Which office suite will arrive first?
 

I'm waiting for a real release of a complete (allowing editing) release of an office suite (documents, spreadsheets, presentations). Who will win the run, the much announced but still unseen koffice, the "bloated" but complete openoffice, the already ported on previous tablet abiworld+gnumeric, or a commercial software as dataviz docstogo or quickoffice?

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

I believe all of them are in development, and don't be surprised if Microsoft Office makes an appearance, either. I'd be willing to bet Dataviz wins out. But they're all waiting on DRM for license handling. I'm sure they're all ready.

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

MIcrosoft releasing a native Linux version of MS Office? Suprised would be an understatement of my feelings, if such a thing happened. Hell, freezing point of water and so forth.

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

Two words: Easy Debian.

Qole FTW.

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

I'm confused about Easy Debian. Is it in the repositories? I saw something about Debian chroot and something else, but wasn't sure of its functionality. Qole!! Come tell us about your great creation.

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

It should be in Extras. Easy Debian is a virtualized full Debian environment which runs on top of Maemo, and contains all Debian goodies: Open Office, Gimp, etc.

It runs a bit slow on a N8x0, but it runs, let's remember a N8x0 has approximately the processing power of a Pentium II.

Due to the UI changes in Maemo 5, ED is not fully ready for the N900, but I think Qole is working on that.

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

I thought I had read that KOffice was fully baked for Maemo 5. Certainly DRM can't be used as an excuse to delay its release. Did I miss something and it's a viewer only?

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

Not KOffice, but Dataviz. Since its a paid app, they only have read only until either Nokia licenses the full app or they get DRM so we can buy it.

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

Why do they need Nokia to license the whole thing or "get a drm so we can buy it"?

Can´t they just use some code on the device mac address or imei to generate a unlock code for the office application?

Do they need to disclose the code if they don´t want to? Isn´t partially open source and partially not fine?

There´s no DRM on my PC applications. I can copy installation files back and forth and then just enter license codes. Why do I need one for my phone ones? I seriously don´t understand all this DRM wanking with mobile apps.

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

Well, because right now there's no way for you to pay for it that works across the many borders of Maemo. The DRM is mainly the rails for the Ovi Store, which will also be the bell for all app sales for Maemo to begin.

You still have to buy those apps on your PC to get the license. How do you suppose that happens today? Via web? Not ideal. Ovi Store is the way to go.

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

As per Maemo Freaks ;), yes, KOffice is suppose to be available. This would address the OP's question, but the big question is "where the heck can you download the 2.1 release of KOffice for the N900?" Dataviz, I could care less!

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

I think that the most important part of the office suite will be its interface; as an (ex) user of docs to go on a palm platform I must say that it fits well the handheld, so I think it could be a good solution even if it requires a small fee to use.
Openoffice in a debian chroot don't seem too much usable without a complete redesign of the user interface ad hoc for maemo.
Now I have many expectations from koffice 2.1, but I still didn't find any screenshot or video of the full editing suite... there's plenty of videos of the viewer, but it's not what I (and other users I imagine) need as now...

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

Its still in heavy development. They don't have anything to publicly share yet. It is far from ready.

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

The longer Dataviz takes to release on Maemo, the less chance of getting customers. Once the ports of KOffice, AbiWord, etc., are completed, few people are going to need Docs2Go. Now, one application that I really liked was SmartList To Go. Extremely intelligently designed application. Dataviz acquired it and never did much with it. Too bad.

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

Christexaport, FYI, Fremantle update thread below:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34550 :)

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

I agree with the first sentence but not because people will download and use other Office products. I think most people who try KOffice, etc. will be so turned off by the usability of them that they will conclude the N900 just isn't capable of running an Office suite.

The problem is that ports of programs designed for a keyboard, mouse, and 1024x768 screen need massive amounts of work if they are to be usable on a micro device like the N900. Dataviz is well worth the money (I used it on various Palm models) because they have done this work.

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

But there is one thing I don't understand if Dataviz reader come with the N900 I wonder why they wouldn't produce the writer?

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

as I've said before, many of the retail apps are waiting for Ovi Store support with DRM. Once we have that, we!l be able to buy app licenses.

On the KOffice front, they don't even have a useable beta. They have plenty of work to do first. They aren't just porting the desktop app, but making a new version designed for the N900 UI and finger controls.

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

So if I pay the $10 for Docs to go, I get only a viewer. Nothing more than I have with the "free trial"?

I'm QUITE anxious to get .xls support for my N900. I have 10-20 spreadsheets that would be called Apps on another platform. I'm really feeling helpless without access to them. Even simply updating numbers on pre-fixed formulae would be useful to me.

Re: Which office suite will arrive first?
 

sheets: had the same problem. i am using gnumeric in "easy debian". runs fine and fast for easy tasks.

warning: many things in easy debian don't work. e.g. sound or keyboard within the lxde-windows-manager.
(workaround when using lxde: use vncserver/viewer to access lxde)

however gnumeric runs "natively" under maemo without keyboard-problems:

enable extras-devel-repository (warning with this step you are a tester and no end-user anymore)
install easy-debian
click install-icon from easy-debian (you only have to do this once)
wait till everything is completed (downloaded !and! unpacked). this needs some time.
start easy debian chroot (comman-line-shell) and enter the following commands in courier-font.

sync debian repositories:
sudo apt-get update

install gnumeric:
sudo apt-get install gnumeric

then run:
gnumeric

known problems on german-keyboards:
- cursor up/down don't work. because you have to press a meta-key which is interpreted as "scroll window"
switching to english layout for editing should solve it. i just use return for going to next "line".
- no tab-key (for moving to next/right cell)
- small menus require the pen to open/save your work



a fast enough (on n900) open-office/winword compatible editor is
abiword (same procedure as with gnumeric)