OpenGoo Vs Google Docs

[bigbear]

I have commented on both of these suites at various points. Some time has gone by and I thought I would do a closer comparison.

OpenGoo Pro's:

Able to be installed to your own server, potentially more secure.

Because of self containment, privacy is less of an issue.

It is "free" both in terms of money and access to code/customization.

It can be run on your own servers thus policies and permissions are more directly under your control.

By being installed to your own server, the amount of resources such as disk space, ram are determined inhouse.

Collaboration capabilities are tremendous. They have this aspect nailed.

Appearance is overall clean and uncluttered by default.

OpenGoo Cons:

It is not as 'full featured" as other web office suites yet. It is limited to word processing and presentations, no spreadsheets, etc...

It does not offer support for many document formats yet.

Email account configuration is 'doable" but could be made easier and more clearly communicate procedures to set up.

Development rate is slow. Long time between update/upgrade releases.



Google Docs pros:

Many document formats supported

Many features available, word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, and more.

Google has a relatively high "uptime" and resource availability.

It has a mostly well accepted "brand" association in Google.

They offer subscription level services to schools and other non-profits for free with registration.


Google Doc cons:

It is not free, subscription based for businesses and organizations ( excluding Schools and non-profits)

You are subject to Google's terms of service and policies, may not be as flexible as you might like.

You are subject to availability of resources as Google provides, higher or more access to resources costs more money.

Security is not entirely within your control as your data is on Google's servers, a well know target for crackers.

Privacy is not as guaranteed as your data and content is on Google's servers and is subject to being "data mined" and legal maneuvers do not need to petition you for access to data. They need only petition Google, it's their server.


Overall

In sheer terms of usability, Google has it far and away. Their tools and services provide a wider scope of productivity.

If you have the money to pay for subscription services, or are a non-profit as a school or other wise, it is a tremendous tool that can make access to documents, collaboration and productivity go a long way. As long as you don't keep confidential information stored online.

In terms of control of resources, maintaining privacy and moderate to low productivity tools, OpenGoo is worth looking at. Hopefully, the next major upgrade will see additions of formats and added features such as spreadsheets, etc.. as has been discussed to great degree in the OpenGoo user/developer forums.

If you run your own OpenGoo server, I cannot stress the great importance of running it over SSL. You may not "intend" to store or host private or confidential information, but it takes only one person to not be thinking and you will instantly regret it.


Anyone wanting to "test drive" OpenGoo may PM me and I will give you a link and an account on the BEL Project OpenGoo service. This is the most current version and all Bel Project Forum members are welcome to experiment with it in order to evaluate it.

Big Bear

[bigbear]

OpenGoo has since changed it's name to FengOffice.

It has been upgraded a bit but the development is still not as advanced as it could be.

it does have potential, especially as a locally installed intranet server. I would just like to see, I guess "enthusiasm" is the word I am looking for, from them.

Big Bear