I continue to look for an online word processor that we could host from a server and dug up a few new items. One was eyeOS, a server based open source linux desktop with some bare bones applications. They describe it as a Cloud Computing Operating System.
eyeOS has no database so it only requires a server running php5. Get the package, unpack it on your computer and upload to the server. Alternatively, you can use SVN via ssh to transfer the files to the server. Next, browse to the eyeos/install and you get a very simple one step installer.
Enter the password for root twice and enter a name for the site. You are also prompted to to allow or disallow public registration. The name and registration access can be changed easily after installing. Browse to your installation and log in.
We have a desktop with a variety of tools:
- Word Processor (of greatest interest).
- Spreadsheet
- Presentation Player
- Calendar
- Internal Messaging
- A few games
- Image Viewer
- Browser
- RSS Reader
- FTP Client
- Calculator
Other applications can also be added from the administrative interface.
The Word Processor is the application of greatest interest.
eyeOS sports a reasonably featured TinyMCE word processor with basic formatting that is certainly adequate for most purposes. The real test comes with transferring work to and from other word processors on local computers. eyeOS claims to support OpenOffice and Word document formats, but to realize this, OpenOffice must be installed on the server and it must be properly configured. Many on shared hosting do not have this option. When I started to look at the scant documentation, my eyes glazed over and I decided that it was more than I cared to handle without blocking out a significant chunk of time for the trial and error that this would require.
With the basic set up, there are still some options. First of all, one could use the clipboard to move text to and from eyeOS. Here are the results I got making a simple bulleted list In four Mac word processors: MS Word 2004, Pages 09, TextEdit (rtf mode), and the latest Open Office.
None retained font characteristics. As you can see, the results are inconsistent. Using the clipboard to move test from eyeOS to local word processors does not retain text characteristics. It also converted the bullets to asterisks and converted the tabs into three spaces.
Attempts to upload and open a variety of word processing files and formats was fruitless. Files downloaded from eyeDocs are in html format. Word processors capable of working with html documents such as Open Office can work with these downloads.
Another important feature is that the file may be stored and accessed on the server through eyeOS. There are options to both upload and download files through the file manager interface. There is even an ftp client that comes with the default installation.
eyeOS also sports a simple RSS Reader with categories.
In addition there are Administrative controls. This allows you to create groups and manage users in a rudimentary form. Members of groups have a common repository in which they can share files.
eyeOS is an attractive functional package that I believe has potential for use in the K12 arena in the future. While I could make the word processor work across formats in make shift ways, it is too complex and finicky to use with students. Perhaps with better documentation I will be able to configure Open Office on my server to give it greater flexibility in working with various file formats. I’ll be checking with eyeOS regularly to see if there has been progress that will make it viable for school use.
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Tags: eyeos, linux, online word processor
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a Web OS, it must be amazing.. let me give it a try
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I’ve also been having a bit of a play recently with OPenGoo, which seems quite good, though you do have to have a database on the server to install it.
However, it is very business oriented – I had to call myself a “company” & had the options to add other “companies” & to bill them.Wonder if anyone’s working on a tweak for educators?
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Funny you should mention that, because OpenGoo 1.2.1 uploading as we speak. Version 1.3 RC2 disagreed with my servers mod_secure ruleset, so I am giving stable a go today.
It should be easy enough to hack a few files to change the terminology to something more school appropriate. Just edit the appropriate files in the language directory.
If it works out, I’ll start work on tweaking for education.
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I’ll await your comments on it
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EyeOS is working on 1.8.5 version which includes a full new word processor.
On the other hand, you need to install special add-on for opening and saving documents as odt and real .doc files!
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Thanks for the heads up on eyeOS. I installed a demo on my hosted server and added the neccessary translation file very easily. In my demo the advanced uploader isn’t working but the simple uploader is, this means that while students wouldn’t be able to work on word processor docs within the platform, they could upload and download as needed in order to work with them in the native platform.
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eyeOS looks like fun, but I found you could not use it part of the time (say – when you are out of the office) and then get to and edit your files with anything else.
And an OS running a web browser running a WebOS – seems a bit silly. Reinventing the already out of date desktop metaphore within the web browser … unless you are running something like GoogleOS … hmm
Anyway – check out the plans for EyeOS’s next major release. They sound really good.
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Beware of OpenGOO now packaged as FengOffice – there is no public SVN repository. All goodies (plugins) and Apps will now have to be “sponsored” @USD1000-2000 to feed the offical team whilst the real public developer pours his mite into it! It’s all money and ransom now – the best of Management (twisted ethics aka Harvard et al) principles being applied for maximising profit and not building best of code with public vetting during the development process!
Bugfixes (and multi LAN/WAN access fix – not publicly available at the FengOffice site as yet) to date for v1.6.2 are avilable as a nice ready to go OpenVZ container at:
http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/OpenGOO -
Trackback from Scott Kley Contini Itec845 Blog on April 15, 2010 at 12:42 pm
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