From: Görkem Çetin (gorkem@bahcesehir.edu.tr)
Date: Thu 01 Jul 2004 - 23:49:04 EEST
Ektedir.
İyi çalışmalar
Görkem
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [ooo-announce] OpenOffice.org Newsletter - Volume 01 - Issue 12
- 06/2004
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 10:20:50 +0200
From: Erwin Tenhumberg <erwin.tenhumberg@sun.com>
Reply-To: announce@openoffice.org
To: announce@openoffice.org
#########################################################################
OPENOFFICE.ORG NEWSLETTER
Volume 01 - Issue 12 - 06/2004
Please send news clippings to:
newsletter@marketing.openoffice.org
#########################################################################
Highlights in this Newsletter
#########################################################################
* OPENOFFICE.ORG ANNOUNCES VERSION 1.1.2 - HAKONE (Announcements)
* OpenOffice.org Conference 2004 - Reserve a seat! Submit an abstract
(Announcements)
* France looks to open-source in challenge to Microsoft
(Success Stories)
* PC Gemilang: Linux outsells Windows (Success Stories)
* Brainshare South Africa Report (Reports)
* StarOffice slashes seat costs (Reports)
* Case Study: Hentzenwerke Publishing switches to Linux (Reports)
Announcements
#########################################################################
OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X (X11)
---------------------------------
"June 2004 – OpenOffice.org 1.1.2, the leading free productivity
suite, is now available for all Mac OS X users. Optimized for the X11
windowing system, the release can be downloaded from the OpenOffice.org
Project website, <http://www.openoffice.org/>. OpenOffice.org 1.1.2
supersedes and replaces earlier versions of the application and is
recommended for all Mac OS X users seeking a free alternative. This
release has attained a maturity that enables it to be used as the
default productivity suite by individuals and organizations alike."
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=208
OPENOFFICE.ORG ANNOUNCES VERSION 1.1.2 - HAKONE
-----------------------------------------------
"18 June, 2004 - 20H00 UTC
OpenOffice.org is proud to announce the immediate availability of the
new 1.1.2 version of the award-winning open source office suite,
codenamed Hakone.
This new version is initially available on the Windows
(98/ME/NT/2000/XP), GNU/Linux (X86 and PowerPC) and Solaris (SPARC and
X86) platforms.
In addition to English, builds for Czech, Danish, French, German,
Japanese and Slovak are immediately available with other localisations
following shortly."
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=206
OpenOffice.org Conference 2004 - Reserve a seat! Submit an abstract
-------------------------------------------------------------------
There are just three months left until community members,
developers, users, software vendors and consultants meet at
the second wordwide OpenOffice.org Conference in Berlin.
Premium sponsors of this year's event so far include
Software AG and Sun Microsystems. The speakers will talk
about different OpenOffice.org projects, experiences at
various ministries and administrations, and integrations
with third party technologies.
To make sure that you get a seat you should register at
http://marketing.openoffice.org/ooocon2004/registration.html
We are also still looking for more speakers.
Please submit your abstract.
As with last year, we will try to offset travel expenses
for speakers. Therefore, you should submit your abstract
even if you don't know how you can actually get to the
event. You might be lucky and benefit from travel
sponsorship. More information about the call for papers
can be found at:
http://marketing.openoffice.org/ooocon2004/cfp.html
Best regards and see you at the conference,
The OpenOffice.org Conference Team
Conference home page:
http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference/
OOoConv : 10,000 conversions
----------------------------
OOoConv has passed 10,000 conversions !
http://www.oooconv.de/
This is a very nice performance for this tool which has been online
since the 1st of January of this year. It was developed by Laurent
Godard, and is hosted in Germany thanks to Patrick Prasse who has
offered the hosting and the domain name.
This tool is now translated into 17 languages with the help of the
whole OpenOffice.org community. The highest conversion rate is in the
english language (about 40%), however some languages have only been
available for a short time.
The stats given on the site show a wider use of the convertor from
Writer to Word (more than 50%).
Many thanks to Laurent Godard for this tool that allow a larger
availability of OOo file format, but also to Patrick Prasse, Simon
Tosser, Fred Labbe and all the translators.
[Submitted by Sophie Gautier]
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
#########################################################################
Canada
======
Ontario offers Sun's StarOffice to students
-------------------------------------------
"The Ontario Ministry of Education has acquired Star Office 7 licences
from Sun Microsystems Canada for all the province's 72 public and
Catholic school boards, The Star Office productivity suite is being
described as part of a movement to deliver superior technology to
students while keeping spending in check. It is the largest- StarOffice
7 delivery in North America, with more than 2.5 million students having
access to the alternative office suite on Windows.
Schools at all levels have chosen the interoperable Star Office suite
instead of more expensive office productivity products because they can
re-invest saved funds into other projects for students, the ministry
stated.
StarOffice software is an open-source based, comprehensive office
productivity suite that runs on Solaris, Windows and Linux and is
compatible with Microsoft Office file formats. The StarOffice suite has
an intuitive interface and includes word processing, spreadsheet,
presentation, drawing and database capabilities."
http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040527.gtsun0527/BNStory/Technology/
Additional reporting:
http://news.com.com/StarOffice+scores+Canadian+win/2100-1012_3-5227983.html
http://www.cxotoday.com/cxo/jsp/index.jsp?section=News&subsection=Business&subsection_code=1&file=template1.jsp&storyid=1033
http://www.linuxworld.com/story/45166.htm
USA
===
Case Study: Hentzenwerke Publishing switches to Linux
-----------------------------------------------------
"The third function was to determine if we were going to get hung up with
exchanging data with outside entities. As with internal data conversion,
this step turned out to be a non-issue. OpenOffice.org reads Microsoft
Office files with ease, although we're finding more and more people are
sending files in Adobe .PDF format, which is also readable by a variety
of open source tools that come standard with popular distributions. And
the graphical images that we exchange are also platform-independent."
http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/05/28/1936211.shtml?tid=132&tid=2&tid=82&tid=94
Ireland
=======
Sun lands bank deal for Java Desktop System
-------------------------------------------
"Sun Microsystems' Java Desktop System (JDS) is to be deployed on
7,500 desktops throughout Allied Irish Bank's (AIB) branches.
The network will run the Linux-based JDS software, and the deployment
includes the migration of branch applications. The roll-out is
planned for next year as part of AIB's New Branch Banking Platform."
http://www.computing.co.uk/News/1156272
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1618126,00.asp
Germany
=======
Munich Seeks Bids For Municipal Linux Migration
-----------------------------------------------
"The city of Munich in Germany will officially kick off its much
publicized Linux migration project on July 1 but it remains unclear
which vendors will nail the $40 million contract, a spokesman said."
"The project entails the migration of 14,000 desktop and notebook
computers from Microsoft Windows and Office software to Linux and
OpenOffice."
"In the same press release, the city said it had entered a pilot
project with German applications giant SAP to adapt SAP for
OpenOffice."
"Meanwhile, Novell announced a major Linux win with another European
city even as Munich begins the vendor selection process for its 40,000
seat migration. On Tuesday, Novell's SUSE Linux subsidiary announced it
had landed a contract to migrate the server infrastructure of the
largest city in Norway " Bergen -- from Unix and Windows servers to a
Linux infrastructure based on SUSE Enterprise Server 8 platform. The
deal will impact 50,000 users, according to a statement released by
SUSE."
http://www.internetwk.com/allStories/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22100148
Additional reporting:
http://enterprise-linux-it.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Munich-Scuttles-Windows-for-Linux&story_id=25445&category=opensrc
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/17/munich_embraces_penguin/
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-06-16-linux-munich_x.htm
City of Treuchtlingen
---------------------
The City of Treuchtlingen is using StarOffice in a Sun Ray
ultra-thin client environment. The interesting part of the
German article below is the link to an end user survey.
According to the survey the users are very happy with the
new environment. Here is one sample statement from the
survey:
"Compared with the former equipment (MS Windows NT4/Novell/Zen
1997-2001) I like the new environment
0% absolutely not
25% similarly well
50% better
16,67% I would like to have it at home, too."
http://www.pro-linux.de/news/2004/6925.html
http://www.open-government.org/index.php?id=93
City of Wolfsburg evaluates Linux Desktop
-----------------------------------------
According to the articles mentioned below the City of Wolfsburg
will have 21 employees testing a Linux desktop in parallel to
their existing Windows desktop.
http://www.pressebox.de/index.php?boxid=20858&sid=searchengine_sid
http://www.golem.de/0406/31511.html
State Brandenburg interested in open source
-------------------------------------------
The article below says that the state Brandenburg is
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/48104
France
======
France looks to open-source in challenge to Microsoft
-----------------------------------------------------
"Civil Service Minister Renaud Dutreil told Reuters that France
wants to use open-source software providers to resupply part of
the almost 1 million state computers under a government
cost-cutting drive designed to trim a bulging public deficit.
"The competition is open," he said. "My estimate is that
we can cut the state software bill at least in half."
At stake, in the case of office suite software alone, is
about $362.5 million worth of software to be introduced to
state computers over three years. Savings on operating
systems could be of a similar amount, officials said. "
http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/story/0,10801,93946,00.html
Belgium
=======
Successful migration to OOo
---------------------------
Summary of article into English from Dutch:
The CIBG (Brussels, Belgium) switched about 100 users to OpenOffice.org
for practical reasons rather than the basis of ideology. The migration
went smoothly.
http://www.cibg.irisnet.be/ci/NL/Supports/Communicatie/Press (Dutch)
[Submitted and translated by Arthur Buijs]
Hungary
=======
Battle of the giants
--------------------
"COMPUTER giants Sun Microsystems and Microsoft are battling it out
for dominance in the Hungarian education sector.
On May 4, Sun announced that it had concluded a deal with the Hungarian
Education Ministry which would make the application suite StarOffice 7
available for free to staff and students at all of Hungary's 5,500
schools and 67 higher education institutions.
The program has previously operated successfully in other countries,
but has only now been introduced in Hungary."
http://www.budapestsun.com/full_story.asp?ArticleId=%7B7DB0F14CAE8349C590672A6DBDC6A5C5%7D&From=
India
=====
From Microsoft Desktops To Linux Thin Clients
---------------------------------------------
"Rajesh Kumar, Business Manager-India, Focuz Infotech (The Linux
integrator and support provider for Central Excise Cochin), said,
“The fact that Central Excise & Customs - a premier government body
in India - has shifted their Microsoft based network to Linux, is
the strongest example that supports the new trend of shifting to
Open Source from proprietary technology.” "
http://www.cxotoday.com/cxo/jsp/showstory.jsp?storyid=1040
Malaysia
========
PC Gemilang: Linux outsells Windows
-----------------------------------
" Ten thousand PC Gemilang units were sold in the first few months
following the brand’s debut, of which more than 7,000 were Linux-based
machines. Pikom said the Linux PC generated the highest demand due to
its attractive price.
The PC Gemilang project was kicked off in March with two models:
A RM988 PC running a Linux-based operating system and bundled with
the OpenOffice productivity suite; and a RM1,147 desktop with the
Bahasa Malaysia version of the Microsoft Windows XP operating system
and Works Suite 2004."
http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2004/6/23/technology/8282356&sec=technology
Australia
=========
NSW Roads kicks out Exchange for Sun, deploys Mozilla
-----------------------------------------------------
"The NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) will migrate 1500 users
across 120 offices from Microsoft Exchange to Sun’s Java Enterprise
System messaging and calendar servers for e-mail and calendaring.
As part of the contract, the RTA will also deploy Sun’s Staroffice
productivity suite for wordprocessing, spreadsheets and presentation
development; the open source Mozilla browser will be used for accessing
e-mail and calendar information."
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;148604439;fp;16;fpid;0
Novell Australia leads global Linux migration, dumps MS Office
--------------------------------------------------------------
"The migration, which will see staff across the globe using SuSE Linux
systems running OpenOffice, is partly motivated by broader commercial
concerns."
"However, Novell Asia Pacific CIO Sam Gennaoui said that there was also
a basic financial argument for the shift. "We are like any other
company; we still have ROIs to deliver," he said."
"Around 90 per cent all of the company's 350 Asia-Pacific staff, half
of whom are based in Australia, have started using OpenOffice as a
replacement for Microsoft's Office suite.
Reaction so far has been positive. "There always tends to be some
pushback from users, but there's a sense of willingness to embrace the
new technology," Gennaoui said. The local operation is "way ahead of
the movement" in the rest of Novell, he added. "We have a smaller base
of users and we're more flexible."
Novell has also developed a number of custom enhancements to OpenOffice
to help migrate common internal document templates. The source code for
those enhancements will be made available to the broader OpenOffice
community."
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;526044789;fp;16;fpid;0
Other
=====
OpenOffice.org bundled with 'UKZan Pulsar64'
--------------------------------------------
OpenOffice.org bundled with computers
http://www.vnunet.com/products/hardware/1155887
Reviews
#########################################################################
ZDNet review - Alternatives to Microsoft Office
-----------------------------------------------
"WordPerfect 12 and StarOffice 7.0 aren't the dominant office suite
players, but each brings strong qualities to the field, such as
affordability and ease of use. But do they have what it takes to stand
up to Microsoft Office? Read our reviews to find out."
http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/software/productivity/0,39024195,39158410,00.htm
StarOffice review:
http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/spotlights/sme-essentials/0,39026865,39158404,00.htm
Studies & Reports
#########################################################################
Brainshare South Africa Report (2004-06-01)
-------------------------------------------
Brainshare South Africa was held at the Sandton Convention Centre, Nelson
Mandela Square, Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 to 28 May 2004. Read the
full report submitted by Craig A. Adams and OpenOffice.org Southern Africa.
http://www.openoffice.org/editorial/brainshare_report.html
StarOffice slashes seat costs
-----------------------------
"IT wasn't long ago that Microsoft Office, at $500-plus a seat, was the
only option for businesses seeking an integrated office suite. Times
are changing, however.
Sun Microsystems is slowly winning over large business customers to its
StarOffice 7, which costs $50 a user.
IDC analyst Megan Dahlgren says Sun's success is based on its
reputation for high-quality support, coupled with deep discounting
aimed at getting StarOffice widely adopted by government and big
business.
StarOffice is based on the open-source OpenOffice.org, both of which
offer similar functions to Microsoft Office in spreadsheets, word
processing and presentations.
StarOffice product manager Laurie Wong says Sun Java Desktop is a
complete package made up of StarOffice, Ximian Evolution (an Outlook
alternative) and the Adabase database.
OpenOffice.org and StarOffice claim several technology advantages over
Microsoft Office, including the ability to output PDF files from the
application without needing extra software, the option of using file
formats based on industry-standard XML that are easily readable by
other programs, and cross-platform versions of the package for Windows,
Macintosh, Linux and Solaris.
XML brings an important change in the way office packages work,
enabling storage of structured content in a file, allowing the
information to be reused easily in other applications.
Wong says Microsoft's file format is a binary file wrapped in some XML
tags. "It's XML only as long as you use another Microsoft application,
or one authorised by the company to read it, which is not in the spirit
of XML," he says.
In comparison, the OpenOffice.org and StarOffice binary file format is
a zipped version of an XML file, allowing other software or users to
see the file format in readable XML.
Sewing machine maker Janome Australia has found the cost savings of the
OpenOffice.org package outweigh the inconvenience of migrating staff
away from Microsoft Office, IT manager Scott Langford says.
The biggest challenge was educating users to import Microsoft Office
documents into the software, he says."
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,9821373%5E15382%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html
OpenOffice.org in 5th FISL (International Open Source Forum) in Brazil
----------------------------------------------------------------------
OpenOffice.org Brasil celebrates the success of the 5th FISL
The coordination of the OOoBr is celebrating the results of its
participation in the 5th FISL, held in Porto Alegre, from June 3rd to
5th, 2004.
Altogether there were 4 days of activities (one pre-event extra); 3
companies sponsoring the stand of OpenOffice.org.br; 9 hours of panels,
meetings and presentations in the pre-event and in the Forum; over 800
users registered in the stand of OooBr, from 23 Brazilian States,
Argentina, Uruguay, England, United States, France, Spain and Germany;
100 t-shirts sold in 3 days; 17 raffle winners of books and t-shirts,
and 200Kg of food donated by the project, the sponsors and the OOo
community to the “Fome Zero” program.
More information:
[english]http://www.openoffice.org.br/saite/conteudo.php?inc=noticias/ver_noticia&id_aba=57&id_noticia=14
[español]http://www.openoffice.org.br/saite/conteudo.php?inc=noticias/ver_noticia&id_aba=57&id_noticia=13
[submitted by Claudio Ferreira Filho]
Additional FISL conference reporting
------------------------------------
[Report written and posted by Simon Phipps on his website]
FISL: A Government that Gets It
http://www.webmink.net/2004/06/fisl-government-that-gets-it.htm
FISL: Java Everywhere
http://www.webmink.net/2004/06/fisl-java-everywhere.htm
FISL HomePage
http://www.softwarelivre.org/forum2004/
Case Study: Hentzenwerke Publishing switches to Linux
-----------------------------------------------------
"When I started looking at Linux in early 2002 and discovered
OpenOffice.org, I realized that it was only a matter of time before
Linux started making inroads on the desktop. And as more and more
desktops began running Linux, those users would be needing custom
database applications -- just as they had asked for these on Windows
over the last decade."
"Since I was the boss, I didn't have problems convincing management. I
handled the second requirement by being the guinea pig myself --
converting my own desktop first, and seeing what problems I ran into,
and making sure we could find equivalents on Linux for all of our
Windows apps. Somewhat surprisingly, I was asked for a lot less support
than I was expecting; once a user has learning how to move from Windows
3.1 to Windows 95 to Windows XP (and the associated versions of Office
and other common applications), moving from Windows to Red Hat or SUSE
and the related open source apps isn't much more difficult."
"Our users immediately picked up OpenOffice.org. They use Microsoft
Office file formats when exchanging data with folks outside the
company, but have begun using the openly defined OpenOffice.org file
formats internally."
"The second function was to identify internal data conversion
requirements and potential problems. This turned out to be a breeze --
much of our data was in openly documented file formats. Microsoft
Office's file formats, of course, are proprietary, but OpenOffice.org
read and writes them rather well. Sure, there are occasional hiccups,
but no worse than we've run into between various releases of Microsoft
Office itself. Microsoft makes the export of Outlook files a nuisance,
but I had been archiving our mail to a separate program for a couple of
years, so our data was already in shape to be imported."
http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/05/28/1936211.shtml?tid=132&tid=2&tid=82&tid=94
Could a Linux Solution Save Us?
-------------------------------
"Coquitlam Public Library's two branches serve an ethnically diverse
community of over 113,000 on the west coast of British Columbia,
Canada. In the mid-1990s we were able to begin offering public access
computers to our patrons by using an Industry Canada Community Access
Program (CAP) grant and funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
We deployed six PCs at each branch."
"It also includes all the software patrons need -- a
Microsoft-compatible office suite called OpenOffice, a Netscape Web
browser called Galeon, an image editor, and support for 13 languages.
While the system has a look and feel that closely resembles Microsoft
Windows, it is in fact all Linux, which makes it easier to lock down
and more reliable for public access use."
"We'll make adjustments to the desktop, help text, signage,
documentation, etc. as we work out ways to make the "shock" of a
different approach easier to handle. We tell patrons that OpenOffice
can be downloaded for free over the Internet if they want to install
the software at home to become more familiar with it."
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/34266.html
Stock trader's Linux fairy tale thrives
---------------------------------------
"Back in the mid-1990s, Automated Trading Desk, a financial services
and stock trading company in Mount Pleasant, S.C., switched to Linux on
almost of its servers and desktops and began living happily ever
after."
"When choosing Linux, ATD didn't go halfway. About 70% of the end-users
have Linux desktops. "Even if someone has a Windows box, they typically
have a Linux box right beside it, Hunter said. "All of our traders and
programmers and most of our IT staff work exclusively on Linux running
OpenOffice."
Sharing documents and doing other office processes on OpenOffice is a
breeze for Hunter and ATD's users. "Anything that I have to do that has
to be done quickly, I do on my Linux box," Hunter said. "I have a
Windows desktop here because I have to support our Windows systems; but
I would be happy just using Linux, and most of our users agree with me
on that." The price makes Hunter and ATD's executives happy, too."
http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci968999,00.html
From Microsoft Desktops To Linux Thin Clients
---------------------------------------------
"Speaking to CXOtoday, Joe Paul Mampilly, superintendent – IT, Central
Excise, Cochin, said, “We have migrated our entire Microsoft based
network to Linux based thin clients. Different sections across
departments are now using Red Hat, both at the desktop and server
level, registering a significant cost saving.”
So what was the reason behind taking such a drastic step? Mampilly
replied, “The basic problem that we encountered in using Microsoft
software, was the frequent appearance of viruses that destroyed and
corrupted a lot of valuable information. As we are a government
organization, employees often take official work home on floppy
diskettes. This constant influx of data from home PC’s was bringing in
a lot of viruses, and despite having preventive software’s in place,
data corruption became a serious issue to contend with.” In many
situations, the organization was completely flummoxed about the source
of multiple viruses flooding in.
To complete the Linux migration, the organization has also migrated
from MS Office to its Open Source competitor, OpenOffice. However,
Mampilly admitted, “We had to overcome the initial problem of training
users on OpenOffice.” "
Letter from India
-----------------
Reports on the Free/Libre Open Source (FLOSS) front by technology critic
and FLOSS advocate Niyam Bhushan
http://www.niyam.com/gnulinux/gnulinux.php
Resources
#########################################################################
Comparing the Costs of Sun, Red Hat Offerings
---------------------------------------------
"The roughly $640 in software costs per desktop for Windows compares
with $140 for two years of Red Hat Desktop or $150 to $200 for two
years of Java Desktop System (depending on whether you factor in Sun's
promotional price for the first year.) This demonstrates the level of
software savings companies can expect by moving to Linux when and where
it makes sense. Particularly for basic needs, retraining costs should
be minimal.
Of course, companies can cut their software costs significantly by
swapping out Microsoft Office for OpenOffice.org, which is free."
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1614769,00.asp
Migrating to Linux - one step at a time
---------------------------------------
"If yours is a small five person company, migrating to Linux in one big
push might just work, said James Thomas, speaking at Novell's annual
Brainshare conference in Johannesburg, South Africa yesterday. "But if
you're an enterprise, you need to plan the migration very carefully." "
"The best place to start a migration is with the office suite, the tool
usually the most used by employees. The obvious replacement is
OpenOffice.org which runs on Windows as well as Linux and other Unix
systems, says Thomas. Switching over to OpenOffice.org already saves
the company money because OpenOffice is free software. "And file
formats and compatability are very good between OpenOffice and
Microsoft Word ... so you don't need to set up a programme to mass
convert all your existing documents to a new format."
In fact, says, Thomas, because Microsoft's newer formats for documents
are being based on XML, future file compatability may actually be
better than it already is.
The advantage of switching users to OpenOffice on Windows is that they
only have to deal with the change of one element of their desktop and
not the whole environment they work in. Later the operating system
transition will be significantly less traumatic."
http://www.tectonic.co.za/default.php?action=view&id=301&topic=Linux
Convert Microsoft Office files to OpenOffice with the Star Office
Migration Partner
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Many organizations have begun looking at OpenOffice as a potential
replacement for Microsoft Office. One of the biggest stumbling blocks
to migrating from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice deals with what to do
with all of that data that your organization has piled up in Office
documents. You can do a mass migration to OpenOffice by using Star
Office Migration Partner."
"A company in Denmark called SCAI offers a product called the Star
Office Migration Partner. StarOffice is the name for the Sun-supported
version of OpenOffice, so this product is perfectly suited to
converting large quantities of Microsoft Office documents into
OpenOffice format. You can order this software from them for 99 Euros
(about 117.81 U.S. dollars)."
"You might be wondering what it is that makes this software worth the
hefty price tag and complicated license. What’s so handy about this
software is that it searches your network for clients and servers that
may potentially contain Microsoft Office documents. Once all potential
locations for Microsoft Office documents have been identified, the
software allows you to choose which computers you want to search for
Office documents. This means that even if users have saved Microsoft
Office documents on their local hard drive, you can still convert those
documents to OpenOffice format so long as there is network connectivity
between the workstation and the machine doing the conversion."
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6270_11-5226088.html
Customer & User Feedback
#########################################################################
An open letter to Corel
-----------------------
[Written and submitted originally to the dev@marketing.openoffice.org
newsletter by Benjamin Horst]
In Benjamin Horst's own words:
"The gist is that it's an open letter to Corel, asking them to support
OOo's file formats!"
http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/06/21/1547230.shtml?tid=82&tid=93
Open source cracks publishing wide open
---------------------------------------
"Once upon a time, publishing was the domain of large corporations.
Then came desktop publishing and the tools to produce a book shrank
from the cost of an aircraft carrier to the price tag of a PT boat.
Now, small publishers on the bleeding edge of technology are fomenting
a revolution that may change the publishing market forever. Open source
publishing tools, long derided as not being ready for battle, are
proving themselves in the trenches of small publishing."
....
"The work flow is a bit rougher in the Mac world. Mac-based senior
editor Kevin Walzer of WordTech Communications LLC produces 50 poetry
and literary criticism books each year. In the recent past, WordTech
used all proprietary software for its workflow. But Microsoft Word is
giving way to OpenOffice.org and LaTeX. They're replacing InDesign with
Scribus, and Corel PhotoPaint with the GIMP."
....
"Many of the same open source tools that run on Linux have been ported
to Windows. Whil Hentzen of Hentzenwerke Publishing Inc. runs a
cross-platform shop. About two-thirds of his mostly freelance staff is
on Windows, and the other third is on Linux. "We start in Word 97 or
OpenOffice.org, whichever the author or editor is comfortable with,"
says Hentzen. "We have fairly unsophisticated needs -- text, figures, a
few tables. The neat thing is that it's transparent. I was using Word
on Windows and then OpenOffice.org on Linux. No one knew I'd changed.
OpenOffice.org plays well with others."
PDFs created in OpenOffice.org go straight to Hentzenwerke's offset
printer and right into their machines. Once the printer figured out
exactly the right settings, it was less work than when Hentzenwerke
used Adobe Acrobat and Distiller. Perhaps the best aspect? Hentzen
doesn't need heavy duty hardware, "Our computers were getting creaky
running the Windows stuff. They run the Linux programs just fine." "
http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/06/07/2044240.shtml?tid=130&tid=132&tid=82
Opinion - Microsoft Should be Kicked Out of Schools
---------------------------------------------------
"Take Microsoft Word, for example. If you're teaching a kid how to use
a word processor , does it have to be Word? They could learn the same
concepts just as easily -- and much more cheaply -- using OpenOffice or
AbiWord. If students are taught the concepts properly -- how to
navigate a GUI interface and how to use an online help system, for
starters -- they will be able to transition to any word processor once
they've gotten a job."
Better word counts for OpenOffice.org
-------------------------------------
"If you're a writer, or indeed anyone that works with words on a
regular basis, you may have bumped your head against one of the more
significant, in my opinion, ommissions from OpenOffice.org: the lack of
a selection-based word count feature. By default OpenOffice.org
includes the "properties" dialogue which offers general parameters for
the document at hand including the total number of words in the
document. But what if you need to calculate how many words are in a
particular paragraph? Short of manually counting all the words in the
paragraph you can't. Unlike many other word-processing applications it
is not possible to simply highlight the words and do a word count.
There is, however, a workaround which, until the suite includes its own
selected-word count, is more than adequate for the job. It is in the
form of a macro which can be opened in OpenOffice.org and installed
along with a menu button and a shortcut key. The original macro was
written by Andrew Brown. Thanks to www.openoffice.org.za for bringing
this macro to our attention. The description below is intended for
OpenOffice.org1.1.0 users although it will work on OpenOffice.org 1.0."
http://www.tectonic.co.za/default.php?action=view&id=303&topic=Linux
Be aware of these pitfalls when migrating from Microsoft Office to
OpenOffice
------------------------------------------------------------------
"Because OpenOffice is free and you have to pay a substantial fee for
Microsoft Office, you might be tempted to migrate your entire
organization from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice. After all, migrating
to OpenOffice would save an absolute fortune in Microsoft Office
licenses, which is important in a time of shrinking IT budgets. Before
you jump right in and begin a migration, though, there are a few issues
that you need to be aware of."
http://techrepublic.com.com/5102-6270-5226081.html
Developer and Administrator News
#########################################################################
EU eGovernment policy-makers encourage the uptake of open document formats
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/ida/jsps/index.jsp?fuseAction=showDocument&parent=news&documentID=2387
See also:
Advantages of the OpenOffice.org XML File Format Used by the StarOffice
Office Suite
http://wwws.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/whitepapers/index.html
[submitted by Erwin Tenhumberg]
European Commission's IDA TAC Publishes Recommendations on Open
Document Formats.
---------------------------------------------------------------
"You can find some of the materials on the EC Web site. Our basic points
were first that the Office XML formats are incomplete (no PowerPoint,
missing pieces in Excel), second that the licensing terms are kind of
scary (our lawyer's acid-tongued comments have been excised from the
online papers), third that the OO.o format is much more reusability-
oriented, and finally that Microsoft has iron control over every
aspect of their XML, while the OO.o format is well on its way to being
an OASIS standard."
http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2004-06-17-a.html
Sun to host seminar for Jordanian education sector
--------------------------------------------------
"At the seminar, organized by Sun partner STS Jordan, attendees heard
how the Sun Java Enterprise System (JES) has changed the enterprise
software industry with a radical, new approach to how software is
designed and developed. Sun has recently invigorated its line up for
the education sector with a combination of products including JES, Java
Desktop System, and StarOffice."
http://www.ameinfo.com/news/Detailed/41336.html
Tips, Tricks & How-Tos
#########################################################################
OpenOffice.org Off the Wall: Shooting the Sun
---------------------------------------------
"Positioning options for paragraph styles in OOo."
"Options for paragraph styles in Writer can be divided into three main
categories: fonts, positioning and advanced tricks. Font selection
already has been discussed in this column (see Fonts of Wisdom).
Advanced tricks will be the subject of the next column. In this column,
I discuss positioning: how the paragraph sites on a line, how lines in
a paragraph are spaced and how the paragraph is positioned when a page
break occurs."
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7599&mode=thread&order=0
The Rookery: OO.org Off the Wall: Paragraph Styles, Part II
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Writer offers a bag of tricks for when you want to do a bit more than
the normal with paragraph styles and formatting."
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7634&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
How to choose a good instructional book about OpenOffice.org
------------------------------------------------------------
"If the success of an open source project can be measured by the number
of third-party books about it, then OpenOffice.org is thriving. Not
only is OpenOffice.org represented by a dozen books and pieces of
training material on Amazon.com, but interest in OpenOffice.org is
widespread enough that each of the books is geared to a slightly
different audience. This article gives an overview of four of the
current OpenOffice.org books, ending with a suggestion of which to buy
for your own needs."
http://management.itmanagersjournal.com/management/04/06/15/0528212.shtml?tid=85&tid=86
Word Count Macro Article
------------------------
Craig Adams reports:
"A short while ago I passed Andrew Brown's macro along to a couple of
journalists who were bemoaning the current word count feature.
Alastair Otter has written a basic article based on my instructions and
posted on his Tectonic news portal.
http://www.tectonic.co.za/default.php?action=view&id=303&topic=Linux
It may be worthwhile forwarding this on to any existing press contacts,
as the macro is extremely valuable to them.
The macro is provided under the MIT licence.
Andrew Brown's macro page can be found at
http://www.darwinwars.com/lunatic/bugs/oo_macros.html. Please note that
the version on the OOoMacros site is seriously out of date."
View PDFs with a browser using pdftohtml
----------------------------------------
Suggestions on how to import PDFs into OpenOffice.org to edit.
http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/06/08/1530200.shtml?tid=130&tid=79&tid=82
Competitive/Market Info
#########################################################################
Novell and OpenOffice.org
-------------------------
"The company is also making contributions to the OpenOffice.org open
source productivity application suite to improve file format and font
interoperability with Windows.
"We have to make sure we can interact with the file formats available
today," said Green. Ease of use is also important. Novell is well aware
that the easier it is for end users to get started on desktop Linux,
the easier it will be to sell it to businesses and IT departments."
http://www.cbronline.com/currentnews/d892f5c288c4ae6f80256eb40032d138
Desktop Linux: Sun Shines
-------------------------
"Java Desktop System 2 is Sun's second crack at the corporate
desktop. We were impressed by the improvements that Sun has
introduced since the first version. One of the biggest enhancements
is a capable management framework that provides the broadest set
of management tools we've yet seen for the Linux desktop."
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1613645,00.asp
France challenges Microsoft with open source competition
--------------------------------------------------------
"The French government announced this week that it will give
"alternative" and open-source software (OSS) companies a chance to win
business from Microsoft as the country attempts to cut software prices
and offset a mounting deficit."
"The software will be rolled out over three years. OSS solutions such
as Linux and OpenOffice.org are definitely a possibility, Dutreil said,
noting that such software is 'very credible.'"
http://www.itnews.com.au/storycontent.asp?ID=17&Art_ID=20226
Additional reporting:
http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/story/0,10801,93946,00.html
Cross Platform Open Source more successful?
-------------------------------------------
"More precisely, they both run well under Windows. It may be an obvious
point but getting started with "dynamic duo" is almost easier on
Windows than it is on *Nix, at least for a standard installation. By
being open to Windows, both are exposed to a huge user base. It may be
your run your live site on a LAMP but, as a developer, you can set up
an environment on Windows which is close enough to that which your code
will end up running under."
"Of the Open Source office suites, OpenOffice is certainly the leading
player, getting most air time and serious consideration. It faces stiff
competition with MS Office; despite being free to use, users no doubt
happily stuck in a rut. Despite that, relative to the Open Source
alternatives, thinks it's fairly safe to assume it has the largest user
base."
http://www.sitepoint.com/blog-post-view.php?id=171700&SID=722b6f6572f9ffe83a89e1ee94fdb312
Sun Opens Its 3-D 'Looking Glass' Linux Desktop
-----------------------------------------------
By open-sourcing its next-generation Linux desktop technology,
Sun Microsystems Inc. is turning over some of its most innovative
work to date to the open-source community, sources said.
Officials at the Santa Clara, Calif., systems maker said at JavaOne
here that Sun plans to turn its next-generation Linux desktop,
Project Looking Glass, over to the open-source community. The open
sourcing of its Looking Glass technology represents a significant
move by Sun, which has been under pressure by the open-source
community to "open" some of its technology, specifically Java itself.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1617825,00.asp
EIOffice: The good, the bad, and the ugly
-----------------------------------------
"Evermore Integrated Office is an extremely promising new Java-based
office suite that currently runs on both Linux and Windows, with
versions slated for Mac and Solaris. EIOffice is a remarkably faithful
clone of Microsoft Office, with a twist -- it provides a level of
integration unmatched by any office suite on the market. It's not
without problems, though, a couple of which take EIOffice out of the
running for some organizations."
"The persistence of links between EIOffice applications is not just
better than OpenOffice, it is far more flexible and robust than what
you get with Microsoft Office. This brings a new level of power to both
Linux and Windows users. This kind of persistence is nonexistent in
some suites, and problematic at best for Microsoft Office. Microsoft
Office is hampered by sluggish and resource-intensive COM/OLE for
linking, and office users may even have to resort to Visual Basic for
Applications (VBA) programming for some links."
"Although EIOffice is specifically designed to be a replacement for
Microsoft Office, Linux users are more likely to compare EIOffice to
OpenOffice. Since EIOffice emulates Microsoft Office sans a few
features here and there, wherever Microsoft Office is more feature-rich
than OpenOffice, EIOffice is likely to be equally more feature-rich
than OpenOffice. And wherever Microsoft Office is superior to
OpenOffice in design, EIOffice is also superior."
http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/05/27/158237.shtml?tid=130&tid=82&tid=93
Can Linux Take Over the Desktop?
--------------------------------
"Linux, like other open-source software, is developed by programmers
around the world who freely share the changes and improvements they
make in it. It can be downloaded free from the Web, but many companies
sell it packaged with hardware, auxiliary software and services."
"Such incompatibility is probably the biggest obstacle in open-source
systems' pursuit of the desktop. Programmers have improved the ability
of open-source software to share information with computers using the
dominant Windows system and Microsoft's Office suite of applications.
But there are still too many incompatibilities with the Microsoft world
for many companies to feel comfortable about making the leap --
especially big corporations that have been Microsoft customers for
years."
"Michael Silver, a desktop software analyst at Stamford, Conn.-based
research and consulting firm Gartner Inc., says that some of his
company's large corporate clients think Linux desktops could save them
substantial money and work fine for certain classes of users who don't
need the full range of desktop applications. For example, he says,
Linux desktops can serve as a cheap alternative for employees who only
need PCs for functions like e-mail and for checking their company's Web
sites -- workers in call centers, say, who need to check product
information and communicate online in-house, but who don't create
documents, spreadsheets or presentations. For these employees,
compatibility issues are minimal.
Linux also has gotten a boost over the past year from some large
computer and software sellers that initially viewed it as suitable only
for the back office. Among them are Hewlett-Packard Co., which is
starting to install Linux instead of Windows on some of the PCs it
builds, International Business Machines Corp., and software makers
Novell Inc. and Red Hat Inc., which have set themselves up recently as
providers of Linux desktop programs."
"Matthew Szulik, president of Linux backer Red Hat, says his company
uses Open Office software exclusively. When Red Hat hired a new
executive from AT&T Corp., "It took him two or three days to go through
a transition. After that it was relatively simple," Mr. Szulik says."
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB108507035525116925-IRjfINplaZ3m5unZ36GaqiFm4,00.html
Sun adds management capabilities to JDS
---------------------------------------
"Most interesting is Sun's new Configuration Manager offering. So far,
Linux desktops have lacked policy-based management capabilities like
those offered by Microsoft Corp.'s GPO (Group Policy Objects). With
Configuration Manager, administrators can apply policies to managed
workstations, which can be used to modify a number of variables,
including user presentation, application settings, security parameters,
and so forth."
http://www.idg.com.hk/cw/readstory.asp?aid=20040614003
Sun Opens JDesktop Integration Components
-----------------------------------------
"Sun has released the JDIC / JDesktop Integration Components API via
the LGPL. The idea is to create a Java API that allows Java applications
to better integrate with a modern desktop. It allows apps to embed a web
browser component, access/launch desktop applications and associate
filetypes. Documentation and demos are available and there is an
incubator project (SaverBeans Screensaver) under way."
http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/04/06/07/2034247.shtml?tid=108&tid=126&tid=156&tid=185
Closing the Office door on Microsoft
------------------------------------
"Because OpenOffice is free and you have to pay a substantial fee for
Microsoft Office, you might be tempted to migrate your entire
organisation from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice. After all, migrating
to OpenOffice would save an absolute fortune in Microsoft Office
licenses, which is important in a time of shrinking IT budgets. Before
you jump right in and begin a migration, though, there are a few issues
that you need to be aware of."
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/print/?TYPE=story&AT=39157668-39020463t-20000004c
Statistics
#########################################################################
OpenOffice.org
==============
Highlights
----------
* More than 29,000,000 have downloaded OpenOffice.org
so far (as of June 19, 2004).
* The OpenOffice.org project has more than 24,200
unique people subscribed to the mailing lists
(as of June 19, 2004).
* 434 people and companies have signed a JCA and are thus
either already contributing or considering to do so
(as of June 28, 2004).
* 1537 people have participated in the OOo developer
survey so far (as of June 28, 2004).
* OpenOffice.org User Survey Data
(Provided by Cristian Driga)
User survey stats, June 24th 2004:
Total number of responses: 553367
Responses in the last 4 months:
Mar 2004: 33200
Apr 2004: 32867
May 2004: 28911
Jun 2004 (to June 24th): 20371
How did you find out about OpenOffice.org ?
(last 4 months comparison - June data is until June 24th)
Mar Apr May June
Press Article 6379 6139 5788 4053
TV/Radio 676 1186 689 371
Website 9862 10419 8579 6428
A friend 8760 8234 7586 5416
WebSearch 2545 2447 2189 1665
No response 4858 4673 4079 2996
OpenOffice.org registered users by country (Top30)
Country Count
======= =====
United States 124285
Germany 64631
France 32107
United Kingdom 24052
Italy 19880
Canada 17426
Brazil 16121
Netherlands 14129
Spain 13175
Poland 12725
Japan 12601
Australia 11000
Switzerland 7873
Belgium 7440
Denmark 6748
Finland 6295
Czech Republic 5344
Sweden 5059
China 5003
Austria 4484
Mexico 4406
Norway 4100
Hungary 4090
Russia 3777
India 3747
New Zealand 3583
Portugal 3343
Turkey 2464
Romania 2369
Where are you using OpenOffice.org ?
home - 388157
work - 186345
school - 36715
no answer - 61983
What applications do you primarily use in OpenOffice.org ?
Writer - 441629
Calc - 251550
Impress - 73557
Draw - 76254
Html editor - 76597
What operating system(s) are you using ?
windows2000 - 138762
windowsnt - 24443
windowsxp - 287273
windows98me - 138561
windows95 - 14434
linuxintel - 209245
linuxppc - 19821
linuxarm - 6802
linuxalpha - 4043
freebsd - 11644
netbsd - 1605
openbsd - 4012
macosx - 31292
solaris - 14414
beos - 3059
irix - 2125
tru64 - 1285
---------------------
other - 12701
no answer - 32741
OpenOffice.org users by language:
nat_lang Count
======== =====
en 206696
de 78925
fr 43120
es 25773
it 21318
nl 18902
br 15639
pl 13560
ja 12703
ru 7918
da 6946
fi 6539
zh-cn 6034
sv 5564
hu 4802
pt 4375
zh-tw 4253
ca 2754
tr 2698
el 2301
et 2255
sl 1878
ar 935
ko 884
th 250
---------------------
other 17687
no answer 38700
Events
#########################################################################
Upcoming
========
WWDC
---- San Francisco, USA 2004/6/28-07/02 http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/ OSCON ----- Portland, USA 2004/07/26-30 http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference/ LinuxWorld Conference & Expo ---------------------------- San Francisco, USA 2004/08/02-05 http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/ OpenOffice.org Conference 2004 ------------------------------ Berlin, Germany 2004/09/23-24 http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference Invex ----- Brno, Czech Republic 2004/10/11-15 http://www.invex.cz/ 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) ######################################################################### newsletter@marketing.openoffice.org, erwin.tenhumberg@sun.com or deepankar_datta@hotpop.com. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: announce-unsubscribe@openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: announce-help@openoffice.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Liste uyeliginiz ile ilgili her turlu islem icin http://liste.linux.org.tr web arayuzunu kullanabilirsiniz.