Mittwoch Oktober 31, 2007

Everex starts shipping $200 Green PC including OpenOffice.org
"Everex's TC2502 gPC is the first mass-market $200 desktop computer, featuring a custom distribution of Ubuntu Linux and headed for selected Wal-Mart stores.
...
"It's $200, with no gimmicks or subsidies," Everex spokesman David Liu said.
...
The gPC also has a DVD burner and, for those not drinking the web-app cool-aid, OpenOffice and lots more local software. There's free phone support and a regularly updated app called "Faqly" that contains the latest tech support info for folks stuck offline."

Found here.
( Okt 31 2007, 05:29:52 PM CET ) Permalink

New version of Outlook alternative available
Version 0.7 of Mozilla Lightning has just been released. The release notes can be found here. The Mozilla Thunderbird email client together with the Mozilla Lightning calendar client extension is quickly becoming a feasible alternative to Microsoft Outlook. In connection with the Sun Java System Calendar Server Mozilla Lightning offers many enterprise-type features. Check it out! BTW, roadmap information and screenshots can be found in this presentation.
( Okt 31 2007, 10:27:59 AM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [6]

Community edition of Sharepoint alternative released
I believe, I haven't reported in my blog that O3Spaces recently released a community edition of their Sharepoint alternative. Here is a quote from their press release:
"The Community Edition is a free to use, fully featured Workplace solution for up to 10 team members. Furthermore, the Community Edition 2.2 can be seamlessly migrated with a Workplace Professional subscription. The O3Spaces Workplace 2.2b Community Edition is available as a number of new easy installers for various Linux and Windows Operating systems. It will also be available as a virtual appliance."
The full press release can be found here.
( Okt 31 2007, 08:35:09 AM CET ) Permalink

EADS hires people with OpenOffice.org skills
EADS, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company apparently hires people with OpenOffice.org. Check out monster.de!
No, I'm not looking for a new job, but I thought this is another interesting way for checking who is using OpenOffice.org. Sure, I don't know of EADS is using OpenOffice.org internally, but considering that four EADS job offers explicitly ask for OpenOffice.org skills, one can assume that EADS is using OpenOffice.org at least in a few departments.

The German list (i.e. on monster.de) is the longest, but you find similar job ads mentioning OpenOffice.org in Belgium, France, the US, Poland, and India as well.
( Okt 31 2007, 08:30:45 AM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

OpenOffice.org Market Share Analysis
At the ODF government user workshop in Berlin we talked quite a bit about deployments in different countries and ODF-related complementary software solutions. You all can contribute to improving the story but adding to and updating the following two wiki pages: the OpenOffice.org Market Share Analysis and the OpenOffice.org Solutions page. I noticed that recently someone contributed information about Hungary to the market share analysis. Great! This helps a lot! Thanks to the contributor!
( Okt 31 2007, 07:28:55 AM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

Linux-based laptops ordered by Nigeria and Uruguay
As can be read here, Linux-based laptops have been ordered by Nigeria and Uruguay. Since these Laptops have been designed for Linux, it's very likely that the use of these laptops will increase the global use of non-Microsoft technologies including OpenOffice.org. This reminds me of this Forrester study saying that we just more or less completed the first billion and that the next billion will happen in just seven years. I'm sure a large number of the second billion PC's will run open source operating systems and open source applications.
( Okt 31 2007, 07:06:20 AM CET ) Permalink

Quotes from the ODF government user workshop
The latest press release by the ODF Alliance includes nice quotes from people who attended the first international ODF government user work in Berlin. Here is one example:

"Open standards and ODF, more specifically, are about better interoperability,” said Peter Strickx, Director-General, Architecture and Standards, of FEDICT Belgium. “This workshop, with participating government representatives from all over the world – Brazil, India, China, South Africa, among others – is a true illustration of the ways in which ODF opens the doors to global interoperability and information sharing."

The full press release including more quotes can be found here.
( Okt 31 2007, 06:34:25 AM CET ) Permalink

Dienstag Oktober 30, 2007

Office 2007 encouraging users to adopt OpenOffice.org
From this Dutch article I just learned about a case where OpenOffice.org is being adopted in education because the users considered Office 2007 a too radical change from a file format and user interface point of view. In addition, people wanted to reduce the use of illegal pirate copies by adopting OpenOffice.org. In this context, you also might find the article "U.K. schools warned off Microsoft" interesting.
( Okt 30 2007, 06:57:15 PM CET ) Permalink

"Parliamentary Toolbox" including OpenOffice.org
I just came across the Tabellio project, which I think is very interesting. Here is a quote from the project website:
"Build together a parliamentary toolbox for assemblees, from a local council to a national parliament. The Tabellio software suite is currently rebuild in Open Source and migrated to Plone/Zope and Openoffice.org."
More details can be found here. I became aware of the project via this Dutch article
( Okt 30 2007, 06:49:55 PM CET ) Permalink

Redarding the OpenDocument Foundation and their claims
Regarding the OpenDocument Foundation and their claims, you might find Rob Weir's recent blog entry interesting and useful. You also might want to check out the comments at Slashdot.
( Okt 30 2007, 06:38:06 PM CET ) Permalink

English article about ODF workshop in Berlin
I just noticed that heise also published an English version of the article about the ODF government user workshop at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin (Foreign Ministry). Here it is!
( Okt 30 2007, 06:32:37 PM CET ) Permalink

Fax support now available for OpenOffice.org and StarOffice
As you can read here, fax support is now available for OpenOffice.org and StarOffice via an extension.
( Okt 30 2007, 02:49:33 PM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

First ODF Conference at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin
The "1st International Open Document Format User Conference" just ended. The event took place at the premises of the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. As you can see on the website, the German Foreign Minister had a greeting message for the audience. The agenda shows that the presenters and participants at this user conference came from all over the world. From my point of view the event was a huge success, and all attendees said that they wanted more follow-up events in the future. The German heise magazine also reports about parts of the event (here is a Google translated version). If you wonder what the German Federal Foreign Office has to do with ODF and OpenOffice.org, you might want to check out this article.
( Okt 30 2007, 02:45:28 PM CET ) Permalink

Test the new OpenOffice.org Presenter Screen!
If you are frequently doing presentations, you should take a look at this blog entry by Andre Fischer about a new OpenOffice.org Presenter Screen. The features is still under development, but as Andre writes, you can help the developers build the right feature by testing the developer snapshots and providing feedback!
( Okt 30 2007, 01:01:08 AM CET ) Permalink

Freitag Oktober 26, 2007

About the ODF Adoption in India
I just came across the following:

"For instance, the Department of IT, Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, adopted the open document format (ODF) standard, and as a result has saved around 78 per cent in costs by eliminating the need to purchase proprietary office suites or licenses. This has encouraged other government departments to adopt open standards instead of proprietary softwares.

The high court of Allahabad is another case in point. It moved all its electronic documents to ODF because it felt that it was cost-effective and safe to store its documents in a format which is open and also to carry out any kind of information exchange through open standards. So is the case with the West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu governments.

Even the Election Commission decided to migrate to OpenOffice.org after the elections of May-June 2006.

In terms of license costs, the switch to ODF also means potential savings of 15,000 per license on each of the 2,000 licenses recurring for license upgrades which amounts to Rs 3 crore."

Found here.
( Okt 26 2007, 07:04:35 AM CEST ) Permalink