On 2012-06-03, at 18:01 , Raphael Bircher wrote: > It's all a question of the money. > > Am 03.06.12 23:50, schrieb Ian Lynch: >> http://read.bi/LdKYRD >> >> How easy to package AOO for Android and iPad?
At the recent ODF Plugfest in Brussels we discussed the state of the art, esp. for ODF editors and viewers for iOS. Briefly: Now: * With rollApp (www.rollapp.com) one can access OpenOffice via HTML5. It's beta and for speed the closer to the servers one is, the faster. But it works. Servers are in the US, but I tried it out in Brussels using a German server and it was quite usable, meaning that it was speedy enough to do work. With an ancillary keyboard, I could do work—not my preferred environment for complex work, but quite good enough. This, again, was or is for devices able to run HTML5, in this case, iOS. Very soon: * KO.GmbH (think KOffice and I suppose Calligra) have an ODF viewer for iOS. They informed us that with little effort an editor for ODF will be available. It won't be a complete editor but will be native and will have enough to satisfy the needs one might have. A typical need, at least for now: Someone sends me an ODF file and I cannot open it or if I can, I cannot edit it, and I am not near a device that can. This would answer that need. * Other unmade entities are working on more complete iOS solutions that would provide editing capability. The timeline for that? I cannot say. But it is the case that, after *years* of clamour—shouting in the wilderness?—one can see some action. The issue was not just money, as RB writes, it was really future money. That is, until very recently, it was thought inconceivable that enterprise users would want to use the iPad for anything other than afterwork entertainment or casual note taking. That is no longer the case. Meanwhile, we read that MSFT is likely to come out with an Office solution (right word?) for iOS and that quite a few others are working OOXML editors. The intensity of those efforts ought to prove interesting watching—and also costly using. Why am I interested in this issue? There are going to be billions more coming to ICT. I would rather they have the option of using open source software on devices like tablets, which use fewer resources to make, run, manage; and which are likely even to last longer than desktops. The goal I have is to integrate, whenever possible, mobile phones (not even smart) with meshed (P2P) systems that include desktops as well as mobile tablets, all running open source (or at the least, open standards) productivity software. Louis
