It is not there and it likely will never be there. There are few reasons:
1. NeoOffice uses Java so it is very likely to be rejected since Apple has publicly stated that they will not approve Java applications for the App Store
2. There is no ability for patching that I can see so patches would still need to be done the existing way
3. There is no optional donation support that I can see and even if there is, Apple takes a 30% cut
Even if we could get around the first 2 reasons, that last reason is a very big one for us as we will need lots of donations to fund the upcoming Mac OS X 10.7 Lion work and our "please donate" button at download is what has provided 100% of our funding over the last several years so the binary choice of charge no one or charge everyone is not likely to provide a reliable funding mechanism for donationware like NeoOffice.
I forgot that we did actually take a very close look at the Mac App store when Apple published the app submission requirements to see if we could work within the App store.
The "use of Java" restriction that Apple specifically listed as a reason for rejection definitely prevents NeoOffice, LibreOffice, and OpenOffice.org since all three bundle lots of Java code. Maybe someone will try to sneak LibreOffice or OpenOffice.org through the review process, but that just does not seem worth the effort and risk.
It will be interesting to see if Microsoft or Adobe put any of their products in the Mac App store.
Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 7:34 am Post subject: App Store (again…)
Hi there,
Have you ever considered rewriting the suite and actually SELL the modules (writer/calc/base/presentation) in the App Store? I am sure by doing so, you will receive good press and significantly increase user satisfaction.
I have abandoned NeoOffice on my MacBook Air because it is too heavyweight and slow. I just need some word processing features, so I have moved to Zoho Docs Online, which pretty much feels like NeoOffice, but at a much faster pace.
I would likely return to NeoOffice if you could somehow manage to offer the modules separately, preferrably with a design overhaul, so it will look like an actual Mac Application instead of the Linux-like UI that it has today. This is just a suggestion.
Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 8:31 am Post subject: Re: App Store (again…)
rerhart wrote:
I would likely return to NeoOffice if you could somehow manage to offer the modules separately, preferrably with a design overhaul, so it will look like an actual Mac Application instead of the Linux-like UI that it has today. This is just a suggestion.
What you describe already exists. There is an office suite that has the modules split into separate applications and is designed from the ground up for the Mac. That office suite is Microsoft Office for Mac.
The good news is that we can roughly estimate the development cost for that product. The bad news is that the last time I found any numbers, Microsoft employed a few hundred engineers to work on their Mac product and have done so for at least a decade.
This is why we have gone down the path that we have: you likely need a few hundred million dollars of investment capital to make a true competitor to Microsoft Office and no company has been able to raise that. The closest anyone has gotten to that funding is Sun Microsystems and Oracle. They have employed the OpenOffice.org engineers, testers, and document writers and they have never had more than 10% of the people that Microsoft puts into their product each year.
In other words, IMO there is no free Microsoft Office clone on the horizon. Many people hope that LibreOffice will be that clone, but they only have a handful of Novell engineers and those engineers' work over the last 5 years is already in NeoOffice.
Joined: Jun 11, 2006 Posts: 481 Location: Great Britain
Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:15 am Post subject: Re: App Store (again…)
rerhart wrote:
I just need some word processing features
Hi Raffael,
Just to add to Patrick's thorough response, I think if your need is for a very "Mac-like" and lightweight word-processing application then Pages from Apple's iWork suite is probably the right match for you, and it is available from the Mac App Store.
If your priority is simplicity and user-friendliness then in my opinion, neither NeoOffice nor any equivalent in the same product class is right for you. The value proposition of NeoOffice is a fully-featured office productivity suite for OS X with unrivalled feature set, flexibility and stability at this price point (essentially free, or $100 per year for first-class support direct from the developer.)
Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:24 am Post subject: Your reply
Hi Patrick,
I see. I never wanted to strongly criticize NeoOffice and I will continue to donate. I do not use Microsoft Office either. I vaguely remember that OpenOffice for Linux was once split into single modules in the past, so I thought maybe that could be done again. But I still prefer NeoOffice over the “Big Company†products, which are very clumsy, if you ask me.
Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:37 am Post subject: Re: Your reply
rerhart wrote:
I see. I never wanted to strongly criticize NeoOffice and I will continue to donate. I do not use Microsoft Office either. I vaguely remember that OpenOffice for Linux was once split into single modules in the past, so I thought maybe that could be done again. But I still prefer NeoOffice over the “Big Company†products, which are very clumsy, if you ask me.
I think that you might be assuming some behavior in the NeoOffice and OpenOffice.org code that is not actually true. Although NeoOffice is one single application, that does not mean that all modules are loaded when you launch NeoOffice.
NeoOffice and OpenOffice.org only load a module when you actually open a document that uses a particular module. For example, when you launch NeoOffice and a Writer document appears, only the Writer module code has been loaded. The Calc, Impress, Draw, Formula, and Base modules are not loaded until you open one of those application types.
As for the "separate app" launch icons that you describe, that functionality is still there. On Mac it is just a bit hidden. On Windows and Linux, those separate Writer, Calc, etc. icons are really shortcuts to the following Terminal commands:
Open a file:
/Applications/NeoOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice.bin /path/to/file
Shortcut icons like these are included in OpenOffice.org's Windows and Linux versions because on those platforms applications are not movable and once installed, they cannot be easily moved to a different folder without breaking the application.
In contrast, Mac applications (including NeoOffice) are designed to be moved anywhere and at anytime by the user so the hardcoded locations used in the Windows and Linux shortcut icons does not work reliably under Mac OS X.
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