OStatic

OpenGoo: An Open Source Answer To Google Apps

What's not to like about Google Apps? It has a ton of features, it's incredibly easy to collaborate with other people, and it's free. Well, how about the fact that your data is only as accessible as Google decides to make it? If you're looking for the usefulness of a Web-based collection of office apps but want complete control over your data, OpenGoo might be just the answer you're looking for.

OpenGoo is free and open source server-side software with a collection of apps that are perfect for small businesses. It includes a word processor, task lists, calendaring, an address book, and an email client. A hosted option is also available for various monthly fees, depending on your storage needs and number of users.

I took a demo of OpenGoo for a test spin and it performed really well. I made lists of tasks, complete with nested sub-tasks, then easily assigned them to my imaginary friends. Documents were easy to create and edit, and even included a revision tracker. I used the timesheet feature to track time spent on various projects I made up and then used it to generate various custom reports. The email portion of the suite is still in beta, but looks like it will be very useful once it sees its first release.

A resource like Google Apps may seem like an easier choice for collaborative office applications, but some businesses can't or won't risk their company's data to resource it can't fully control. OfficeGoo lets users enjoy the functionality of other popular office apps without worrying it will one day be inaccessible or, worse yet, disappear altogether.

• collaboration
• office apps
• opengoo

by Anna Medlin on Jul. 28, 2009

The private cloud story thickens! This would be great for companies looking to deploy within their firewalls.

0 Votes

by Sunny Gabriel on Jul. 28, 2009

Let us not get carried away! Google Apps has Google Spreadsheet and Google Sites, amongst others, with permissions-based sharing. Those are some solid, powerful features. But OpenGoo looks very promising.

0 Votes

by Steve on Jul. 28, 2009

OpenGoo has amazing project management. Google apps does not.

0 Votes

by an anonymous user on Jul. 29, 2009

You say "OfficeGoo" at the end of the article. It's "OpenGoo".

0 Votes

by an anonymous user on Jul. 29, 2009

OpenGoo would be interesting if its editors could read and write ODF / OOXML documents. Currently it looks like the format supported is HTML, not that useful for most internal applications.

Integration with popular ECM solutions such as Alfresco, and in particular KnowledgeTree (given both are written in PHP) would be compelling.

0 Votes

by an anonymous user on Jul. 29, 2009

i do not know. the big thing about google apps and zoho are that they are free hosted services. it is going to be really hard to get paid subscribers for a similar service. i amj not sure how they should fund but do believe they need to find a way other than service fees to fund the hosted version.

0 Votes

by Caterina Christakos on Jul. 29, 2009

It's another google application that will bring interest to many people who loves browsing internet using google.

Google Adwords to visit my site.

0 Votes

by an anonymous user on Jul. 12, 2010

Why is it every time I click on OpenGoo - I am taken to Feng Office?

0 Votes

Share Your Comments