#########################################################################
OPENOFFICE.ORG NEWSLETTER
Volume 02 - Issue 10 - 4/2005
Please send news clippings to:
newsletter@marketing.openoffice.org
#########################################################################
Highlights in this Newsletter
#########################################################################
* Security Patch for 1.1.4 (Announcements)
* OpenOffice.org Conference 2005 - Please vote for the location!
(Announcements)
* Albanian Native-Lang project announced
(News from the Native-Language Confederation)
* Small college saves big with OpenOffice.org and Linux
(Success Stories)
* StarOffice at the City of Marghera (Success Stories)
* 4,000 StarOffice licenses at SANG-HA (Success Stories)
* DHBs to test open source alternative to Windows and Office
(Success Stories)
* First Look: OpenOffice.org 2.0 Looks Good (Customer & User Feedback)
#########################################################################
Want to help OpenOffice.org? Find out hot to contribute or see our
To Do List!!
http://www.openoffice.org/contributing.html
http://development.openoffice.org/todo.html
#########################################################################
Announcements
#########################################################################
Security Patch for 1.1.4
------------------------
A security vulnerability affecting OpenOffice.org 1.1.4 and earlier, as
well as 2.0beta, including the developer builds, was recently detected.
It has been fixed and a patch is available for immediate download for
all users of OpenOffice.org 1.1.4.
Full security announcement:
http://download.openoffice.org/1.1.4/security_patch.html
Mailing list posting:
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=240
Original bug posting:
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=46388
Additional reporting:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1785154,00.asp
http://news.com.com/OpenOffice.org+details+vulnerability/2100-1002_3-5669073.html?tag=nefd.top
OpenOffice.org Conference 2005 - Please vote for the location!
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Dear OpenOffice.org user,
Every year, members of the OpenOffice.org community gather at the
official international OpenOffice.org Conference, or OOoCon.
The purpose of this conference is to allow members of the community
to meet face-to-face in a convivial environment, in order to share
coding tips, plans, technology; information, strategies, methods,
and success stories, with the aim of building a more successful
community project and product.
Koper, Slovenia and Lyon, France have been proposed as locations for
the OpenOffice.org Conference 2005. Please go to the following web
page to submit a vote for your favorite location:
http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference/ooocon2005/proposal.html
The deadline is April 30, 2005. The chosen location will be announced
shortly after that date. In order to be able to participate in the
voting you must be a registered members of the OpenOffice.org site.
Thank you very much and best regards,
The OpenOffice.org Conference Team"
http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference/ooocon2005/proposal.html
Original posting:
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=241
NeoOffice/J Donates Code
------------------------
NeoOffice/J is an independent project building a Java-powered Aqua-fied
Mac OS X port of OpenOffice.org. Its donation resolves numerous bugs.
Thanks! We look forward to further collaboration.
Donation message:
http://porting.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=dev&msgNo=15387
NeoOffice/J Project:
http://trinity.neooffice.org/
Announcement Archive
--------------------
All new and past annoucements can be found in the announcement list
mailing list archive at
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=announce
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The Mozilla Links newsletter
---------------------------
"The Mozilla Links Newsletter is a publication covering topics about
the Mozilla open source project, the Mozilla Foundation, other Mozilla
independent projects, marketing, and mostly anything related to the
Mozilla project."
To subscribe visit:
http://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/newsletter/
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News from the Native-Language Confederation
#########################################################################
Albanian Native-Lang project announced
--------------------------------------
I would like to announce the opening of the Albanian Native-Lang
project (sq) led by Mr. Shkumbin Saneja. OpenOffice.org is now
available in Albanian, an ancient culture and language of Southern
Europe.
This project have increased the interest about Open Source applications,
in Albanian language speaking areas. As there is no other office suite in
Albanian, there are good chances that OpenOffice.org will take the
leading role.
Good luck for the Albanian native-lang project and hopefully we'll be
hearing from OpenOffice.org and other FOSS deployments in Albania soon!
You can visit the Albanian project page here: http://sq.openoffice.org
Charles-H. Schulz,
Lead of the Native-Lang Confederation,
OpenOffice.org
Spreading OpenOffice Tamil
--------------------------
I would like to tell you about a great and perhaps an unprecendented
thing that has happened to OpenOffice.org.
On April 15th 2005 the IT Minister of the country dedicated
OpenOffice.org 1.1.4 in Tamil to the Nation and brought it out as a
CD. This CD will be distributed free to those who request for it.
Apart from OpenOffice.org 1.1.4 in Tamil , the CD also contained open
type fonts, Firefox browser , email-client, OCR tools and speel
checkers all for Tamil Language.
In the coming months the ministry plans to distribute about 3 million
copies of this CD to Tamilians all over the world.
Already about 50,000 copies of CD have been produced and are being
distributed.
So atleast among Tamil Speaking people, we would soon see everybody
using OpenOffice.org instead of proprietary softwares.
Apart from this I also had an opportunity to demo OpenOffice.org in a
TV interview for a Tamil News Channel called "SUN NEWS"
This interview will be telecasted on the "SUN NEWS" Channel on Sunday
24/04/05 at 17:30pm (Indian Standard Time) .
So big time for OpenOffice.org among Tamilians. Let us celebrate the
moment."
[Raman, Project co-ordinator for BharateeyaOO.o Project
(http://www.ncb.ernet.in/bharateeyaoo)]
Original posting:
http://marketing.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=dev&msgNo=20240
Marketing news 04/2005 from germanophone project
------------------------------------------------
"Hi *,
here are the monthly news from germanophone project.
At first I would like to give a summary of the CeBIT last month, where
we presented OOo and the de-project. As expected, it was a great event
and the feedback we got was mostly positive. We had a really nice time
and had many contacts, espacially to people who would like to join the
project for testing and several business contacts.
Very interesting was the fact, that we met many people from other
countries, which were interested in using OOo in other languages. We
tried to satisfy them to contact the several native-lang projects. Maybe
some of you got mail from one of them. :-)
For receiving an impression of the event see my summary (german):
http://de.openoffice.org/veranstaltungen/cebit2005/index.html
or english version (many thanks to Siegfried Schilling for the translation):
http://de.openoffice.org/veranstaltungen/cebit2005/index_en.html
If you want to have a look at our team, see several photos here:
http://de.openoffice.org/servlets/ProjectDocumentList?folderID=439&expandFolder=439&folderID=239
Our next plannings:
- Brandenburger Linux Infotag, Brandenburg, 22./23.03.2005 with 1
lecture: Preview OOo 2.0 (http://www.linuxinfotag-brb.de/)
- Planning of an "OOoCamp" for august, where we want to introduce young
people in our work, explaining what our community is and show the first
steps how to join the project. We plan several technical and
non-technical workshops for it and try to turn our attention in
integrating socially disadvantaged persons."
[Contributed by Jacqueline Rahemipour
## Co-Lead de.openoffice.org
## http://de.openoffice.org - www.openoffice.org]
Success Stories
#########################################################################
USA
===
StarOffice at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
-------------------------------------------------
"Deployments of Sun's Grid technology announced in 2004 spanned
industries ranging from government to financial services to education.
Notable wins included the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), the Texas
Advanced Computing Center, University of Leicester, Stanford Linear
Accelerator Center, University of Nottingham, and several others.
Sun and INL teamed on a solution that includes more than 230 Sun
Fire V20z servers powered by AMD Opteron processors, and more than
12 Terabytes of Sun StorEdge(TM) 6320 storage, the Solaris 10
operating system, Sun Java(TM) Enterprise System and Java development
software, Sun Grid Engine Enterprise Edition, Sun's StarOffice(TM) 7.0
office productivity platform, as well as advanced on-site training and
support from Sun's Services division. The cluster's full-throttle
computing power ranks the INL datacenter as one of the world's top
supercomputing sites."
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050426/sftu070.html?.v=7
Small college saves big with OpenOffice.org and Linux
-----------------------------------------------------
Duncan remains pleased with the results of his creativity. "This puts us
in control of our tech resources, instead of relying on some third
party. It's kind of a scary to say there's some company out there
telling me I'm going to buy a new computer every two years. We've
doubled the number of computers we have available to us with the
cost-savings of OpenOffice.org versus Microsoft Office. We've made
available open access to labs and cyber cafŽs using hardware that others
would have just thrown away.
"OpenOffice.org made a lot of that possible."
http://business.newsforge.com/business/05/03/30/2033252.shtml?tid=37&tid=132&tid=2
United Kingdom
==============
Why UK's Access Devices cooked up its own embedded open source OS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Access Devices, founded in 2001, is a digital video equipment designer
and manufacturer in the United Kingdom. With the help of open source
software consulting company Sirius, Access moved entirely from Windows
desktops to Linux and OpenOffice.org. Then, after CEO Anthony Walton
discovered how far Linux and other open source software had come in
terms of quality and viability, he decided to commit to open source in
a different way."
http://business.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/04/14/2123248
Italy
=====
StarOffice at the City of Marghera
----------------------------------
"The City of Marghera, Venice Municipality (Italy)
-- The City of Marghera (Venice municipality), in cooperation
with Sun Microsystems Italy, realized an IT laboratory for Marghera
citizens, the Internet Center "Marghera digitale". The IT
infrastructure, designed and implemented by Sun Microsystems Italy,
includes more than 30 Sun Ray(TM) clients, three servers and a
software environment with StarOffice(TM) software & the Sun Java
Desktop System."
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050426/sftu067.html?.v=7
South Africa
============
MIP Holdings moves most users to open source
--------------------------------------------
"Fortunately, the open source alternatives proved to be fully
functional, stable and reliable solutions that were not difficult for
users to adapt to. In extreme situations, power users may need more
than these alternatives offer, but these users are rare. MIP therefore
embarked on an upgrade project installing OpenOffice on its
workstations.
The roll-out went smoothly, again, with no users finding they could not
complete their daily tasks on the new software. Firth says some of the
functions in OpenOffice are accessible via different keystrokes or
mouse clicks, but these changes are easily overcome with a little
coaching. "The savings on licence fees is enormous," he notes. "But
most importantly, we are saving money without sacrificing productivity
or limiting user functionality.""
http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/enterprise/2005/0504080908.asp?A=ENA&S=Enterprise%20Architecture&O=FPIN
Saudi Arabia
============
4,000 StarOffice licenses at SANG-HA
------------------------------------
"As a sign of its progressive approach to utilizing the latest
technology to provide first class medical services, SANG-HA recently
deployed 1,500 SunRay thin client desktop systems, in addition to
purchasing 4,000 StarOffice licenses, in order to refresh its IT
technology strategy. In addition to SANG-HA, Sun counts Saudi Aramco,
STC, and SAMBA as key customers in the Kingdom."
http://www.ameinfo.com/58111.html
India
=====
State govt logs on to cost-cutting drive
----------------------------------------
"In the past few months, OpenOffice, a free downloadable package of
commonly-used applications like spreadsheets, word processing and
email, has become the official choice for thousands of desktops across
the state, and is expected to save the exchequer about Rs 90 crore in
licence fees. Recently, the Maharashtra police headquarters too plumped
for free operating system GNU/Linux with OpenOffice. That's not all.
Already, the election office is using a bi-lingual voter-list search
system developed by free software activists, while corporate open
sourcers like Red Hat are providing software for the government's
treasury management, citizens' facility centres and land record
management."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1081589.cms
Thailand
========
Thailand: The case for open source software
-------------------------------------------
[Contributed by Simon Phipps]
"To counter the compatability issue, Sipa, Nectec and Sun Microsystems
Thailand are now working to make OpenOffice 2.0 _ an open source office
suite _ a standard program. In the past, there have been various office
software suites, including Pladao, OfficeTLE and OpenOffice, which
according to Mr Clark can create confusion.
Sipa, Nectec and Sun Microsystems are now merging some parts of Pladao
and OfficeTLE into OpenOffice 2.0."
http://www.bangkokpost.com/300305_Database/30Mar2005_data51.php
New Zealand
===========
DHBs to test open source alternative to Windows and Office
----------------------------------------------------------
"First, the DHBs will pilot an open source desktop environment, being
put together by Steve Rayner, CIO of Wanganui DHB, to assess how many
users it will serve adequately. Rayner plans to support two categories
of user: "power users" with Microsoft desktop software, and "regular
clinical users" with Novell Enterprise Desktop, OpenOffice.org and
GroupWise running on Suse Linux."
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/0/39A5FAC6A45E8FB2CC256FDA00319B5C?OpenDocument&pub=Computerworld
NZ open source trial attracts gov't attention
---------------------------------------------
"The Wanganui pilot will seek to establish how many users there are
with just basic computing needs and whether it is possible to meet
those with a non-Microsoft environment. It will be based on Suse Linux
and OpenOffice.org."
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1561121703;fp;16;fpid;0
Studies & Reports
#########################################################################
Why Novell's internal migration to Linux desktops is a landmark story
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"The migration began last summer. Actually the first phase began the
previous year, with the move from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org.
Anderson set an ambitious goal for that first phase: She wanted to
migrate 90 percent of MS Office users to OOo in three months. They
almost made that goal, too, with 85 percent migrated during that time
frame. There were lessons to be learned from those who couldn't
migrate, and feedback to the OOo developers got work started on
removing some of the tougher obstacles. (Note: I've heard unconfirmed
reports that Novell has hired a number of OOo developers since then.)"
http://business.newsforge.com/business/05/03/23/1755222.shtml?tid=37&tid=18
Linux appeal grows as applications flourish
-------------------------------------------
"Sun Microsystems' OpenOffice, an open-source version of the company's
StarOffice suite, runs on Windows, Linux, Solaris and Apple Computer's
Macintosh OS X. As an open-source competitor to desktop suites such as
Microsoft Office, "OpenOffice has been a wild success," said Manish
Punjabi, Sun's group marketing manager for both products."
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/software/2005-04-04-linux-apps_x.htm
Resources
#########################################################################
Open source moves into Microsoft's Office block
-----------------------------------------------
"Open source software is coming to a personal computer near you. The
success of Firefox, the open source web browser, has shown that "free"
software is no longer the preserve of bearded geeks and hackers. Now
comes a credible alternative to Microsoft's ubiquitous Office suite
that costs not a penny, euro or yen.
The latest incarnation of OpenOffice was last month released for
testing by users. Early reviews say it marks a big advance over earlier
versions of the free word processing, spreadsheet and presentation
package."
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/1c5e53b8-b205-11d9-8c61-00000e2511c8.html
Open source, more than Linux, the real winner for business
----------------------------------------------------------
[Thanks to Craig Adams]
"CSC, formerly Computer Sciences Corporation, is a fortune 500 company
supplying high level IT services to companies and government agencies in
76 locations on 6 continents . The organisation employs nearly 80 000
people and reported revenues of US$13.9 billion last year. In November
CSC Leading Edge Forum completed 18 months of research into OSS. The
report Open Source: Open for Business (7.8 MB) explores the usage and
potential of open source both within the company and amongst its
heavyweight client base."
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=435
OpenOffice 2.0 to break down walls to adoption
----------------------------------------------
"Industry experts who have taken a look at the OpenOffice.org 2.0 said
new database functionality included with the open source personal
productivity suite will go a long way toward making the system a viable
alternative to Microsoft Office -- especially in the all important
small and medium-sized business (SMB) market."
http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci1073674,00.html
How to save, make money with open source? Round up this Posse
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Martin illustrated the point with examples from customers and
estimates from IDC that on average, every worker spends five minutes
per day on spam and/or viruses in email, a burden that can cause lost
productivity, undue stress on servers and support staff time. With open
source solutions Firefox, Postfix, OpenOffice and the LAMP stack --
Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP -- Martin claimed he could cut the wasted
man hours, consumption of support staff time, and security risks. In
addition, tools such as the Firefox browser require little or no
training, Martin said."
http://management.itmanagersjournal.com/management/05/03/18/2218226.shtml?tid=85
All Microsoft or None?
----------------------
"In a study done on behalf of the European Union, Valoris, a European
business consultancy, found OpenOffice a viable alternative to
Microsoft Office. The EU asked the company to recommend an open
document format that would let member states' governments exchange
electronic documents. Recommending both Office and OpenOffice as
appropriate, the report concluded: "OpenOffice user base size is now
such that it is irreversible.""
http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3493416
Erwin Tenhumberg's Weblog
-------------------------
Includes news and tips on the upcoming OpenOffice.org 2.0
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/dancer
Customer & User Feedback
#########################################################################
First Look: OpenOffice.org 2.0 Looks Good
-----------------------------------------
"In addition to Base, the database app, OpenOffice.org 2.0 includes a
word processor, a spreadsheet application, a presentation program, an
app for creating mathematical formulas, and a nifty drawing program
much more powerful and fun than Microsoft's Paint. The beta version is
available for Windows, Linux, and Mac machines."
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120154,00.asp
Download some of the best software money can't buy
--------------------------------------------------
"Don't want to deal with the hassles of incompatible files? No problem
- OpenOffice.org can create, open, edit, and save Word, Excel, and
PowerPoint documents. Plus, it's available for multiple platforms,
including Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.
This is an outstanding solution for college students, home offices, and
pretty much anyone who wants Microsoft Office-caliber functionality
without the sticker shock."
http://hometownlife.com/WestBloomfield/News.asp?pageType=StoryCurrent&Story
ArchiveID=94436&StoryID=10661&Section=At%20Home&OnlineSection=At%20Home&
SectionPubDate=Thursday,%20March%2031,%202005&RefDate=3/31/2005
OpenOffice is a decent alternative
----------------------------------
"DonÕt take that to mean IÕve explored every nook and cranny of the 2.0
beta. However, IÕve looked at enough to know that users should consider
using it over paying out cash for Microsoft Office, a software thatÕs
gotten fatter and fatter."
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/11197462.htm
Mo' Beta Builds
---------------
"I've been using development builds of OpenOffice.org 2.0 since last
autumn, always saving documents to Microsoft Office formats since
that's the standard here at PC World HQ. In that time, I've had only a
couple of small problems sharing documents with coworkers using
Microsoft Office. We're talking about very slight formatting
inconsistencies, here--not anything that prevented work from getting
done."
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120116,00.asp
Ask Slashdot: OpenOffice vs. MS Office for Education?
-----------------------------------------------------
"I work in a large high school district where there will be some
discussion on whether or not to purchase another term of 'Software
Assurance' for MS Office licenses on thousands of computers. This seems
to be an ideal opportunity to promote an alternative such as
OpenOffice. It will not be an easy sell, even though OpenOffice should
more than satisfy all curricular needs and save the district lots of
money; like many other districts we have political and cultural
'challenges'. So, I ask you, have you been successful in moving your
education or business organization from MS Office to OpenOffice? What
were the pros and cons from your migration? What advice do you have in
selling this to tech coordinators and administrators who are not
enlightened by Open Source?"
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/20/1753225&tid=146&tid=102&tid=201&tid=4
Developer and Administrator News
#########################################################################
IBM Certifies OpenDocument Successful Implementation
----------------------------------------------------
[Noticed on Simon Phipps' blog:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/webmink/20050328#ibm_endorses_opendocument]
"Formal statement: IBM Corporation certifies that it is successfully
using the Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument)
1.0 specification consistently with the OASIS IPR Policy. --
Nathaniel Borenstein, Distinguished Engineer and Open Standards
Strategist, IBM Corporation"
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/office/200503/msg00020.html
OpenOffice delayed thanks to lack of developers
-----------------------------------------------
"OpenOffice's development is being hampered by a lack of independent
contributors, its project leaders have warned the open-source
community.
It may be touted as a viable alternative to Microsoft Office, but its
pace of development and adoption of new features is being stifled by a
"monolithic" code base and a developer community still largely
controlled by Sun Microsystems, it is claimed.
Project contributors speaking at the annual OpenOffice.org conference
in Australia this week raised a number of worrying issues. Developer
Ken Foskey said the biggest problem was a lack of developers and a code
base that is "just too big"."
http://www.techworld.com/applications/news/index.cfm?newsid=3510
See also:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/dancer/20050418#i_won_t_provide_numbers
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/dancer/20050421#lack_of_developers_delays_openoffice
Java fallout: OpenOffice.org 2.0 and the FOSS community
-------------------------------------------------------
[Thanks to Charles-H. Schulz]
"Several new features of the recently released OpenOffice.org 2.0 beta
require a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Since Java's license is neither
free nor open source, a small but vocal minority has responded both
strongly
and negatively. For instance, when NewsForge recently published a review of
the beta, no other feature attracted as much comment. Some groups,
including
members of the major GNU/Linux distributions, most of whom repackage
OpenOffice.org (OOo), have responded by looking for alternatives, often
while cursing the project for the extra work it has dumped on them. How did
OpenOffice.org come to rely on Java? What problems is it likely to cause?
How are GNU/Linux distributions reacting to this change in a key piece of
software?"
http://software.newsforge.com/software/05/03/22/204244.shtml?tid=93
See also:
http://marketing.openoffice.org/servlets/SearchList?list=dev&searchText=%22OOo+and+Java%22&defaultField=subject&Search=Search
UBL: Another Opportunity for FOSS in the Enterprise
---------------------------------------------------
"E-business still lacks a universal, cheap and easy-to-implement
standard language. At least, this was the case until a few months ago.
Today, the Universal Business Language (UBL) is ready to fill this gap,
and it looks to be solid offering rather than yet another bunch of
buzzwords. UBL comes from OASIS), the same folks who standardized the
OpenDocument format for office files, and UBL is equally as open."
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8254
OASIS Members to vote on OpenDocument XML Format
------------------------------------------------
"OASIS organizational members are asked to vote on four specifications
that have been submitted for consideration as OASIS Standards. The ebXML
Registry Information Model (RIM) v3.0 and ebXML Registry Services and
Protocols (RS) v3.0 offer a method for defining and managing
interoperable registries and repositories. OpenDocument provides an
XML-based file format specification for office applications."
http://xml.sys-con.com/read/77288.htm
Process Improvement Solutions to Novell Linux
---------------------------------------------
"Neoxen Modus Lite for OpenOffice.org is an essential part of Neoxen
Systems solution offering for software development groups supporting
both open source and commercial software development. There is
considerable evidence in savings in process development costs with
Neoxen Modus Lite using Novell platforms. Linux is becoming a viable
alternative as desktop computing environment.""
http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/04/13/2024237
Gentoo update for openoffice
----------------------------
"Gentoo has issued updates for openoffice. These fix a vulnerability,
which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's
system."
http://secunia.com/advisories/14983/
Tips, Tricks & How-Tos
#########################################################################
Making the leap: Microsoft Word to OpenOffice.org Writer
--------------------------------------------------------
"Whether you're moving from Windows to GNU/Linux, or just from the
proprietary Microsoft Office to the free software OpenOffice.org suite,
one of the challenges you'll face is learning how to use OpenOffice.org
Writer effectively if you're used to Microsoft Word. In this article
I'll show you around OpenOffice.org Writer, where to find familiar Word
tools, and how to customize the interface and preferences to make it a
little more Word-friendly."
http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/04/15/1951232&tid=93
Competitive/Market Info
#########################################################################
A Word to the unwise -- program's grammar check isn't so smart
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Microsoft the company should big improve Word grammar check.
No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. That sentence is a confusing
jumble. However, it is perfectly fine in the assessment of Microsoft
Word's built-in grammar checker, which detects no problem with the
prose.
Sandeep Krishnamurthy thinks Microsoft can do a lot better."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/217802_grammar28.asp
Microsoft cops standards attack
-------------------------------
"Microsoft Australia has come under fire from rival vendors and
open-source advocates for keeping its Office document standards
proprietary.
Greg Stone, Microsoft's national technology officer for Australia and
New Zealand, faced the criticism during his presentation at the
Australian Unix User Group's Open Computing in Government conference in
Canberra. However, he stood firm on the company's policy of making the
XML schemas for its Office 2003 document standard publicly available
provided interested parties sign an agreement with the software
heavyweight."
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/0,2000061733,39188761,00.htm
Linux on the desktop: latest study susses it out
------------------------------------------------
"Most of our PCs could easily be replaced with Linux boxes running
OpenOffice, with critical Windows applications such as Lotus Notes
running seamlessly as published applications via Citrix. But our
management is scared of Unix/Linux; they donÕt understand it. The
biggest obstacle is therefore not technical, it is management
awareness. There is nobody out there marketing Linux to management the
way Microsoft markets Windows.""
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Research/?p=155
A CIOs guide to Microsoft negotiations
--------------------------------------
"Gene Guertin, CIO of Smart Document Solutions LLC, in Alpharetta, Ga.,
said his organization finally considered the $100-per-seat StarOffice
product from Sun Microsystems Inc. after experiencing so much
frustration with Microsoft. Ultimately, he passed on StarOffice, and
chose Microsoft, but he did let Microsoft know that he was considering
an alternative. "We brought that up," Guertin said. "It made Microsoft
more attentive.""
http://searchcio.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid19_gci1082028,00.html
Business Technology Guide - SME Solutions Showcase (Singapore)
--------------------------------------------------------------
"The StarOffice suite is a full-featured office suite that has all the
functionality you need for home or office. The standalone applications
in the StarOffice 7 Office Suite are not only fully integrated, they
are also compatible with Microsoft Office, so users can easily access,
edit, and share documents."
http://computerworld.com.sg/ShowPage.aspx?pagetype=2&articleid=311&pubid=3&issueid=33
Linspire Five-0 Linux Software Available In Retail Stores
---------------------------------------------------------
"San Diego-based Linspire, Inc. said Wednesday its Linspire Five-0
desktop Linux operating system is available in retail stores
nationwide.
The new product features enhancements in its core applications on the
Linux platform, said Linspire. The operating system comes with such
desktop applications as OpenOffice.org (a Microsoft file-compatible
office suite), Web browser, e-mail and instant messaging clients,
multimedia viewers; photo and music managers, and calendaring tools."
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=160502105&tid=5979
Microsoft to DHBs: we're cheaper in the long run
------------------------------------------------
"Microsoft NZ believes the District Health Boards open source pilot
could be "short-sighted".
ÒIt is important to remember that the cost of software does not end
with its acquisition," says strategy manager Brett Roberts.
Last week health board CIOs said they wanted to pay lower software
licensing fees to Microsoft, estimated at more than $20 million over
three years, and would trial an open source desktop with Suse Linux and
OpenOffice.org. The CIOs also demanded stronger representation on the
public sector committee negotiating the details of G2006, the next
iteration of the New Zealand GovernmentÕs bulk licensing agreement with
Microsoft."
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/0/CE6C59FE57DB9AF8CC256FE0000FC912?OpenDocument&pub=Computerworld
An executive who found his Groove
---------------------------------
"Jeff Raikes, 46, group vice president for Microsoft Corp.'s
information worker business, is a member of the company's senior
leadership team and is supervising development of a new version of
Microsoft's ubiquitous Office software for businesses. Raikes oversees
Beverly's Groove Networks, a collaboration software company that
Microsoft bought for $120 million on April 7. Raikes, who is also
part-owner of the Seattle Mariners baseball team, spoke with Globe
reporter Robert Weisman on a visit to the Globe."
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/04/24/an_executive_who_found_his_groove/
Office flaw exploit code published
----------------------------------
"On the same day that Microsoft issued its latest batch of monthly
patches, details of a new flaw have been published - along with code to
exploit it
Microsoft is investigating the report of a flaw that could open systems
using its Access or Office software up to attack.
The vulnerability, which was not one of eight patched by Microsoft on
Tuesday, is in the Jet database engine component, according to an
advisory posted the same day by security company Secunia. It could
enable an intruder to remotely execute malicious code on a vulnerable
PC, Secunia said."
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39194879,00.htm
Microsoft Will Virtualize Linux
-------------------------------
[Contributed bu Kazunari Hirano]
"Amid jokes about cooperating with rivals such as Sun Microsystems,
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company would make serious
investments in, and open up, its Virtual Server 2005 product to run on
non-Windows machines.
This includes Linux, he said during his keynote address Wednesday at
the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas. To prove the point,
Microsoft official Bill Anderson demonstrated how Red Hat Linux could
run on Virtual Server 2005."
http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3499286
Novell Takes Linux to China
---------------------------
Novell today announced a partnership with a leading Chinese
organization to help expand and promote Linux adoption in China.
The agreement with China Standard Software Co., Ltd. (CS2C) of
Shanghai is intended to help optimize and promote Linux adoption in
China.
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3500901
IBM responds on OpenOffice contribution question
------------------------------------------------
"IBM forked from the original OO.o base (and changed the code) so
contributing back isn’t really viable."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/index.php?p=1320
Louis Suarez-Potts responds on IBM and OpenOffice.org
-----------------------------------------------------
"But, I’m serious when I say that I’d love for IBM to work with us; and
we’ll do what we can do encourage that. It’s not just hating IBM at all.
From where I sit, they do fine work, I just wish it were also publicly
on OOo."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=257
Open Office, IBM, and Sun: Worlds Apart, or Just Miles?
-------------------------------------------------------
"Q: So you're against Sun and OO.o too?
A: No. Again, as a daily user of the application I understand perfectly
where they're coming from. And while I support IBM's right to operate as
they have, I don't think it's in the best interests of either IBM or
OO.o. In short, I support IBM's right to choose in this situation, but
that does not mean that I have to like the choice that they've made."
http://www.redmonk.com/sogrady/
Putting the spin on IBM
-----------------------
"If Sun wants real community support for OpenOffice.org, they need to
drop the joint copyright assignment requirement before they expect IBM
or other vendors to donate significant time and effort to the project.
Otherwise, Phipps may as well be complaining that IBM isn’t helping to
develop Sun’s StarOffice rather than trying to suggest that IBM is
somehow shirking its civic duty because it hasn’t poured development
funds into OpenOffice.org."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=253
OpenOffice team wants IBM contribution
--------------------------------------
"The team behind Sun Microsystems' OpenOffice wants IBM to donate
developer time to the open source productivity suite, the project's
leader Louis Suarez-Potts told vnunet.com."
http://www.vnunet.com/news/1162680
Is Sun right to insist on copyright transfer?
---------------------------------------------
"Securing that control over the copyrights is sometimes easier said
than done. Some of the copyright holders were dead, I remember Gingell
telling me."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=1311
Tamil Language Open Source Tools & Apps Released in Chennai
-----------------------------------------------------------
"In Chennai, on April 15th, marking the Tamil New Year, India's
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) showed off
its latest efforts to help close India's digital divide. A complete
bundle of open source computer software including the localized Tamil
version of OpenOffice.org was released. Hundreds of computer fonts and
tools in Tamil were given away amid great fanfare and political and
media excitement."
http://www.technetra.com/News/tamil_openoffice_html
Additional reporting:
http://www.hindu.com/2005/04/16/stories/2005041600292200.htm
Corel Debuts Office Software for Small Businesses
-------------------------------------------------
"Corel Corp. said on Monday it would release a new edition of its
budget WordPerfect Office software package, aimed at small businesses,
that the Canadian software maker says is much more affordable than
Microsoft Corp.'s Office software."
http://www.metronews.ca/reuters_business.asp?id=69679
Search Engine runs on portable drives
-------------------------------------
"Gaviri PocketSearch(TM) indexes text, HTML, music, video as well
as most of the office suites such as Microsoft office, StarOffice,
OpenOffice, KOffice, PDFs and a variety of other file formats."
http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/462788
Statistics
#########################################################################
OpenOffice.org
==============
Highlights
----------
* More than 40,400,000 have downloaded OpenOffice.org
so far (as of April 16, 2005).
* The OpenOffice.org project has more than 30,800
unique people subscribed to the mailing lists
(as of April 16, 2005).
* 580 people and companies have signed a JCA and are thus
either already contributing or considering to do so
(as of April 29, 2005):
http://www.openoffice.org/copyright/copyrightapproved.html
* 2037 people have participated in the OOo developer
survey so far (as of April 29, 2005).
* User Survey Statistics:
[Courtesy of Cristian Driga]
Total number of responses since survey start (oct 2002):
907618
Statistics for the last month (March 2005):
Number of responses: 48219
-------
Survey respondents by country (Top 20 countries):
United States 11058
Germany 4409
France 4105
United Kingdom 2616
Italy 1683
Canada 1541
Brazil 1400
Netherlands 1218
Australia 976
Poland 829
Denmark 822
Spain 816
Japan 696
Belgium 688
Norway 564
Switzerland 555
Finland 543
Portugal 475
Czech Republic 470
Sweden 388
-------
How did you find out about OpenOffice.org ?
Press Article: 17.09%
TV/Radio: 1.85%
Website: 30.92%
A friend: 28.44%
Search engine: 7.89%
No response: 13.3%
-------
Where are you primarily using OpenOffice.org ?
Home: 57.76%
Work: 25.33%
School: 5.91%
No answer: 11.00%
-------
What applications do you primarily use in OpenOffice.org ?
Word processor: 43.53%
Spreadsheet: 25.37%
Presentations: 7.47%
Vector drawing: 7.56%
HTML editor: 6.85%
No answer: 9.22%
-------
Operating systems among OpenOffice.org users:
Windows2000: 10.63%
WindowsNT4.0: 1.04%
WindowsXP: 50.15%
Windows98(SE/ME): 8.13%
Windows95: 0.56%
Linux(Intel x86): 15.36%
Linux(PowerPC): 1.31%
Linux (ARM): 0.51%
Linux(Alpha): 0.31%
FreeBSD: 0.92%
NetBSD: 0.13%
OpenBSD: 0.31%
Mac OS X: 3.26%
Solaris: 1.02%
BeOS: 0.19%
IRIX: 0.11%
Tru64: 0.08%
Other: 1.10%
No answer: 4.90%
Events
#########################################################################
Upcoming
========
LinuxWorld South Africa
-----------------------
2005/05/17-20
http://www.linuxworldexpo.co.za/
Brainshare Africa
-----------------
2005/05/19-20
http://www.brainshareafrica.co.za/
fisl 6.0
--------
Porto Alegre, Brazil
2005/06/1-04
http://fisl.softwarelivre.org/6.0/index.php?language=en
Newsletter Archive
#########################################################################
Past issues of the OpenOffice.org Newsletter can be found in the archive
of the announce mailing list:
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=announce
Contact Information (regarding this newsletter)
#########################################################################
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