January 15th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
LinuxWorld Australia writes, “Hard cash, cold logic: Linux,” covering Elcot (Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu)’s migration of 30,000 desktops to SUSE Linux.
First, the managing director of Elcot installed Linux on a new laptop for testing purposes. Then, “within weeks, the Rs 750-crore Elcot was undergoing a enterprise-wide migration to Suse Linux. A year later, Umashankar and his team had moved 30,000 computers and 1,880 severs belonging to some of the state’s schools to Linux — creating possibly the largest Linux rollout in India.”
While Elcot’s 30,000 computers represent a huge migration, it is only a fraction of the state government’s total complement of desktop computers. Following Elcot’s success, the rest of the government is observing and possibly planning to migrate to Linux as well.
“Umashankar expects the entire operations of the government to gradually switch over to Linux/OpenOffice.org over the next 12 or 18 months. “Give it two or three virus attacks and you’ll see a faster migration,” he says tongue-in-cheek.”
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on “Hard cash, cold logic: Linux”
January 10th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Another low-cost, open source based mini-laptop has arrived: the Everex CloudBook. Featuring the gOS, just like its desktop sibling gPC, the CloudBook is a tiny but very functional looking $399 laptop.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »
January 7th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Ulteo, a new startup founded by Gaël Duval, has launched a web-based version of OpenOffice.org that can be accessed from any web browser.
In addition to OOo’s huge featureset, this version adds realtime collaboration, Google Docs-style:
“As well as offering instant ‘no-install’ access, Ulteo’s service also provides OpenOffice.org users with instant collaboration capabilities. A user working with OpenOffice.org on the Ulteo server can invite other people to work with him or her on a shared document in real time.”
However, its base featureset is larger, and hence the press release can realistically make the following claim: “With Ulteo, OpenOffice.org becomes the de facto best online productivity suite. It is standards based, mature, with lots of features.”
Posted in OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »
January 5th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Erwin Tenhumberg points out two articles on new OOo adoptions in Israel and Vietnam.
Haaretz.com reports on an agreement between Sun and the Israeli education system to supply OpenOffice.org and Linux to schools. This marks a major change in Israel, which has been a staunch user of almost exclusively Microsoft software to date:
“According to a computer teacher in a Tel Aviv high school, “even though the software world offers a multitude of alternatives, to date we have used Microsoft products almost exclusively. That is very frustrating, not least because in some cases the open source developments are better than those of the closed source.”
Vietnam is moving aggressively to migrate to OpenOffice for its government employees, and also promote it in the private sector:
“The majority of computers made in Vietnam have now started to come put with the Linux operating system to pave the way for spreading the usage of open source software in the country,” says Pham Thien Nghe, chairman of the Vietnam Computer Producers Club and director of Khai Tri Company.
“Khai Tri will produce 15,000 PCs this year, and up to 10,000 of which are installed with Linux to supply State agencies and education institutions. The remainder will be supplied to small- and medium-sized enterprises, and within this smaller segment, users will decide which operating system to be installed.”
Posted in Open Source, OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »
January 3rd, 2008 Benjamin Horst
The Economic Times of India reports “Efforts to promote open source software gather momentum,” as more companies, universities and governments adopt open source software including Linux, OpenOffice.org, and other programs:
“India’s computing space is witnessing a shift towards free software as more and more people are drifting away from proprietary products due to their exorbitant prices, security issues and restrictions on usage, according to experts.”
Meanwhile, The Open Press (a press release distributor) announces another major Philippine company has adopted FOSS in “Philippine Construction Company Shifts to Linux for Cost-Effective Infrastructure.”
“EEI Corporation, one of the Philippines’ leading construction companies, has opted to shift to Linux for their operating system (OS), joining several other industry giants in the country who have already turned to open source.
“Due to increasing costs of licensing, the company started considering open source applications in order to minimize expenses.
“Other concerns, such as virus infection and the increasing cost of hardware also became factors as to why we decided to use Linux,” said Mr. Andy S. Sarmiento, assistant vice president for the MIS department.
“EEI Corporation is only one of several industry giants in the Philippines which are already using Linux and open source software. Other firms include Jollibee Foods Corporation, Mercury Drug Corporation, International Family Foods Services (Shakey’s) and Nippon Paint Philippines Inc. Several schools, notably the University of the Philippines, are also making use of open source in place of proprietary systems.”
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on FOSS Successes in India and the Philippines
December 31st, 2007 Benjamin Horst
The Education project within OpenOffice.org has been restarted recently and is showing a flurry of activity. One of its members has been developing how-to video tutorials for OpenOffice with her students (in Austria). The tutorials are available in several languages, including English, so they should be useful to a global audience.
Posted in OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on OpenOffice.org Educational Videos
December 18th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Following up on my post from last week about the Dutch government adopting ODF, CNN Money has picked up the story as well. (Clearly from the same release, with the same errors!)
Writing “Dutch Government: Open Source Software To Be Adopted By April 2008,” CNN announces, “The Dutch government has set a soft deadline of April 2008 for its agencies to adopt open-source software such as free word processing programs and Internet browsers, a spokesman for the Economic Affairs Ministry said Thursday.”
The motivation is primarily for cost savings and vendor independence:
“The decision directs government organizations to use the Open Document Format, or ODF, to save text files, rather than Microsoft’s Open Office XML (sic, should be “Office Open XML”), and to use Mozilla’s Firefox or other open-source browsers, rather than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Van Scherrenburg said the government estimates it would save EUR6 million annually on city housing registers alone due to a switch to the ODF standard.”
The phrase you’re thinking of is “tipping point.”
Posted in ODF, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on CNN Money on Open Source and the Dutch Government
December 17th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Erwin finds a German article about the provisioning of OpenOffice.org training videos for Austrian schools.
Oftentimes you can’t find direct usage statistics about open source software, so you don’t even know it’s been rolled out until you hear about something like this.
Good for the Austrian schools!
Posted in OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on OpenOffice Appearing in Austrian Schools
December 13th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Erwin Tenhumberg let loose a flurry of blog posts this week covering OOo and ODF issues…
He uncovered a UK outfit selling PCs with OpenOffice.org preinstalled, adding to the pressure on other OEMs. I’m sure we will see steady progress on this front, bringing us ever closer to the tipping point.
He also announced (though I’m sure I already knew this) the OLPC XO will use ODF as its default format for its office productivity applications, meaning several million more users will be joining the ODF installed base.
And, he follows up on the Dutch government’s ODF plan: “According to this German article on heise, the Dutch parliament approved the open standards and open source adoption plan submitted by the Ministry of Economy. According to the plan, government agencies are supposed to read and write ODF in parallel to existing formats by April 2008, at least that is my understanding.”
Momentum is growing tremendously for ODF and OpenOffice.org. Congratulations to everyone involved!
Posted in ODF, OLPC, OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »
December 11th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
In its world tour of governmental standards adoption, ODF makes a stop in the Netherlands.
CIO magazine (UK) writes:
“On Wednesday the Dutch parliament will discuss a plan to mandate use of the Open Document Format (ODF) at government agencies. The proposal is part of a wider plan to increase the sustainability of information and innovation, while lowering costs through the reuse of data.”
“Policy makers see interoperability as the key to achieving these goals and therefore recommend that open standards should be used whenever possible. Bodies that wish to deviate from the open standards policy can request a temporary stay, but have to show a timeline showing a planned implementation date — a policy described as “comply or explain.”
Taking it a step further, the plan also recommends that open source applications be used where possible, to save even more money:
“The proposal recommends the use of open source software if that’s a viable alternative over closed-source applications, which could give a major boost to applications like OpenOffice.”
Europe has certainly become a hotbed of ODF and OpenOffice.org adoption. We should begin to see this reflected in market share statistics over the next several years.
Posted in ODF, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »