Dear Ms Cubilla, Thanks for contacting us. As someone who has long championed the use of OpenOffice in education, and specifically on netbooks and other portable and mobile devices, I'm delighted to learn of your tender. You probably know this, and if you do, my apologies, Apache OpenOffice is free to use and distribute as you will and is licensed under the Apache License v.2.
I have not tried Apache OpenOffice 3.4 on the Acer Travelmate. My guess is that it works fine. However, issuing a statement to that effect, as a "System Builder," may pose some logistical problems, as we are an open source project composed of numerous groups operating within the Apache Software Foundation. But your request is important. I'd like therefore to see if this solution works for you and the government: A request to test Apache OpenOffice 3.4 (for Linux, Windows 7, 8) be filed. As we are not a company as such, at least not in the ways that Microsoft is, actually obtaining the Acer netbooks for the testing could be a problem. Further, there is no saying when the test on the Acer machines would be done, as it would depend upon the availability of resources. We do not profit from Acer's use of AOO, from your distribution or any company's, at least not directly. Do you have any we can test? Are you perhaps in contact with Acer and able to connect us to that company, so that they can test the application on any of their devices? (Joining the project is not hard; we would welcome your participation and also that of Acer.) Alternatively, perhaps you or your colleagues might find it actually fastest to install AOO 3.4 (in Spanish) on the machines? The government may not approve of such a manoeuvre, as you are not the System Builder. But by joining Apache and participating, even in a modest way, say by describing what your company is doing and planning, you can effectively become part of the community building the application. These are the possibilities that may help you at this stage. I would suggest you write to us soonest with more ideas on how you wish to proceed. Again, your efforts are laudable and praiseworthy. But you are not alone. Portugal has gone through something similar—I can put you in touch with the principal agents there—as has Brazil. And there are other countries in Europe whose sub-national governments have also considered or are deploying OpenOffice on education-ready netbooks. (Norway has used Intel education netbooks, for instance.) Finally, you wrote to a very public list. You can find archives publicly available via the usual search engines. Your message has no particularly personal content, so rest assured. But do expect that my colleagues will likely also respond—indeed, I see that Alexandro has already done that. By the way, I am curious if your company would also be providing the education offices support? Regards, Louis Suárez-Potts Apache OpenOffice PPMC PS, Lo escribió en inglés por que es la convención por estas listas abiertas. On 2012-05-18, at 17:50 , Veronica Cubilla wrote: > > Who may concern: > > Regards from Panama!! > > This is Veronica Cubilla from Cubix Panama (www.cubixlat.com ) an > International Wholesaler who participated with a VAR in a tender of 17,800 > laptops with Education Minister in Panama that will be used by teachers. > One of the requirements of this tender was to include in the proposal Open > Office. > > The laptop we proposed was the Acer Travelmate P243 which have 320GB of HDD. > What we need for you is a Certification Letter for Acer as a System Builder > who can replicate your software in this laptop, using Apache Open Office 3.4. > > If you need any other information about this tender you can see it > in:http://www.panamacompra.gob.pa/ambientepublico/VistaPreviaCP.aspx?NumLc=2012-0-07-0-08-AV-008941&esap=1&nnc=1&it=1, > where you can also find Microsoft letter certificating the usage of Win 7 > Pro (which is attached). > > Thanks in advance for your help. > > > > > <image001.jpg> >
