back to article Oracle preps Google and Microsoft Office challenger

The Google and Microsoft Office two-way online productivity tussle is about to turn into a three way, with Oracle pitching a pro-Java, anti AJAX-option. Oracle is "right on the edge" of delivering a preview edition of its Cloud Office suite, unveiled in January, says the database giant's chief software architect, Edward …

COMMENTS

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  1. Daniel B.
    Thumb Up

    Right on!

    "no more AJAX tools, which a lot of suffering programmers will pray for you for the rest of their lives because they don't have to program in AJAX any more."

    Yes, please ... an actual programming network instead of hacking away HTML and JavaScript to further levels, doing stuff that it was never intended to do in the first place.

    OTOH, we really should be making real apps instead of webifying real apps. Hm...

    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Boffin

      I mostly agree about real vs. web apps

      However, who would be brave enough to go up against Microsoft Office with a new suite of fat apps? They have the market sewn up.

      I am, however, all in favour of a bunch of lightweight extensions to MS Office that allow me to do some bits of work or look up references whilst I'm out on the road. That is rather dependent upon a security model that works with classified documents, mind you, and no-one has even tried to address that yet.

      GJC

  2. Aaron Em

    Yeah, programmers'll love it. Sure.

    Because Java is SO MUCH EASIER than Javascript.

    1. GazElm

      Blah blah title

      Is that a hint of sarcasm?

      Because Java actually is easier than Javascript, as soon as you try to do anything remotely complicated.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can we stop this mandatory title thing please?

    "they don't have to program in AJAX any more"

    Ooh, a chief software architect of Oracle said AJAX is old and painful technology - then it must be true.

    Anyway, surely developers who agree with that, and who think that ease of development trumps silly stuff like usability and accessibility, already have alternatives available.

  4. beemergeek

    Meh

    Another way to do spreadsheets! Yay!

    If you want to impress me, create a program that eliminates Visio from the office landscape.

    That's what keeps people coming back to Windows.

  5. Goat Jam
    FAIL

    I am laughing so much

    there are tears streaming down my face.

    Breaking news! Oracle CloudOffice launches @ only $800 per seat* and is fully compatible with documents created by competitive products!**

    * single core processor

    ** $25 fee applies per import/export transaction

    Krazy Larry is on to another winner!

  6. Andrew Baines Silver badge
    Gates Halo

    A java update is ready to download

    Java's a lovely language, it's the religion around it that's so irritating.

    Oh, and the constant updates, confusing downloads and poor IDEs.

    Just don't get me started on JSP and the mess that's java server side development.

    Just give me Java on .Net and I'll be happy (C# anyone)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Flame

      Not so lovely

      The history of Java is a painful and tedious papering over of language flaws that wouldn't have been there in the first place if its creators had paid more attention to the history of programming languages and less to idiosyncratic C idioms.

      I mean seriously, a modern language with int *and* Integer? float and double? And how many person years have been lost to stupid substitutions of = and ==?

      And still we wait for closures...

      C was a lovely little language for systems programming on a very specific architecture within the limitations of 1960s hardware performance and the (lack of) ability of compilers, let alone processors, to optimize as well as a skilled individual. Most of that is no longer relevant most of the time, yet many of the compromises made in pursuit of those goals live on in Java.

      Sometimes, a person's purpose in life is to serve as a warning for others. I continue to hope that the purpose of Java is to prove that C-descended languages have passed their useful shelf life.

  7. Is it me?

    Sounds Good but.....

    Will it integrate into a back-end document management service. I can use this product within our private cloud and eliminate a whole load of PCs, but only if I can link it into the document management service, which just so happens to be OUCM. Event better if I can integrate with S**tpoint.

  8. frankieh

    what is in a name?

    They can call the new Oracle Office app:

    wait for it......

    Oraffice

    :-)

  9. Anonymous Cowherder
    Flame

    Mandatory title is a big dog's crock

    I said at the time that Oracle buying Sun was a bad thing. Nothing so far has lead to think otherwise, I use OpenOffice and VirtualBox every single day. If anything bad were to happen to them I would be severely impeded in my daily duties.

    We were going to install OpenSolaris on about 8 file servers but as soon as I got wind of Oracle consuming Sun we switched to CentOs.

  10. Robert Moore
    Linux

    Yet another WTF cloud moment

    I am not doing my word processing, or spread sheets on an outside server. EVER!

    I am not going to deal with any company foolish enough to use these services. EVER!

    That said, if I could buy the same service and put the whole thing on a server in my server room, you might be on to a winner.

    Oh, and make the server run on Linux.

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