May 11th, 2009 Benjamin Horst
The TestFreaks Blog publishes Mastering OpenOffice: 50 Useful Tips to Get You Started:
OpenOffice is the unsung software for personal usage. It offers two very convincing reasons to download: 1.) It’s free. And 2.) It comes with 24/7 online help.
Yes, both true, but there is more.
The article continues, with a collection of progressively more advanced tips for new users of OOo. It covers wizards for installing new dictionaries and fonts, and the Math component is discussed, as well as Calc, although very briefly. Of course it covers Writer, Impress and Draw as well, and one final tip on Base.
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »
May 7th, 2009 Benjamin Horst
OpenOffice.org 3.1 was released today.
The official press release announces:
The OpenOffice.org Community today announced the general availability of OpenOffice.org 3.1, a significant upgrade to the world’s leading open-source office productivity suite. Since OpenOffice.org 3.0 was launched last October, over 60 million downloads have been recorded from the OpenOffice.org website alone. Released in more than 90 languages and available as a free download on all major computing platforms, OpenOffice.org 3.1 looks set to break these records.
Download it here. And, why not join the OpenOffice Facebook group while we’re all celebrating?
Posted in Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on OpenOffice.org 3.1 Released Today
May 4th, 2009 Benjamin Horst
Distributed social networking is percolating everywhere I look today.
BuddyPress has been in development for a while, but it’s now matured to a 1.0 release, reports Andy Peatling:
This release marks over a year of solid development, starting from the roots of the ChickSpeak project, all the way to the blossoming developer community I see interacting on this site everyday.
See the project’s feature list or test it on the demo site for more.
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source, Social Software | Comments Off on BuddyPress 1.0 Arrives
May 2nd, 2009 Benjamin Horst
MapServer released its latest update, version 5.4.0, on April 22:
MapServer is an Open Source platform for publishing spatial data and interactive mapping applications to the web. Originally developed in the mid-1990’s at the University of Minnesota, MapServer is released under an MIT-style license, and runs on all major platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X).
MapServer is a project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation, an umbrella organization that develops and promotes open source GIS software applications.
See An Introduction to MapServer for a thorough software user’s guide.
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source | Comments Off on MapServer 5.4.0 Released
April 30th, 2009 Benjamin Horst
Dmitri Popov writes Creating an Invoicing System with OpenOffice.org for the Worldlabel.com Blog.
Popov walks the reader through the steps, including creating a data source, creating an invoice template, creating and printing invoices, and creating an invoice manager.
Posted in Open Source, OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »
April 29th, 2009 Benjamin Horst
Computerworld publishes Oracle-Sun deal renews calls for OpenOffice.org’s independence, in which they discuss the hope of many community members that Oracle spin off OpenOffice.org into an independent foundation, along the lines of Mozilla, Apache, or Linux.
Updegrove said he thinks that Oracle would be wise to consider putting into motion the long-stymied spin-off of OpenOffice.org.
“It would provide even greater credibility and greater incentives for additional developers to join the project, from both the independent community as well as from major vendors like IBM and Google,” Updegrove said.
John McCreesh blogged about the possibility of a Foundation recently, as well, stating, “Philosophically, I am bound to agree that this feels the ‘right’ model for an open-source community.”
Computerworld also discusses the funding structure of the Mozilla, Apache and Linux foundations, and theorizes on strategies an OOo Foundation might take to fund itself sustainably, which would be a key part of this entire process.
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on A Foundation for OpenOffice?
April 28th, 2009 Benjamin Horst
With OpenOffice.org 3.1 due for release very soon (I’m not exactly sure when), the 3.1 Features page has gone live, explaining what improvements and additions are in store.
You can download a release candidate of 3.1 now, which has been very stable for me.
Lots of features have been added across all of the OOo components, so check it out now to whet your appetite for the coming release of OpenOffice 3.1!
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on OpenOffice 3.1 Feature Overview
April 23rd, 2009 Benjamin Horst
That’s right, today is the release day for Ubuntu 9.04, Jaunty Jackalope!
Ubuntu is a community developed, Linux-based operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. It contains all the applications you need – a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software, instant messaging and much more.
One of the most user-friendly Linux distributions, Ubuntu’s combination of an attractive user interface, strong community of developers and users, and backing by a well-capitalized company (and leader), have pushed it to the forefront in recognition and into a true competitor to the longstanding dominance of Windows and other closed-source software.
Further, as a small taste of what the future will bring, the agility of open source is demonstrated by the quick creation of a mature netbook-tailored version in the Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, Open Source | 1 Comment »
April 21st, 2009 Benjamin Horst
WorldLabel publishes OpenOffice.org Opens Up for Business, a blog post about the increased enthusiasm for open source, and OpenOffice in particular, in this time of economic difficulty.
The article is intended as an introduction for new users who may not know OOo yet, so it starts off easy, and includes the following handy anecdote:
Having switched the office I worked at, I know first hand that regular people quickly learn OpenOffice.org. Originally chosen for its price, it was the standard office suite on all computers. Looking back, it would have been ideal to provide training, but the staff, clients, and newcomers learned it with fewer questions than I expected. Many people didn’t seem to notice it was not the Microsoft Office they used before.
Next is a useful summary of the steps involved in migrating a company to OpenOffice, from evaluation, to getting management support, running a pilot project and providing training and learning resources.
With some good advice on customization and suggestions for Extensions, it’s a great introduction to the OpenOffice.org software.
Posted in Extensions, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on WorldLabel on OpenOffice
April 20th, 2009 Benjamin Horst
Josh Dressel, an employee of Washington State has begun reviewing, discussing and analyzing the potential impact of a migration to open source (especially OpenOffice.org and Zimbra) as a way to save his department money and prevent impending layoffs.
ZDNet discusses Dressel’s efforts on Dana Blankenhorn’s blog and seems concerned his efforts may put him at risk to lose his job.
Dressel has expanded his proposal to using Zimbra as well as OpenOffice, which he says will save $1.8 million. Zimbra would replace the department’s present Exchange Server, OpenOffice would replace Microsoft Office.
He says the initial cost of doing all this is not monetary, but staff time, and the department has staff. He concludes, “The status of IT at the DNR is we continue to be a Microsoft shop without any sound data to back staying this course.”
It will be interesting to see if Dressel’s name is on the lay-off list, and whether the local press picks up on his crusade.
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Open Source for Washington State?