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LibreOffice as a service offers alternative to Google Docs, Office 365

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Re: LibreOffice as a service offers alternative to Google Docs, Office 365

#41
post #18

To those claiming that Office 365 somehow promotes web apps as your real apps... that isn't entirely true. My company (the one I started, hi) uses Office 365, and all three of us use Office 365's full office suite, the actual real desktop app one. What we use Office 365's cloud stuff for is their Exchange cluster (oh God, so delicious), and for OneDrive for Business (ie, what used to be Sharepoint). Browsers just are…

I bought Office 365 so I could have full MS Office compatibility while I'm using Linux (not saying LibreOffice is bad, I just sometimes need perfect compatibility). That didn't turn out to be a good idea. First of all, to actually open something in the web app, first I have to add it to OneDrive. I cannot add it to OneDrive without actually opening OneDrive on the web because it doesn't have a Linux client. Once I ac…

I don't understand why you're complaining the web app requires it to be in OneDrive first: this is no different than Google Docs requiring it to be in your Google Drive first.

Apps loading files off your disk is highly problematic, and these apps are ran at least partially server side (both Office365's and Google Doc's).

This is a feature, not a bug.

Re: LibreOffice as a service offers alternative to Google Docs, Office 365

#42
post #13
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how easy that would be. Emscripten converts C/C++ code to Javascript, but LibreOffice is written in Java. Theoretically it should be possible as Emscripten actually converts LLVM bytecode to Javascript, and you seem to be able to convert Java bytecode to LLVM bytecode, but Emscripten's [portability guidelines]( http://kripken.github.io/emscripten-site/docs/porting/guidel... ) seem to say that you cannot comp…

LibreOffice is written in C++, actually. There are some small components written in Java, but they're optional, and you can run LibreOffice on a system that does not have Java.

LO's answer to Microsoft's COM is UNO, and much existing UNO code and samples is in Java. So people often get the impression that LO is Java inside.

Re: LibreOffice as a service offers alternative to Google Docs, Office 365

#43
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a bit sad to see LibreOffice struggling to maintain relevance when the market it tried to address suddenly became nearly nonexistent. If you mean that we've moved from desktop office apps to cloud-based Office apps that's absolutely not true. The numbers I've seen for Google Docs etc are insignificant compared to office workers using MS Office and the rest. People who think Cloud docs have "won" apparently don…

Do you believe that will be the same 10 years from now? 15? It takes a lot of time to change an installed base, but that ship has sailed already.

In tech, all things old are new again every 10 years or so. You can't ever say "that ship has sailed."

Re: LibreOffice as a service offers alternative to Google Docs, Office 365

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which market are you referring to? I still crave for a really nice word processor, spreadsheet, and easy database app (in the style of Access). I've always found *Office a bit rough around the edges. My partner recently brought home an iPad from work. Word failed to play well with other (MS Word) Office documents, so file exchange and formats are still a complete pain in the neck. I will be using plain text until som…

I think we can all agree that you're not representative of the market, and to be honest, I'd guess (with no data to back it up) that the majority of readers here aren't as well.

I wouldn't say I was representative of the market. But I would like a good product. How do you define the market?

Re: LibreOffice as a service offers alternative to Google Docs, Office 365

#45
post #16

To those claiming that Office 365 somehow promotes web apps as your real apps... that isn't entirely true. My company (the one I started, hi) uses Office 365, and all three of us use Office 365's full office suite, the actual real desktop app one. What we use Office 365's cloud stuff for is their Exchange cluster (oh God, so delicious), and for OneDrive for Business (ie, what used to be Sharepoint). Browsers just are…

+1 for Office 365. I wasn't convinced until I actually started working at a company that uses it properly. The collaboration features in the native desktop apps work beautifully. Not having to endure emailed-round documents with multiple competing versions like "Report-Dec2015 Draft v5(FP,PL,KM) (2).doc" is worth the price of entry alone. I feel sorry for those like the UK government who've been successfully lobbied…

You might feel differently when Microsoft comes around and jacks your price up with 60 days notice.

Re: LibreOffice as a service offers alternative to Google Docs, Office 365

#46
post #13
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how easy that would be. Emscripten converts C/C++ code to Javascript, but LibreOffice is written in Java. Theoretically it should be possible as Emscripten actually converts LLVM bytecode to Javascript, and you seem to be able to convert Java bytecode to LLVM bytecode, but Emscripten's [portability guidelines]( http://kripken.github.io/emscripten-site/docs/porting/guidel... ) seem to say that you cannot comp…

LibreOffice is written in C++, actually. There are some small components written in Java, but they're optional, and you can run LibreOffice on a system that does not have Java.

Ah, I learned something today :-) I must have been mistaken because Open Office was always insisting that I install Java for it to work, so I guess I misremembered. Thanks!

Re: LibreOffice as a service offers alternative to Google Docs, Office 365

#47
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which market are you referring to? I still crave for a really nice word processor, spreadsheet, and easy database app (in the style of Access). I've always found *Office a bit rough around the edges. My partner recently brought home an iPad from work. Word failed to play well with other (MS Word) Office documents, so file exchange and formats are still a complete pain in the neck. I will be using plain text until som…

>I will be using plain text until something better comes along. Didn't RTF coma along a couple of decades ago?

I should rephrase that then. The plain text is very portable. And easier to edit and read than RTF. That's not to say that there aren't good RTF editors out there. Even HTML is more readable.

Re: LibreOffice as a service offers alternative to Google Docs, Office 365

#48
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a bit sad to see LibreOffice struggling to maintain relevance when the market it tried to address suddenly became nearly nonexistent. If you mean that we've moved from desktop office apps to cloud-based Office apps that's absolutely not true. The numbers I've seen for Google Docs etc are insignificant compared to office workers using MS Office and the rest. People who think Cloud docs have "won" apparently don…

Do you believe that will be the same 10 years from now? 15? It takes a lot of time to change an installed base, but that ship has sailed already.

> Do you believe that will be the same 10 years from now? 15? It takes a lot of time to change an installed base, but that ship has sailed already.

Try working with a 200 MB document in Google Docs or Onedrive .Do you really think people that have to work 8 hours a day on such documents can afford a web app being slow and unresponsive ? There will always be a place for native apps. Yes the web is getting better, but it certainly didn't deliver its promise when it comes to replacing desktop apps, or PC games or whatever.

Re: LibreOffice as a service offers alternative to Google Docs, Office 365

#50
post #9
post #4

It would be cool if they made a client side version of this using Emscripten.

It's coming. https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/Emscripten

Don't hold your breath, i think that emscripten port development is stalling.
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