LibreOffice Gets An OpenGL Rendering Back-End

[droidhacker]

I don't really see the use, aside from displaying things (and web based probably does good enough for that), of office suites on tablets or smartphones. I wouldn't use those without a real mouse and keyboard.

And your tablet and smartphone *BOTH* support mouse and keyboard. Take your pick - bluetooth or USB.
Normal computer users aren't buying laptops or desktops anymore. A tablet *IS THE NEW DESKTOP*.

[droidhacker]

Droid, work on your spelling and stop 'yelling.'

Apparently you should get a dictionary and/or screw off.

1) ANY effective hardware accel is a good thing, its less things that the CPU has to do and less things blocking other tasks on the CPU.

WHAT CPU usage? Word processors are *so light* on CPU usage that an 8086 can do it.

2) Android support is in the works, see: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/...ice_on_Android

That is *not* "in the works". No code related to Android has changed in OVER A YEAR.

[droidhacker]

It seems to me that there are two main obstacles that prevent people from using LibreOffice instead of MSOffice: either the learning curve is too steep and people don't bother, or LO simply can't do things that MSO does. If these two main hurdles are overcome, the user base should certainly increase substantially.

There is no learning curve.
LO *does* do all the things that msoffice does... and better.

What keeps the usage low **on ms os** is that people using that platform don't know any better.
What keeps the usage low **in general** is that they don't support Android.

[quikee]

For the record: this OpenGL backend is used for charts only.

[droidhacker]

Very well, but still, I wouldn't carry with myself a separate mouse and keyboard. If it will still be a portability (as in moving things) annoyance, I'd rather stay with a real laptop, for example. But I admit it becomes at least arguable with bluetooth mice and keyboards, someone probably likes it.

There is this;

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andropenoffice

But it is a bad implementation. Its basically a mess that implements xorg and displays via an android application. Frankly though, even as crappy as it is, it is more than usable on a 4" touchscreen ***WITHOUT*** a keyboard or mouse.

The biggest problem with that particular openoffice-for-android, however, is that the prick who provides it is hoarding source for it.

An actual native version, with the menus rewritten into android form, would be excellent. Whether you have a keyboard or not. Not my problem that you don't like typing on a touchscreen -- but even then, it is still useful to be able to **OPEN** a document that you receive, and add a few notes to it.... or print it. Yes, Android now has printing capability too.

[board]

It seems to me that there are two main obstacles that prevent people from using LibreOffice instead of MSOffice: either the learning curve is too steep and people don't bother, or LO simply can't do things that MSO does. If these two main hurdles are overcome, the user base should certainly increase substantially.

Imo Libre Office and MS Office are pretty close in terms of features. Libre Office, just like most successful open-source projects would just need some additional polishing here and there. And the first example I can think of is the formula WYSIWYG editor. It works great but it's awfully slow. I'd also really like to see the source editor hidden by default so that you'd get the pure WYSIWYG feeling. I want to be able to navigate through values just like I do with text (a nice little feature in MS Office).

P.S. I'm actually impressed that someone managed to implement integrated formula WYSIWYG editor besides Microsoft.

For the record: this OpenGL backend is used for charts only.

Still good news.

[amehaye]

LibreOffice has a lot of usability issues. They should take a cue from Google Docs - for example, the web version of the Google Docs spreadsheet is much more easy to use than LibreOffice Calc. Same goes for the Google Docs word processor. The LibreOffice UI needs some polishing.

[zanny]

Very well, but still, I wouldn't carry with myself a separate mouse and keyboard. If it will still be a portability (as in moving things) annoyance, I'd rather stay with a real laptop, for example. But I admit it becomes at least arguable with bluetooth mice and keyboards, someone probably likes it.

But how often do you do word processing outside your home? Or at least not in one place for an extended time like a cafe. I know I take my tablet pretty much everywhere in case I get stuck with idle time and want to read books or comics.

If you have the laptop, you lug the mouse and keyboard with you everywhere. It just wastes portability on unused inputs if you aren't doing productive work with them.

I had an ASUS transformer tab and its keyboard dock for a while, at least until the touchscreen went on the fritz a month after the warranty period ended. I'd plug in the keyboard for writing emails and such, and take the tablet with me on its own most places because I knew I wouldn't need to type anything so long that I couldn't make due with the on screen one.

Albeit, I never used the trackpad. Touch in my book is always better than trackpads, but is worse than dedicated mice.

[mrugiero]

And your tablet and smartphone *BOTH* support mouse and keyboard. Take your pick - bluetooth or USB.
Normal computer users aren't buying laptops or desktops anymore. A tablet *IS THE NEW DESKTOP*.

Maybe in your country people forgot what desktop computers are, but not in mine.
On supporting mice and keyboards, that was already said by someone else, and I already ansered, so next time please save your aggro answers to say things people don't already know.

An actual native version, with the menus rewritten into android form, would be excellent.

Looks like you have a project you'd like to work on. Have fun!

Whether you have a keyboard or not. Not my problem that you don't like typing on a touchscreen -- but even then, it is still useful to be able to **OPEN** a document that you receive, and add a few notes to it.... or print it. Yes, Android now has printing capability too.

Yes, and I said so in my first post in the thread. Visualizing is useful in pretty much any platform. I just don't see tablets as a good platform for content production, but if you feel comfortable with them, great for you.

It seems to me that there are two main obstacles that prevent people from using LibreOffice instead of MSOffice: either the learning curve is too steep and people don't bother, or LO simply can't do things that MSO does. If these two main hurdles are overcome, the user base should certainly increase substantially.

Hmmm, I can tell it's not too steep for the regular user. I got my mother to migrate, and she never had to ask me a single question about how to do things she does with it. I don't know for the power users, but my guess is that power users will figure it out, since they had to become power users some way. It takes smarts to do so.
On features, maybe there are some arcane features missing. Still, it's not the mass who use them. The basic functionality is there, and average users use the basics. On Windows, it's much more about inertia than anything else, what droidhacker puts as "don't know any better". They don't need a reason not to change, but a reason to change. And for this, there should be a basic functionality MS Office doesn't provide and LO does.

[mrugiero]

But how often do you do word processing outside your home? Or at least not in one place for an extended time like a cafe. I know I take my tablet pretty much everywhere in case I get stuck with idle time and want to read books or comics.

I admittedly don't use computers too much outside my home. Still, I never neglected the utility of tablets to display information, I actually mentioned being able to display documents in a tablet is highly useful. What I don't really see it like is as a content production platform.

If you have the laptop, you lug the mouse and keyboard with you everywhere. It just wastes portability on unused inputs if you aren't doing productive work with them.

Yes, and I mentioned it in the answer. The same you waste if you use the tablet as if it were a laptop. You can have both. You can carry your tablet wherever you go, and carry your laptop only when you need to work with it.
Lastly, I already recognized I might have been wrong in my assumption that LO for Android wouldn't have much use, maybe it wasn't clear in my previous post. I wouldn't use it, personally, but I clearly see how many people could consider it useful, and how many people is in the tablet trend.