Online Ajax Office Suites

[chad78]

Since the Pandora can run (according to the Wiki) Full-on Firefox 3.0 - and Flash 7, and since it has a (near) full QWERTY keyboard, WiFi, and a high-res screen - will it be able to run things like Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Zoho Office, gOffice, ThumbStacks?

That might eliminate my need for an Eee PC or similar. I'd much rather my sub-laptop fit in my pocket.

 

[atomicthumbs]

yes

 

[Chip]

yes

Hold on there, champ. There is no guarantee that Firefox 3 (which is still in beta) will work well on Pandora. It is supposed to be less resource intensive than previous versions, but lets not pretend like it's already running on Pandora hardware. Until somebody says otherwise, it is probably best to assume that the default web browser will be something much more lightweight like Dillo.

To honestly answer the OP's question: Probably, but we have to wait and see.

 

[Prophet]

While I am also planning to try using Pandora as a UMPC to some degree, I don't think it will truly replace something like an eeePC or other notebooks. A 4.3" screen and mini-keyboard is only going to be useful to a certain degree. It will all depend on what you intend to do of course, but in some cases it may be worth owning both - Pandora and a more traditional UMPC notebook.

 

[sindbad]

Hold on there, champ. There is no guarantee that Firefox 3 (which is still in beta) will work well on Pandora. It is supposed to be less resource intensive than previous versions, but lets not pretend like it's already running on Pandora hardware. Until somebody says otherwise, it is probably best to assume that the default web browser will be something much more lightweight like Dillo.

To honestly answer the OP's question: Probably, but we have to wait and see.

If Firefox isn't ready/is too hungry, Midori or some other lightweight Webkit-based browser could be used.

I was gonna say that it's probably too small for such tasks, but this prophet predicted what I was going to say.

 

[Sphinxter]

I was thinking some form of the gtkmozembed widget more likely which is firefox technically.

 

[javaJake]

I don't see why not. I'd be surprised if Firefox 2 doesn't make it into the official build. Firefox 3, as mentioned, is in beta so that'll come later.

Really, I couldn't see having a Pandora without Firefox. That'd be a killer.

 

[Chip]

I was gonna say that it's probably too small for such tasks, but this prophet predicted what I was going to say.

Size is definitely an issue, and having to run your office apps inside a web browser will only reduce the useful screen area you have to work with. Connectivity is also an issue. If you rely on online apps, then you have to be online to use them. That might be ok if you live in a wifi-rich city, but it's a problem for most of us.

If you really need to do word processing and spreadsheets on Pandora, you're better off asking for ports of Abiword and Gnumeric. They are very small and effecient, they don't require you to have internet access, and hopefully their layouts can be tweaked to make the most of Pandora's small screen.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Hold on there, champ. There is no guarantee that Firefox 3 (which is still in beta) will work well on Pandora. It is supposed to be less resource intensive than previous versions, but lets not pretend like it's already running on Pandora hardware. Until somebody says otherwise, it is probably best to assume that the default web browser will be something much more lightweight like Dillo.

Except that MWeston said that Firefox 3 runs full speed on the dev hardware.

 

[ashadocat]

If the office suit uses flash we don't use official flash. there could be compatibility issues

 

[Svartalf]

If you really need to do word processing and spreadsheets on Pandora, you're better off asking for ports of Abiword and Gnumeric. They are very small and effecient, they don't require you to have internet access, and hopefully their layouts can be tweaked to make the most of Pandora's small screen.

I'd have to echo that sentiment. While the Ajax stuff SEEMS like a great idea, no WiFi leaves you without apps (Ajax means server side work being done with the UI being local...), it places your stuff on some other machine you have no control over, etc. The whole concept is flawed without continuous guaranteed access.

If the office suit uses flash we don't use official flash. there could be compatibility issues

They would probably mostly use Ajax, which means Javascript UI with the bulk of the work being done back on a server app back at the hosting company.

 

[Chip]

Except that MWeston said that Firefox 3 runs full speed on the dev hardware.


Pwnt.

 

[fusion_power]

These Online Applications are a good way to have quick and easy available Programs onto the Pandora...if the Browser can handle it.

But why everyone want Firefox? Am I the only one who uses OPERA here? AFAIK it is less hungry than Firefox and it has some very nice Scaling-Features for smaller Screens. I don't know if opera is so open source like Firefox but at least it is free. Maybe The Opera Company itself start to like the Pandora? ^_^

 

[crazedover]

These Online Applications are a good way to have quick and easy available Programs onto the Pandora...if the Browser can handle it.

But why everyone want Firefox? Am I the only one who uses OPERA here? AFAIK it is less hungry than Firefox and it has some very nice Scaling-Features for smaller Screens. I don't know if opera is so open source like Firefox but at least it is free. Maybe The Opera Company itself start to like the Pandora? ^_^

Opera is closed source, so you'll have to convince them to do the port. Also, firefox is not the only browser being mentioned. Someone was talking about a webkit port as well.

 

[javaJake]

I'd have to echo that sentiment. While the Ajax stuff SEEMS like a great idea, no WiFi leaves you without apps (Ajax means server side work being done with the UI being local...), it places your stuff on some other machine you have no control over, etc. The whole concept is flawed without continuous guaranteed access.

You've been living in a cave, I can tell.

Google Docs announced quite a few weeks ago they'd be rolling out Offline access to users with Google Gears extension installed.

 

[Sphinxter]

The idea and strength of AJAX is to put processing on the client side lessening the work of the server by it only having to send document fragments instead of whole pages in the background to be updated by javascript acting on the DOM. The UI is XHTML. Has naught to do with where your documents actually are stored.

 

[Tobriand]

But why everyone want Firefox? Am I the only one who uses OPERA here? AFAIK it is less hungry than Firefox and it has some very nice Scaling-Features for smaller Screens. I don't know if opera is so open source like Firefox but at least it is free. Maybe The Opera Company itself start to like the Pandora? ^_^

Two reasons (for all that I'm an avid Opera user)

First: Opera starts out low resource. I've yet to run a 9.x build, though, which consistently remains at low memory after long periods of being open, and until the most recent Web 2.0 painting fixes, speed would drop soon after memory rose. This is, however, relatively moot - the browser could be closed every so often with little inconvenience, indeed, this is what I do whenever it starts to feel sluggish.

Second (and more importantly): People recognize the name Firefox these days. It's a name that non-geeks know in the same way that Ubuntu is (very slowly) becoming a name that non-geeks know. Whilst I'll not recommend Ubuntu for Pandora (see the other thread from ages ago for reasons why not, but it boils down to, if Pandora uses a flavour of Debian anyway, then that's really the important thing), I would say go with Firefox.

This is, of course, assuming that Pandora ever breaks out of this community + uber-geeks (who are all pretty geeky anyway). But if it does, and from the noises at least some have been making, it might just manage it (specifically for those who want an EEE-style device that's even smaller, but basically does the same barring Win XP, for less money), then marketing something that people are familiar with is very useful. For all that having Opera would be lovely, being able to say to more of the potential market that you can browse the web on this thing just like you do on your laptop would be a big selling point, I think.

On another note: if you aren't running the latest unstable build of Opera at the moment, you really should be - as of about two weeks ago it bests the last stable release in every way except for searching emails, and that could easily just be a problem to do with my having ~30000 messages in my inbox.

 

[Snu]

These Online Applications are a good way to have quick and easy available Programs onto the Pandora...if the Browser can handle it.

But why everyone want Firefox? Am I the only one who uses OPERA here? AFAIK it is less hungry than Firefox and it has some very nice Scaling-Features for smaller Screens. I don't know if opera is so open source like Firefox but at least it is free. Maybe The Opera Company itself start to like the Pandora? ^_^

i much prefer opera as well, its possible opera mini/mobile will be ported for arm linux (maybe it already is? i dunno), possibly even a full versoin ( http://www.opera.com/products/devices/ )... but i dont know if they would do that for free, heh. might be good to contact opera once pandora is out tho, never hurts to ask.

 

[Shiny]

Except that MWeston said that Firefox 3 runs full speed on the dev hardware.


What exactly does 'full speed' mean when referring to Web browsers? They can never get fast enough ;P

 

[teggun]

It runs like you'd expect?

As in it starts up and renders webpages at an acceptable speed?