Server Based Computing Reaches New High: Flight Level 370.

From Chris Preimesberger at Desktop Linux

May 29

Singapore Airlines is offering access to Sun's StarOffice 8 office productivity suite free of charge to passengers on its new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. StarOffice, Sun's proprietary version of OpenOffice.org, runs on the aircraft's Linux server and is accessed via a seat-back terminal at each passenger's seat, according to Sun.

Passengers run StarOffice from seat-back terminals that connect to a Linux-based server on the plane

Thanks to new USB ports embedded in the armrest of each chair (near the headphone jack), passengers now can use a USB key (aka thumb drive) or other portable drive to access their documents, spreadsheets, and presentation files from software running on the plane's Linux server.

StarOffice 8 supports both Open Document Format and Microsoft Office formats, and can export files to PDF format. Thus, passengers won't need to use their laptops if they are doing work on Word documents, spreadsheets, and presentation-type files -- all they need to do is carry the documents with them on a USB key or other USB storage device, such as an MP3 player.

"With heightened security, access to laptops during flights can sometimes be restricted," said Wong Heng Chew, managing director at Sun's Singapore division. "The availability of StarOffice ... offers Singapore Airlines' customers the opportunity to work on and access their information in an open, secure and freely available fashion independent of any vendor or file formats during their flights."

The first of the new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft was delivered last November and entered commercial services on the Singapore-Paris route in early December 2006, a Sun spokesperson said. Singapore Airlines currently deploys the 777-300ER aircraft to destinations such as Paris, Zurich, Seoul, San Francisco, Milan, Barcelona, and Hong Kong.

According to Sun, StarOffice software is a complete, feature-rich office productivity product that includes powerful word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, database, graphics, drawing, photo editing and web publishing applications. Fully compatible with MS Office, it includes a built-in PDF export and supports XML, Flash, and HTML.

-- Chris Preimesberger

Do not need a laptop on the plane. Hotels are now offering thin clients in room. Several thin client vendors offer portable "laptop" like thin clients. A secure thumb drive is about all you need.

Until the next post,

Steve

BTW; the next post will be about a new class of thin clients. Pen and Paper! Thats right. Pen and paper can replace a thin or fat client console.