G
Gordon Darling
OPENOFFICE.ORG NEWSLETTER
Volume 01 - Issue 8 - 02/2004
Please send news clippings to:
(e-mail address removed)
Highlights in this Newsletter
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* UN Report: E-COMMERCE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2003"
(Resources)
* 20% for OpenOffice.org"
(Awards and Reviews)
* Governments vote against Microsoft"
(Competitive/Market Info)
* Sun Lends Support to OpenOffice.org"
(OpenOffice.org/StarOffice/Linux Migration)
Announcements
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Lao Native-Lang Project announced
---------------------------------
"We have the pleasure to announce the opening of the Lao Native-Lang
project (http://lo.openoffice.org), led by Mr. Anousak Souphavanh.
Thanks to the work of his team, OpenOffice.org has extended its reach
up to Laos, a small and beautiful country, birthplace of a magnificient
and antique culture."
Source: Charles-H. Schulz, Lead of the Native-Lang Confederation
Arabic & Hebrew Projects announced
----------------------------------
"Today we have the pleasure to announce the opening of the Arabic and
Hebrew Native-Lang projects. The Arabic Project (http://ar.openoffice.org)
is led by Mr Khayat and backed by the Arabeyes free-software community,
an important player and supporter of free software and OpenOffice.org in
the Arabic world. The Hebrew project has been created by Tkos, an Israeli
company who is also in charge of localizing OpenOffice.org and StarOffice
but who managed to set up a real and lively community of users, developpers
and marketers.
These two projects show the growing influence of OpenOffice.org in the
Middle-East and we are delighted that such prestigious cultures and people
have adopted OpenOffice.org as their free and open productivity suite .
Source: Charles-H. Schulz, Lead of the Native-Lang Confederation
Misc Native-Lang Project News
-----------------------------
On Saturday the 7th of February, the Native-Lang Confederation has seen
four new projects' proposals who have all been accepted in due time and
are currently in setup phase:
-The Armenian native-lang project
-The Hungarian native-lang project
-The Norwegian native-lang project
-The Sango native-lang project (from Central Africa).
This day has marked the highest growth rate for the Native-Lang
Confederation and brings potentially ten of thousands of OpenOffice.org
users and hundreds of volunteers to our community.
Source: Charles-H. Schulz, Lead of the Native-Lang Confederation
Japanese Announcement
---------------------
The Japanese Language Project have launched a web-based message board
for help regarding OpenOffice.org. The system is also linked to a
mailing list providing further options for access. More information at
the Japanese Language Project: http://ja.openoffice.org/
Courtesy of Takaaki Higuchi (www.linux.or.jp, www.freestandards.org,
sun.co.jp)
ISO announcment
---------------
There is a new OpenOffice.org ISO available for download. The main
changes are to the MacOS X version, where both 1.0.3 and 1.1.0 versions
are now included. It can be found in the /contrib/iso/1.1.0 of any
OOo download mirror. Go to http://www.openoffice.org/ to find
download sites.
Courtesy of Alex Fisher, co-lead CD-ROM project
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
Success Stories and References
#########################################################################
USA
===
Big vendors lead leap to Linux
------------------------------
"Harry Roberts, CIO at Boscov's Department Store LLC, a 40-store
operation based in Reading, Pa., is considering replacing Windows NT
with Linux on about two-thirds of the company's desktops -- the ones
used by employees who aren't heavily reliant on Microsoft applications.
He's also looking at Sun's StarOffice productivity suite."
http://www.cio.com.au/index.php?id=1174714834&fp=4&fpid=21
http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/linux/story/0,10801,89166,00.html?SKC=news89166
Canada
======
Newfoundland hasn't ruled out Linux for word processing
-------------------------------------------------------
"The government of Newfoundland's decision to replace WordPerfect with
Microsoft Word acts against the best interests of a cash-strapped
province that could take advantage of free software alternatives,
according to a local Linux user."
"Shortly before Newfoundland's Information Technology Management
Division signed a three-year contract with Microsoft Canada to deploy
its Office products, Brian M. Hunt posted an open letter to premier
Danny Williams on the site Linux Today asking his government to
reconsider their options. Hunt said any decision to choose Microsoft
over software like OpenOffice.org would contravene the first objective
of the province's Treasury Board IT procurement policy, which
emphasizes maximizing the value of all IT acquisitions."
http://www.itbusiness.ca/index.asp?theaction=61&lid=1&sid=54692&adBanner=DataManagement
France
======
Linux and OpenOffice.org at the City of Paris
---------------------------------------------
According to the article below the system integrator Unilog got
the task to create a report for the government that eveluates
the usage of Linux and OpenOffice.org on the 17,000 PC's at the
City of Paris. The French government is envisaging to migrate
5-15% of all PC's to open source technologies.
http://www.clubic.com/n/n11557.html
India
=====
Indian insurance company shifts 10,000 desktops to StarOffice
-------------------------------------------------------------
"India's second largest insurer, United India Insurance Company, is
moving 10,000 desktops to Sun Microsystems' office suite StarOffice.
A media release from Sun quoted UIIC's IT assistant general manager
S.M. Victor John as saying the insurer had selected StarOffice 7
software because it matched the company's technical specifications and
was competitively priced."
"A Sun spokesperson said the 10,000 desktops being replaced were
running mostly Office 95. "One of the reasons why UIIC chose StarOffice
is due to cost savings. StarOffice only costs anywhere from $25-$60 for
enterprises while Microsoft Office sells their Office suite for
hundreds of dollars," the spokesperson said.
"StarOffice's functionality and compatibility to Microsoft Office was
also a major factor in the decision as well as multi-platform support -
Linux, Solaris, Windows - for greater flexibility and choice."
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/06/1075854037075.html
Australia
=========
Aust users back desktop Linux
-----------------------------
"A newly-conducted survey of Australian and New Zealand tech users has
lent weight to Linux' desktop prospects, with more than three-quarters
of respondents saying it will improve its strength in the area.
The survey -- conducted by tech expert Graeme Philipson in February --
found that almost two-thirds (61.3 percent) believed the open-source
operating system would get "a little" stronger on the desktop, while
22.5 percent said it would get "a lot" stronger.
[...]
Smith attributes the popularity of Linux in business use to the
management and security advantages a company has when using the
system, making it the main alternative to proprietary operating systems.
"On Linux a company or organisation has full control over their
IT" said Smith, adding: "There are practically no Linux viruses to
be worried about and any patches are developed incredibly fast and
available immediately". "
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/0,2000061733,39116120,00.htm
Solutions
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ITP (Intelligent Text Processing) and OpenOffice.org
----------------------------------------------------
"Aia Software has extended the ITP/Workstation, ITP/MDK and
WindowsEnabler products to support OpenOffice.org documents. This
confirms Aia Software's continued commitment to open standards and
to ensuring full freedom of choice for Clients regarding their
preferred word processor environment. ITP/MDK now integrates with
'Writer', the OpenOffice.org Suite fully equipped word processor,
enabling the development of ITP Model Documents in Open Office.org
format. ITP/Workstation now fully supports the production of native
Open Office.org 'Writer' result documents. All WindowsEnabler
functionality, such as printing, editing and viewing documents, is
now also available for OpenOffice.org documents. A future update of
ITP/Server will provide support for OpenOffice.org documents as well.
"
http://www.aia-itp.com/link.php?href=/news/news.php
What is ITP
http://www.aia-itp.com/link.php?href=/products/itp/itp.html
Oracle moves to support Linux desktops
--------------------------------------
"It is relatively easy for us to enable Mozilla as a browser because
most of our applications are Web-based. In a keynote at the last
LinuxWorld in San Francisco in August, we demonstrated that we could
use OpenOffice with documents coming out of Oracle Collaboration Suite.
We are going to be showing that Linux desktop systems can work with a
lot of local systems. I think you will see more and more of that coming
soon."
http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/qna/0,289202,sid39_gci946177,00.html
Apache Forrest Support for OpenOffice.org
-----------------------------------------
"Forrest is an XML standards-oriented project documentation framework
based on Apache Cocoon, providing XSLT stylesheets and schemas, images
and other resources. Forrest uses these to render the XML source
content into a website via command-line, robot, or a dynamic web
application."
http://xml.apache.org/forrest
"Apache Forrest supports OpenOffice.org 1.1 Writer documents as source
documents. Generally every OpenOffice.org Writer document can be used
as source file but if you want support for all elements the
documentv12.dtd supports you have to use template names which are
supported during the transformation process."
http://xml.apache.org/forrest/oowriter.html
Nuxeo, web content management and collaborative applications
------------------------------------------------------------
"Nuxeo is the french leader in Zope and Python services and support.
We develop web content infrastructures and web collaborative
applications such as portals, internal and external web sites,
editorial web sites, document management, knowledge management,
e-commerce, etc."
http://www.nuxeo.com/en/
Customer/User Feedback
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Linux: Navigating the road ahead
--------------------------------
"Though Foresbec has Office 2000 licences for all of its users, Forcier
has also installed OpenOffice on all of the desktops. He doesn't plan to
renew the Microsoft licences.
"If I renew, it will cost me more than $20,000." "
http://www.itbusiness.ca/index.asp?theaction=61&lid=1&sid=54569&adBanner=DataManagement
'So easy even a woman could use it'
-----------------------------------
""We put the chairwoman of our workers' council on stage in front
of all the municipal workers, and showed her using the new system.
After that, we found that no man would say that he couldn't use his
PC now that everyone knew a woman could do it."
Speaking at the Open Source for Local Government conference in
London, Bräuner explained that some users were afraid that the
deployment of Linux was part of a secret plan to read everyone's
email, record all their keystrokes and monitor their surfing habits. "
http://www.silicon.com/hardware/desktops/0,39024645,39118341,00.htm
New Books, Documents and Collateral
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OpenOffice.org Flash Intro
--------------------------
"Finally got around to applying the [GNU Free Documentation License
(FDL)] to the OOo 1.1 Flash intro, so everyone who has Flash MX 2004 can
now make their own versions (translated, etc).
At some point we should create a nice description page, but we haven't
done that just yet.
The source Flash file for the OOo 1.1 Intro is here:
http://www.digitaldistribution.com/community/goodwilltoallmankind/ooo11_intro_en_001.fla
A Flash intro generated from it is here:
http://www.digitaldistribution.com/community/goodwilltoallmankind/ooointro11en.swf
Those URLS should all be on one line, but may have wrapped due to text
formatting.
Hope this helps the native lang teams especially. Would someone also be
ok to let them know about this, as I'm not on any of their mailing
list(s) just yet? "
(Source: (e-mail address removed))
Resources
#########################################################################
UN Report: E-COMMERCE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2003
-------------------------------------------------
" The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has made
available an Internet edition of its E-Commerce and Development
Report 2003, which features Free and open-source software: Implications
for ICT policy and development as a chapter. The report, like many open
source advocates, proposes that the open source process produces better
software. It argues that open source development's division of labor is
more efficient than that of proprietary coders."
http://www.opensector.org/1075490138
Awards & Reviews
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20% for OpenOffice.org
----------------------
"However, an upstart open-source productivity suite also made a strong
showing this year among our readers. Twenty percent of our readers
proclaimed OpenOffice 1.1 as the top small business productivity suite,
which just goes to show that smaller companies are also open to the idea
of Linux on the desktop. Available for free to Windows, Linux, and Mac
users, all the open-source community asks is that programmers pass along
any improvements they make to the source code. (Read our review.)"
http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/news/article.php/3300821
StarOffice 7 review by PC Magazine
----------------------------------
"Can Sun Microsystems' StarOffice 7 supplant Microsoft Office on your
desktop? With previous versions being slow and buggy, you'd probably
answer no. But the speed, power, and simplicity of the latest
version-combined with its minuscule price ($79.95 direct)-may change
your mind. It's certainly worth a look for budget-constrained government
or enterprise buyers, as well as small businesses and individual users
who need to buy an office suite with their own money. And attention
education buyers: Sun will send you the software for just the cost of
the media and shipping."
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1440803,00.asp
InfoWorld Review: Sun Java Desktop System
-----------------------------------------
"My own lab experience with Sun JDS got off to a rocky start -- see
"How I Tested" online for details -- but in many ways, it was about what
I'd expected. In short, I had the same kinds of problems with network
and video drivers that still feature in the nightmares of anyone who
has ever supported Windows NT. But once those were behind me, it was
smooth sailing."
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/02/06/06TCjds_1.html
Cubicleware: Sun's JDS vs. Ximian XD2
-------------------------------------
" Sun and Novell are both trying to go the extra mile by tweaking the
little things that can help make Linux viable at institutions where
worker productivity is vital, computer literacy is modest, and the high
cost of Microsoft is inviting serious consideration of alternatives.
Clearly Linux has arrived at a point where both companies, building on
the solid work of the open source community, can offer inexpensive
desktops and apps that should be at least as usable as Windows and
Office."
http://www.newsforge.com/business/04/02/06/1758240.shtml?tid=111&tid=2&tid=82&tid=85&tid=94
Developer and Administrator News
#########################################################################
English Documenation for Perl/OODoc Module available
----------------------------------------------------
"Perl/OODoc modules provide an object-oriented interface for reading and
editing of OpenOffice.org documents by Perl programs without having to
use OpenOffice.org or StarOfficeTM directly.
Their objective is to offer programmers a concise and reasonably
high-level language, allowing the manipulation of document objects
without having to know the details of data representation used in
OpenOffice.org files or of XML programming interfaces."
http://www.genicorp.fr/devel/oodoc/
Opening Open Formats with XSLT
------------------------------
"In Jon Udell's keynote speech at the conference, he mentioned that the
only Microsoft Office 2003 application that would lack an XML output
option was the mail program, but he forgot another one, PowerPoint.
I was looking forward to some sort of Save As XML feature in PowerPoint
so that I could create the kind of speaker notes that I like from XML
versions of PowerPoint presentations, and it looks like I won't get this
ability for a while, at least not directly from Microsoft.
I decided to try it with OpenOffice, the free, open source,
multi-platform office application suite. Once I saw the XML that its
slide presentation program created, it took me less time to write a
stylesheet that did exactly what I wanted than it took to download
OpenOffice over the conference hotel's T1 line."
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/02/04/tr-xml.html
Microsoft's Office XML lags on Mac
----------------------------------
"Microsoft is readying a new version of Office for Macintosh for
release in the first half of 2004 - one which doesn't support many of
the much-touted XML features of its Windows cousin, Office 2003."
http://www.computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/UNID/6E0DEE420F766E7ECC256E21007B9E28?OpenDocument
Microsoft seeks XML-related patents
-----------------------------------
"In the last few months, we're sort of seeing more emphasis from
Microsoft on turning its patents into a revenue source," Rosoff said.
Microsoft isn't the only technology company facing a difficult balancing
act between making money and supporting open standards such as XML,
Rosoff added.
"Microsoft has always played an interesting game when it comes to
standards," he said. "They're going to support them as necessary to
get technology broadly adopted. But at the same time, they're an
(intellectual property) company. That's the case with any big business."
http://news.com.com/2100-1013-5146581.html
Microsoft Patenting Office XML Formats
--------------------------------------
Patent related discussion on Slashdot:
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/01/23/2323237.shtml?tid=155
Tips, Tricks & How-Tos
#########################################################################
FedoraNews.org: Tutorial: OpenOffice: Writer - Create Page Style
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Using styles can be convenient and a real time saver. Styles are a way
to save the specifics of a format that you will reuse. There are five
style types: paragraph, character, numbering, page and frame styles.
The Stylist is the basic tool for working with styles. This tutorial
will examine how to create a new page Style..."
http://fedoranews.org/mweber/OO_style1.shtml
Open Office and DocBook Tutorial
--------------------------------
"This tutorial tells you how to create DocBook documents with
OpenOffice Writer."
http://www.zzoss.com/projects/oowdbk/
Competitive/Market Info
#########################################################################
StarOffice 7 available for Solaris x86
--------------------------------------
"Sun Microsystems, Inc., (Nasdaq: SUNW - News) the creator and leading
advocate of Java(TM) technology, today announced that its
StarOffice(TM) 7 software, an open-source based, comprehensive,
multi-platform office productivity suite, is available immediately for
the growing enterprise-class Solaris(TM) Operating System (OS) x86
Platform Edition. Customers seeking a proven, alternative desktop
solution can now benefit from the familiar UNIX® environment and the
reliable, highly available, scalable and predictable Solaris OS on
their x86 systems."
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040204/sfw076_1.html
Chinese company to challenge Microsoft's Office
-----------------------------------------------
"Although the product is attractive, it is too pricey and Evermore
lacks marketing muscle to make it stand out in the crowd of Office
rivals including Sun Microsystems's StarOffice, Corel's WordPerfect
Office and the free, open-source OpenOffice, said Amy Wohl, president
of analyst firm Wohl Associates in Narberth, Pennsylvania."
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/01/26/HNdemochina_1.html
KDE integrates OpenOffice.org
-----------------------------
"In this interview, Jan Holesovsky, author and leader of the
KDE.OpenOffice.org project, now employed by SUSE, gives us a glimpse of
what to expect in terms of OpenOffice.org integration on your KDE
desktop."
http://dot.kde.org/1075705744/
Microsoft's office suite to be available in 14 Indian languages
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Microsoft India has firmed up plans to make available its office
suites, including Office 2003 and Windows 2003, in all 14 official
languages of India over the next three years."
http://www.techtree.com/techtree/js...de_new=24&subsection_code_new=140&subsection=
Desktop Linux, Now on OSDL's To-Do List
---------------------------------------
"Open Source Development Lab (OSDL), the Beaverton, Ore.-based
organization dedicated to advancing Linux, is spreading its plans to
roll a desktop specification it hopes will unify the operating system's
client-side profiles and help put to rest its image as a
difficult-to-install platform."
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3301331
IBM-Linux Partnership is hurting Microsoft
------------------------------------------
"They've spent years making promises. But at this year's LinuxWorld
Expo, which opens today at the Javits Center, Microsoft's foes are
starting to deliver, analysts say."
....
"Open Office, the Linux version of a word-processing suite, is on a par
with Microsoft's Office 97."
http://www.nypost.com/business/16288.htm
Microsoft Office to get update in June
--------------------------------------
"Microsoft revealed this week that its first Microsoft Office 2003
service release, due in late spring, will be a major release that
includes new security features and major improvements to the two new
Office applications, Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 and Microsoft
Office OneNote 2003."
http://www.itnews.com.au/storycontent.asp?ID=17&Art_ID=18111
http://www.silicon.com/software/applications/0,39024653,39117976,00.htm
Governments vote against Microsoft
----------------------------------
"The fear for Microsoft is that business customers--the company's bread
and butter--might soon follow suit [in migrating to Linux].
"Governments just get it faster in some areas, and I think open source
is one of them," added Sam Hiser, the marketing guru for open-source
software group OpenOffice.org. "Enterprises are very clubby; they need
a sense of confidence that individually, they're not the odd one out.
Governments will act more quickly--especially if there's a case for
cost-cutting and doing the right thing with taxpayers' dollars.""
http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/industry/0,39001143,39166028,00.htm
Database, Security, Storage Are Next Layers For Open Source
Commoditization
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Key open source advocates point to databases, security and storage as
the next big categories ripe for commoditization."
"...Simon Phipps, Chief Technology Evangelist at Sun, which last month
shipped its Java Enterprise Desktop with StarOffice 7, said the desktop
and groupware areas are next layers for growth
"We're seeing the open source operating system taking steps on the
desktop," said Phipps. "OpenOffice is having a huge impact on the
global markets," said Phipps. "Open source moves out of the geek space
and into the user space." ..."
http://www.cmpnetasia.com/ViewArt.cfm?Artid=22683&Catid=1&subcat=79
European Commission Reaches Decision To Fine Microsoft, Report Says
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"One prominent open-source developer who works on OpenOffice, the code
that competes against Microsoft Office, said it's still a wait-and-see
game, but he is pleased so far. "We'll have to see what the ruling says
when it airs publicly, but Microsoft's abuse of its dominant market
position is well-documented, globally, so if the EU toes the line and
offers penalties, that's certainly more than the U.S. government has
been capable of to date," said Sam Hiser, a developer at
openoffice.org. "In context, though, of the rising competition
Microsoft faces today from open standards--represented in open-source
software products such as Linux, Apache, OpenOffice, Mozilla,
Evolution--this is not of much importance. It's in the past. Microsoft
is irrelevant, regardless, and their business is dying.""
http://www.crn.com/sections/BreakingNews/dailyarchives.asp?ArticleID=47485
OpenOffice.org/StarOffice/Linux Migration
#########################################################################
Sun Lends Support to OpenOffice.org
-----------------------------------
"Sun Microsystems now offers Sun Software Support services to
openoffice.org customers. According to Chris van Niekerk, regional
support manager, Sun Microsystems SA, this move enhances the company's
current support for the StarOffice productivity suite, and provides
customers with additional choice and opportunity to reduce costs."
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114616,00.asp
http://www.sun.com/service/support/software/openoffice/
Security
#########################################################################
How will Office 2003 DRM impact interoperability?
-------------------------------------------------
"Despite the publicly available SDKs for Windows Rights Management
Services, Microsoft's efforts to wrap documents in DRM will likely
succeed or fail based on how much of the currently installed user base
buys into it. As Microsoft is already having serious problems convincing
existing customers to upgrade to the latest versions of Windows and
Office, achieving a critical mass of users for Windows RMS seems
challenging at best."
http://software.itmanagersjournal.c...=thread&tid=35&tid=44&tid=70&tid=83&pagenum=2
More Doom?
----------
"Was it ever. MyDoom-and its variation, MyDoom-B, released two days
later-soon become the fastest spreading email virus in Internet history,
extending into more than two dozen countries and infecting at least
500,000 machines over the past week. According to the security firm mi2g,
damage estimates from the virus now range as high as $38.5 billion,
taking into account everything from overtime pay to loss of business
and bandwidth, as well as the cost of recovery and software upgrades.
While some say that estimate may be too high, security analysts agree
that the damage is in the billions."
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4154289/
UCLA weathers e-mail worm storm
-------------------------------
"UCLA's Social Sciences Computing, which provides network security for
many departments and centers under the social sciences umbrella, has
already screened out 40,000 e-mails infected with Mydoom."
http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?id=27208
Fast-spreading Computer Worm Invades Treasure Valley
----------------------------------------------------
""But if you rely on computer networks to control power grids and
banking networks, there is the potential for serious damage," said
O'Neill who added people in the computer industry constantly work to
identify and stop viruses."
http://www2.kbcitv.com/x5154.xml?ParentPageID=x5157&ContentID=x50327&Layout=KBCI.xsl&AdGroupID=x5154
Misc
----
New worms exploit MyDoom chaos
http://www.web-user.co.uk/news/news.php?id=47877
Critical Flaw Leaves Windows Users Vulnerable
http://antivirus.about.com/library/weekly/aa072903a.htm
New Virus and Microsoft Windows problems lead to new patches
http://www.badgerherald.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/02/13/402c3197eb209
Microsoft patch delay may contribute to early exploit
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci950149,00.html
Nachi.B virus sweeps up after MyDoom
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=53533
Microsoft 'flaw' threat to 200m PCs
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/business/articles/timid74220?source=
Pricing
#########################################################################
StarOffice Giving Corporate Users 'Leverage' in Negotiations
with Microsoft
------------------------------------------------------------
"O'Grady emphasized that the products are not a "clear and present
danger" to Microsoft's market dominance. "But clearly the potential is
there," said the analyst.
The new version of StarOffice 7 -- which will sell for $79.95 retail --
includes 60-day support and PDF and Flash export capabilities. The
Enterprise Edition of StarOffice, which adds an enterprise configuration
and management tool and a software development kit, ranges from $60 per
user for 25 users to $25 per user for 10,000 users."
http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/32792.html
Star Can Save Millions; But Look Before You Leap
------------------------------------------------
"Speaking to CXOtoday, K.P. Unnikrishnan, country head - marketing,
Sun Microsystems India, said, "For an enterprise, with lets say 100
desktops, Star Office 7 would cost around Rs 4,680 per license, as
against Rs 14,000 per license for Microsoft Office 2003."
In CIO lingo, this would translate into a budgetary saving of
approximately 65 %, as Sun's office suite costs roughly 1/3 rd of
its Microsoft counterpart. "
http://www.cxotoday.com/cxo/jsp/ind...section_code=1&file=template1.jsp&storyid=632
No Free Lunch: Microsoft Fumbles the Patent Ball
------------------------------------------------
"Microsoft's decision to drop the other shoe on Office 2003's XML
schemas may come back to haunt it. News reports of patent filings with
New Zealand and the European Union triggered fears that third-party
vendors would be prevented from accessing Office documents without
licensing the new formats."
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1479235,00.asp
Sun to focus on cost reduction at LinuxWorld
--------------------------------------------
"Sun Microsystems, long a hard-line Unix vendor, is becoming a player
in the Linux market as well, offering Linux on both the server and
desktop."
[On the Linux desktop] "That's why we have it deployed to thousands of
employees at Sun. That's why Telstra has deployed it, that's why the
Chinese Government selected it, that's why the United Kingdom National
Health Service selected it. And that's why we believe that across the
planet the momentum has swayed toward the delivery of an alternative to
Windows that, again, the computing industry hasn't ever really seen
(before). We've had over 40 million downloads of Star and OpenOffice."
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=914901078&fp=16&fpid=0
Commentary: LinuxWorld and the desktop revolution
-------------------------------------------------
"In both small and large businesses, said Perens, businesses will find
that they can use the OpenOffice.org family of office applications as
easily as Microsoft Office.
The OpenOffice.org project has been busy lately, releasing enhancements
"that provide an even more compelling alternative to Microsoft Office,"
said Linux consultant and Samba Team co-founder John H. Terpstra. "The
new features will permit lower cost, high productivity commercial
publishing to expand the use of open source technologies. Cost
reductions of the order of 60 to 70% will be achieved."
Two vendors in particular -- Sun Microsystems Inc. and Novell Inc. --
have been ahead of the pack in backing the Linux desktop. Now, they
have the opportunity to have tremendous clout in the corporate
marketplace, said CodeWeavers CEO Jeremy White. "
<http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci945171,00.html>
Statistics
#########################################################################
OpenOffice.org
==============
Highlights
----------
* More that 25,000,000 have downloaded OpenOffice.org
so far (as of January 3, 2004).
* The OpenOffice.org project has more than 15,200
unique people subscribed to the mailing lists
(as of January 3, 2004).
* 390 people and companies have signed a JCA and are thus
either already contributing or considering to do so
(as of February 12, 2004). These are additional 8.9%
compared to January.
* 1294 people have participated in the OOo developer
survey so far (as of February 12, 2004). This is about
4.4 percent more than last month.
* OpenOffice.org User Survey Data
Total number of responses since OCT 29th 2002: 418609
This is about 5.5 percent more than last month.
Number of responses last month (jan 2004): 32065
Events
#########################################################################
Upcoming
========
Fosdem 2004
-----------
Brussels, Belgium
2004/02/21-22
http://www.fosdem.org/
FS&OSD
------
Istanbul, Turkey
2004/02/27-29
http://open.bilgi.edu.tr/workshop/program.php
OSBC 2004
---------
San Francisco, USA
2004/03/16-17
http://www.osbc2004.com/
eGovOS
------
Washington, DC, USA
2004/03/15-17
http://www.egovos.org/Conferences
CeBIT 2004
----------
Hannover, Germany
2004/03/18-24
http://www.cebit.de/homepage_e
http://de.openoffice.org/veranstaltungen/cebit_2004.html
FISL
----
Porto Alegre, Brazil
2004/06/3-5
http://captacao.softwarelivre.org/english/captacao2004-en-1.5.html
LinuxWorld Expo/Tokyo 2004
--------------------------
Tokyo, Japan
2004/06/02-04
http://www.idg.co.jp/expo/lw/
Guadec
------
Kristiansand, Norway
2004/06/28-30
http://2004.guadec.org/
Reports
=======
LinuxWorld Expo New York 2004
-----------------------------
"We've been LinuxWorld Expo for three days and our booth
has been quite busy in all days.
- We had 400 copies of OOo CD-R and all gone. (Brian carried
200, Jim carried 50, and the rest of 150 were burn at the booth.)
- Questions were separated in two groups. Basic one, asking
licensing, supported platforms, and so on, were easy to answer.
On the other side, there were many questions by OOo users,
who have troubles in migrating from MS Office, especially
need macro compatibility, these were hard to be solved.
I suggested to several people to describe it to Issuezilla.
regards,
Takaaki Higuchi(www.linux.or.jp, www.freestandards.org, sun.co.jp)"
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)
#########################################################################
(e-mail address removed), (e-mail address removed) or
(e-mail address removed).
Regards
Gordon
Volume 01 - Issue 8 - 02/2004
Please send news clippings to:
(e-mail address removed)
Highlights in this Newsletter
#########################################################################
* UN Report: E-COMMERCE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2003"
(Resources)
* 20% for OpenOffice.org"
(Awards and Reviews)
* Governments vote against Microsoft"
(Competitive/Market Info)
* Sun Lends Support to OpenOffice.org"
(OpenOffice.org/StarOffice/Linux Migration)
Announcements
#########################################################################
Lao Native-Lang Project announced
---------------------------------
"We have the pleasure to announce the opening of the Lao Native-Lang
project (http://lo.openoffice.org), led by Mr. Anousak Souphavanh.
Thanks to the work of his team, OpenOffice.org has extended its reach
up to Laos, a small and beautiful country, birthplace of a magnificient
and antique culture."
Source: Charles-H. Schulz, Lead of the Native-Lang Confederation
Arabic & Hebrew Projects announced
----------------------------------
"Today we have the pleasure to announce the opening of the Arabic and
Hebrew Native-Lang projects. The Arabic Project (http://ar.openoffice.org)
is led by Mr Khayat and backed by the Arabeyes free-software community,
an important player and supporter of free software and OpenOffice.org in
the Arabic world. The Hebrew project has been created by Tkos, an Israeli
company who is also in charge of localizing OpenOffice.org and StarOffice
but who managed to set up a real and lively community of users, developpers
and marketers.
These two projects show the growing influence of OpenOffice.org in the
Middle-East and we are delighted that such prestigious cultures and people
have adopted OpenOffice.org as their free and open productivity suite .
Source: Charles-H. Schulz, Lead of the Native-Lang Confederation
Misc Native-Lang Project News
-----------------------------
On Saturday the 7th of February, the Native-Lang Confederation has seen
four new projects' proposals who have all been accepted in due time and
are currently in setup phase:
-The Armenian native-lang project
-The Hungarian native-lang project
-The Norwegian native-lang project
-The Sango native-lang project (from Central Africa).
This day has marked the highest growth rate for the Native-Lang
Confederation and brings potentially ten of thousands of OpenOffice.org
users and hundreds of volunteers to our community.
Source: Charles-H. Schulz, Lead of the Native-Lang Confederation
Japanese Announcement
---------------------
The Japanese Language Project have launched a web-based message board
for help regarding OpenOffice.org. The system is also linked to a
mailing list providing further options for access. More information at
the Japanese Language Project: http://ja.openoffice.org/
Courtesy of Takaaki Higuchi (www.linux.or.jp, www.freestandards.org,
sun.co.jp)
ISO announcment
---------------
There is a new OpenOffice.org ISO available for download. The main
changes are to the MacOS X version, where both 1.0.3 and 1.1.0 versions
are now included. It can be found in the /contrib/iso/1.1.0 of any
OOo download mirror. Go to http://www.openoffice.org/ to find
download sites.
Courtesy of Alex Fisher, co-lead CD-ROM project
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
Success Stories and References
#########################################################################
USA
===
Big vendors lead leap to Linux
------------------------------
"Harry Roberts, CIO at Boscov's Department Store LLC, a 40-store
operation based in Reading, Pa., is considering replacing Windows NT
with Linux on about two-thirds of the company's desktops -- the ones
used by employees who aren't heavily reliant on Microsoft applications.
He's also looking at Sun's StarOffice productivity suite."
http://www.cio.com.au/index.php?id=1174714834&fp=4&fpid=21
http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/linux/story/0,10801,89166,00.html?SKC=news89166
Canada
======
Newfoundland hasn't ruled out Linux for word processing
-------------------------------------------------------
"The government of Newfoundland's decision to replace WordPerfect with
Microsoft Word acts against the best interests of a cash-strapped
province that could take advantage of free software alternatives,
according to a local Linux user."
"Shortly before Newfoundland's Information Technology Management
Division signed a three-year contract with Microsoft Canada to deploy
its Office products, Brian M. Hunt posted an open letter to premier
Danny Williams on the site Linux Today asking his government to
reconsider their options. Hunt said any decision to choose Microsoft
over software like OpenOffice.org would contravene the first objective
of the province's Treasury Board IT procurement policy, which
emphasizes maximizing the value of all IT acquisitions."
http://www.itbusiness.ca/index.asp?theaction=61&lid=1&sid=54692&adBanner=DataManagement
France
======
Linux and OpenOffice.org at the City of Paris
---------------------------------------------
According to the article below the system integrator Unilog got
the task to create a report for the government that eveluates
the usage of Linux and OpenOffice.org on the 17,000 PC's at the
City of Paris. The French government is envisaging to migrate
5-15% of all PC's to open source technologies.
http://www.clubic.com/n/n11557.html
India
=====
Indian insurance company shifts 10,000 desktops to StarOffice
-------------------------------------------------------------
"India's second largest insurer, United India Insurance Company, is
moving 10,000 desktops to Sun Microsystems' office suite StarOffice.
A media release from Sun quoted UIIC's IT assistant general manager
S.M. Victor John as saying the insurer had selected StarOffice 7
software because it matched the company's technical specifications and
was competitively priced."
"A Sun spokesperson said the 10,000 desktops being replaced were
running mostly Office 95. "One of the reasons why UIIC chose StarOffice
is due to cost savings. StarOffice only costs anywhere from $25-$60 for
enterprises while Microsoft Office sells their Office suite for
hundreds of dollars," the spokesperson said.
"StarOffice's functionality and compatibility to Microsoft Office was
also a major factor in the decision as well as multi-platform support -
Linux, Solaris, Windows - for greater flexibility and choice."
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/06/1075854037075.html
Australia
=========
Aust users back desktop Linux
-----------------------------
"A newly-conducted survey of Australian and New Zealand tech users has
lent weight to Linux' desktop prospects, with more than three-quarters
of respondents saying it will improve its strength in the area.
The survey -- conducted by tech expert Graeme Philipson in February --
found that almost two-thirds (61.3 percent) believed the open-source
operating system would get "a little" stronger on the desktop, while
22.5 percent said it would get "a lot" stronger.
[...]
Smith attributes the popularity of Linux in business use to the
management and security advantages a company has when using the
system, making it the main alternative to proprietary operating systems.
"On Linux a company or organisation has full control over their
IT" said Smith, adding: "There are practically no Linux viruses to
be worried about and any patches are developed incredibly fast and
available immediately". "
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/0,2000061733,39116120,00.htm
Solutions
#########################################################################
ITP (Intelligent Text Processing) and OpenOffice.org
----------------------------------------------------
"Aia Software has extended the ITP/Workstation, ITP/MDK and
WindowsEnabler products to support OpenOffice.org documents. This
confirms Aia Software's continued commitment to open standards and
to ensuring full freedom of choice for Clients regarding their
preferred word processor environment. ITP/MDK now integrates with
'Writer', the OpenOffice.org Suite fully equipped word processor,
enabling the development of ITP Model Documents in Open Office.org
format. ITP/Workstation now fully supports the production of native
Open Office.org 'Writer' result documents. All WindowsEnabler
functionality, such as printing, editing and viewing documents, is
now also available for OpenOffice.org documents. A future update of
ITP/Server will provide support for OpenOffice.org documents as well.
"
http://www.aia-itp.com/link.php?href=/news/news.php
What is ITP
http://www.aia-itp.com/link.php?href=/products/itp/itp.html
Oracle moves to support Linux desktops
--------------------------------------
"It is relatively easy for us to enable Mozilla as a browser because
most of our applications are Web-based. In a keynote at the last
LinuxWorld in San Francisco in August, we demonstrated that we could
use OpenOffice with documents coming out of Oracle Collaboration Suite.
We are going to be showing that Linux desktop systems can work with a
lot of local systems. I think you will see more and more of that coming
soon."
http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/qna/0,289202,sid39_gci946177,00.html
Apache Forrest Support for OpenOffice.org
-----------------------------------------
"Forrest is an XML standards-oriented project documentation framework
based on Apache Cocoon, providing XSLT stylesheets and schemas, images
and other resources. Forrest uses these to render the XML source
content into a website via command-line, robot, or a dynamic web
application."
http://xml.apache.org/forrest
"Apache Forrest supports OpenOffice.org 1.1 Writer documents as source
documents. Generally every OpenOffice.org Writer document can be used
as source file but if you want support for all elements the
documentv12.dtd supports you have to use template names which are
supported during the transformation process."
http://xml.apache.org/forrest/oowriter.html
Nuxeo, web content management and collaborative applications
------------------------------------------------------------
"Nuxeo is the french leader in Zope and Python services and support.
We develop web content infrastructures and web collaborative
applications such as portals, internal and external web sites,
editorial web sites, document management, knowledge management,
e-commerce, etc."
http://www.nuxeo.com/en/
Customer/User Feedback
########################################################################
Linux: Navigating the road ahead
--------------------------------
"Though Foresbec has Office 2000 licences for all of its users, Forcier
has also installed OpenOffice on all of the desktops. He doesn't plan to
renew the Microsoft licences.
"If I renew, it will cost me more than $20,000." "
http://www.itbusiness.ca/index.asp?theaction=61&lid=1&sid=54569&adBanner=DataManagement
'So easy even a woman could use it'
-----------------------------------
""We put the chairwoman of our workers' council on stage in front
of all the municipal workers, and showed her using the new system.
After that, we found that no man would say that he couldn't use his
PC now that everyone knew a woman could do it."
Speaking at the Open Source for Local Government conference in
London, Bräuner explained that some users were afraid that the
deployment of Linux was part of a secret plan to read everyone's
email, record all their keystrokes and monitor their surfing habits. "
http://www.silicon.com/hardware/desktops/0,39024645,39118341,00.htm
New Books, Documents and Collateral
#########################################################################
OpenOffice.org Flash Intro
--------------------------
"Finally got around to applying the [GNU Free Documentation License
(FDL)] to the OOo 1.1 Flash intro, so everyone who has Flash MX 2004 can
now make their own versions (translated, etc).
At some point we should create a nice description page, but we haven't
done that just yet.
The source Flash file for the OOo 1.1 Intro is here:
http://www.digitaldistribution.com/community/goodwilltoallmankind/ooo11_intro_en_001.fla
A Flash intro generated from it is here:
http://www.digitaldistribution.com/community/goodwilltoallmankind/ooointro11en.swf
Those URLS should all be on one line, but may have wrapped due to text
formatting.
Hope this helps the native lang teams especially. Would someone also be
ok to let them know about this, as I'm not on any of their mailing
list(s) just yet? "
(Source: (e-mail address removed))
Resources
#########################################################################
UN Report: E-COMMERCE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2003
-------------------------------------------------
" The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has made
available an Internet edition of its E-Commerce and Development
Report 2003, which features Free and open-source software: Implications
for ICT policy and development as a chapter. The report, like many open
source advocates, proposes that the open source process produces better
software. It argues that open source development's division of labor is
more efficient than that of proprietary coders."
http://www.opensector.org/1075490138
Awards & Reviews
#########################################################################
20% for OpenOffice.org
----------------------
"However, an upstart open-source productivity suite also made a strong
showing this year among our readers. Twenty percent of our readers
proclaimed OpenOffice 1.1 as the top small business productivity suite,
which just goes to show that smaller companies are also open to the idea
of Linux on the desktop. Available for free to Windows, Linux, and Mac
users, all the open-source community asks is that programmers pass along
any improvements they make to the source code. (Read our review.)"
http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/news/article.php/3300821
StarOffice 7 review by PC Magazine
----------------------------------
"Can Sun Microsystems' StarOffice 7 supplant Microsoft Office on your
desktop? With previous versions being slow and buggy, you'd probably
answer no. But the speed, power, and simplicity of the latest
version-combined with its minuscule price ($79.95 direct)-may change
your mind. It's certainly worth a look for budget-constrained government
or enterprise buyers, as well as small businesses and individual users
who need to buy an office suite with their own money. And attention
education buyers: Sun will send you the software for just the cost of
the media and shipping."
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1440803,00.asp
InfoWorld Review: Sun Java Desktop System
-----------------------------------------
"My own lab experience with Sun JDS got off to a rocky start -- see
"How I Tested" online for details -- but in many ways, it was about what
I'd expected. In short, I had the same kinds of problems with network
and video drivers that still feature in the nightmares of anyone who
has ever supported Windows NT. But once those were behind me, it was
smooth sailing."
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/02/06/06TCjds_1.html
Cubicleware: Sun's JDS vs. Ximian XD2
-------------------------------------
" Sun and Novell are both trying to go the extra mile by tweaking the
little things that can help make Linux viable at institutions where
worker productivity is vital, computer literacy is modest, and the high
cost of Microsoft is inviting serious consideration of alternatives.
Clearly Linux has arrived at a point where both companies, building on
the solid work of the open source community, can offer inexpensive
desktops and apps that should be at least as usable as Windows and
Office."
http://www.newsforge.com/business/04/02/06/1758240.shtml?tid=111&tid=2&tid=82&tid=85&tid=94
Developer and Administrator News
#########################################################################
English Documenation for Perl/OODoc Module available
----------------------------------------------------
"Perl/OODoc modules provide an object-oriented interface for reading and
editing of OpenOffice.org documents by Perl programs without having to
use OpenOffice.org or StarOfficeTM directly.
Their objective is to offer programmers a concise and reasonably
high-level language, allowing the manipulation of document objects
without having to know the details of data representation used in
OpenOffice.org files or of XML programming interfaces."
http://www.genicorp.fr/devel/oodoc/
Opening Open Formats with XSLT
------------------------------
"In Jon Udell's keynote speech at the conference, he mentioned that the
only Microsoft Office 2003 application that would lack an XML output
option was the mail program, but he forgot another one, PowerPoint.
I was looking forward to some sort of Save As XML feature in PowerPoint
so that I could create the kind of speaker notes that I like from XML
versions of PowerPoint presentations, and it looks like I won't get this
ability for a while, at least not directly from Microsoft.
I decided to try it with OpenOffice, the free, open source,
multi-platform office application suite. Once I saw the XML that its
slide presentation program created, it took me less time to write a
stylesheet that did exactly what I wanted than it took to download
OpenOffice over the conference hotel's T1 line."
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/02/04/tr-xml.html
Microsoft's Office XML lags on Mac
----------------------------------
"Microsoft is readying a new version of Office for Macintosh for
release in the first half of 2004 - one which doesn't support many of
the much-touted XML features of its Windows cousin, Office 2003."
http://www.computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/UNID/6E0DEE420F766E7ECC256E21007B9E28?OpenDocument
Microsoft seeks XML-related patents
-----------------------------------
"In the last few months, we're sort of seeing more emphasis from
Microsoft on turning its patents into a revenue source," Rosoff said.
Microsoft isn't the only technology company facing a difficult balancing
act between making money and supporting open standards such as XML,
Rosoff added.
"Microsoft has always played an interesting game when it comes to
standards," he said. "They're going to support them as necessary to
get technology broadly adopted. But at the same time, they're an
(intellectual property) company. That's the case with any big business."
http://news.com.com/2100-1013-5146581.html
Microsoft Patenting Office XML Formats
--------------------------------------
Patent related discussion on Slashdot:
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/01/23/2323237.shtml?tid=155
Tips, Tricks & How-Tos
#########################################################################
FedoraNews.org: Tutorial: OpenOffice: Writer - Create Page Style
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Using styles can be convenient and a real time saver. Styles are a way
to save the specifics of a format that you will reuse. There are five
style types: paragraph, character, numbering, page and frame styles.
The Stylist is the basic tool for working with styles. This tutorial
will examine how to create a new page Style..."
http://fedoranews.org/mweber/OO_style1.shtml
Open Office and DocBook Tutorial
--------------------------------
"This tutorial tells you how to create DocBook documents with
OpenOffice Writer."
http://www.zzoss.com/projects/oowdbk/
Competitive/Market Info
#########################################################################
StarOffice 7 available for Solaris x86
--------------------------------------
"Sun Microsystems, Inc., (Nasdaq: SUNW - News) the creator and leading
advocate of Java(TM) technology, today announced that its
StarOffice(TM) 7 software, an open-source based, comprehensive,
multi-platform office productivity suite, is available immediately for
the growing enterprise-class Solaris(TM) Operating System (OS) x86
Platform Edition. Customers seeking a proven, alternative desktop
solution can now benefit from the familiar UNIX® environment and the
reliable, highly available, scalable and predictable Solaris OS on
their x86 systems."
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040204/sfw076_1.html
Chinese company to challenge Microsoft's Office
-----------------------------------------------
"Although the product is attractive, it is too pricey and Evermore
lacks marketing muscle to make it stand out in the crowd of Office
rivals including Sun Microsystems's StarOffice, Corel's WordPerfect
Office and the free, open-source OpenOffice, said Amy Wohl, president
of analyst firm Wohl Associates in Narberth, Pennsylvania."
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/01/26/HNdemochina_1.html
KDE integrates OpenOffice.org
-----------------------------
"In this interview, Jan Holesovsky, author and leader of the
KDE.OpenOffice.org project, now employed by SUSE, gives us a glimpse of
what to expect in terms of OpenOffice.org integration on your KDE
desktop."
http://dot.kde.org/1075705744/
Microsoft's office suite to be available in 14 Indian languages
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Microsoft India has firmed up plans to make available its office
suites, including Office 2003 and Windows 2003, in all 14 official
languages of India over the next three years."
http://www.techtree.com/techtree/js...de_new=24&subsection_code_new=140&subsection=
Desktop Linux, Now on OSDL's To-Do List
---------------------------------------
"Open Source Development Lab (OSDL), the Beaverton, Ore.-based
organization dedicated to advancing Linux, is spreading its plans to
roll a desktop specification it hopes will unify the operating system's
client-side profiles and help put to rest its image as a
difficult-to-install platform."
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3301331
IBM-Linux Partnership is hurting Microsoft
------------------------------------------
"They've spent years making promises. But at this year's LinuxWorld
Expo, which opens today at the Javits Center, Microsoft's foes are
starting to deliver, analysts say."
....
"Open Office, the Linux version of a word-processing suite, is on a par
with Microsoft's Office 97."
http://www.nypost.com/business/16288.htm
Microsoft Office to get update in June
--------------------------------------
"Microsoft revealed this week that its first Microsoft Office 2003
service release, due in late spring, will be a major release that
includes new security features and major improvements to the two new
Office applications, Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 and Microsoft
Office OneNote 2003."
http://www.itnews.com.au/storycontent.asp?ID=17&Art_ID=18111
http://www.silicon.com/software/applications/0,39024653,39117976,00.htm
Governments vote against Microsoft
----------------------------------
"The fear for Microsoft is that business customers--the company's bread
and butter--might soon follow suit [in migrating to Linux].
"Governments just get it faster in some areas, and I think open source
is one of them," added Sam Hiser, the marketing guru for open-source
software group OpenOffice.org. "Enterprises are very clubby; they need
a sense of confidence that individually, they're not the odd one out.
Governments will act more quickly--especially if there's a case for
cost-cutting and doing the right thing with taxpayers' dollars.""
http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/industry/0,39001143,39166028,00.htm
Database, Security, Storage Are Next Layers For Open Source
Commoditization
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Key open source advocates point to databases, security and storage as
the next big categories ripe for commoditization."
"...Simon Phipps, Chief Technology Evangelist at Sun, which last month
shipped its Java Enterprise Desktop with StarOffice 7, said the desktop
and groupware areas are next layers for growth
"We're seeing the open source operating system taking steps on the
desktop," said Phipps. "OpenOffice is having a huge impact on the
global markets," said Phipps. "Open source moves out of the geek space
and into the user space." ..."
http://www.cmpnetasia.com/ViewArt.cfm?Artid=22683&Catid=1&subcat=79
European Commission Reaches Decision To Fine Microsoft, Report Says
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"One prominent open-source developer who works on OpenOffice, the code
that competes against Microsoft Office, said it's still a wait-and-see
game, but he is pleased so far. "We'll have to see what the ruling says
when it airs publicly, but Microsoft's abuse of its dominant market
position is well-documented, globally, so if the EU toes the line and
offers penalties, that's certainly more than the U.S. government has
been capable of to date," said Sam Hiser, a developer at
openoffice.org. "In context, though, of the rising competition
Microsoft faces today from open standards--represented in open-source
software products such as Linux, Apache, OpenOffice, Mozilla,
Evolution--this is not of much importance. It's in the past. Microsoft
is irrelevant, regardless, and their business is dying.""
http://www.crn.com/sections/BreakingNews/dailyarchives.asp?ArticleID=47485
OpenOffice.org/StarOffice/Linux Migration
#########################################################################
Sun Lends Support to OpenOffice.org
-----------------------------------
"Sun Microsystems now offers Sun Software Support services to
openoffice.org customers. According to Chris van Niekerk, regional
support manager, Sun Microsystems SA, this move enhances the company's
current support for the StarOffice productivity suite, and provides
customers with additional choice and opportunity to reduce costs."
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114616,00.asp
http://www.sun.com/service/support/software/openoffice/
Security
#########################################################################
How will Office 2003 DRM impact interoperability?
-------------------------------------------------
"Despite the publicly available SDKs for Windows Rights Management
Services, Microsoft's efforts to wrap documents in DRM will likely
succeed or fail based on how much of the currently installed user base
buys into it. As Microsoft is already having serious problems convincing
existing customers to upgrade to the latest versions of Windows and
Office, achieving a critical mass of users for Windows RMS seems
challenging at best."
http://software.itmanagersjournal.c...=thread&tid=35&tid=44&tid=70&tid=83&pagenum=2
More Doom?
----------
"Was it ever. MyDoom-and its variation, MyDoom-B, released two days
later-soon become the fastest spreading email virus in Internet history,
extending into more than two dozen countries and infecting at least
500,000 machines over the past week. According to the security firm mi2g,
damage estimates from the virus now range as high as $38.5 billion,
taking into account everything from overtime pay to loss of business
and bandwidth, as well as the cost of recovery and software upgrades.
While some say that estimate may be too high, security analysts agree
that the damage is in the billions."
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4154289/
UCLA weathers e-mail worm storm
-------------------------------
"UCLA's Social Sciences Computing, which provides network security for
many departments and centers under the social sciences umbrella, has
already screened out 40,000 e-mails infected with Mydoom."
http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?id=27208
Fast-spreading Computer Worm Invades Treasure Valley
----------------------------------------------------
""But if you rely on computer networks to control power grids and
banking networks, there is the potential for serious damage," said
O'Neill who added people in the computer industry constantly work to
identify and stop viruses."
http://www2.kbcitv.com/x5154.xml?ParentPageID=x5157&ContentID=x50327&Layout=KBCI.xsl&AdGroupID=x5154
Misc
----
New worms exploit MyDoom chaos
http://www.web-user.co.uk/news/news.php?id=47877
Critical Flaw Leaves Windows Users Vulnerable
http://antivirus.about.com/library/weekly/aa072903a.htm
New Virus and Microsoft Windows problems lead to new patches
http://www.badgerherald.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/02/13/402c3197eb209
Microsoft patch delay may contribute to early exploit
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci950149,00.html
Nachi.B virus sweeps up after MyDoom
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=53533
Microsoft 'flaw' threat to 200m PCs
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/business/articles/timid74220?source=
Pricing
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StarOffice Giving Corporate Users 'Leverage' in Negotiations
with Microsoft
------------------------------------------------------------
"O'Grady emphasized that the products are not a "clear and present
danger" to Microsoft's market dominance. "But clearly the potential is
there," said the analyst.
The new version of StarOffice 7 -- which will sell for $79.95 retail --
includes 60-day support and PDF and Flash export capabilities. The
Enterprise Edition of StarOffice, which adds an enterprise configuration
and management tool and a software development kit, ranges from $60 per
user for 25 users to $25 per user for 10,000 users."
http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/32792.html
Star Can Save Millions; But Look Before You Leap
------------------------------------------------
"Speaking to CXOtoday, K.P. Unnikrishnan, country head - marketing,
Sun Microsystems India, said, "For an enterprise, with lets say 100
desktops, Star Office 7 would cost around Rs 4,680 per license, as
against Rs 14,000 per license for Microsoft Office 2003."
In CIO lingo, this would translate into a budgetary saving of
approximately 65 %, as Sun's office suite costs roughly 1/3 rd of
its Microsoft counterpart. "
http://www.cxotoday.com/cxo/jsp/ind...section_code=1&file=template1.jsp&storyid=632
No Free Lunch: Microsoft Fumbles the Patent Ball
------------------------------------------------
"Microsoft's decision to drop the other shoe on Office 2003's XML
schemas may come back to haunt it. News reports of patent filings with
New Zealand and the European Union triggered fears that third-party
vendors would be prevented from accessing Office documents without
licensing the new formats."
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1479235,00.asp
Sun to focus on cost reduction at LinuxWorld
--------------------------------------------
"Sun Microsystems, long a hard-line Unix vendor, is becoming a player
in the Linux market as well, offering Linux on both the server and
desktop."
[On the Linux desktop] "That's why we have it deployed to thousands of
employees at Sun. That's why Telstra has deployed it, that's why the
Chinese Government selected it, that's why the United Kingdom National
Health Service selected it. And that's why we believe that across the
planet the momentum has swayed toward the delivery of an alternative to
Windows that, again, the computing industry hasn't ever really seen
(before). We've had over 40 million downloads of Star and OpenOffice."
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=914901078&fp=16&fpid=0
Commentary: LinuxWorld and the desktop revolution
-------------------------------------------------
"In both small and large businesses, said Perens, businesses will find
that they can use the OpenOffice.org family of office applications as
easily as Microsoft Office.
The OpenOffice.org project has been busy lately, releasing enhancements
"that provide an even more compelling alternative to Microsoft Office,"
said Linux consultant and Samba Team co-founder John H. Terpstra. "The
new features will permit lower cost, high productivity commercial
publishing to expand the use of open source technologies. Cost
reductions of the order of 60 to 70% will be achieved."
Two vendors in particular -- Sun Microsystems Inc. and Novell Inc. --
have been ahead of the pack in backing the Linux desktop. Now, they
have the opportunity to have tremendous clout in the corporate
marketplace, said CodeWeavers CEO Jeremy White. "
<http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci945171,00.html>
Statistics
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OpenOffice.org
==============
Highlights
----------
* More that 25,000,000 have downloaded OpenOffice.org
so far (as of January 3, 2004).
* The OpenOffice.org project has more than 15,200
unique people subscribed to the mailing lists
(as of January 3, 2004).
* 390 people and companies have signed a JCA and are thus
either already contributing or considering to do so
(as of February 12, 2004). These are additional 8.9%
compared to January.
* 1294 people have participated in the OOo developer
survey so far (as of February 12, 2004). This is about
4.4 percent more than last month.
* OpenOffice.org User Survey Data
Total number of responses since OCT 29th 2002: 418609
This is about 5.5 percent more than last month.
Number of responses last month (jan 2004): 32065
Events
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Upcoming
========
Fosdem 2004
-----------
Brussels, Belgium
2004/02/21-22
http://www.fosdem.org/
FS&OSD
------
Istanbul, Turkey
2004/02/27-29
http://open.bilgi.edu.tr/workshop/program.php
OSBC 2004
---------
San Francisco, USA
2004/03/16-17
http://www.osbc2004.com/
eGovOS
------
Washington, DC, USA
2004/03/15-17
http://www.egovos.org/Conferences
CeBIT 2004
----------
Hannover, Germany
2004/03/18-24
http://www.cebit.de/homepage_e
http://de.openoffice.org/veranstaltungen/cebit_2004.html
FISL
----
Porto Alegre, Brazil
2004/06/3-5
http://captacao.softwarelivre.org/english/captacao2004-en-1.5.html
LinuxWorld Expo/Tokyo 2004
--------------------------
Tokyo, Japan
2004/06/02-04
http://www.idg.co.jp/expo/lw/
Guadec
------
Kristiansand, Norway
2004/06/28-30
http://2004.guadec.org/
Reports
=======
LinuxWorld Expo New York 2004
-----------------------------
"We've been LinuxWorld Expo for three days and our booth
has been quite busy in all days.
- We had 400 copies of OOo CD-R and all gone. (Brian carried
200, Jim carried 50, and the rest of 150 were burn at the booth.)
- Questions were separated in two groups. Basic one, asking
licensing, supported platforms, and so on, were easy to answer.
On the other side, there were many questions by OOo users,
who have troubles in migrating from MS Office, especially
need macro compatibility, these were hard to be solved.
I suggested to several people to describe it to Issuezilla.
regards,
Takaaki Higuchi(www.linux.or.jp, www.freestandards.org, sun.co.jp)"
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)
#########################################################################
(e-mail address removed), (e-mail address removed) or
(e-mail address removed).
Regards
Gordon