So I'm a wannabe writer and love writing on portables using thumbboard. For 2 years I used an htc apache ppc with textmaker and was sitting pretty. Then I started itching for more screen space and settled on an n810. Amazing screen, but now the word processor is the issue. I've tried everything I could find for maemo (conboy, leafpad, google-docs, open office (via easy deb), AbiWord, notecase). Leafpad turned out to be the best option so far (the rest being either: too limited, too slow and/or too crashy). But leafpad ain't no textmaker.

Any suggestions for OS + word processor combo?

I want to be able to: work on large docs, go fullscreen, do some formatting, stuff like that.

Well, VI and Emacs are both really powerful editors that are quite stable on vanilla maemo, but they are more 'text editors' than 'word processors.' Also they have a learning curve that you may not be interested in.

what about the online option? that way you can access anywhere?

Google Docs works well for me.. I modify at work, bed, garage or anywhere i have internet... if you have no internet at one stage, edit on leafpad and when online copy/paste to google docs....

maybe someone can or someone may have - port open office for ARM. would get great!!

Open office works on the tablets via easy debian. OP even mentioned that he tried it, but, for the most part, OO is too slow to be run on the tablets for anything useful

@OP: What's wrong with Abiword? It has tons of features, is fairly fast, and doesn't crash that often if you learn to keep your nose out of some features. IMO, with the latest beta, it's the best you could possibly hope for on the tablets (besides emacs and vim of course, but, as I said, they're not traditional word processors)

@Notnarb: I'll do some research on the options u mention in ur original post. Abiword (the one I tried off of the dl list about 1 month back anyway) crashes like mad for me. Even when I open smaller docs with it, it doesn't go 5 minutes without pooping out. Has it been recently updated?

@ kingoddball: Yep, that's what i've been doing (working in leafpad and saving to googledocs for backups). Works ok, but its limited and a bit cumbersome. I guess I got spoiled with textmaker on my old ppc.

2.8.1-1ea3 is the latest version available from extras testing, which has been the latest version for a while, but if I remember correctly, the crashing reduced significantly with the extras-testing version and this version made a suitable editor for when I had lost my laptop for a few days and had a paper due.

And for the record, my first suggestion for emacs or vim wasn't 100% serious. They are the two most popular text editors amongst programmers for their millions of features, and are likely overkill for whatever you're writing (although a stripped down version of vim - vi, is already installed on your tablet if you want to give it a try)

Back to open office:
Under easy debian it is SO SLOW!!
I'm talking about a version compiled native for Maemo that does not require Easy Deb to run, and that is full speed. Would be superb!

This would be amazing! Is it possible?