August 12th, 2005 Benjamin Horst
According to the NeoOffice website, an apparently anonymous individual has donated $25,000 to the project.
“A very generous individual has stepped forward and given a US$25,000 donation to NeoOffice/J. This much needed donation plus the many small donations received over the last few months provides enough funds for me to work full time on upgrading NeoOffice/J to use Java 1.4.
Upgrading NeoOffice/J to Java 1.4 is one of the critical tasks that must be done in order for NeoOffice/J to run on Apple’s upcoming Intel-based machines. With this donation, one of the three critical tasks for creating a Mac Intel verison of NeoOffice/J is now fully funded.
Not only do I want to thank our generous donor, but I would also like to thank the hundreds of people who have donated to NeoOffice/J. The many small donations that NeoOffice/J has received are important and, without them, working full time on NeoOffice/J would not be possible.”
Posted in Mac, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on NeoOffice Gets $25,000
July 26th, 2005 Benjamin Horst
Infamous columnist John C. Dvorak thinks that Microsoft’s lackluster products will cause it to lose market dominance, while Apple and others will rise to take over. The second page of this article is where it gets good.
Posted in Mac, Open Source | Comments Off on Dvorak on OS X vs. Vista
June 30th, 2005 Benjamin Horst
The Norwegian Minister of Modernization Morten Andreas Meyer at a press conference in Oslo declared “Proprietary formats will no longer be acceptable in communication between citizens and government.”
The Minister, as part of the plan, has charged all government institutions, both at the national and local level, to by the end of 2005 have worked out a recommendation for the use of open source code in the public sector. Further by the end of 2006 every body of the public sector in Norway must have in place a plan for the use of open source code and open standards.
The plan clearly favors Open Source communities and solutions, and Linux, but will also favor Apple Computer where increasingly open source technologies and open standards are finding their way into the historically proprietary Mac OS.
Just a few days earlier, in Ukraine:
“A battle for software supremacy within the public and private sectors of Ukraine has begun. Recently, the Ukrainian Parliament registered a “project of law” (the equivalent of a bill in U.S. terms) that may radically alter the manner in which the Ukrainian government procures software. If adopted, it will require government agencies, along with all state-owned or state-controlled companies, to give preference to open source software.
However, the proposed legislation still offers ample opportunity for competition by legitimate proprietary software. It requires giving preference to an open source product only when the open source feature set is analogous to that of a commercial product, and justifies using proprietary products if the open source counterparts are more expensive.
Posted in Mac, Open Source | Comments Off on Norway and Ukraine and FOSS
June 23rd, 2005 Benjamin Horst
Yesterday saw the release of NeoOffice/J 1.1! Get it now (for Mac OS X).
“June 22, 2005: NeoOffice/J 1.1 is released. This release, which is the first official release of NeoOffice/J, includes all of the features in the NeoOffice/J 1.1 Release Candidate release plus many bug fixes.”
Meanwhile, for Linux, KOffice 1.4 has been released. KOffice now uses the OpenDocument format, so it is fully compatible with OpenOffice.org and NeoOffice/J.
Posted in Mac, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on NeoOffice/J 1.1 Released
June 7th, 2005 Benjamin Horst
MacDailyNews quotes the Software Publishers’ Association estimate that 16% of computer users use Macs. This number is much higher than is commonly quoted, but it is (somehow) derived from the measured fact that “Macintosh software comprises over 18% of all software sold, according to the Software and Information Industry Association.”
Posted in Mac | Comments Off on Mac Installed-Base at 16%?
May 1st, 2005 Benjamin Horst
Firefox blasted past the 50-million download milestone on Friday. Spreadfirefox.com has a celebratory page for the occasion.
Ubuntu Linux receives a highly positive review in PC World magazine.
South Africa and its neighbors are becoming a hotbed of open source. SchoolNet Namibia has provided 450 schools across the country with open source software systems and internet access. They’ve also just launched a comic strip to build greater awareness of computing and open source among young people.
Path Finder is an alternative Finder for Mac OS X with a number of enhancements that should appeal to power users.
Rob Reilly writes an introductory tutorial on OpenOffice.org Base in Newsforge.
Posted in Mac, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Shorties
April 29th, 2005 Benjamin Horst
Today is the official release of Mac OS X 10.4, aka Tiger. Some reviews came out in the NYT and WSJ yesterday, and they were glowing.
- Wall Street Journal – Tiger Leaps Out in Front
Mossberg writes, “Overall, Tiger is the best and most advanced personal computer operating system on the market, despite a few drawbacks. It leaves Windows XP in the dust… It also adds to the Mac’s general superiority over typical Windows computers as the best choice for average consumers doing the most common computing tasks.”
- New York Times – From Apple, a Tiger to Put in Your Mac
Pogue writes, “Tiger is the classiest version of Mac OS X ever and, by many measures, the most secure, stable and satisfying consumer operating system prowling the earth.”
- Ars Technica – Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger
This is the most in-depth review of Mac OS X you will find anywhere. Ars Technica digs in deep, with 21 full pages of analysis. Siracusa writes, “Tiger is the best version of Mac OS X yet. It offers substantial improvements over Panther in all important areas. The performance improvements are immediately noticeable. Every major bundled application has been improved. There’s an unprecedented number of substantial, totally new features and technologies: Spotlight, Core Image and Video, Quartz 2D Extreme, Dashboard, and Automator, just to name a few.”
Posted in Mac | Comments Off on Mac OS X Tiger Release
April 28th, 2005 Benjamin Horst
TikiMac provides Tiki-themed flash drives, external hard disks and other Mac accessories. (Yes, they work with Wintel boxes too.)
Posted in Mac | Comments Off on TikiMac