Thursday, September 20, 2007

Office Suite - Battle Ground

Few years back, I used to hit the browsing center to get some materials data from internet for my Assignment or Packages (I know it might sound ironic, but still believe it). I need to do it quick and save money. But as soon I have opened multiple sites and try copying the contents to a word processor, so that I can save it as a single file! Baammm! You will get a prompt saying bla bla bla. The software would actually not work. Which will screw you up! I visioned those times, why can't I do this editing, processing online and save the file to my floppy. But now I can.

Yes its possible through online web applications like Google Docs, Zimbra, Writely, Zoho and more. I would say they are coolest online apps available on date. With the internet infrastructure they work like offline apps. Responsive, neat and more cool sharing options that you don find in offline apps. I mostly use Google Apps for the majority of the time. I like the latest addition of Google Presentation. I quickly created a presentation and published it here. Have a look at it.

Here are some of the points I infer:
  • Offline Office applications are becoming bulkier and costlier for user to get and deploy.
  • It is very evident that almost 80% of the offline apps users use only the basic options available in those spreadsheets, Word processors, etc,.
  • Growth in Internet infracture has mode offline apps a step behind.
  • Online apps are Free! :)
  • Good tools for startups to save money.
  • They are quick and contains most of the basic feature needed for a primitive user.
  • Better sharing which is well explained in this Google video.
  • Popular vendor are migrating their softwares to online clones. IMB made its Lotus Symphony free. Yahoo buys Zimbra. Microsoft brings Office live.

Now my vision would be a computer as a hardware device without a software preloaded on it. Let your operating system be online, switch on the machine and connect to your online space and work. Windows becomes Windows Online, SUSE Linux online why not even Google OS.

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