November 10th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Adrian Try has launched a new blog, Using a Different Office, to document his experiences with new office suite options, particularly focused on OpenOffice.org and Google Docs.
On using both OOo and Google Docs, Try describes his typical use pattern:
“At this point in time there is definitely a place for both installed and online office suites. I use both OpenOffice.org and Google Docs on a daily basis.
“Whenever I am creating a document that will ultimately be printed, I tend to use OpenOffice.org. Especially if the formatting is tricky or complicated…
“I use Google mainly for documents that are for information and reference. Its excellent search is very suitable for finding information stored in reference documents. I also use it for documents that are going to be used in email newsletters, web pages and blog posts (like this one). And I definitely use Google Docs whenever I want to collaborate with others on a document. I think this is Google Docs’ greatest strength.
“I often move the information I have been storing for reference into OpenOffice.org for consolidating, formatting and printing. I find by doing this I am helping me develop the valuable habit of separating content from formatting.”
In another interesting anecdote, Try describes how he migrated a small business from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org in one day without any advanced planning. It was a risky approach, but he was constrained when he learned the company already was running more copies of MS Office than they owned in licenses, and the management wanted to resolve that issue pronto:
“Despite the uncertainty of using unfamiliar software, and being thrown in the deep end, the staff handled the change well. Much better than I expected. On the second day one of the staff had a question about something that worked a little differently. The question was easily answered, and there were no more questions. Some staff preferred some of the differences.”
Posted in Open Source, OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »
November 6th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
IBM’s Lotus Symphony was developed based on OpenOffice.org’s codebase and uses the same ODF (OpenDocument Format) as its standard file format.
To help users create attractive documents, IBM has released a number of ODF file templates for things like schedules, invoices, budgets, memos, letters and presentations. While promoted on Symphony’s website, these standard ODF files can be used in any compatible software suite, including OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice, KOffice and many others.
Download and enjoy!
Posted in Free Culture, ODF, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on ODF Templates from IBM
November 5th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Estimating the usage of most open source programs is difficult, if not impossible. However, it’s important to try to understand the size of the userbase and what their greatest needs are.
InternetNews.com reports that Ubuntu Linux has 8 million active users:
“In terms of numbers we’re very confident this is an 8 million plus user base of active users,” Chris Kenyon, director of business development at Canonical told InternetNews.com. “That is a hard thing to count and there are lots of issues about methodology for counting but I have seen nothing that sheds doubts on that.”
Ubuntu and Canonical are also healthy and growing in terms of their developer communities:
“There are other key metrics that Canonical is keen to point out, among them is their growing headcount of contributors and staff. Kenyon claimed that the number of people that are actually contributing lines of code continues to grow.
“We now have over 400 active contributors,” Kenyon said. “That’s on top of our own internal development team that is now at 120 plus developers.”
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source | Comments Off on Ubuntu Linux’s 8 Million Users
November 4th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
After reaching the 3 million mark in its first week, OpenOffice.org 3.0 exceeded 5 million downloads after two weeks, announces Meall Dubh.
5,290,166 to be exact. 83.8% of them for Windows, with a very strong showing for Mac and Linux (despite the fact that most Linux users get OOo from the built-in package managers, and lots of Mac users already run NeoOffice).
Another week has elapsed since these numbers were collected, so it will be interesting to see where the weekly download plateau ultimately settles.
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on OOo: 5 Million Downloads in Two Weeks
November 3rd, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Fortune Magazine’s Big Tech blog predicts the coming decline of Windows in “PC makers move closer to a post-Windows world“:
“In January, Hewlett-Packard will introduce a glossy black mini-laptop at retail for a mere $379. When it does, it will become the first major computer maker this decade (besides Apple, of course) to push a non-Windows PC in stores… This Linux-based version of the HP Mini 1000 will not slay Microsoft Windows. But it will add to a growing sense that the iconic operating system’s best days are behind it.”
Author Jon Fortt credits the “Windows Vista flop,” Apple’s enormous growth, competitors in the smartphone market and mini-laptops (“netbooks”) for breaking open major cracks in the Microsoft fortress. Specifically regarding netbooks, Fortt writes, “more than 35% of today’s mini-laptops run a non-Windows operating system,” which means this new fast-growing market segment will probably never come under the thumb of Microsoft. HP sees it as an opportunity to develop its own brand, instead of just the brands of others that make processors and operating systems, putting them in a better longterm position in the market.
“This is the part of the Windows Vista backlash that really matters,” said IDC analyst Richard Shim, who had recently seen HP’s Linux mini-laptop.”
A newly competitive marketplace for operating systems will bring out much more rapid innovation (look to the smartphone industry for a precedent), lower prices and more opportunity for new startups and existing companies to grow. I expect it also to boost open source, as a great way to quickly implement new products and services.
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, Mac, Open Source | 1 Comment »
October 31st, 2008 Benjamin Horst
That open source is more cost effective in initial deployment and ongoing maintenance is not surprising to anyone who uses open source software, despite the premise being attacked by Microsoft (and some people apparently do believe MS’ marketing).
The experience of the German Foreign Ministry is that open source desktops cost less to operate and maintain than Windows and Microsoft Office-based systems, reports Metamorphosis:
“Open Source desktops are far cheaper to maintain than proprietary desktop configurations, says Rolf Schuster, a diplomat at the German Embassy in Madrid and the former head of IT at the Foreign Ministry.”
This is an informed opinion, as the Ministry has been working with open source since 2001, and is currently midway through a complete migration to FOSS.
“The Foreign Ministry is migrating all of its 11,000 desktops to GNU/Linux and other open source applications. According to Schuster, this has drastically reduced maintenance costs in comparison with other ministries. “The Foreign Ministry is running desktops in many far away and some very difficult locations. Yet we spend only one thousand euros per desktop per year. That is far lower than other ministries, that on average spend more than 3,000 euros per desktop per year.
“The ministry has so far migrated almost four thousand of its desktops to GNU/Linux and expects to complete the move by the summer of 2009, Schuster said. About half of all the 230 embassies and consulates have now been switched over. “It is not without problems. It took a while to find a developer in Japan to help us with some font issues we had in OpenOffice.”
The groundwork of the past few years is beginning to pay off for a large number of first-movers around the world. I expect the migration trend will continue to accelerate as more and more case studies help to sway the slower adopters.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »
October 30th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
The following study has been making the rounds lately, but it’s also worth keeping track of here, for future reference.
Living in a world where most companies and small businesses I know are comfortable with open source and most already use it to a greater or lesser extent, it’s even more important to understand those who don’t use it and the smaller set of those who deliberately decide not to adopt open source yet. This knowledge will hone our development and promotion efforts to address those users’ needs in future revisions.
An academic paper written by Huysmans, Ven, and Verelst entitled Reasons for the Non-Adoption of OpenOffice.org in a Data-Intensive Public Administration is an informative resource for this purpose.
The paper’s abstract reads:
“Several academic studies have already been conducted to investigate the reasons influencing the adoption of open source desktop software such as Linux and OpenOffice.org. However, few studies have been devoted to determine the reasons for not adopting open source desktop software. In order to address this issue, we present a case study on the Belgian Federal Public Service (FPS) Economy which considered the use of OpenOffice.org, but eventually decided not to adopt OpenOffice.org as their primary office suite. This decision was to a large degree influenced by the fact that a large number of users within the FPS Economy perform data–intensive tasks such as statistical data analysis and reporting on a daily basis. Notwithstanding the fact that several reasons were actually in favor of the migration, we have identified several barriers that may discourage the use of OpenOffice.org in similar environments.”
The entire paper is available online at the link above for a detailed reading.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Case Study on Non-Adoption of Open Source
October 29th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
For ComputerWorld UK, Glyn Moody writes, “All Russian Schools to Use Free Software.”
“It began with a few pilot projects, and apparently these have been so successful that the Russian government has now decided to make it the standard for *all* schools.”
Most of Moody’s links lead to articles in Russian, so I cannot glean anything from them. However, when he runs them through software translation, Moody discovers that Russia plans to have one million computers in schools by 2010, and their default software platform will be locally-customized open source applications (presumably including Linux, OpenOffice, etc). After a three-year period, schools will be permitted to switch back to proprietary programs, but they’ll have to pay the licensing fees on their own. I do not expect many will be interested by that option.
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on All Russian Schools to Use Free Software
October 28th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
This year the annual OpenOffice.org Conference will be held in Beijing.
“Since Redflag 2000 and IBM officially joined OpenOffice.org in 2007, Beijing has become the second hot-spot for the development of OpenOffice.org and several derived products. The contributions to OOo from China are steadily growing. It’s an exciting time: China’s software developers and users are able to look at office software with fresh minds, untainted by years of exposure to Microsoft products.”
The conference starts on November 5. News updates should be frequent during the run-up to the conference and there are many interesting sessions planned for the conference itself. I’m especially excited by the case studies of major national-scale adoptions happening around the world, specifically Malaysia, Cambodia, Spain and Brazil.
Posted in Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on OpenOffice.org Conference 2008 in Beijing
October 27th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
An email from Jean of the OOoAuthors project announces, “Friends of OpenDocument Inc has just published the printed edition of Getting Started with OOo3, here: http://www.lulu.com/content/4633456
“In addition to the paperback book (US$17.95), a free download of the PDF of the book is also available from that link. The interior pages are in black & white. It is formatted for approx. 6×9-inch pages (the size of the printed book), which should print fine on A4 or US-letter paper if someone wants to print it. If you are paying for your own ink/toner and paper, buying a printed copy is probably cheaper than printing it yourself.”
For a color PDF of the same document, designed for on-screen viewing, download from OOoAuthors.org.
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Getting Started with OOo 3.0 Guide Arrives