eats power.)

Re:A little heavy for a netbook

[shutdown -p now]

If you want a lightweight but good text processor and spreadsheet for Linux, and don't mind having to pay for a closed source application, SoftMaker Office is very neat. The text processor there is fast and more powerful that AbiWord, and way more compatible with MSOffice formats (I think it actually beats OO.org there).

Re:A little heavy for a netbook

[r7]

I use OpenOffice at home but it would be a tad heavy for a netbook

"Heavy", for a "netbook"? what on earth are you talking about? I own an MSI Wind which cost all of $280 USD. It has a 40GB hard drive, 2GB RAM (upgraded from 1GB for $12), 802.11, ethernet, vga, and three USB ports. Openoffice loads in less time on this netbook than on my desktop. Why would I opt for something as feature poor as Abiword or Google Docs given all that OO has to offer?

Ubuntu's deal with Google is nothing more than horse trading. They were simply paid more by Google than by Sun/Oracle. Bottom line, end of story. Install Debian if you don't like corporate back room deals. Or install Ubuntu and run 'aptitude install Openoffice'. But don't for a minute believe the maketing hype that this was somehow meant to benefit netbook consumers.

Re:A little heavy for a netbook

[pieterh]

It is quite easy to upgrade the secondary (and primary) drives in the Eee 901 or Eee 1000 with fast SSDs. I've done this on two machines including my main travel machine, the Eee 1000.

Without that upgrade, running anything at all from the secondary (larger) SSD is horrible. E.g. FireFox, which continually writes to disk, just blocks for seconds at a time, over and over.

With the upgrade, it all works beautifully.

OpenOffice is, by the way, more than fast enough for working on large 200-page documents. The main known problem with OOo is in editing large spreadsheets. But for documents, and presentations, it's been fast on Linux boxes since 1999.

The main advantage of Google Docs is easy collaboration between different people, and automatic backup. Losing data on random portable devices is a serious problem that hurts more people than performance or feature changes.

So Google Docs is probably a good choice for beginners, and since most buyers of netbooks in my recent experience (after the geeks all bought theirs) are women with little previous experience... it makes perfect sense.

Anyhow, it's Ubuntu! One click and you install OpenOffice.org.

Re:A little heavy for a netbook

[Totenglocke]

I've run Vista with Office 2007 and Ubuntu with Open Office 3.0 on the same laptop (that's about 3 years old and was only average specs when it was new) and the Ubuntu with Open Office was much faster to load. That's what we're talking about here - Open Office on Ubuntu, not on Vista (which runs everything slower).

how odd

[wizardforce]

The developers have been removing applications that are irrelevant on a netbook.

and

While new ones have been added to provide better netbook functionalities:

gbrainy added (gbrainy is a brain teaser game)

Openoffice is "irrelevant" on a netbook but a game most /.ers have probably never even heard of made the cut? Something is wrong here.

Re:how odd

[FlyingBishop]

Just for the hell of it, I opened up a terminal and typed `sudo apt-get install gbrainy.`

If the program represented a significant change in space, it would have asked me if I wanted to.

Need to get 363kB of archives.

There are single fonts in OpenOffice that take up more space than that. Ubuntu installs it for me without even checking to see if it's okay, because installing it takes less time.

I do think it would be a good idea to include Abiword, but I really don't care about OpenOffice. Both MS Office and OpenOffice need to die. They're huge resource hogs, and most of their resources are devoted to finding new ways to make my documents display differently every time someone opens them.

Re:how odd

[John Hasler]

> Besides, I'm pretty sure you could replace Openoffice with smaller
> alternatives and either gut Gnome or use Xfce and save 350 mb.

So do so. This is the _default_ configuration. You can easily remove and install whatever you wish.

why?

[dirtyhippie]

Openoffice takes about 350MB of space, so it is a significant proportion of an ubuntu install, but c'mon. Despite the name "netbook", these devices in my experience spend a significant amount of time offline. This is bizarre choice - more discussion is here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1399012

Re:why?

[ChunderDownunder]

I think you answered your own question in the first sentence - "350MB of space". Though Ubuntu's netbook page mentions CD installation, many netbook class devices won't include one. Thus having a small footprint in order to have a functional desktop via netinstall is perhaps the goal.

That said, ChromeOS will obviously also use Google Docs so familiarity is also a factor. Ubuntu would be aiming for 'gPad' class devices too. i.e. power-users will buy a ChromeOS tablet but wipe the default install so they can have debiany goodness underneath. I expect the RAM and storage for such devices to be substantially lower that of your typical netbook - at least the low cost versions.

In any case, perhaps unlike ChromeOS, OO.org is only a 'sudo apt-get install' away...

Stupid!!

[linuxgurugamer]

The net isn't everywhere. Sometimes people use the computer/netbook in places where there is no network access. So what is going to happen in these cases? It sounds like to me that those people will be SOL, unless they were savvy enough to have installed OpenOffice themselves.

I use Ubuntu professionally, as well as CentOS & Fedora. By constantly changing the application mix they will discourage people from using Ubuntu because of future incompatibilities.

Re:Stupid!!

[drinkypoo]

The net isn't everywhere. Sometimes people use the computer/netbook in places where there is no network access. So what is going to happen in these cases?

Users who need this functionality can, as you yourself suggest, install something else. I hear they're dropping the Gimp, too. What will users who need that functionality do? Oh noes! Maybe they can install it from the easy peasy add/remove programs tool.

Re:Stupid!!

[Vexorian]

That's an excessively lame excuse. Ubuntu is continously losing functionality and replacing it with proprietary solutions just for disk space sake. You claim that it is no problem to have to install fundamental applications everybody uses manually, but you are missing something:
* What about the live cd/usb? In case of emergencies I would be able to use my flash disk/CD to boot into a version of ubuntu that has the tools I needed for my work (ie: you are using someone else's computer, your hd broke and no time to fix, etc). But without openoffice or the gimp I am now screwed.
* Besides of taking precious time from me and making it feel as cheap as windows, there is the little problem that it is not obvious to new users that these useful apps ever exist. New users would just assume UNR forcefully needs web connection to use that limited office service that google docs is...

Re:Stupid!!

[keeperofdakeys]

For most people, a word processor is a fundamental part of the operating system. Some people also do not have access to the internet. This means that there WILL be some people who want to use a word processor before they are able to access the internet, which means they won't have a change to download open office or be able to use google docs. This is why an off-line, light weight alternative should be included.

Re:Stupid!!

[drinkypoo]

Ubuntu is continously losing functionality and replacing it with proprietary solutions just for disk space sake.

I've only got about 400MB out of 4GB free, so that care is welcome.

You claim that it is no problem to have to install fundamental applications everybody uses manually,

No, I claim is is no problem to manually install the applications that you want.

What about the live cd/usb?

Netbooks don't have CDROM drives. That's a distinguishing feature. You can install programs persistently to the USB.

Besides of taking precious time from me and making it feel as cheap as windows,

This statement is a troll until you provide some more support. Then it's just flamebait.

there is the little problem that it is not obvious to new users that these useful apps ever exist.

I agree that it might be useful to offer the user the option to install this kind of stuff at OS install time, if that's what you're saying.

New users would just assume UNR forcefully needs web connection to use that limited office service that google docs is...

I'm pretty sure that someone installing UNR is likely to understand the distinction. The advertising for UNR makes it clear that you can install other apps.

What is a netbook?

[sakdoctor]

I don't even know what a netbook is now. At the start they were defined by their tiny form-factors, low-ish power-consumption.
The revolutionary part was the LOW price. Sony VAIOs of similar size had been around for absolutely ages, but those were just shit, overpriced laptops.

Then microsoft moved in and netbook grew in size and power. I think my early eeepc IS a netbook, and despite the 600px screen height, I run stock Ubuntu rather than a netbook specific edition.
Running open office has never been a problem, so I don't see the point in getting all cloud dependent for nothing.

Re:What is a netbook?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Price is paramount. When I can buy a "real" laptop for $300 with a 15 inch screen and a 12 inch netbook costs $500 and is far underpowered, something isn't right. I have a feeling that "netbooks" are now just going to be the new term for ultra-portables which have been around for ages but have historically had too low of power and too low of price for most to be bothered with them.

And the weight of that "real" laptop is...? And the battery life? Plus can you actually hold it on your lap without frying your... legs?

When it comes to portable devices, smaller and lighter costs more because the components cost more. It is much simpler and cheaper to make a 10 pound, 2-inch thick laptop than a 5 pound, 1-inch laptop.

Re:What is a netbook?

[PopeRatzo]

a 12 inch netbook costs $500

A "12 inch" netbook? I think if it's that big it's not really a netbook.

I'll make up a rule: The biggest screen a netbook can have is 10" maybe 10.1".

too low of price for most to be bothered with them.

I bet the computer industry loves you. "Say, this netbook is not expensive enough for me to bother with!"

Re:What is a netbook?

[westlake]

I don't even know what a netbook is now. At the start they were defined by their tiny form-factors, low-ish power-consumption. The revolutionary part was the LOW price. Then microsoft moved in and netbook grew in size and power

The "tiny form factor" becomes a deal breaker as you grow older.

The keyboard awkward and uncomfortable to use. The display hard to read. It's surely no coincidence that Walmart's in-store selection of netbooks has been reduced to a single Nickelodeon branded laptop for kids.

The netbook strikes me as being a second or third purchase - and not the first choice for the low income buyer that the geek fondly believes. That's the second shoe you hear dropping at Walmart.

The low-end netbook competes for attention and sales with a dozen other high-tech gadgets at the same price point - and it just might be the product that gives the retailer most grief.

Google Docs Offline

[tepples]

Or, more accurately: what do I do if I DON'T have internet access?

That's what Gears and HTML5 offline support are for. And it's supposed to be seamless.

Normal ubuntu

[MichaelSmith]

I run ubuntu on my eeepc 701. It works fine. I have considered uninstalling open office and installing more lightweight office tools. I will do that if I run out of space (again).

Answer: Google docs has offline access

[Potor]

Hey AC, you know that Google Docs added offline access, right, about two years ago?

Re:no internet? no google account?

[RalphSleigh]

I would guess Tomboy is being pulled because it requires mono. I recall there was a big argument when it was first included in the default Gnome desktop because of all the extra space required by the mono runtime just for some virtual post-it notes. So this move probably saves lots of space behind the scenes.

Re:The thing I like most about my Netbook...

[ChunderDownunder]

You must have a kindred spirit on the 903 smartbus. There's a guy who's constantly coding Lisp on his device. Me, I'm stuck in Java IDE land which would be painful on such a small device, particularly sans mouse.

Why does OpenOffice need 350MB, anyway?

[Animats]

Why does OpenOffice need 350MB, anyway?

• Why is "soffice.exe" 7MB in size? It's just the launcher. The work is done in "sdraw.exe", "swriter.exe", etc.
• Why is there also "soffice.bin", another 7MB?
• Does OpenOffice have to have its very own full Python installation? It's only used for scripting OpenOffice from your own applications; OpenOffice itself doesn't need it.
• Is the whole Java/UNO system, for scripting OpenOffice from Java, really used much?
• OpenOffice has about 100 DLLs, doing who knows what. How many of those are really used?
• In fact, most users don't need any of the Java stuff. It's mainly for the OpenOffice database engine, and you're probably not running a relational DBMS on your netbook.

OpenOffice could probably be brought down below 100MB for netbooks without much work.

So it's now a closed-source distribution?

[Hurricane78]

Because as far as I know, Google Docs is not only closed-source and proprietary. It’s one step worse: It’s not even controlled by you, as it’s on another computer.

No, it being a netbook is not making it OK, that it is only accessible when you have reception. “Netbook” is just a (marketing) name. It’s still just a small computer. It still has to be able to perform normal things without an Internet connection.

This, to me, is one step worse, than replacing OOo by MS Office. At least with MS Office, your private data won’t be sold of to anyone, and you can still cut the connection.
Were they drunk? Was someone payed?

To me, this takes Ubuntu NE out of the equation for all possible uses.

root@livecd ~ # emerge world

Re:So it's now a closed-source distribution?

[xtracto]

Yup,

Being plenty of other options aside of OO.o they had to go with the most propertary one.

Geez, it would have better for them to use a Microsoft Office version with Wine (at least, you control the program and your data).

Of course because Google is teh goodzor and Microsoft is teh Evilz, the typical anti-propertary slashdotters are getting warm feelings

Bradley was spot-on...

[Qubit]

What the everlasting f*ck, guys?

Here, let me go dig up the Ubuntu motto or whatever you're calling it now.

The Ubuntu promise

Ubuntu will always be free of charge, along with its regular enterprise releases and security updates...Ubuntu core applications are all free and open source. We want you to use free and open source software, improve it and pass it on.

So they took a Free Software application out and replace it with a non-Free application from Google. What a great idea!

Although an office suite isn't necessary for one to run Ubuntu, being able to create and consume office documents is admittedly a very common task. Making UNR able to interoperate "right out of the box" seems like a very high priority.

Bradley Kuhn was spot-on when he recently said "It seems clear that one of Canonical's top goals is to convince every Ubuntu user to rely regularly on new proprietary software and services". Bradley's solution to the problem? Go back to Debian.

My experience with Ubuntu has been, on the whole, a rather pleasant one, so I wish that Ubuntu would find a better solution to this problem. OOo might take up a certain amount of space on netbooks, sure, so perhaps they should install a stripped-down package that doesn't install extra fonts until you need them. Or maybe just prompt the user during the install, letting them know how much space OOo will take up?

I've been willing to deal with non-free drivers and binary blobs in the past, as that has sometimes been the only way to get key parts of my system up and running. But when the only limitation to using a completely Free program is a few hundred MB of disk space, in nearly all cases one could (and should) just get a little more disk.

Software Freedom is worth it!

WARNING - GOOGLE ALERT

[doug20r]

Quoting from their terms of use for Google Docs "Google reserves the right in its sole discretion to decide whether your conduct is inappropriate and whether it complies with these Terms of Service..." "Google may terminate your access for such inappropriate conduct in violation of these Terms of Service at any time ". Google may for any reason terminate your use of this software causing you damage and loss. Be warned that Google have a bad reputation for such behaviour. They are currently threatening China so do you think they give a shit for us little people! Sorry Google I do not accept your right to decide who can use a document editing system on their own netbook - get your soft wares out of their system. Do not allow Google into your computer, you do not want to be in bed with this commercial entity.

Re:no internet? no google account?

[Knuckles]

just for some virtual post-it notes.

Except that Tomboy is more like a desktop wiki, and it's great at that. Also, Tomboy syncs with Ubuntu One, which is a great thing to have especially on a netbook. Take notes on the road and have them sync automatically to your home machine via the cloud. Pulling it is a weird idea. I still love Ubuntu, but some devs do make weird decisions at times.

Wow, complete Slashdot article based on blueprint

[Pecisk]

For those who want to know: Launchpad blueprints are ideas converted in subprojects. For example, there have been thousand blueprints which while have been completed, have never been implemented.

So first - no official announcement in mailing list, no blog post, but a *blueprint* is a basis of the whole fact in this blog (which is full of ads and snags). Impressive.

https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/mobile-lucid-arm-webservice-for-office

Wow, first of all, it's for ARM UNE (small subvariant of Ubuntu Netbook Edition), implementation is not started yet and motivation is more clear than ad-riddened blog wrote - OO.o is simply slow on ARM. Yes, you can try to use Abiword, but I think it is not tweaked to run ARM too.

They should use KOffice instead

[ingwa]

This makes no sense. An office suite like OpenOffice.org can't be replaced with an online service. They should put some effort into KOffice instead and then use that. That's what Nokia is doing for their N900 Linux phone and it's the best choice for this situation. I know that many are going to say now that KOffice will bring in many megs of dependencies, but that's not strictly true. There are ways to cut out what you need from Qt and kdelibs, and that is what the developers did on the N900.

I was considering switching to the new suse anyway

[Uzik2]

The version of Ubuntu I tried gets high marks for a great install, but low marks for usability. The cd burner doesn't work at all, the archive manager and file system explorer both have horrible bugs and very poor usability design. That they're choosing to put my documents at risk further emphasizes their poor judgment at the leadership level.