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Collabora and OwnCloud Announce LibreOffice Online (itworld.com)
sfcrazy writes: Collabora Productivity, a UK-based consulting company, has collaborated with ownCloud Inc. to release a developer edition of online LibreOffice, which they call CODE (Collabora Online Development Edition). "The office suite implementation runs on ownCloud server. That's where all the processing and heavy lifting is done. The rendering happens at the client side. Currently there are three apps: writer (equivalent to MS Word), spreadsheet (Excel) and presentation (PowerPoint). At the moment users can create new documents and edit them. Other functionality, such as collaborative editing, is in the pipeline."
I like LibreOffice, It is my default tool. But the reason why I like it is because it installs on my PC, so I can use it without internet. If I want a cloud office tools I would go with office. And not deal with compatibility issues.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Hopefully they've improved this. I tried this software about a year ago and it was nearly unusable due to the lack of features. It didn't even support page breaks at the time. Some functionality is optional (bibliographies), some is required (page breaks). They probably shouldn't have included it in ownCloud before it had all of the required functionality, because that bad impression stuck with me.
Why would you name a product "code" when that term already has meaning? Name it "Own Office" or "Collabora Online" or even "Snicker Pig." Those are all terms that do not already have meaning. I can't ask a someone "Do you use code?"
It's easy to see why commercial software providers would want to push users toward the cloud: they get to charge subscriptions instead of a one-time buy.
But for users, there aren't any compelling advantages that I can see.
Sure, you outsource software maintenance, and if all goes right availability could be higher. But that comes at a high price: your data being exposed, absolute reliance on your internet connection, no control over e.g. the upgrade schedule, no more communication between applications etc.
Being able to access my documents from anywhere is no argument. My laptop goes everywhere with me, so I already have that without having to store my documents on the cloud.
It would be somewhat nicer if the collaborative editing features worked in the proper non web based version too. There's no reason it couldn't and the native version is much better since web browsers are a bloaty, inefficient VM. You could have the best of both worlds. Online access and collaborative editing, with the efficiency and resource usage of native code.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
LibreOffice on the desktop is mediocre
I respect your right to your opinion, based on your own criteria in your own environment, but I find LibreOffice excellent. It does everything I need 100% of the time. I've done anything from letters to 500 page books and it's all been good.
..that they told me MS equivalent apps, otherwise how could I ever have guessed what they were: Write - for writing; Spreadsheet - for spreadsheets; Presentation - for presentations. Gosh that was difficult, but I worked it out in the end!
I like LibreOffice, It is my default tool. But the reason why I like it is because it installs on my PC, so I can use it without internet. If I want a cloud office tools I would go with office.
...but if you go with owncloud, you'll get a cloud office that is free/libre opensource software - just like libreoffice.
and it installs on your server, so :
- you can use it without relying on some other potentially not secure 3rd party provider
- you and colleagues can use it without internet if all your laptop are on the same network as your server.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I second this. Been using OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice for around 10 years, personally and within my business. No problems whatsoever. Saved a small fortune in licensing fees. Admittedly I had to learn where a few things were initially, but that is no different to when I used to shell out for the latest Microsoft Office.