ThinkFree Corp., a company that specializes in Web-based office productivity solutions, has pulled the Mac OS X version of ThinkFree Office — a Microsoft Office compatible suite of word processing, spreadsheet and presentation graphics applications — for now.
“The Mac OS X release of ThinkFree Office has been pulled until Apple fixes a serious bug in their MRJ,” Robert Jackson, ThinkFree’s technical support manager, said in an e-mail message. “I do not expect the bug to be fixed for several months. In the meantime, you can use the current version of ThinkFree Office on Mac OS X in compatibility mode.”
MRJ is Mac OS Runtime for Java, Apple’s implementation of the Java Virtual Machine. Jackson said he’s received conflicting reports on when Apple will resolve the problem — he didn’t specify what the problem was. He said to keep an eye on the ThinkFree Web site for updates.
ThinkFree Office uses Java technology to support a wide variety of operating systems and device platform. Written from the ground up in Java, the ThinkFree Office takes advantage of Mac OS X’s Aqua user interface, according to TJ Kang, president and CTO for ThinkFree.
You can access the suite from any Internet-connected computer. File sharing capabilities are provided via a public folder that users can make available to friends and colleagues.
Kang said that with ThinkFree office, you could access your applications and files from any computer with a browser, anywhere you are. Upgrades are delivered automatically over the Internet. Just drop files into your ThinkFree Cyberdrive, travel to a different location, login and you can access your documents and work on them. Each ThinkFree Cyberdrive is safeguarded by password protection, a secure physical location and the latest security technologies, including encryption and authentication, Kang said. ThinkFree Office for Mac OS X was due to cost US$49.95 per user, per year. (Thanks to MacCentral reader Hal Cauthen for the heads-up on this item.)