Maybe I think too much about the whole "working in the cloud" "web-based office thing", but with this announcement of OpenOffice 2.3 being released on the same day as Yahoo acquired Zimbra from $350 million (Techmeme, Yahoo, Zimbra, Mathew Ingram, Marc Orchant’s bn coverage) it seems like the time of the huge office suite packages is drawing to a close. No, I’m not back-peddling on my belief that you need a local client that can run truly offline and outside of a browser (which right now my fav is still ThinkFree), I just see OpenOffice being such an also-ran that it doesn’t make a difference how they go from here; OpenOffice is pretty much toast I think. Whether we like it or not MSFT and the MS Office format has won the day. Anything that doesn’t play nice with it, well is pretty much doomed.
As for the giant office installs, let’s face it, most folks use only the basics in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Sure I have Publisher and Access installed, but that was just for kicks and giggles, I could uninstall them and not miss them at all.
I see the balance of a light desktop app with a plugin structure for complicated things as a real opportunity. Tie that in with a web-service , that’s the sweet spot. Imagine being able to buy a light-weight office suite (that fits nicely on a flash drive) that when you need more functions just download a plugin for it. I’m not talking about open source either. And I also don’t think all the the additional plugins should be free either. Something really complex … that might cost, but say a mail merge plugin … should be free.
If MSFT and OpenOffice/Sun don’t adapt to the new desire for light apps, well I think they are going to find themselves in a world of hurt. Yes, I know Office 2007 is selling well. Heck I even like the ribbon bar … I just see the long-term (maybe even medium term) future as being limited.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Tris,
I am not sure if you know this but all the major online Office suites use Open Office extensively in the backend for everything for importing and exporting MS-Office formats to formula calculation (in online Excel) - this is especially true of Zoho and Google docs. So, if online Office suites are the future, it is only because they are standing on the shoulders of the likes of Open Office!
Cheers,
Sumanth
September 18th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
I think that the major contribution Open Office will have made (in retrospect, let’s give it 5 more years) is in spearheading the ODF format as Sumanth was pointing to in the previous comment.
In fact, as application are more and more living on the network (or not, if we prefer using local computing ressource, when no network are available) the data exchange format and the API to input and output these formats is where the real action is. Could a company that use to have “the network is the computer” have some people thinking about how ODF on the network is the real killer app? Look no further than the list of the editors of the specification.
September 18th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Oups, that should have been “Could a company that use to have “the network is the computer” *as it’s motto* have some people thinking about how ODF on the network is the real killer app?”
September 18th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Sumanth … I didn’t know that! But that is completely different than people downloading and installing a 40-50 meg office suite or something that has to ship on a DVD to install. I think those days are coming to a close. I hope consumers realize that having a small, light office suite allows you to be just as productive as having giant bloatware.
Sylvain … yes. I think the legacy of OO will be ODF and it’s ability to power other things. It was a great try. I bought StarOffice when it first came out. I’ve installed OpenOffice for friends and have it on a couple of machines. So I think it had potential, I think that they could do well to trim the app, offer extensions to extend it, and not try to take MSFT head on.
September 21st, 2007 at 11:03 am
I am regularly in a situation where I have no net access and so am unconvinced the online apps are the whole picture. I have a portable version of openoffice on the USB compatible SD card in my phone, so I have access to it anytime I can get to a pc with a usb port. I am really takn by the whole portable application idea and have a suite of other tools that I take with me for use while working at all my client sites.
November 3rd, 2007 at 7:56 am
Sumanth,
ThinkFree actually was developed from scratch based on Microsoft Office file formats. While we definitely appreciate what ODF is doing (and plan to support those formats soon) we felt it was important to focus on the vast majority of users who use those file formats. That is why we have the best MS Office compatibility of any office suite - including OO.
Paul,
I will be the most excited when our Premium version (online/offline hybrid + synchronization between desktop and online account) runs on a USB stick. Then coupled with something like Dmailer you could have a complete Outlook/Office replacement on your USB synchronizing files on your local device and in the cloud.
Thanks,
Jonathan
November 3rd, 2007 at 7:57 am
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November 4th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
I think it does matter on some level, but I agree that it would be nice to have less bloated applications in general… but this tendency to head toward excess is the standard set by almost all of the major software publishers since the dawn of 32-bit Windows. Adobe, Microsoft, Symantec, Corel, and so on. The programs are getting bigger, shinier and slower, rather than more efficient, including software intended and marketed to increase “productivity”.
I think that OpenOffice’s standards are commendable. True, Microsoft is the dictator, but that doesn’t mean that we need to give up or follow along.
December 6th, 2007 at 3:25 am
Привет всем, млин тут комп не давно сломался и остался я без компа и инета аж на целых 5 дней! Епт такой тошняк был пока не починил, ведь есть все таки зависимость от компьютора как ни крути. Помню раньше не было и не надо )). А еще игры это вообще жесть затягивает. Не давно видел объявление на ряду с лечением табакокурения, алкогализма, в третей строчки было лечение от ИГРОМАНИИ. Во как! Докатились!
Зависимость или свобода конечно все зависит от нас.