Dienstag Dezember 19, 2006

OpenOffice.org menu in Firefox via new Firefox extension
OpenOffice.org users and community members might find this new Firefox extension useful.
( Dez 19 2006, 03:16:46 PM CET ) Permalink

Freitag Dezember 15, 2006

Peter Korn comments IBM's accessibility announcement
"Today, IBM has announced their contribution of the IAccessible2 accessibility programming interface for Microsoft Windows. This interface is an extension of the Microsoft Active Accessibility API (and most specifically of the Microsoft IAccessible interface - hence the name IAccessible2). This extension of MSAA fills in the many gaps of MSAA by extending it to essentially match the Java Accessibility API and the GNOME/UNIX Accessibility API (in fact, if you look at the IAccessibleRelation header file or the other IAccessible2 header files, you'll see they bear a Sun Copyright from 2000 and 2006 because iAccesible2 was derived directly from the OpenOffice.org UNO Accessibility implementation for use in both the Java platform and UNIX environments)."
The full blog entry can be found here.
( Dez 15 2006, 11:43:54 AM CET ) Permalink

Dienstag Dezember 12, 2006

New OpenOffice.org book published
Solveig Haugland just published a new OpenOffice.org book. Details about the book can be found here.
( Dez 12 2006, 10:33:32 AM CET ) Permalink

Montag Dezember 11, 2006

ODF Accessibility Evaluator
An interesting new tool, the ODF Accessibility Evaluator, is being developed by a team of students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. See this and this.
( Dez 11 2006, 11:20:59 AM CET ) Permalink

"Office Open XML Fact Sheet" by the ODF Alliance
FYI, the ODF Alliance just published an "Office Open XML Fact Sheet".
( Dez 11 2006, 11:15:26 AM CET ) Permalink

Freitag Dezember 08, 2006

Cool: OpenSolaris on a Stick
Wow! This is really cool! OpenSolaris now runs from a memory stick. Check this out.
( Dez 08 2006, 02:10:24 PM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

ECMA Office Open XML tough to implement?!
According to this blog entry and the Microsoft blog entry it refers to (here), implementing ECMA Office Open XML seems to be a tough job.
( Dez 08 2006, 09:37:21 AM CET ) Permalink

Donnerstag Dezember 07, 2006

Update regarding the Dutch cities
I just found this Dutch article which made me understand the Dutch situation a little bit better. Apparently the eight Dutch cities are combining forces in order to put some pressure on their IT partners and IT suppliers, so that they also support open source alternatives. According to the article, several smaller Dutch cities have already adopted open source technologies like OpenOffice.org, but often had to deal with the problems themselves. Apparently, the eight cities want to increase their influence in the IT market and make themselves heard with respect to their open source requirements by closely collaborating together.
As usual, I hope the Dutch/Flemish readers of my blog will correct my statements if I misinterpreted things!
( Dez 07 2006, 12:10:18 PM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

ODF support in Apple tool!?
Interesting! According to this blog entry Apple is adding ODF support to their TextEdit tool.
( Dez 07 2006, 11:52:22 AM CET ) Permalink

Large Dutch cities supporting open source
Arthur Buijs from the Dutch OpenOffice.org community just pointed me to this Dutch article. According to the article, a number of large Dutch cities including Almere, Assen, Eindhoven, Enschede, Groningen, Haarlem, Leeuwarden and Nijmegen have decided to support open source. The article says that the cities are interested in open source because Microsoft software is being perceived as expensive and the software does not not work well together with competitive products on other platforms.
( Dez 07 2006, 11:47:36 AM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [2]

Mittwoch Dezember 06, 2006

"How Vista Lets Microsoft Lock Users In"
"Technology called "Information Rights Management," combined with copyright law and Windows Vista, give Microsoft the tools to hold users' data hostage in Office, says Cory Doctorow."
The article can be found here.
( Dez 06 2006, 04:50:58 PM CET ) Permalink

Authors for OpenOffice.org print magazine wanted
Software Media LLC will soon start publishing a quarterly magazine about OpenOffice.org and is currently inviting authors to participate. Here is a quote from an email that I'm allowed to publish here in my blog:

"We would like to invite all community members to participation in our project Using OpenOffice.org magazine, devoted to OOo. The magazine is published quarterly in USA, Germany, Poland, France (Spain is also planned). The magazine is intended mainly to beginners, idea behind it - showing OOo possibilities by using its applications."

Please contact the publisher if you are interested in contributing something to the magazine!
( Dez 06 2006, 03:51:44 PM CET ) Permalink

"Vista too power hungry for corporate PCs"
Sounds like Vista will be a tough sell:

"Research conducted by Softchoice shows that Microsoft’s Vista Windows operating system is too power hungry for the majority of corporate PCs.

The study revealed that 94% of the business surveyed PCs are unable to meet the premium system requirements of Vista, and nearly 50% cannot even meet the minimum requirements. The study also showed that 60% of organizations are planning to wait more than six 6 months before switching to Vista; and roughly 50% (of those) plan to wait at least a year or more."

The full article can be found here.
( Dez 06 2006, 01:57:08 PM CET ) Permalink

Ministry of Justice of Finland deploying OpenOffice.org
Great news! According to a message on the OpenOffice.org marketing project mailing list the Ministry of Justice of Finland is deploying OpenOffice.org to 10,000 Windows workstations. I don't speak the language, but according to the email more information can be found here, here, here, and here.
( Dez 06 2006, 08:55:56 AM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

Dienstag Dezember 05, 2006

About Microsoft's lobbying in MA
If you are interested in Microsoft's lobbying activities in Massachusetts, you might want to read this article. The summary in the subtitle says: "E-mails show that the vendor lobbied for hardball legislation over the file format controversy -- and then backed off." Andy Updegrove also already commented on the article.
( Dez 05 2006, 11:18:29 AM CET ) Permalink