Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
Google Linux Technology

Google Docs Replaces OpenOffice In Ubuntu Netbook Edition 298

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."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Google Docs Replaces OpenOffice In Ubuntu Netbook Edition

Comments Filter:
  • why? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dirtyhippie ( 259852 ) on Friday February 05, 2010 @09:29PM (#31042044) Homepage

    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 [ubuntuforums.org]

  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 05, 2010 @09:30PM (#31042050)

    what a smart move! now when i don't have access to the internet i'm screwed! and if i refuse to accept googles bullshit, and distrust them to fuck, i can't access my documents?

    why not install Abiword one of the best light weight word processors out there? it opens OpenDocument format documents fine, and MS Word format etc.

    also, according to the article, Tomboy is being dropped! that's a great note taking application, and it's a lot faster to load up than a word processor, and you don't have to worry about where to save the notes (unlike if you gEdit).

    for the source of the story: https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-lucid-une-applications

  • by Daengbo ( 523424 ) <daengbo.gmail@com> on Friday February 05, 2010 @09:41PM (#31042148) Homepage Journal

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

  • What is a netbook? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sakdoctor ( 1087155 ) on Friday February 05, 2010 @09:45PM (#31042168) Homepage

    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.

  • Normal ubuntu (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MichaelSmith ( 789609 ) on Friday February 05, 2010 @09:48PM (#31042198) Homepage Journal

    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).

  • by ChipMonk ( 711367 ) on Friday February 05, 2010 @10:14PM (#31042412) Journal
    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.
  • by ChunderDownunder ( 709234 ) on Friday February 05, 2010 @10:17PM (#31042436)

    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.

  • by Animats ( 122034 ) on Friday February 05, 2010 @11:16PM (#31042796) Homepage

    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.

  • by shutdown -p now ( 807394 ) on Saturday February 06, 2010 @01:58AM (#31043626) Journal

    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 [softmaker.com] 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).

  • by r7 ( 409657 ) on Saturday February 06, 2010 @02:28AM (#31043756)

    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.

  • by Hadlock ( 143607 ) on Saturday February 06, 2010 @02:32AM (#31043776) Homepage Journal

    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.

  • by Totenglocke ( 1291680 ) on Saturday February 06, 2010 @11:20AM (#31045648)
    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).
  • Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday February 06, 2010 @12:19PM (#31045994)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by Omestes ( 471991 ) <omestes AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday February 06, 2010 @02:06PM (#31046758) Homepage Journal

    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.

Remember: use logout to logout.

Working...