The recent talk about moving over office suits to AmigaOS is quickly getting old. The future is in the cloud - not in bloated software ports with stack requirements beyond 4,096 bytes.

That being said, what AmigaOS does need is a fast, reliable and HTML5/CSS3/Ecmascript-compliant web browser - perferably with low stack usage, a Reaction GUI, proper ReadArgs()-parsing and, of course, reliable garbage collection.

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@Petah

seriously, I'd rather use FinalWriter 1.0 than GoogleDocs; I want to be able to work offline.

edit: and prefere to bias my local machine for having crashed than the doc to be lost in nimbo between my "Terminal/client" and the whatever-docs server.

Last edited by Amigo1 on 08-May-2011 at 08:41 AM.
Last edited by Amigo1 on 08-May-2011 at 08:40 AM.

Google Docs' Offline Support Returns

Quote:

What makes this feature new is the underlying technology enabling its return: HTML5.

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@Petah

Oh great, I can just imagine trying to write a long document with a 512kbps connection !

Why try to do anything online that can be done far better offline.

Relying on cloud cuckoo land apps is plain daft.

@Petah

To be honest, I'm slightly suspicious of any "we don't even NEED blah blah blah, it's not even good!" claims about missing features 'cos I think that kind of stuff is likely to be sour grapes

I don't know if the phrase "sour grapes" translates well, but it's from Aesop's fable. A fox couldn't get some juicy grapes, so it decided they were probably sour and said it didn't want them anyway. Of course, that was only because it couldn't have any

While particular pieces of office software may or may not be bloated, I think Amiga operating systems definitely need some kind of modern (as in modern-compatible) office software that is actively developed. Here's why.

- I think it's going to be a long time before a web app offers literally all the features of a modern word processor. I'm sure Google Docs is great for 95% of word processing tasks (e.g., letters, documents with normal formatting), but would be very surprised if it has all the features I need. Mirror margins? Full options for embedding images in different ways (including behind text)? Spacing between lines, paras, and individual characters that can be done by the pixel (13pt), proportionally (1.5), or absolutely (0.7cm)? All the fonts I need and option to install more? Small caps, superscript, subscript, different page numbering for different sections? I'm sure Google Docs can do some of this stuff but would be bloody impressed if it can do all!

- Privacy. Google Docs has already had a bug in 2009 where a small number of private documents (I think 1 in 2,000) were made viewable. For a lot of people, the precedent this sets will correspond to an unacceptable risk. Next time the bug might be 1 in 100 or 1 in 2 private documents. This is less of a problem if you have the option to save locally and then upload from your machine when you want to edit, which I think Google is reintroducing (are they?).

- Offline work. One day I'd like to see AmigaOS 4.1 on a laptop or netbook so I can use it on the train. There's no cloud at all on the train I get. I'm sure in future all trains will have free wifi, but what if I end up staying in a cottage owned by the Landmark Trust? I can imagine wanting to spend a week writing in one with no distractions. In those kinds of places it can be difficult sending a text from your mobile, so using the cloud is a long way off.

- More generally, an argument for "the cloud" feels like an argument against OSes as we understand them. If you're doing your basic computing tasks in a browser window then the OS becomes less and less important, until you've got to wonder why you're bothering with an alternate one. "The cloud", if you follow it to its natural conclusion, sees the browser becoming the new operating system (which is what Google envisage with ChromeOS).

- Lastly, part of the fun of using an operating system like AmigaOS 4.1 is everything being a bit different. Why would someone pay more for less powerful hardware if they're just going to be using the same browser-based, OS-transcending web apps as Windows, Mac, and Linux users? At least with a port to native like Open Office Lite, the gui would be different.

Don't get me wrong, the whole Google Docs concept is fantastic and might be the best answer (if it's performant on your system and in your browser) for 90% of word processing. But if there weren't situations where a full offline app would be better, then no one would still be using Word and Open Office. Users of other OSes have that choice on a task-by-task basis and we need it for Amiga operating systems.

To be honest, I would be more excited by a project to update an old Amiga word processor (or Cinnamon Writer becoming usable) than I am by the Open Office Lite port. But whatever happens, if know that I had a usable word processor for AmigaOS 4.1, I would very rarely need to fire up my Windows or Linux laptops (bear in mind that "usable" for me means "able to load and reformat novel length docs attractively" - so neither Abiword, Google Docs, or Cinnamon Writer pass the test on my Sam440, and I can't find Amiga Writer in stock anywhere).

When I start buying software for this thing, it may be that the answer is to write stuff in Notepad and then format it in Pagestream. But that might get quite tiresome...

EDIT: Has anyone heard anything about Open Office Lite in the last six months? I'm loving my Sam, so it would definitely be a welcome addition!

Last edited by jas_mc on 08-May-2011 at 11:54 AM.

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@Petah
I don't think as you, I like write my private documents without the cloud as source, because we would depend of the clouds providers, to pay money every year for the cloud, and now we don't to pay for office programs, because I want it free.

@Petah

I wonder if it will allow you to work offline from the start, i.e. not only when you decide you want to disconnect from the network. And in that case, would you need to have the Google Docs page in the browser's cache to make it work?

Varthall

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@Petah
@BillE

I don't see a problem. OpenOfficeLight will provide for those of us who like to do things offline (like me), while Timberwolf will bring compatibility with cloud applications.

Best of both worlds, surely?

@Petah

Don't say we don't need OpenOffice. It's already taking forever. Anyway I want my stuff on my own equipment, not a server somewhere.

This would make an interesting poll.

Last edited by thinkchip on 08-May-2011 at 03:04 PM.

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we don't need books - throw them away - we have PDF! (we don't need radio - because there are cinemas... then.... we don't need cinemas, because we have TV! ... then... we don't need TV because we have internet! & so on - same old story about a new medium/technology that makes older one obsolete and force it to disappear...

Last edited by nimrod7 on 08-May-2011 at 03:15 PM.

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You don't need that feature®

Hmm.. Have a logged on to Ubuntuforums by mistake?

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@nimrod7

(OT?) btw. i prefer LibreOffice to OpenOffice and MariaDB to MySQL!

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"Marxism must abhor nothing so much as the possibility that it becomes congealed in its current form. It is at its best when butting heads in self-criticism, and in historical thunder and lightning, it retains its strength" - Rosa Luxemburg.

@nimrod7

"i prefer LibreOffice to OpenOffice"

I'll give you fifty pee if you port it

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Quote:

Stephen_Robinson wrote: You don't need that feature® Hmm.. Have a logged on to Ubuntuforums by mistake?

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@Petah

Quote:

The recent talk about moving over office suits to AmigaOS is quickly getting old. The future is in the cloud - not in bloated software ports with stack requirements beyond 4,096 bytes.

But, do you trust the cloud?

Authorities will get access to everything you write, and as it looks in Europe, we are in the post-democratic era, and as it seems, the former Eastern block surveillance was nothing compared to what EU is introducing.

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@Petah

Lets have it and don`t use it, if we don`t want it.
Right now AmigaOS needs OpenOffice.

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Most people probably got a PC too now a days so why do such boring tasks on Amiga.

@Petah

When I post to a forum like this everything I say is immediately in the public domain. If I do not want my opinion known, then I keep it to myself.
When I am writing a confidential document, the information is to be kept between myself and the intended recipient. For that reason it is stored on my computers hard drive and printed on my own printer. The more links there are in a chain the more chance there is of something getting broken. I would sooner try to run a port of microsoft office on my old A1200 than trust to working with my head "in the cloud".

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@fryguy

Some of us use word processors for our hobbies!

I have two PCs, but since AmigaOS is more novel to me (and therefore more "fun") I'd like to do as much as possible on my Sam. It's a pain having to leave it alone and fire up my laptop.

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@fryguy

... you could dualboot to Linux
... use mixture of 68k or Linux emulated apps
... do text in CED and Notepad
... use Cinemaron

Find a million solutions, but native office will be native office, and everyone should
support or not undermine its progress

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