Re: [libreoffice-marketing] few marketing ideas and feature request

We all would like to have our DVD media be part of a computer magazine, 
but that is hard to get done.  The real issue is the cost.  Producing a 
DVD cost money for its maker.  Having it a part of a magazine makes it 
more difficult to ship it to its sales location or by mail to its 
subscription readers.  It is not free.  It is my hope that one day it 
will be part of a computer magazine "free software" DVD, but it may not 
happen in the near future.

Using the "cloud" for your file saving is an idea that is both good and 
bad.  What happens when you cannot get access to the Internet, or the 
storage company has its communication lines cut [like the major flooding 
this past year], or some other issue that prevents you from accessing 
your files?  One day, LO may have the option to connect to cloud 
servers, most likely through an extension.  There are a lot of things 
that have to be worked out to deal with cloud servers, including 
real-time encryption, to make using a cloud server access system work 
properly.  As time goes by, and cloud computing is used more and more by 
users, the open-source code will be written to get this process working.

Tablet and smart phones devices are hard to write for if you want 
something like a "mini" office package.  There are resource issues to 
take into account.  There are people working on stripping LO down to an 
application that could work on an Android device, but what features will 
you keep and what will you get rid of?  MS is working on a version of 
their office package for the tablet environment, but there is an app 
that I see advertised as part of tablets and other devices like Kindle 
and Nook that will read/write basic MSO documents.  But these apps are 
extremely stripped down.  Well, at least we have people that are looking 
into making a version of LO for Android.

Web page creation and editing can be done with LO, but it is not 
designed to be as good as a stand alone WYSIWYG web page editor.  There 
are free ones out there, like Kompozer, that do the job well enough for 
non-power users.  But, making Writer be a great web page editor would 
cause it to be a bloated package.  Right now LibreOffice is an "office" 
suite, not a web page design package.  Even thought they may both be 
WYSIWYG editors, they have majorly different functions.  Also, if you do 
create a web page editor, you should make it and editor/browser and be 
able to deal with most client side scripting and display.  Then there is 
the server side scripting that is used, like PHP, that needs to be 
considered.  To be honest, I started writing web pages with HTML 2.x 
using a text editor and a browser.  It took some time for me to find a 
free HTML editor that worked for my needs.  For business, you will need 
something that is much more powerful, and easy, than the current crop of 
free WYSIWYG web page editors.  One day, there might be a movement to 
add a web page editor to the office suite, but that day is not going to 
happen soon.

You have to realize that LO is an office suite of modules.  It is 
currently designed for use in an office environment that is dominate by 
MS Office.  Our developers are working hard to make it the best office 
suite available.  The issue I found with MSO is the fact that they 
wanted to make there modules/packages do as much as possible and have 
become so bloated that the "average user" uses less than 5% of what Word 
and Excel can do.  LO does not was to go down that path.  If the real 
need for other modules/packages to be included into an office suite of 
modules/packages, then the developers will start working on those 
needs.  Right now, our developers do not want to develop software that 
already has good/great open-source versions.  We were asked to include 
an email package, like Outlook, but there are free ones out there that 
work well and we do not want to duplicate their work with our limited 
manpower.  We have a drawing package, but it was not meant to replace 
the larger packages like Inkscape and GIMP.  We do not have the manpower 
to compete in that market.  So we stick to what we do best, an office 
suite.  By doing this we create will keep making LibreOffice the best in 
its market, instead as a so-so package in many different markets; like 
office suite, web editor, email client, etc., etc..


On 12/09/2011 02:19 AM, anant verma wrote:
> hello everyone,
> i was thinking about few ideas and features that can make libreoffice much
> better.
>
> Marketing idea:
> free cd/dvd distribution with digital magazines or local magazines
>
> basic idea behind this:
> one has to agree that in computer field/ world, generally people are not
> aware that such software exits or what actually open source is. they don't
> know that there exists a software other than microsoft office for office
> work. this  software is known to people who use Linux, but Linux users are
> both advance and less in number. second point is more number of people uses
> a software rapid development of that project takes place, standard is
> established, brand is created and participation of people in opensource
> tech. is created.
>
> Here are few features that can make libreoffice distinguished and much
> useful:
>
> 1) CLOUD SYNC: direct saving of documents in cloud like ubuntu one, or
> dropbox etc.
>
> 2) ODT, DOC, DOCX, XLS etc reader/editor for ANDROID devices which will
> increase popularity of LibreOffice and its format.
>
> 3) *WYSIWYG EDITOR: an editor for drag and drop creation orf website for
> small businesses (as web presence is growing as basic business need).
> moreover it can also be used to create forms and to collect data in
> shophesticated manner in database and ability to sync same data to excel.
> Hosting can be provided by document foundation which will in turn also
> generate revenue for the faster development of office suite.
> **
> *<http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=wysiwyg&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FWYSIWYG&ei=oq_hTpi2L43OrQfv_uzIAQ&usg=AFQjCNGRb6kjQerWL3QdB7NH_ngMi3y4kw&sig2=x8cb_6W05ey87C-oWmQePg&cad=rja>


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