However, I can’t really claim to be an expert in this area, and I make no claim whatsoever to having skills in graphics, layout, etc. That’s why I was pleased to read an article in Linuxworld from the folks behind GNUzilla magazine, who do know what they are talking about. As enthusiasts for free software, they have tried a number of different packages to produce their magazine, but have not found anything to tempt them away from Writer:

During the first year of GNUzilla’s existence, several
observations were made in sense of using some more professional tools like Scribus, or maybe Tex/LateX, but Writer followed the requirements very well. In the past three years OpenOffice.org became faster, Writer started to produce more and more optimized PDF’s, and remained everything GNUzilla needs right now.

Judge for yourself - have a look at their magazine (in Serbian), and think what OpenOffice.org Writer could do for you!

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference (OOoCon 2008) site is now also online in outline. It will be expanded considerably over the next six months or so - and will get its own OOoCon logo real soon now! This is really going to be an OOoCon to remember.

Being on the move, once again the little eee PC proved its worth, alongside the 3com dongle for mobile internet access. There were a couple of curiosities - I had to kill my ssh session after every cvs commit to the website and restart before I could commit again (anyone seen anything similar?). Also my email to the announce mailing list has failed to appear - however I suspect a human failure among the moderators rather than a technical issue

The dongle does have technical limits - it’s completely useless on a moving train for example. It was a relief to get on this train with wifi from York to Edinburgh, and be able to blog - I can just about tolerate Frozen Bubble from Manchester to York, but after changing trains I was really feeling in need of something more mentally stimulating.

On the train, I had some problems getting the on-board WiFi to work (I suspect an overloaded onboard proxy server as the root cause). Again, the National Express helpdesk was wonderful. I expected the usual “oh we don’t support Linux” but instead found Dave, who was delighted to find someone using Linux and wanted to know all about the eee. He also solved the problem.

Maybe we need a special day when all the Linux lovers lying low in Microsoft enclaves are encouraged to come out of the closet (maybe the wiring closet ) and declare their genuine orientation. Or maybe we already have such a day?

If you’re an OpenOffice.org fan, you need this application. It’s available in US English, German, French, and Italian; the Polish version has just appeared, and no doubt there will be more.

Hey, John!

I just want to let you know I really love the OpenOffice suite. I’ve been using it now for a couple of years and always install the next upgrade. I have been telling others for quite awhile about OpenOffice, including Best Buy salespeople. What a wonderful thing to have on new computers instead of MS (doesn’t) WORKS and a 90 day supply of MSOFFICE which you have to pay big bucks to keep afterward. Being in the computer industry, I tell all my customers about OpenOffice. I encourage them if they find they like OpenOffice to contribute funds to the cause to encourage the OpenOffice team to continue developing this wonderful suite.

Thanks for all you and the OpenOffice team do!

If you’re reading this and you’re a member of the OpenOffice.org Community, this is for you. If you haven’t tried OpenOffice.org yet, I hope this encourages you to do so!

As usual, we get emails from people asking whether they should update. Here’s my response:

On Thu, April 17, 2008 08:35, A concerned user wrote:
> i’m using openoffice portable 2.3.1.
> what would you suggest?
> tks

I suggest you contact the maintainer of the version you are using, and ask when 2.4 will be available.

We always advise people to upgrade when we release security fixes - this is best practice in the IT industry. However, you can always do your own risk assessment. Look at the security bulletin for what has been fixed. How do you use OpenOffice.org? e.g. if there is a vulnerability around opening Quattro Pro files, and you never open Quattro Pro files, then you might decide the risk of not upgrading is acceptable for you personally.

In fact, the message is simple: the vast majority of exploits require you to accept a file from someone else, or download a file from the internet. If you regularly click on links in emails from people you don’t know, or without checking they are genuine, then “be scared, be very scared…”

One useful side effect of the delay is that air fares should be lower in November, which will help people who will have to pay for long haul. We’re working on a ‘bursary’ scheme to help ensure that anyone who should be at OOoCon, can be at OOoCon. However, it usually takes time for sponsors to tell us how generous they are prepared to be. Many thanks to IBM, who have already committed to a generous sum.

So, the OOoCon website is being prepared, and the Call for Papers is in draft. Expect both of these before the end of the month. The countdown has begun!

A deal struck by government CIO John Suffolk and the Cabinet Office could save the public sector billions of pounds by supplying networked, supported PCs for around half the typical price.
…
The Cabinet Office’s price of £800 to £1,000 per PC - according to the numbers bought - includes support, server farms, security to low-level government standards, storage, Open Office (sic) software and infrastructure costs. It is “commodity” pricing for supported PCs, said Suffolk.

Glad to be doing our bit to help the UK government. When Bill Gates “helped” Tony Blair, he got the equivalent of a knighthood. As OpenOffice.org’s marketing representative in the UK…

Anyway, half way through the afternoon, I took a call from David Meyer at ZDNet looking for an instant reaction to the news that Microsoft have succeeded in getting ISO accreditation for their proprietary OOXML file format, in opposition to the ISO accredited ODF used by OpenOffice.org. I duly gave him a few quotes. To be honest, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Microsoft has succeeded, as one illustrious industry guru predicted two years ago.

Where does this leave OpenOffice.org? as usual, we will support whatever file formats our market present and future requires. In an ideal world, this means our engineers would just read the OOXML specification and code it up. Alas, as many commentators have pointed out, the OOXML spec is not fit for purpose, and following that route simply wouldn’t give a usable result. To quote from an engineer who works on this stuff for us and knows what he is talking about:

…there is a fundamental problem for all filter developers: the mandatory part of the OOXML spec will not be enough to implement proper MS Office filters but these filters are what the market wants. Developing an OOXML filter is totally useless as there is no application on this planet that follows this spec verbatim.

So, it’s back to the old game of five man years’ or more reverse engineering what Microsoft’s software actually does, rather than following the incomplete and inconsistent dog’s breakfast called the OOXML spec - which the world’s highest technical standards body has just blessed with an ISO number. Ho hum.

And how was the writing course? well, apart from troubles with the word processor I had to use, I thought it was a day well spent, and my piece on open source is much improved as a result. When the article comes out, I’ll let you have a look (copyright permitting) and you can judge for yourself. Meanwhile, keep on looking for similar opportunities outwith the ghetto, and never underestimate the realities of dealing with the world’s most successful monopolist.

Fried: “If I ask you who is Microsoft’s biggest competitor now, who would it be?”
Ballmer: “Open…Linux. I don’t want to say open source. Linux, certainly have to go with that…“

I wonder what “Open …” word Steve really had in mind, before his built-in danger alert kicked in? Fried probed more, and Ballmer reeled off a list of competitors in different areas:

Ballmer: “…If you ask Steve Elop (president of Microsoft’s Business Division), who replaces Jeff Raikes, I just think he would say Open Office, potentially Google. And certainly Kevin Johnson (might add) Apple and Linux“

I suppose it’s ok for Steve to call us Open Office rather than OpenOffice.org - I dare say OpenOffice.org Community members have called Microsoft by other names from time to time. But it’s nice to have confirmation from the man at the top of Microsoft that we’re the people that keep at least one of his senior people awake at night. Not bad for a team of volunteers up against the worlds’ biggest software company.