Hands on: OpenOffice.org 3 in the cloud with Ulteo
Summary
Now that the open source office suite has been officially released, Ulteo has upgraded its free "OpenOffice.org Online" services to run OO.org 3 in a unique virtualized environment. But if you need more (or different) features in a web-based office suite than Google Docs or even Zoho currently provide, Ulteos service is an appealing alternative for students, road warriors, and anyone looking to slim down on desktop software. The system requirements to run OpenOffice.org Online have not changed, so Firefox, IE6 and 7, Safari, JavaScript, and the Sun Java Runtime Environment version 1.4+ are needed. Since we last looked at Ulteo, a business model was introduced to offer tiered accounts with more storage, longer session times, and a new document/data synchronization feature for Windows XP and Vista users. Beyond requiring support for complex document formatting or the more robust sharing and collaboration features of competing suites, these basic problems could be deal breakers for those who appreciate the simple necessities of modern computing.