Spreadsheet module

[DesElms]

I'm new here (which is to say that I've finally registered so I can post something after being a lurker around here for a while), so maybe what I'm about to write won't be appreciated very much...

...but, honestly, the delay in getting a spreadsheet module included in OpenGoo is starting to get ridiculous.  

Even the most basic version of Microsoft Office has word processing, spreadsheet, and presentations.

Even the various open source (or fee based) Microsoft Office competitors offer, as part of its "office" suite, those three things:  Word processing, spreadsheet, presentations.

In fact, the word "office" has come to mean, word processing, a spreadsheet and presentation capability.  Those three things are the basics.

And (and this is just my opinion, mind you... and I'm nobody, but) it seems to me that If this suite wants to be taken seriously, then it absolutely has to have,  at the very least, the basics.

I've held-off recommending OpenGoo because I consider it to be woefully incomplete... and I don't mean because of any of the things which so many people who post here think should be included in it.  Those things are just extras, as far as I'm concerned.  I consider OpenGoo woefully incomplete because no suite which calls itself and "office" suite should dare to do so until and unless it has, at the very least, the basics:  Word processing, spreadsheet, presentations.  A database would be nice, but if you look around at what others commonly think of as an "office" suite, even that would be more along the lines of an "extra."

So, please... someone tell me, once and for all... with accuracy... is this something to which we can look forward soon?  Or should I just take OpenGoo off my radar as something to which I'd be willing to recommend to anyone?

I'm sorry to come across as being so irritated and impatient.  But the true is, I really am kinda' almost a little tiny bit irritated.  This has gone on long enough.

And I know, I know... it's open source, and so things happen when they happen, and this is no one's full-time job, and we should count our blessings that OpenGoo's even as good as it is... yadda, yadda, yadda.  I get all that; and I appreciate it....

...but whenever anyone stands-up and declares that he/she has created something and are offering it to the world as a certain kind of thing which he/she expects to be taken as seriously as other things of its type out there in the universe, then he/she needs to expect to be criticized if the reality doesn't quite match-up with the promise... no matter how magnanimous was the effor in the first place.  One of my complaints about the open source community is that it has this nasty habit of saying, in effect, "here, look at this cool new thing we created... use it... rely on it... standardize upon it..." and then when someone who does takes them to task about anything related to it, the creators suddenly play the "hey... it's free... so shut up" card (or something akin thereto).  I consider such an attitude not only immature and generally clueless, but bordering on cruelty.  It's arrogant, at the very least.

So, then, I ask to be taken seriously about this criticism:  Why doesn't OpenGoo, as an "office" type product, boast the basics.

A least the basics.  And in a reasonable timeframe.  Hasn't the spreadsheet capability been "coming soon" for well over a year, now?  Maybe longer?  If so, then by what dictionary does everyone around here define the word "soon?"

Again, sorry to be behaving so curmudgeonly about it... but it's just grating on me.  Is it going to happen, or not?  And if "yes," then in my lifetime? (I'm 52... so, that's actually a semi-serious question.)

________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California

[Karl]

Why doesn't OpenGoo, as an "office" type product, boast the basics.

Hi Gregg,

for me it's easy to answer: It's simply not an "office" type product, it's an "online colaboration" type product and it has - in my opinion - more then the basics for an "online colaboration" type product.

I would never use word processing, spreadsheet or presentations in OpenGoo, I would simply continue to use my loved OpenOffice.

Greetings to lovely Napa, California

Karl

[DesElms]

for me it's easy to answer: It's simply not an "office" type product, it's an "online colaboration" type product and it has - in my opinion - more then the basics for an "online colaboration" type product.

On OpenGoo's "About" page, it clearly boasts:

- Text documents
- Spreadsheets (coming soon)
- Presentations
- Task Lists
- E-mails
- Calendars
- Web Links
- Contacts

and when you go into the demo, you can clearly do word processing, and all the other things on the above list (except, of course, work on a spreadsheet) within OpenGoo.

Granted, its collaboration capabilities are clear... and potent.

But it is an office app... albeit a web office app.

And wishing won't change that.

I would never use word processing, spreadsheet or presentations in OpenGoo, I would simply continue to use my loved OpenOffice.

Understood... though that's obviously not good enough for what I'm looking for, else why would I have started this thread?

Let's stay focused, here, shall we:  Is the promised spreadsheet capability going to become reality in the reasonably near future, or isn't it?

That's the salient point of this thread.

[Pet]

Although the word that you used, "curmudgeonly", is often used tongue-in-cheek, you fulfill its literal meaning as "an ill-tempered person full of resentment and stubborn notions." Personally I wouldn't be so demanding of something that is actively being developed and improved consistently under an open source license at no cost to you.  Each to his own.

I echo Karl's sentiments.  It isn't quite a simple office clone, perhaps Open Office might suit you better. The spreadsheet feature is under development, search the forums and you'll find details about the alpha version of it.  You could always upload an Excel spreadsheet if you require this functionality now. Or put your money where your mouth is by sponsoring its development (scroll down to the second table, Other Features.)

[geebee]

DesElms,

Seldom do you get what you want in life by ranting, at that was nothing less than a rant.

Can I suggest you sit in a dark room and count from 1 to 1000. When you can do that without the word spreadsheet popping into your mind, come back and try again.

ps OpenGoo Dev Team - Where's my Gantt chart
1,2.3,4.............................................................

[cguyer]

Sponsor the dam feature and shut up, no wants to hear you rant in a feature request thread. Hopefully my company will decide to sponsor the Gantt feature geebee and you will have a it a lot sooner =)

[conrado]

1,2.3,4.............................................................

Ha! 

[conrado]

@Gregg: I think most of your concerns were addressed by previous replies. I would only like to reinforce the concept that the way one express things does make an impact on the proclivity to take time to reply and help.

You are wrong in more aspects than have been addressed though. If you take more time to go through the forums, blog, and wiki, you will find why.

[ignacio]

I agree we may have announced the Spreadsheets module too soon, and I want to have it ASAP too, because I know there's lots of people out there that expect to have Spreadsheets on an Office application.

But as someone has already suggested, you can use OpenOffice for this purpose alongside OpenGoo. Use OpenOffice to edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations, and use OpenGoo to share and organize them. Even if we had the Spreadsheets module by now, it wouldn't be as complete as OpenOffice Calc, just as our document editor isn't as complete as OpenOffice Writer. It'll be a long while before our online edition can compete with OpenOffice's. We are aiming to have simple online edition, that will be enough for most of the users.

The spreadsheets module is being developed right now, but the group of developers working on it are not doing it as a full time job nor are they earning any money from doing it. When will it be available? I would say it will be this year, and it will be sooner if you sponsor it. I won't tell you a specific date so that you don't have to write another of this posts then.

Regards.

[martinfloyd]

I too would love to see the spreadsheet module, I have a charity wanting to use a system like this, to be able to share and amend documents online from a notebook, but until there is is a spreadsheet I cant roll it out, would love to sponsor the module but as a charity this is not going to be possible.

[nutkenz]

Why not integrate with Google Apps (includes Google Docs) instead of re-inventing the wheel?

[ignacio]

Because Google Apps is not open source.

[imike24]

ok got it. THanks

__________________
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[WiZaxx]

My 0.2 cent...
By far this is the most complete WEB collaboration tool I have tested so far, and by far.
Personally I would rather have the collaboration features strenghtened rather than adding more office tools.

What I mean is that there are other office-like web app and other that can be used as such: just consider the beautiful eyeOS for example.

So I vote to get OpenGoo better at what is already good at: collaboration.