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LibreOffice developers demo collaborative editing prototype (ars technica)
Ryan Paul takes
a quick look at experimental collaborative editing capabilities in
LibreOffice. "Telepathy is an open source instant messaging framework that supports multiple protocols. One of the key features of Telepathy is that it allows instant messaging protocols to be used as a medium for arbitrary communication between applications, like a form of real-time network IPC. Building LibreOffice's collaborative editing features on top of Telepathy eliminates the need to operate special servers for the purpose."
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LibreOffice developers demo collaborative editing prototype (ars technica) Posted Mar 27, 2012 1:05 UTC (Tue) by Burgundavia (guest, #25172) [Link]
It would be nice if this feature actually made it into a production release at some point.There have been so many false starts with collaborative editing over the years. Also, realistically we need an MS Office plugin.
LibreOffice developers demo collaborative editing prototype (ars technica) Posted Mar 27, 2012 6:46 UTC (Tue) by eru (subscriber, #2753) [Link] Also, realistically we need an MS Office plugin.Not sure if that makes sense in this context. To collaborate, the Windows user can always install LibreOffice. Trying to support LO/Office collaboration might mire the development of the collaboration features into the bog of differences between how LO and MS Office do things.
LibreOffice developers demo collaborative editing prototype (ars technica) Posted Mar 27, 2012 8:33 UTC (Tue) by dgm (subscriber, #49227) [Link]
> To collaborate, the Windows user can always install LibreOffice.
Not always. Think the many people that work with computers tightly controlled by the IT department. A plugin for Office would help increase the usefulness of the feature. I would not help LibreOffice that much, but may help introduce Telepathy to people that would not have used it instead.
LibreOffice developers demo collaborative editing prototype (ars technica) Posted Mar 27, 2012 9:08 UTC (Tue) by zdzichu (subscriber, #17118) [Link]
So, IT department needs to install LO on those "tightly controlled" machines. Or maybe IT dept don't want people to collaborate this way - after all this is their call how to reach business goals. End users do not make decisions.
LibreOffice developers demo collaborative editing prototype (ars technica) Posted Mar 27, 2012 9:37 UTC (Tue) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] Think the many people that work with computers tightly controlled by the IT department. A plugin for Office would help increase the usefulness of the feature. So we need to develop plugin to help people with strange IT departments which blocks the installation of third-party software yet allow installation of arbitrary MS Office plugins which talk to the network. Do you have any stats which will show that such configuration is common in some circles? Because it's hard to believe: installation of software is usually limited to try to contain leaks and policy which allows installation of arbitrary plugins capable of sending all the keystores to third-party server will not help this goal at all.
LibreOffice developers demo collaborative editing prototype (ars technica) Posted Mar 27, 2012 14:43 UTC (Tue) by dgm (subscriber, #49227) [Link]
> Do you have any stats which will show that such configuration is common in some circles?
Only anecdotal evidence: All the places I have worked in. Usually IT can be convinced to allow small tools, but forget about it if you mention it's a complete 200 MB office suite. It's not "corporate stuff", so it's not allowed.
> installation of software is usually limited to try to contain leaks
Who do you work for, the CIA?
LibreOffice developers demo collaborative editing prototype (ars technica) Posted Mar 27, 2012 18:03 UTC (Tue) by vonbrand (subscriber, #4458) [Link] You'd be surprised at the insanity "security rules" are someplaces...
LibreOffice developers demo collaborative editing prototype (ars technica) Posted Apr 8, 2012 5:06 UTC (Sun) by steffen780 (guest, #68142) [Link]
I worked for one of those companies. In fact I was in the IT department. Whenever Office failed to open the files it produced I just sent them the link to portable OOo, which can be installed without admin (well, the more technically capable people - for normal users I just had them send me the file, open&resave it in OOo, then send it back to them). It is not LO's job to assist corporate morons that think it makes sense to permit an LO plugin but prohibit LO.
Ofc, as has been pointed out by someone else, it boils down to whether someone wants to write such a plugin. If they find it useful, hey, why not. Can't see what harm it could really do :)
LibreOffice developers demo collaborative editing prototype (ars technica) Posted Mar 28, 2012 6:03 UTC (Wed) by Burgundavia (guest, #25172) [Link]
> To collaborate, the Windows user can always install LibreOffice.
Sorry, but no. As others have pointed out on this thread, corporate IT departments prevent this. However, and this is a much harder point to make here, MS Office 2010 is simply a better product than LibreOffice. I use both extensively and LO takes more time to do simple things that MS Office 2010.
LibreOffice developers demo collaborative editing prototype (ars technica) Posted Mar 28, 2012 10:36 UTC (Wed) by eru (subscriber, #2753) [Link] IT departments can be persuaded, if you have good arguments and tons of patience. Perhaps not all of them, there are probably hopeless cases. (Maybe I have had the fortune of dealing with unusually enlightened ones). But as also noted elsewhere in the thread, if you have a retarded IT department, the hypothetical plug-in might also get shot down.Anyway, I think the collaboration plug-in would divert resources that would be better spent on making LO better than MS Office 2010, instead of strangely doing the opposite by enabling LO-like capabilities in MS Office. But as usual, the final call is made by those willing to do the actual work.
The protocol should be standardized and developed in cooperation. Posted Mar 27, 2012 15:50 UTC (Tue) by ingwa (subscriber, #71149) [Link]
When this goes from a proof of concept into a project to develop something production ready, it would be a great shame if the protocol isn't developed in cooperation with other free office developers.
I know for sure that at least the Calligra developers would jump on this and I bet the same goes for Abiword and Gnumeric.
The protocol should be standardized and developed in cooperation. Posted Mar 27, 2012 18:38 UTC (Tue) by luya (subscriber, #50741) [Link]
Speaking about Abiword, the Sugar version already featured collaborative edition since 2007.
The protocol should be standardized and developed in cooperation. Posted Mar 29, 2012 19:08 UTC (Thu) by pkern (subscriber, #32883) [Link]
Every collaboration tool developed its own proprietary protocol. It seems like a rule. Of course if it would be just about text without markup one could've just used libinfinity.
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