Wednesday, May 23, 2012

InstallFree Nexus - us MS Office or LibreOffice on any device through the cloud

Nexus Logo


InstallFree Nexus is an application I just learned about that allows you to use different applications on any device you want, while optimizing for that device. You can use Microsoft Office or LibreOffice on an iPad, Android Tablet, Chromebook or any device with a web browser. You can view and edit documents that you have stored in Dropbox, Google Drive, Office 365 and others and even access web apps that are written in Flash, Silverlight or Java. InstallFree Nexus makes it possible to use rich web applications written in Flash, Silverlight and Java on any device. All you need is a browser.

InstallFree Nexus Web Connectors

It's cloud based platform that allows you real-time access to these apps. It uses HTML 4 and 5 to work.

nexus overview chart resized 600

It is currently in public beta and will be going to full production this summer. There will be free and paid versions. 

The free version will be called InstallFree Nexus Basic and will include the following functionality:
  • The full LibreOffice application suite for creating and editing documents from any device or browser.
  • Full-fidelity viewing for Microsoft Office documents.
  • Seamless integration with Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, SharePoint, Office 365 and other storage services.
The paid version will be called InstallFree Nexus Premium and will include the following functionality:
  • All the capabilities available in Nexus Basic
  • Microsoft Office 2010 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher) subscription license:
  • $4.99 per month / $49.99 per year for academic users (students, teachers, etc.)
  • $19.99 per month / $199.99 per year for standard users
This is a very useful application that schools could use to make it easier for students and faculty to use certain applications. This makes things platform/OS agnostic and would allow everyone access to these apps and resources and would be especially useful in a BYOT/BYOD environment. It would also eliminate the need to install certain applications on devices. LibreOffice is an excellent free app that does everything that MS Office does. With LibreOffice and InstallFree Nexus, schools can eliminate the need for Microsoft Office licenses. 


Rndr enables any browser to render plugins like Java that may not be compatible with the device. This is very useful for the Chromebooks. 



All of there products are available in the Chrome Web Store at the following links:
- Nexus with Microsoft Office: http://goo.gl/grC0j
- Nexus with LibreOffice: http://goo.gl/zmttd
- Rndr: http://goo.gl/SkqRC