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."
Remember folks, it's a NETbook. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook. (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
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with terrible wireless reception. :P
Every netbook has terrible wireless reception? What?
Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook. (Score:4, Interesting)
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. (Score:5, Insightful)
For many people in the netbook market, that IS a feature.
Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook. (Score:5, Insightful)
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)
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So why is Google bothering with Chrome OS then?
Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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It's only been available a short time. You'll see plenty of devices using ChromeOS in the coming year.
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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,
Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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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. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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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.
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FTFY
For a start, Google Docs is available offline, so the point is moot. http://docs.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=15134 [google.com]
Maybe it's just a different demographic though, but most of my friends have wifi at home and wouldn't even know if they were working on or offline. If they take their laptop outside, they'll be looking for a cafe with free connectio
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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...o
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The only good thing about google docs are superior .docx support and its ability to share documents.
Otherwise, I feel like I am using Word 2.0 on Windows 3.0 or macOS 5 back in the 1980s.
Its not practical that it does not even have a grammar check.
How much more powerful is a netbook compared to a late 1980's computer with the same feature set of Google Docs?
Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook. (Score:5, Funny)
Not everybody needs a mechanical grammar checker. In your case, however, I can see how that's a concern.
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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.
most netbooks come with at least 20 gigs of storage (even the SSD based ones) and performance is only increasing... with faster and faster netbooks, I just don't see the point.
With faster and faster netbooks, I start to wonder whether "netbook" is a meaningful classification anymore. When people started talking about netbooks, I asked, "What's the difference between a netbook and an ultraportable
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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.
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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
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Hi there 2007,
The netbooks in the future (2010, welcome) have 160GB+ space... Oh, also
No, it's not.
When are you going back home, by the way?
Sincerely.
What is a netbook? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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A) The ability to do -real- tasks without a dumbed down OS
B) -cheap- price
C) Size
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
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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? (Score:5, Insightful)
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".
I bet the computer industry loves you. "Say, this netbook is not expensive enough for me to bother with!"
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My Earlier EEE 701SD has only 480 lines, so I run UNR in the form of Jolicloud. If it were easier to find alt and tab, I would just run ordinary Ubuntu. When I get home again, I'm going to install vanilla UNR so I can run a more recent release and hopefully fix some problems. Jolicloud is a lagger. My LT3103u has normal Karmic, in fact I run with Compiz and Avant Window Navigator. But it also has a 720p display, and it's basically a cheap subnotebook. It came at a netbook price, though...
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Same thing it was at the beginning: A EEE or a MSI Wind. Maybe a Dell Mini. Cheap, small and useful.
I've got the newest EEE with SSD and I use the hell out of it. When I travel, it's all I need and fits in the front pocket of my backpack. Since there's WiFi just about everywhere I go, it fits my needs exactly. I started out with the hard drive model, but after a year gave it to my daughter and bought the SSD model. Now she uses the hell out of it for school. It
Re:What is a netbook? (Score:4, Insightful)
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. [walmart.com]
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.
Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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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.
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Eh? I think you are confusing netbook and thin client. I have a netbook and the installed packages are practically identical to my PC except for games via wine. If it doesn't have a decent offline word-processor then you can pretty much kiss goodbye to anybody using it except smart PDA users.
Phillip.
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I don't use an offline word-processor on any of my machines.. I can't even imagine a scenario where I'd need one. So don't speak for everyone.
Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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Excellent argument by nomenclature.
I have a 4 gig drive, and was thinking about switching to Unbuntu netbook. Now I'm certainly not. While I often surf the web, I got a netbook because it is small and portable. Typing up documents on the train, outside of w
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Let me ask you: what use does a NETbook have for a dual-core CPU, 1 GB of RAM and a 160 GB hard-drive?
Your point would've been valid when netbooks first appeared, but these days they're really rather just tiny notebooks. And if you've got all that power, you may as well use it for something productive don't you think?
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Although I am on record for online applications, and I am a big supporter for the idea however there are some software that can be online apps but shouldn't.
Office tolls such as Word Processors and Spread Sheets are a key one.
Why. Yes it is a netbook... However who cares. We have had These tools for generations on computers. So you are saying that these tools cannot work on a system with RAM in the Low Gigabytes, Screen Resolution 800x600+ Most of the features I use in these tools worked well (heck it was
Re:Remember folks, it's a NETbook. (Score:5, Informative)
A little heavy for a netbook (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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I use OpenOffice at home but it would be a tad heavy for a netbook.
There's that word again! Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull?
On a more serious note, I don't see how OpenOffice is taxing for even the lowest power netbooks. So it might take a few seconds to boot - big deal. 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 and think that waiting 2-3 seconds for a program to load is a crime agains
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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.
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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).
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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. B
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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.
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My EEE 701 boots way faster than my LT3103u. And it's actually running a variety of Jaunty vs. the Karmic install I have on the faster machine (1.2GHz Athlon 64 with 2GB of low-latency memory vs. 900 MHz Celery with 1GB of mediocre stuff.) Karmic has numerous boot time improvements over Jaunty. And I'm talking about logging in and the system becoming usable, with the disk light calming down and all. OO.o was very slow to start on this system, and is plenty slow to start on the 3103. Abiword jumps right up a
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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
how odd (Score:5, Insightful)
and
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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.
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The point is that they're cutting out a lot of *useful* functionality and using some of the freed space to put apps on the thing that the vast majority of people in all likliness don't know about nor actually use. Besides, I'm pretty sure you could replace Openoffice with smaller alternatives and either gut Gnome or use Xfce and save 350 mb.
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> 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.
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If that is the case, then they may as well just use xubuntu and scrape off nearly everything.
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That's a wonderful sentence. Music to my ears.
May it always be so.
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And just for the hell of it, I ran it.
Worst. Puzzles. Ever.
Here's an example:
Given the following words, what word has the closest relationship to "vinegar:" sugar / sweet ?
Answer: sour (As context here, previous questions provided words as options for answers)
Here's another:
6 hours ago it was as long after 4 as it was before 10 on the same day. What time is it now?
Here's a hint: It's 4 (um, ya.)
Maybe I can't read. Maybe I can't do math. For me, though, the word sour is neither the word sweet nor sugar, and
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LoB
why? (Score:5, Interesting)
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]
Re:why? (Score:4, Insightful)
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...
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350MB of space, while perhaps 15% of a default ubuntu install, really isn't that much altogether. And as someone who's installed UNR a number of times, it is easy to convert an iso to a bootable USB stick using netbootin, etc.
Perhaps it would make sense to pare the installation down to a oo-minimal package or something, but in my mind ubuntu just lost a big advantage over ChromeOS.
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Can't you use Google Docs offline with Gears?
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I've tried it. The answer is - "usually" - if and only if you don't do anything fancy. I haven't taken the time to see how much google goop is in my cache when running offline, but its significant.
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Also, I believe all new Eee PC models come with access to Asus WebStorage [asuswebstorage.com], a file/sync storage system, so one of the advantages of Google Docs is negated. You can use your local drive to store OpenOffice and keep your documents in (ahem) "the cloud." I guess the Asus WebStorage driver is not free software, but it is available on Ubuntu 9.10.
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Stupid!! (Score:4, Insightful)
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!! (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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* 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 t
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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
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With this issue, a user of the OS would be reasonably confident that they have a word processor by default, which they wouldn't if they did not have a connection to the internet.
Another problem with your comment is the fact that you can still install openoffice. And an even more relevant one: Ubuntu doesn't remove your installed applications on an upgrade. If you installed Karmic UNR and you've got OO.o, an upgrade to Lucid isn't going to remove it.
Normal ubuntu (Score:3, Interesting)
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).
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Honestly, I think it is just that the current ubuntu heads would just keep using disk space as an excuse to replace perfectly working apps with proprietary ones. I think we need a new flag distro...
Does it work while offline? (Score:2)
I am skeptic about online applications, unless of course the application can be cached or the Google doc server application in fact is running on the netbook.
I am however totally agreeing that Open Office is way to heavy for a Netbook. I do however myself usually use Abi-word and Gnumerics when finding OO too heavy.
How does Google Docs compare to Abi-word?
kickback? (Score:2)
What sort of kickback did the Ubuntu folk get from Google for this? On the face of it, it's a bad decision from the user experience standpoint, as many others have pointed out, because of the potential lack of a network connection. Therefore, it's reasonable to assume that there must be a greater good, at least from the Ubtuntu viewpoint, to screwing their users.
Bah. Anything worth writing can be written with vi (Score:2)
The formatting can be done later.
Re:Bah. Anything worth writing can be written with (Score:2)
Emacs finally got a decent text editor *ducks and runs*
Why does OpenOffice need 350MB, anyway? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why does OpenOffice need 350MB, anyway?
OpenOffice could probably be brought down below 100MB for netbooks without much work.
Inconsistency: Yahoo! search, but Google Docs (Score:2)
What's next, Bing maps?
So it's now a closed-source distribution? (Score:5, Insightful)
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
Google docs is severely limited (Score:2)
The only consolation is that (hopefully) OpenOffice is only an "apt-get install" away.
Bradley was spot-on... (Score:5, Insightful)
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 [ebb.org] 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!
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Wow, complete Slashdot article based on blueprint (Score:5, Informative)
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 [launchpad.net]
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.
I was considering switching to the new suse anyway (Score:3, Informative)
Google Docs Offline (Score:3, Informative)
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 [blogspot.com].
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Well, I have a 4 gig netbook and thought I would be able to save a lot of room by eliminating OpenOffice and doing everything with Google Docs. That lasted about a week.
If I can afford it on my 4 gig netbook, they have oodles of space on a 20 gig one.
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Yeah at the moment I take the tram to work. Its 40 minutes each way. I get a lot of coding done on my eeepc. It is hard to find room for a bigger laptop on public transport.
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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.
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I coded in java [glitch.tl] on the tram for a couple of months. Then I got into writing openmoko applications in C with the Enlightenment toolkit. I work with a terminal and nedit. On a bigger screen I can keep them both visibible with overlap. On the 701 I keep both maximised and tab between them. Its not ideal but it is worth the small form factor.
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Why?
Answer: Google docs has offline access (Score:4, Informative)
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Have you tested it?
-can't create a new document
-can't get to tabs on spreadsheets that you haven't visited while online
-can't (obviously) import a document
It's functional in an "I know i need this ONE document to edit while on the train home" type of way, but not in a "replaces office" way.
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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.
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Yet gbrainy (which supposedly requires mono) was added.
Hmm.
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I'm guessing the Ubuntu powers that be have good 24/7 net connectivity, but forget that many people in the world only connect to the net sporadically
We're talking about the Ubuntu NET book Edition...