Run LibreOffice on Your iPad Through rollApp Virtualization

LibreOffice has been rapidly gaining traction as a free, open suite of productivity applications, but many people have wished to be able to run LibreOffice applications on the iPad. Recently, The Document Foundation proclaimed that users can do so by taking advantage of rollApp online virtualization technology. On its own, rollApp is an interesting idea, and it integrates with Dropbox, Google Drive and Box, billing itself as "perfect for iPad and Chromebook users."

According to the Document Foundation's post:

"The Document Foundation is happy to acknowledge that the most recent version of LibreOffice – the best free office suite ever – is available on the iPad and Chromebooks as a cloud application, thanks to rollApp online virtualization technology."

"rollApp iPad and Chromebook users don’t download or install the software, as they access LibreOffice inside the browser. rollApp streams an on-demand copy of the office application from its cloud architecture down to the iPad and Chromebooks and allows to work with files (open, save, and edit documents) directly in the cloud storage: Dropbox, Google Drive and Box."

“LibreOffice’s powerful range of document management capabilities plus rollApp’s smart virtualization technology offer our customers and LibreOffice users a new and intelligent way to be more productive on both iPad and Chromebook,” said Vlad Pavlov, rollApp Founder and CEO, in a statement. “We also want to thank LibreOffice power users for their contribution to helping us to deliver LibreOffice productivity suite on iPad and Chromebook.”

For those interested in personal cloud and virtualization technology, rollApp is worth checking out. It debuted in 2012, and the company that delivers it is in Palo Alto, in the heart of Silicon Valley.

There are some hands-on reviews online from people who have tried running LibreOffice on an iPad via rollApp. They are mostly positive although there are apparently some glitches, mostly having to do with the limitations of working with productivity applications in a browser window. 

You can find a number of reviews of rollApp and more on the LibreOffice and iPad mashup here.