Donnerstag November 30, 2006

Smart Computing recommends StarOffice
"Whatever the reason, we wish it hadn’t happened. Instead of sporting the traditional menus and toolbars that we have grown accustomed to using, Office 2007 features unfamiliar components such as tabbed ribbons and a quick-access toolbar nestled in the upper-left corner of the program window. We know we will eventually learn how to use the new interface, but it serves as a source of constant frustration in the meantime.
...
The productivity suites profiled in this roundup provide broad functionality and easy usability. Of course, most users will continue to invest in Microsoft (and, to a lesser extent, Corel) software simply out of habit. We encourage users to consider alternatives such as Sun’s StarOffice 8, which earns our Smart Choice designation once again. Why spend $150 or $300 when you can get top-of-the-line capabilities for less than $75?"

The full review can be found here.
( Nov 30 2006, 07:25:55 PM CET ) Permalink

Mittwoch November 29, 2006

Corel to support ODF
As you can read here, Corel will support ODF in the next version of WordPerfect. Thus, the list of ODF implementation is growing and now includes all the major office suites and operating system platforms. Corel will also support Microsoft's new XML file format, but I actually like Corel's statement about why they will support the two formats:

"Because it is free, truly open and certified as an ISO standard, many customers see ODF as the most promising format for the future of office productivity. Yet upon the debut of Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft OOXML will immediately experience broad dissemination."

Thus, Corel recognizes the advantages of ODF.

I'm personally not convinced about the "immediate broad dissemination". I guess most Microsoft office users won't upgrade, at least not immediately. Thus, the level of dissimination will probably depend on the number of new PC's being sold that bundle Office 2007. Anyway, the next months will show.
( Nov 29 2006, 04:54:33 PM CET ) Permalink

Freitag November 24, 2006

OpenOffice.org on 35,000 computers?!
I just found the following information:
"mEDUXa is a Free Software GNU/Linux distribution developed for educational purposes that is part of the MEDUSA project. It will be deployed in 35,000 computers distributed in 1100 schools, which represents 325,000 possible users (25,000 teachers and 300,000 students).the Canary Islands state schools. Teachers and students will be able to use it through a dual boot, accessing it by a boot loader."

I wonder if mEDUXa includes OpenOffice.org. Does anybody know?

According to the icons on this screenshot mEDUXa includes OpenOffice.org.
( Nov 24 2006, 04:33:28 PM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [6]

More information about Welsh OpenOffice.org
"Alun Pugh, the minister for culture, Welsh language and sport added: "The launch of this office software is a major advance within the IT strategy developed by the Welsh Language Board as part of the Assembly government's strategy for the language, Iaith Pawb."

Speaking at the launch, Ned Thomas, academic director of the Mercator Centre, said that Agored was the result of a convergence of opportunities allowing the funding of a translation project under the Objective 1 programme, which would mean that the Welsh public sector could consider OSS as a commercially viable alternative to proprietary software.

On that note, Gavin Beckett, Bristol city council's IT strategy manager, provided a brief overview of the migration of 5,500 users within the council from Microsoft Office to Sun Microsytems' StarOffice – a move which the council estimates will save 60% on software costs over the next five years."

Found here.
( Nov 24 2006, 02:53:45 PM CET ) Permalink

Update about OpenOffice.org at French National Assembly
I just found this article which provides additional information about the planned use of OpenOffice.org at the French National Assembly. Here is a quote:
"The project, backed by MPs Richard Cazenav and Bernard Carayon of the UMP party, will see 1,154 French parliamentary workstations running on an open source OS, with OpenOffice.org, Firefox and an open source email client."
( Nov 24 2006, 02:08:13 PM CET ) Permalink

OpenOffice.org at the French National Assembly
More great news! As can be read here and here (both articles in French) OpenOffice.org is going to be deployed at the French National Assembly. Maybe the French readers of my blog can verify my statement and provide additional insights.
( Nov 24 2006, 11:42:43 AM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

Donnerstag November 23, 2006

Italy considers ODF for national standard
Great news! As you can read here and here, Italy considers ODF for a national standard.
( Nov 23 2006, 06:36:05 PM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

Cool: "Inserting music notation in OpenOffice.org"
If you are a musician or are interested in music notation otherwise, check this out! Pretty cool!
( Nov 23 2006, 12:53:28 PM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

Mittwoch November 22, 2006

Norwegians win yet another prize
Congratulations ... again, I have to say! The Norwegian OpenOffice.org community in charge of the Norwegian localization of OpenOffice.org won yet another prize. See this! Keep up the great work!
( Nov 22 2006, 04:43:04 PM CET ) Permalink

OpenOffice.org Mac porter meeting at Google office
If you like to get involved in the Mac port of OpenOffice.org, check out this blog entry. There will be Mac porter meeting at the Google office in Hamburg in early December.
( Nov 22 2006, 04:40:53 PM CET ) Permalink

Burning the Bridges
Via this Slashdot article I became aware of this blog entry about Microsoft's new Office 2007 user interface license. It says:

"There's only one limitation: if you are building a program which directly competes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, or Access (the Microsoft applications with the new UI), you can't obtain the royalty-free license."

From my point of view, users should now be even more careful about adopting Microsoft Office 2007. Not only is Office 2007 using a new file format that has not been designed for interoperability across different implementations and different platforms but for backward compatibility with Microsoft's proprietary world, now Microsoft is apparently also trying to make it even harder for other projects and vendors to compete. It looks like Microsoft is trying to "burn the bridges" in order to make it difficult for others to follow.

Sure, I can fully understand that companies try to protect their investments and their customer base. That's natural and logical. However, I think customers should be really, really careful about following Microsoft across the bridge.
( Nov 22 2006, 04:01:10 PM CET ) Permalink

Sharepoint alternative released by O3Spaces
"O3Spaces announces the immediate availability of its document collaboration and management environment that tightly integrates with the open source office suite OpenOffice.org and its commercial sibling StarOffice. “Up until now OpenOffice.org lacked a back-end solution similar to Microsoft Office SharePoint,” says O3Spaces CEO Rob Mentink."

The full announcement can be found here.
( Nov 22 2006, 03:34:26 PM CET ) Permalink

"20 percent intended to install the free OpenOffice"
"Visitors to PCAdvisor.co.uk certainly weren't convinced about the need for an office suite upgrade according to a poll we ran during October. Two-thirds of you said you'd stick to your current office suite for the foreseeable future, with another tenth of you planning to upgrade to Office 2007.

A further 20 percent intended to install the free OpenOffice, while just 3 percent had earmarked Tesco's Complete Office as a purchase. Only 13 percent of the more-than 2,000 people who voted in our poll were prepared to pay money for an office suite upgrade."

Found here.
( Nov 22 2006, 09:27:40 AM CET ) Permalink

Montag November 20, 2006

Welsh OpenOffice.org released
A Welsh version of OpenOffice.org 2.0 has just been released:
"Agored is office software for the bilingual office in Wales. It is being developed from OpenOffice.org 2.0 which is an international package that has been translated into over 50 languages."

The announcement can be found here:
"Agored, a new free office software suite is being launched today by Culture Minister Alun Pugh. The suite, a Welsh and English dual-language version of the OpenOffice suite used worldwide, has been developed over the past two years at the Mercator Centre, University of Wales, Aberystwyth."
( Nov 20 2006, 06:41:41 PM CET ) Permalink

New German open source study
I just came across this article which talks about a new German open source study. Here is a key quote from the article:

"Around 47 per cent of the 115 public administrations polled for the study "Structural Change or Flash in the Pan?" said they estimate cost savings potential of more than 50 per cent by using open-source software. Nearly 60 per cent said they plan to deploy open-source software as part of the medium or long-term IT strategy."
( Nov 20 2006, 05:14:46 PM CET ) Permalink