I know many of us have been experimenting with Google Docs. It's a great tool for collaboration. I've used it myself and have showed it to students for their group writing projects.
But I may try a different application next time. Last month, Computer World reviewed four online office suites, and ThinkFree, one I had not heard of before, was by far their favorite. Anyone had experience with this application yet?
Have used ThinkFree
I bought ThinkFree Office (the local install version) a few years ago. They used to carry it in the Apple Stores as an alternative to MS Office. I bought it much more cheaply off of eBay. I wasn't really impressed with that version. It opened slowly (almost as slowly as NeoOffice/OpenOffce), and the feature set was difficult to use (I recall that it was adequate, but just clunky). I read that they had gone to online apps, and I haven't tried them out-- but in my experience ThinkFree has a history of getting more hype than they deserve.
Using Java
That would make sense that it would be slow. They are using Java, which is definitely more appropriate for a web application. I just tried it. I didn't think it was overly slow. Although slower than Google Docs, it does provide a richer word processing tool set on the advanced setting (which would partially account for the difference in speed).
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Charlie | cyberdash
ThinkFree Office
I tried out the online ThinkFree Office, mostly the ThinkFree Word, and found it to be quite adequate. I ended up buying the downloadable version, mostly as an aid to writing blog posts, since its hyperlink and image features work fine. For that use, however, the free on-line Zoho Writer word-processor is probably a bit better, since it has a good direct upload-posting feature. Finally, I haven't found the online or purchased versions of ThinkFree Office to be terribly slow. On the other hand, as a previous comment noted, Neo can be terribly slow. But hey, it's free!