Ian Lynch wrote:
[...]
I replied as follows
Hi Dawn,
"But these OpenOffice glitches are enough to deter one analyst who
shares research with clients from using it on reports, for fear of
circulating a flawed document.
That's a major hurdle for Sun and Google to overcome."
To be fair, the major hurdle is caused by Microsoft's proprietary
file formats. Since MS do not publish all the details of how their
files are structured its impossible to make 100% reliable
translations of them in other software. This is why Open Document
Format (ODF) is so important. The state of Massachusetts recently
declared that in 2007 it would only accept documents in Open Document
Format or pdf. Microsoft are free to adopt Open Document Format but
have chosen to develop their own proprietary version for Office 12
and now say there is no customer demand for them to support the
internationally agreed standard. Strange really since the European
Union as well as Massachusetts stated that ODF is its preferred
format. Rather large customers. MS is hoping that it can keep office
document formats proprietary so that users like yourself will be
locked into their products no matter how good and low cost the
competition. It is in all customers' interests to insist that MS
adopt and support the internationally agreed standard and then we can
all choose our software tools on the basis of price and performance.
If MS produce the best value software they have nothing to worry
about.
Thanks Ian. Your reply reinforced what I did send (see below) to Dawn in
response to her request for an overview in preparation for her article.
The article was about the time the Google and Sun press was popping all
over the place, and I think the media did begin to feed off each other.
Also, in situations like this, news people tend to want to be
controversial and conflicting, rather than consensual.
Regards
Jacqueline
---///---
Hello Dawn
Thank you for your enquiry. I have cc'd Louis Suarez-Potts,
OpenOffice.org Community Manager and John McCreesh OpenOffice.org
Marketing Project Co-Lead. Louis is based in Canada, and John in the UK.
I am based in Western Australia. We work collaboratively such that
enquiries such as yours may be answered promptly.
Our product is called "OpenOffice.org", not OpenOffice. Please refer to
OpenOffice.org in any potential articles.
An OpenOffice.org 2.0 overview is available at:
http://www.openoffice.org/product2/index.html
New features are pictured and described on:
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/2.0/index.html and I have
listed them below.
The last item on the list is "Support, Services and Solutions".
OpenOffice.org has always been well supported, but we wish to note that
there is an increasing number of companies that offer products and
services in and around OpenOffice.org.
This list was compressed to the following description in our previous
press release for 2.0 Beta, see:
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=252.
"OpenOffice.org 2.0 introduces a new database module, implements the
OASIS OpenDocument XML file format and a myriad of other new features
and capabilities. The redesigned interface and enhanced document filters
combine to make the application even more interoperable with other
office suites and easier to use and learn, regardless of operating
system."
The most compelling feature is the implementation of the Open Document
Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) OASIS Standard - an open
standard for saving and exchanging wordprocessing documents,
spreadsheets, and presentations.
OpenDocument has been endorsed by industry and government, the most
recent by Massachusetts as the first state to formally adopt a policy
supporting OpenDocument.
I have also copied our boilerplate below. Louis and John were at
OOoCon2005 last week in Koper - Capiodestria, Slovenia
(http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference/ and
http://ooocon.kiberpipa.org/). They may have an up-to-date figure for
the number of languages. I thought I heard 50 or 60 from one of the
conference videos. Please update the boilerplate with the figure that
Louis or John comes back with. Please accept my apologies, but I was not
at the conference last week and a lot happened then and is happening :)
We are talking about the upcoming OpenOffice.org 2.0. Which version to
download? We are currently making available what is called a release
candidate, i.e. a version that potentially could become the 2.0 release.
If issues are found with a release candidate, then these are resolved,
and another release candidate is produced. 2.0 rc1 is currently
available. Follow the "OpenOffice.org 2.0 Release Candidate" link on our
homepage (www.openoffice.org).
The reason why I have not provided you with a direct link, is that when
we have a second release candidate or final release, the direct links
will change. But you will often be able to find your way from
http://download.openoffice.org/ too.
Thanks again for your enquiry.
All the best
Jacqueline McNally
Lead, OpenOffice.org Marketing Project
---OpenOffice.org 2.0 Features---
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/2.0/index.html
**Implements Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument)
OASIS Standard
**New Multi-pane View
**New CustomShapes (compatible with Microsoft AutoShapes)
**More Slide Transitions and Animation Effects
**Enhanced PDF Export
**New enhanced Database Frontend (allows you to create a database
without knowledge of databases or SQL)
**Mail Merge Wizard
**Enhanced Word Count Features
**Support for Nested Tables
**Digital Signatures Support
**XForms Support
**WordPerfect Filters
**65,536 Rows in Calc
**Enhanced PivotTable Support
**Native Installers
**Native Desktop Integration
**Support, Services and Solutions (increasing number)
---About OpenOffice.org---
OpenOffice.org is a fully featured open-source productivity suite
available as a free download for major computing platforms in over 45
languages. Data is stored in an XML file format standardised for office
documents by the international body OASIS. OpenOffice.org is developed,
supported, and promoted by an international community of volunteers with
its main sponsor and primary contributor being Sun Microsystems.
OpenOffice.org operates from http://www.openoffice.org.
---///---
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