OpenOffice.org Newsletter

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OPENOFFICE.ORG NEWSLETTER

Volume 05 - Issue 16 - 10/2008

Please send news clippings to:
dev@marketing.openoffice.org

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Contents
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1. Announcements
================
* Registration opens for the OpenOffice.org Annual Conference
* OO.o 3.0 Final Release available
* Announcing OpenOffice.org 2.4.2

2. Success Stories
==================
* South Africa's IT agency to migrate to open source in coming year

3. Featured News
================
* eWeek: OpenOffice.org Grows Up
* A Survey of Open Source Surveys
* Treat yourself to a suite alternative: OpenOffice.org 3.0
* OpenOffice Hits 3.0: Can It Challenge Microsoft?
* OpenOffice 3.0--No longer an alternative
* Office without the MS
* OK, now OpenOffice is definitely good enough
* Microsoft Competitor Gets Fresh
* Computerworld Review of OpenOffice.org 3.0
* OpenOffice 3.0 ships
* First Look: OpenOffice.org 3.0
* Review: OpenOffice.org 3.0
* OpenOffice 3: Useful, Compatible - and Pretty


4. Tips & Tricks
================
* Why OpenOffice.org Failed - and What to Do About It


5. ODF News
===========
* Governments head to SA (South Africa) to discuss Open Document Format
* Microsoft's OOXML Endgame Revealed?
* Venezuela adopts ODF for government
* Microsoft makes another play for UK schools
* DNA: ODF likely standard for e-gov
* IBM May Quit Technology Standards Bodies
* 2nd International ODF User Workshop in Pretoria

6. Solution of the month
========================
PALO - Commercial Open Source Business Intelligence - just do it easy.


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Want to help OpenOffice.org? Find out hot to contribute or see our
To Do List!!

http://contributing.openoffice.org/index.html
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/To-Dos/index.html
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Announcements
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Registration opens for the OpenOffice.org Annual Conference
===========================================================
Please note we have now opened registration for our annual international
conference OOoCon 2008, to be held in Beijing, China between 5th.-7th.
November. This OOoCon is a double first - it's the first OOoCon to be held
outside Europe, and it will also see the biggest concentration of
OpenOffice.org developers ever assembled in one location on the planet.

Links:
Conference website: http://marketing.openoffice.org/ooocon2008
Programme: http://marketing.openoffice.org/ooocon2008/programme.html

Registration:
http://marketing.openoffice.org/ooocon2008/travel.html#re...
Press Release: http://www.prweb.com/releases/OOoCon/2008/prweb1177594.htm


OO.o 3.0 Final Release available
================================
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&...


Announcing OpenOffice.org 2.4.2
===============================
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&...


Success Stories
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South Africa's IT agency to migrate to open source in coming year
=================================================================
"The South African State IT Agency (Sita), which provides IT services to 
government, will itself migrate to open source software over the coming 
year. This is according to the organisation's 2007/2008 annual report 
(PDF) which has been tabled in Parliament."

http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=3240


Featured News
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Steve Ballmer in an interview with Gartner Analyst Neil McDonald

[Google Apps] "don't have the best word processor or spreadsheet we 
compete with; we get more competitive pressure from OpenOffice and 
StarOffice than we do from those guys,"

http://www.internetnews.com/software/article.php/3778761/...


eWeek: OpenOffice.org Grows Up
=================================================================
"Nine years after Sun Microsystems bought StarOffice, the resulting 
OpenOffice.org project is ready to roll out its 3.0 release. Enhanced 
format compatibility and features put it on par with Microsoft Office."

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Linux-and-Open-Source/OpenOffice...


A Survey of Open Source Surveys
==============================================================
"One sign of the health of open source these days is the number of 
surveys saying how healthy it is. For example, here's one from Actuate..."

http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?...


Treat yourself to a suite alternative: OpenOffice.org 3.0
==========================================================
"OpenOffice.org 3.0 is a great suite of office productivity applications 
(word processor, spreadsheet, presentation & database) that's very 
similar to Microsoft Office in function, and very different in price."

http://www.examiner.com/x-529-SF-Technology-Examiner~y200...


OpenOffice Hits 3.0: Can It Challenge Microsoft?
================================================
"The office suite, which provides word processing, spreadsheet and 
presentation applications, has long been among the most heavily used 
applications on users' desktops. For much of the Windows-centric world, 
that suite is Microsoft Office, but for open source users, more often 
than not, the choice is OpenOffice.org (OOo)."

http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3777636/...


OpenOffice 3.0--No longer an alternative
========================================
"It's been quite some time that OpenOffice was viewed as an alternative 
to Microsoft Office. But the latest release of OpenOffice version 3.0 
seems to be pointing to a different direction. It is ready for 
primetime, to compete head-on with Microsoft Office."

http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/infochat/post.htm?id=63006865&...


Office without the MS
=====================
"I never took to MS Office 2007. Having used earlier versions of MS Word 
for years, I was frustrated when I couldn't easily find the menus or 
commands where they used to be on its newfangled ribbon interface. I 
also disliked that its applications wrote by default to a file format 
that was unreadable by earlier versions of MS Office."

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=business6_oct14_...


OK, now OpenOffice is definitely good enough
============================================
There is a reason that the OpenOffice.org 3.0 servers are struggling to 
keep up with demand. OO.org 3.0 really is a serious upgrade over version 2.4

http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1895


Microsoft Competitor Gets Fresh
===============================
For what has seemed like an infinite amount of years, Microsoft has been 
the top dog for office or productivity software with its Microsoft 
Office suite which includes Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft 
PowerPoint, and others.

http://www.nillabyte.com/blog.php?b=114


Computerworld Review of OpenOffice.org 3.0
==========================================
The final version of OpenOffice 3 is out today, and if you're looking to 
save yourself plenty of money, download it instead of buying Microsoft 
Office --- you could save yourself hundreds of dollars, and not lose out 
on many features.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/review_of_final_openoffice...


OpenOffice 3.0 ships
====================
OpenOffice.org (OOo) has shipped a major update to its free, 
cross-platform office suite. OpenOffice.org 3.0 features native Mac OS X 
support for the first time, along with more MS Office interoperability 
including "Open XML" and ".accdb" file format support for Office 2007 
and Access 2007, respectively.

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS5116175814.html


First Look: OpenOffice 3.0
==========================
The third iteration of the OpenOffice productivity suite has been 
released and we've taken a first look at the final product.

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/reviews/2228213/first-look-o...


First Look: OpenOffice 3.0 Is a Free Replacement for MS Office on Mac
=====================================================================
OpenOffice 3.0 is hot off the presses and now, for the first time, 
includes a native Mac OS X version of the popular, free, open source 
alternative to Microsoft Office. The new release also has the ability to 
open documents saved in Microsoft's new office standard format, OOXML.

http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/First_Look:_OpenOffice_3DOT...


First Look: OpenOffice.org 3.0
==============================
At first glance, the suite seems like a more polished OpenOffice.org 
2.0. Many of the shortcomings present in older versions of 
OpenOffice.org have been fixed to some extent. For this review, I tested 
OO3 in a virtualized Windows XP environment.

http://redmondmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=10305


OpenOffice.org 3.0 scores strong first week
===========================================
OpenOffice.org 3.0 was downloaded 3 million times in its first week, 
with about 80% of the downloads by Windows users, an official with the 
group said in a blog post on Monday.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=vi...


Review: OpenOffice.org 3.0
==========================
Version 3.0 of OpenOffice.org's free office productivity suite was 
launched in mid-October and, while not a ground-breaking release, it 
builds on an already mature software package to provide even tougher 
competition for Microsoft's Office suite in the office productivity 
suite market.

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/software/2229014/review-open...


OpenOffice 3: Useful, Compatible - and Pretty
=============================================
The final version of OpenOffice.org 3, the open source Rackspace is the 
expert when it comes to delivering Windows and Linux hosting solutions. 
Click here to learn more. Latest News about open source competitor to 
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Latest News about Microsoft Office, came out 
two weeks ago and looks better than ever.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/64981.html



Tips & Tricks
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Why OpenOffice.org Failed - and What to Do About It
===================================================
"Last week I noted that the release of OpenOffice.org 3.0 seems to mark 
an important milestone in its adoption, judging at least by the healthy
News Linux News Linux - and continuing - rate of downloads. But in many 
ways, success teaches us nothing; what is far more revealing is failure. "

http://www.e-linux.it/news_detail.php?id=6714



ODF News
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Governments head to SA (South Africa) to discuss Open Document Format
=====================================================================
"In just over a week's time, government officials and representative 
from around the globe will gather in South Africa for the second annual 
Open Document Format (ODF) workshop.
The workshop, which will be held in Pretoria from 9-10 October, is aimed 
at governments that are in the process of migrating to ODF as a standard 
or have done so already."

http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=3233


Microsoft's OOXML Endgame Revealed?
===================================
"One of the mysteries concerning Microsoft's attempts to deal with the 
threat ODF poses to its stranglehold on the office suite sector is why 
some of its employees are making statements like that quoted"

http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?...


Venezuela adopts ODF for government
=========================================
The South American nation of Venezuela is the latest country to adopt 
the Open Document Format (ODF) as a national standard. Speaking at the 
Second ODF Workshop in Pretoria, South Africa, yesterday, Carlos 
Gonzalez of the National Center of Information Technologies, announced 
that the Venezuelan government had formally adopted ODF as a standard 
for the "processing, exchange and storage of documents".

http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=3334


Office 2007 SP2 due in early 2009
=================================
Among the new features coming in the desktop SP are previously announced 
file-format changes - specifically support for Open Document Format 
(ODF), ...

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1656



OpenOffice.org solution of the month
====================================
PALO - Commercial Open Source Business Intelligence - just do it easy.

With the Palo Server Jedox offers a compelling alternative to 
proprietary BI solutions. Jedox pushes the concept of "Commercial Open 
Source" for Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management. 
By delivering a stable, high-end software, which is commercially 
designed and developed and thoroughly tested, but still freely available 
under a Open-Source license (GPL), Jedox combines the best of these two 
worlds. The availability of a powerful spreadsheet-client for 
OpenOffice.org Calc opens the door for a wide-spread use of Business
Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management throughout all layers 
of the organization without obstacles in terms of high license or 
training costs.


********************************************************************************
This new section introduces a single solution which provides a OO.o 
integration or based on OO.o technology. The idea behind it is to 
support vendors who have an OO.o integration. The full list of solutions 
is available here :
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org_S...

Drop me an email, if you want to have your solution listed.
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Newsletter Archive
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