[Tfug] Collaborative editing environments?

Tom Rini trini at kernel.crashing.org
Sun Mar 27 12:25:00 MST 2011


On Sat, Mar 26, 2011 at 3:31 PM, Tom Rini <trini at kernel.crashing.org> wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 26, 2011 at 3:18 PM, Claude Rubinson <cjr at grundrisse.org> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm revisiting the issue of collaborative editing with my non-Unix
>> using colleagues.  To date, I've usually just used OpenOffice (now
>> LibreOffice), they use MS Word, and we just email drafts back and
>> forth.  It works, but is rather painful and differences between the
>> Windows and Linux and/or Word and OOo continually cause
>> minor-but-annoying problems.
>>
>> Google Docs seems to be continually improving and I'm thinking that it
>> might be the best choice at this point.  We certainly don't need all
>> the capabilities of a full-fledged word processor and Google Docs now
>> has a pretty decent revision history mechanism.  I try to avoid the
>> Google monolith when possible but if Google Docs supported Emacs-style
>> keybindings, it would be a no-brainer.
>>
>> I'm not willing to force my colleagues to use a wiki or anything like
>> that; the barrier to entry needs to be low.  Any suggestions besides
>> Google Docs?  (AbiWord has a collaboration model and has limited
>> support for Emacs-style keybindings but its development seems pretty
>> stagnant, so I hesitate to throw my hat into that ring.)
>
> I've had a lot of luck with google docs, for both word and spreadsheet
> and it's really gotten nice.

For completeness, there's also Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 which has
collaborate editing bits for Word/Excel and I think a limited web
interface for cross-platform.  No idea how much the licenses cost but
the web side (claims) to be cross-platform and supporting Firefox.
Haven't used it personally but with my work hat on, IT has assured me
up and down that Linux+Firefox is supported by Sharepoint (and thus by
IT and it's one of their test platforms).

-- 
Tom




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