May 11th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
Mad Penguin recently interviewed Chris DiBona. DiBona is the liason between Google and the world of open source (or at least, many of the communities that make up that world). He manages the Summer of Code project, about to enter its second year, and also works with Apache, the Linux kernel, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla, OSU’s Open Source Lab, and many others.
DiBona’s favorite distro is Ubuntu, and he reports that well over half of the desktops within Google are running Linux.
Posted in Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Mad Penguin Interviews Google’s Chris DiBona
May 10th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
Newsforge discusses the state of applications available for the Maemo platform in “Linux-powered Nokia 770 handheld applications.”
Rob Reilly gives Maemo a thumb’s up:
“Judging from the number of current extra packages available, it looks like there’s a fair amount of developer interest in the 770 platform. Downloading the binaries is easy and painless.
Past attempts to market Linux-based handheld computers have not been very successful, a prime example being the Sharp Zaurus. The 770 may do better, because Nokia has funded the tool-up for the hardware and set up a development environment that encourages experimentation and customization. Companies and vendors that want to leverage handheld, wirelessly-networked, server/client technology should definitely be interested in the 770.”
Posted in Maemo, Open Source | Comments Off on Newsforge on Nokia 770
May 9th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
The Linux Box has created a handful of Open Source Presentation Templates that Will Make Proprietary Office Suites Jealous.
They are distributed as ODFs (specifically, “.otp” files), and some of them also have freely-shareable fonts that you can download to go with them. I particularly like “Chalkboard” and “Letterpress.”
Posted in Free Culture, ODF, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »
May 8th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
Linux-Watch reports on the new ODF Plugin for MS Office, allowing MSO to read and write ODF files as if it were native. Widespread distribution as a part of the Google Pack is being explored.
The original news comes from Groklaw, where PJ writes “OpenDocument Foundation to MA: We Have a Plugin.”
Gary Edwards of the OpenDocument Foundation tells Groklaw: “The OpenDocument Foundation has notified the Massachusetts ITD that we have completed testing on an ODF Plugin for all versions of MS Office dating back to MS Office 97. The ODF Plugin installs on the file menu as a natural and transparent part of the open, save, and save as sequences. As far as end users and other application add-ons are concerned, ODF plugin renders ODF documents as if it were native to MS Office.”
“The testing has been extensive and thorough. As far as we can tell there isn’t a problem, even with Accessibility add ons, which as you know is a major concern for Massachusetts.”
Elsewhere on the web, we’ve got some more reports and discussions on the subject:
Posted in Free Culture, ODF, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on ODF Plugin for MS Office
May 6th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
Freeze Peach is an internet cafe in Astoria, Queens that runs Ubuntu on all of its public computers! The cafe also maintains a not-for-profit community site called Astorians.com.
It reminds me of “linuxcaffe” in Toronto.
Perhaps I can donate my spare copies of TheOpenCD for distribution at Freeze Peach.
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Freeze Peach
May 5th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
Last night we traveled up to White Plains Middle School to deliver my “OpenOffice Workshop and Installfest” (links to PDF) talk to the Westchester PC Users’ Group.
It went very well, with an attendance of about 60 people. I sold every copy of The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org that I had brought, and distributed about a dozen copies of TheOpenCD for attendees to install OpenOffice and other FOSS apps on their personal computers.
The audience had a high level of interest in actually using OpenOffice. They asked a number of good and detailed questions, and many who are already using OpenOffice shared some of their experiences too.
Posted in Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Westchester PC Users’ Group Talk
May 4th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
Big news from the Standards Blog: Andy Updegrove writes, “OpenDocument Approved by ISO/IEC Members.”
Updegrove begins, “The six month voting window for ISO/IEC adoption of the OASIS OpenDocument Format (ODF) standard closed on May 1, and at midnight (Geneva time) last night it was announced internally that ODF had been approved by the ISO members eligible and interested in casting a vote. The vote passed with broad participation and no negative votes (there were a few abstentions), and ODF is now ISO/IEC 26300. While there are still some procedural steps internal to ISO/IEC that are required before the official text of the standard will be finalized and issued, these steps (described below) are formalities rather than gating factors.”
“With adoption of ODF by ISO/IEC now assured, software that implements the standard will now become more attractive to those European and other government purchasers for whom global adoption by ISO/IEC is either desirable, or required. Given the ongoing unhappiness in Europe with Microsoft over what the EU regards as unacceptable bundling and other practices, this may be particularly significant, especially when taken with the desire of many European and other purchasers to use open source products whenever possible. Offerings such as OpenOffice and KOffice therefore should receive a boost in appeal and usage, as well as for-sale versions, such as Sun’s StarOffice and IBM’s Internet-based offering.”
The OpenOffice.org team also issued a press release on ISO approval today.
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on ODF Approved by ISO
May 2nd, 2006 Benjamin Horst
Adam Wolf reviews the experience of reading ebooks on the Nokia 770. And it’s good.
Here is what Wolf has to say:
“I’ve read ebooks on a Palm IIIxe, a Palm IIIc, a Treo 600, a Treo 650, and a Nokia 770, and the 770 is the best ebook reader I have ever used. I would have bought it simply as an ebook reader. I’ve used the Nokia 770 to surf to Baen Free Library, grab an ebook off there, and read it, all without an extra computer.”
“The 770 is better in almost all ways than a paperback. I never lose my spot. I don’t need to turn off the light to go to bed, as the screen is backlit. I can fit more paperbacks than I could fit in a house on a single memory card. The 770 fits in a single hand, and I can change pages with the same hand. The screen is beautiful. The only real downsides are the fact that the Nokia 770 uses electricity and costs more than a single paperback.”
Posted in Maemo, Open Source | Comments Off on Reading Ebooks on the 770
April 28th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
The Participatory Culture Foundation announces the beta release of Democracy Player for Linux. Packages are available for Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora.
It’s also mentioned on Slashdot, but the discussion seems to have gotten quickly distracted.
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source | Comments Off on Beta Linux Version of Democracy Player Available
April 27th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
Groklaw covered the conference on ODF and accessibility at Cal State Northridge in March (technically called the “21st Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference“).
Of great interest for ODF-in-Massachusetts supporters was the public introduction of Orca, the open source, scripting screen reader Sun is developing. Not only will this program and others like it open the door to computer use for many disabled people, they are also essential for governments to adopt open source programs that meet their accessibility requirements.
Posted in Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Groklaw on ODF & Accessibility