Hello, I would like to thank Yutaka Kachi (aka Catch) and Takaaki Higuchi for this monthly news report. I'm posting it below myself for convenience, and because, after all, I'm a member of the Japanese NL project :-) :
ja-N-L Monthly Report:May-2005 This report sorts out on activities of OOo Japanese Native-Lang and OOo/FOSS related news in Japan. This is not an official news letter, but a kind of note. The contents would be freely distributed and re-used for a source of other announcements or news letters. Written by Yutaka Kachi([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Translated by Takaaki Higuchi([EMAIL PROTECTED]) - OpenOffice.org deployments in public sectors There is a fact that the de-facto standard format of documents is Microsoft Office even if in public sectors in Japan. To avoid this specific vendor lock-in, several efforts have been started. At IPA(Information-technology Promotion Agency, http://www.ipa.go.jp/index-e.html), which is an extra-government organization of METI(Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), materials of public subscriptions are offered in OpenOffice.org 1.1 sxw format in addition to Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF format. METI Hokkaido(Organization of the Hokkaido Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry, http://www.hkd.meti.go.jp/index_e.htm) also provides materials for public subscriptions in Word and SXW format. OOo deployments have not been major trends in general corporate use in Japan. However, such OOo deployments in public sectors might be accelerate OOo deployments in private sector, and I hope in-expensive deployment cost will get more attentions on OOo. - Microsoft Japan held a seminar focused on OpenOffice.org competitive analisys On April 12th, Microsoft Japan held a press briefing, which focused on cosiderations on Office software and desktop OS values. While I had not attended this seminar, but many IT webzines reported that was competitive analisys on merits of Microsoft Office in comparison with OpenOffice.org. http://www.atmarkit.co.jp/news/200504/13/ms.html http://pcweb.mycom.co.jp/news/2005/04/12/003.html http://enterprise.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/topic/2005/04/12/5054.html http://www.itmedia.co.jp/enterprise/articles/0504/13/news046.html http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/free/ITPro/OPINION/20050414/159267/ This was also picked up by Slashdot Japan. http://slashdot.jp/article.pl?sid=05/04/13/0414220&topic=104&mode=thread At the start of the seminar, Microsoft asked the attendees to raise hands if they think MS Office is expensive, and most of them did, of course. Microsoft stated that customers have to consider risks in OpenOffice.org transition. There are risks such as compatibility, re-usability, re-education of corporate users, increase of corporate support. Microsoft wants to call these as risks, but this means Microsoft itself feels the risks on OpenOffice.org. To users, there is a risk that there is not a perfect compatibility among difference versions of MS Office. There are may companies who have not upgraded because of incompatibilities of MS Office. Also the risk of vendor lock-in should be considered. NIKKEI ITPro, one of Japanese Webzines, did a questionaire, in conjunction with this seminar report, that OOo/SS can substitute MS Office in business purpose, to users who have used OOo/SS, and the result was: * Can substitute Microsoft Office in business purpose ï14.0% * Good enough to substitute Microsoft Office in business purpose ï62.6% * Cannot substitute Microsoft Office in business purpose because of lacks of functionalities, reliabilities and so on ï6.2% * Cannot substitute Microsoft Office in business purpose because of compatibilities with existing documents and transition costs ï12.6% * Misc. ï4.8% http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/free/ITPro/OPINION/20050502/160384/index.shtml - Knoppix-ja continues its own evolution You may aware of Knoppix, which is a CD bootable Linux and inlcudes OOo. Kuniyasu Suzaki of AIST(National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology , http://www.aist.go.jp/) has developed and maintained own extensions in Japanese Knoppix(http://unit.aist.go.jp/itri/knoppix/index-en.html). One of his target is availability of the same computer environment in anywhere if there is a network, and no CD-ROM is required. Knoppix-ja includes emulators like QEMU and coLinux, so it runs on Windows. Employing this User-Mode Linux functionality, while it boots from CD, it can modify and save configurations. HTTP-FUSE KNOPPIX enables network boot if there is a boot loader, which requires about 6MB includes Linux kernel and miniroot. This includes OOo too(http: //unit.aist.go.jp/itri/knoppix/http-fuse/index-en.html) ------- Charles. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
