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OPENOFFICE.ORG NEWSLETTER
Volume 03 - Issue 5 - 11/2005
Please send news clippings to:
[email protected]
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For up-to-date news visit the OpenOffice.org Newsletter Blog:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com
To read all of this month's stories in full:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_ooonewsletter_archive.html
ATOM feed:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/atom.xml
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Contents
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1. Announcements
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* Developer news: Release plan for OpenOffice.org 2.0.1 and 2.0.2, and
contributing code
* NL.OpenOffice.org RegiCon
* Macedonian Native-Lang project announced
2. Success Stories
------------------
* "Suncorp bites NT bullet, drops HP"
* "OpenOffice in 11 South African languages"
* "Indian OpenOffice rollout picks up pace"
* Open source PCs take a passage to India
* Open-source groups back India's free software program
3. Featured news
----------------
* [Review] "OpenOffice.org 2.0 Office Suite For Windows"
* "The Real Cost of Retraining for OpenOffice.org"
* Visioo-Writer - open source OpenOffice.org and OpenDocument word processing
document file viewer
* [Review] "StarOffice 8: An Affordable, Small-Business Alternative to
Microsoft Office"
* A web-based word processor" - with upcoming OpenDocument support
* [Opinion] "Student Licenses Offer Poor Software"
* "Costs, culture or communism? Why governments choose open source"
* French opt for laissez-faire Linux
* [Review] "Office Suite Software Without the Sticker Shock"
4. Tips & Tricks
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* "NewsForge presents free OpenOffice.org training videos"
5. OpenDocument News roundup
6. Clippings
7. Statistics
All news for this month can be found at:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_ooonewsletter_archive.html
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Want to help OpenOffice.org? Find out hot to contribute or see our
To Do List!!
http://www.openoffice.org/contributing.html
http://development.openoffice.org/todo.html
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Announcements
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Developer news: Release plan for OpenOffice.org 2.0.1 and 2.0.2, and
contributing code
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sun's Martin Hollmichel posts two blog entries relating to OpenOffice.org
development.
The first is the release plan for OpenOffice.org 2.0.1 and 2.0.2:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/ratte?entry=release_plan_for_openoffice_org
The second is about contributing code to OpenOffice.org:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/ratte?entry=upstreaming_code_to_openoffice_org
NL.OpenOffice.org RegiCon
-------------------------
The Dutch Language Community is holding their second RegiCon on Wednesday,
November 23rd, 2005 in the Senaatszaal of the auditorium (AUD) of the Eindhoven
University of Technology (TU/e).
http://nl.openoffice.org/regicon/regicon_en.html
Macedonian Native-Lang project announced
----------------------------------------
We would like to announce the opening of the Macedonian Native-Language project,
led by Mr Vladimir Stefanov. Macedonian is one of the oldest and most
prestigious Slavic language in the Balkans, and it is a pleasure and a honour
to have OpenOffice.org localized so quickly in Macedonian.
In the mean time, this project will also focus on building the Macedonian
-speaking community of Openoffice.org users, developers, QA testers,
documentation writers and marketers.
We wish the Macedonian Native-Lang project the best of luck and welcome them
happily in the Native-Lang Confederation.
Macedonian Native-Language project:
http://mk.openoffice.org
Success Stories
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Australia
=========
"Suncorp bites NT bullet, drops HP"
-----------------------------------
"Other IT initiatives at the bank include the move to VoIP over the next four
years and the testing of OpenOffice.org and StarOffice 8.0 for office
productivity."
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1664150257;fp;16;fpid;0
South Africa
============
"OpenOffice in 11 South African languages"
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"The release of OpenOffice.org 2.0 last month contained updates of Afrikaans,
Zulu and Northern Sotho and also included new translations in Xhosa, Sotho
and Ndebele. Translations of Venda, Swati and an updated Tswana translation
are expected to be completed later this month, in time for the release of
OpenOffice.org 2.01."
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=698
India
=====
"Indian OpenOffice rollout picks up pace"
-----------------------------------------
"The Indian government is pushing an ambitious project to distribute CDs
containing Firefox and OpenOffice in all official Indian languages.
Open source groups are helping the Indian government meet its target of
creating open source CDs in all official Indian languages by February 2006."
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications/0,39020384,39237340,00.htm
Open source PCs take a passage to India
---------------------------------------
"PCs pre-installed with OpenOffice.org, Firefox and other open source
applications will be available in India soon.
The Indian government has struck a deal with a number of PC vendors to
pre-install open source software on computers sold in the country."
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications/0,39020384,39237270,00.htm
Open-source groups back India's free software program
-----------------------------------------------------
"The Andhra Pradesh chapter of FSF India assisted in developing a version of
the OpenOffice productivity suite and other open-source software in the local
Telugu language, while another open-source software group, Punlinux in Punjab
state of India, has worked on a Punjabi language version of the open-source
software on the CD."
http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/News/f156804c-7265-45e7-9f74-b9a504ca6615.html
Featured news
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[Review] "OpenOffice.org 2.0 Office Suite For Windows"
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"When all is said and done, this is a great package with an impressive array
of programs and features. The filters are improved, although they still appear
to need some work in some instances, but if you are looking for an office suite
alternative, feature for feature, OpenOffice.org gives Microsoft Office 2003 a
run for its money, and for the price, you canÕt beat it."
http://www.cmpnetasia.com/oct3_nw_viewart.cfm?Artid=27961&Catid=8&subcat=83§ion=Review
"The Real Cost of Retraining for OpenOffice.org"
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"One of the most frequently voiced objections when discussing a migration to
OpenOffice.org is the cost of retraining the users. The argument is raised
as a cost barrier, and essentially amounts to claiming that it would be
cheaper to upgrade to the next version of Microsoft Office than to retrain
users on OpenOffice.org. It's an attempt at the old "libre software isn't
gratis" argument. Let's examine this argument closely to find out why it
doesn't hold water."
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/46775/
Visioo-Writer - open source OpenOffice.org and OpenDocument word processing
document file viewer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A open source OpenOffice.org and OpenDocument word processing document file
viewer available for Windows and Linux:
"Visioo-Writer is a free OpenOffice.org and OpenDocument file viewer. The
project is to create a multi-operating sytem, multi-language, fast and
simple to use program, for the smallest possible size."
http://visioo-writer.tuxfamily.org/EN/
[Review] "StarOffice 8: An Affordable, Small-Business Alternative to
Microsoft Office"
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"It depends on whether any of those differences we mentioned matter to you,
or if you think you'll need phone support. In our experience, people familiar
with Word and Excel take to StarOffice and OpenOffice with little trouble.
Someone just beginning to find his or her way around a computer might prefer
to have the fallback option that a few months of phone support and more
complete documentation offer. Otherwise, OpenOffice is a remarkable value
for free. Even paying for a single license for StarOffice to learn it,
then deploying OpenOffice to additional machines nets you a good value."
http://smallbusinesscomputing.com/biztools/article.php/3560576
A web-based word processor" - with upcoming OpenDocument support
----------------------------------------------------------------
From Bob Sutor's blog, he points out Writely, a web based word processor.
He also comments that they have replied to him about OpenDocument Format
support:
"They responded to a comment I sent and said they would have support for
ODF by Thanksgiving."
Writely:
http://www.writely.com/
Original blog post:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/dw_blog_comments.jspa?blog=384&entry=98702
[Opinion] "Student Licenses Offer Poor Software"
------------------------------------------------
"Even paying US$7 for Microsoft Windows feels like a rip-off to me considering
that for the cost of a CD-R, I can have an operating system on my computer that
comes with high-power image manipulation tools, an office suite, CD burner and
a fully-featured mail client."
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/XTQf178HmJszjc/Student-Licenses-Offer-Poor-Software.xhtml
"Costs, culture or communism? Why governments choose open source"
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"ZDNet UK has just concluded an investigation into why some governments have
embraced open source, while others have given it the cold-shoulder.
The special report, published on Tuesday, examines why some countries have an
almost-zealous approch to open source which is driven by more than cold, hard
economics Ñ politics, culture and protectionism all have a part to play."
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/costs-culture-or-communism-why.html
French opt for laissez-faire Linux
----------------------------------
"The French tax agency claims that upgrading its 80,000 desktops to Office XP
would cost E29.5m, but switching to OpenOffice.org only E200,000."
http://insight.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020472,39236214,00.htm
[Review] "Office Suite Software Without the Sticker Shock"
----------------------------------------------------------
"And yet, OpenOffice is free and Microsoft is not. For many home users -- people
who spend most of their time writing letters in Word and putting together the\
occasional simple spreadsheet, but don't want to risk not being able to read
the documents people send in e-mail -- that's all they need."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/12/AR2005111200143.html
Tips & Tricks
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"NewsForge presents free OpenOffice.org training videos"
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NewsForge is releasing OpenOffice.org 2.0 training videos under the Creative
Commons license as a promotion for an upcoming video CD set by their
editor-in-chief.
http://business.newsforge.com/business/05/11/09/2044220.shtml?tid=35&tid=136&tid=130
OpenDocument News roundup
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* Sun Microsystems' response to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Senate Audit
and Oversight Committee
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/sun-microsystems-response-to.html
* Summary of Massachusetts OpenDocument hearing (Nov 01)
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/summary-of-massachusetts-opendocument.html
* "IBM, Sun to create 'OpenDocument Foundation'?"
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/ibm-sun-to-create-opendocument.html
* "Bill-bomb dropped on OpenDocument Format in Massachusetts"
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/bill-bomb-dropped-on-opendocument.html
* "Massachusetts and the ODF: The politicians will screw it up"
http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2005/11/massachusetts_a.html
* "Massachusetts senate bill challenges OpenDocument plan"
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/massachusetts-senate-bill-challenges.html
* [Opinion] "An Open Letter to the Disabled of Massachusetts"
http://phantomsdad.blogspot.com/2005/11/open-letter-to-disabled-of.html
* [Opinion] "The Case for OpenDocument Format in Non-Profits"
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/opinion-case-for-opendocument-format.html
* Report on IBM/Sun ODF meeting
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/report-on-ibmsun-odf-meeting.html
* MS-Office schema not as open source friendly as Microsoft says it is
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2125
* Politics and the perversion of standards
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2120
* Update on Massachusetts and OpenDocument (Nov 08)
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/update-on-massachusetts-and.html
* "In case you thought the Massachusetts/OpenDocument story was local"
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/dw_blog_comments.jspa?blog=384&entry=99220
* "Team led by IBM, Sun formalizes OpenDocument support"
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/team-led-by-ibm-sun-formalizes.html
* Golden's Rules: The real story behind the Massachusetts ODF flap
http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci1144104,00.html
* "OpenDocument format gathers steam"
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/opendocument-format-gathers-steam.html
* "ODF Notes and Reports From All Over "
http://consortiuminfo.org/newsblog/blog.php?ID=1729
* "Free those digital documents"
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1114/p08s02-comv.html
* "Christians Challenge Microsoft to Support OpenDocument for Disadvantaged"
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/47810/
* Mass. Governor Supports OpenDoc Policy
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=174300491
* "A Nasty Little Turf Battle (Massachusetts Style)"
http://consortiuminfo.org/newsblog/blog.php?ID=1745
* [Opinion] " Why Browsers Should Be Able to Display OpenDocument"
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=12685
* Massachusetts, Open Document, and Accessibility
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/korn/20051113
* [Press Release] "Writely Embraces the OpenDocument Movement"
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/press-release-writely-embraces.html
* Microsoft "opening" Office format
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/microsoft-opening-office-format.html
Clippings
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* OpenOffice.org 2.0 Localisation updates
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/openofficeorg-20-localisation-updates.html
* "MySQL, OpenOffice Upgrades Getting Good Reviews"
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/47103.html
* "Google invests in enhancing OpenOffice"
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/google-invests-in-enhancing-openoffice.html
* A Year Without (MS) Windows: Completing the Conversion of a Windows User
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/47135/
* Installing OpenOffice.org 2.0 for Debian
http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/oo2install.shtml
* Dan Bricklin - "wikiCalc"
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2005/11/dan-bricklin-wikicalc.html
* "Open source: Developing markets look for alternatives to U.S."
http://insight.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020472,39236745,00.htm
* [Press Release] Advanced Training and Cybersource Partner on OpenOffice.org
Training
http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/8267.html
Statistics
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Events
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Upcoming
========
No current conferences
Newsletter Archive
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