Google OpenOffice Rumors Squashed?
Ever since the Google and Sun Microsystems press conference earlier in the month there has been a world of speculation around Google’s role in distributing Sun Microsystems software and a new addition to the Google application suite. The obvious rumor spinned from the partnership between the two tech powerhouses was that of a Google OpenOffice Suite to challenge Microsoft Office.
Beyond that initial speculation also came the excitement of the possibility of a web hosted Google OpenOffice application, powered by Sun and “distributed” by Google. An article in eWeek quotes a source who says that there is no plan for such an online version of OpenOffice.
“A hosted desktop productivity offering has not been well-received when it has been tried in the past, and those have been beset with problems, including a lack of network bandwidth and speed,” said one source.
“There are also currently quite a number of existing user options, from Microsoft Office and Microsoft Works to Corel’s WordPerfect Office, Sun’s StarOffice and the free OpenOffice.org, so what benefit would a hosted offering bring?”
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