One of the evil tricks we used to play as kids was “sending someone to Coventry” – refusing to speak to them – a juvenile form of solitary confinement. Since moving house three weeks ago, I have been without broadband, and feel as if I have been “sent to Coventry” as far as taking part in OpenOffice.org activities is concerned. The Oracle / Sun acquisition has gone through and I haven’t seen a single one of the key webcasts … various release candidates have been issued and superceded and I haven’t been able to download one of them … I’m in a vacuum!

So today I find myself in a hotel in Hamburg enjoying free wifi access, after a day in a real (not just virtual) Community Council meeting. More on that tomorrow (it’s past my bedtime now ) but I would just like to pay tribute to the large number of OpenOffice.org volunteers who do not have broadband access at all, but who pay such a vital part in the Community. How they manage to do localisations, QA new releases, man support forums etc without broadband – I just can’t imagine it. You are amazing – I salute you!

Another week, another example of how Microsoft is being forced to react to the increasing adoption of OpenOffice.org as the 2010 office software of choice. Clearly worried by OpenOffice.org’s increasing market share, Microsoft has been forced to change its licencing terms in an attempt to hold on to its internet cafe business. Directions on Microsoft analyst Paul DeGroot admits that Linux and OpenOffice.org are a perfectly viable alternative to Microsoft Windows and MS-Office for web cafes.

Internet cafe business is important for Microsoft – one open-source cafe can demonstrate to thousands of customers every year that there is a viable alternative to Microsoft’s products. The freedom from licence fees means the cafes can offer better value to customers, flex their business in response to customer demand, and don’t live in constant dread of a visit from a licence enforcement team.

Thanks to all those who picked up on the Microsoft Linux and Open Office Compete Lead job advert and blogged about it. Not surprisingly, the ad has now disappeared.

• maybe all that blogging helped Microsoft find their perfect candidate overnight? or
• maybe they decided that the plan of “engaging with Open Source communities and organizations” to “CHANGE THE WAY PEOPLE think about Microsoft, specifically those with a ‘hostile’ or negative perception of the Microsoft platform” was now fatally flawed as it had been so widely exposed?

Open source thrives on doing things in the open; secret source would prefer people didn’t know what was going on.
p.s. the advert is of course still visible in Google cache

According to The Inquirer, Rachel Bondi, general manager of Microsoft Office, can scarcely contain her excitement at the number of people who are downloading the Microsoft Office 2010 beta:

“it’s a rate of more than 40,000 downloads per day. That’s approximately twice the number of people who run the Boston Marathon each year, or the entire population of Olympia, WA, or Annapolis, MD, downloading the Office 2010 beta every day!”

It’s also less than 20% of the number of people who download OpenOffice.org every day, based on the most conservative measure. Rachel, if that’s the best you can do for Microsoft in the 2010 office software stakes, I’d suggest you should get your CV up to date. I’d encourage your colleagues in Microsoft HR to get their skates on and recruit that Linux and Open Office Compete Lead – looks like they are badly needed.

I blog regularly about the advantages of open source, so in a spirit of honesty I should also blog about some of the disadvantages. With our impending house move, I’ve been busy disposing of our old computer kit on Gumtree, and buying neater replacements – a laptop instead of a desktop, a compact printer instead of a big beast, etc. This has put me in the unusual (for me) position of owning technology which is new to the market.

This is where the fun starts. No manufacturer in their right mind would think of launching products without providing the necessary software to work with MS-Windows (and to a lesser extent Mac OS). However, Linux users have to rely on the kit getting into the hands of people who have the necessary skills to bring out new versions of drivers – or whatever is required to make things work.

So, my new laptop from Novatech looked good value for the price – and with the option to buy without paying a Microsoft tax. It’s my first experience of 64 bit computing – can’t say I really noticed any great difference – but Ubuntu 64bit Desktop Edition worked pretty well from the start, apart from the WiFi, Webcam, and microphone.

A bit of hunting on the Novatech Forums found solutions for the WiFi (build Realtek drivers from source) and microphone (a simple config setting). The solution for the Webcam (build UVC drivers from source) worked briefly once, but has not worked since. Curious.

The Epson Stylus SX515W printer was a similar story. MS-Windows users get a nice setup utility – Linux users have to enter IP addresses etc using cursor keys on the device itself (yes, that’s as tedious as it sounds). Ubuntu found the printer on the network – clever – and offered drivers for an Epson SX405, which seem to work ok for printing.

Getting the scanner to work was rather more difficult. A helpful person on the SANE developer mailing lists told me to use the latest drivers from the git repository, and after a little fiddling around I had a working scanner. As some of the ‘fiddling around’ meant removing the SANE libraries shipped with Ubuntu, this meant I then had to build a new xsane too.

So, my nice new toys are now all playing properly with my Ubuntu Linux system. However, it’s a long way from ‘plug and play’, requiring:

• a good internet connection (to find stuff out and then download a mass of development resources)
• willingness to try things out and not be afraid of breaking things (and knowing how to undo things if you do break them)
• some familiarity with building software – you’ll usually find someone helpful on a mailing list, but they will often give pointers rather than step by step instructions

Not something you’d expect the average Joe User to do. Manufacturers could make it all so much easier – this is particularly annoying from Epson, as their wretched printer actually runs Linux internally

When I compiled the OpenOffice.org Strategic Marketing Plan for the Community back in 2004, I wrote on the back cover:

What do you do if you have a product that’s as good as anything on the market, but you want to give it away?

And what if your major competitor already has a virtual monopoly in the market, and spends between $5,000-$10,000 million per annum on advertising?

With cento milioni downloads this year, OpenOffice.org hasn’t done too badly against Microsoft Office, and with new releases of both products due in 2010 the battle will continue. Microsoft are clearly gearing up for the contest. One of our marketing volunteers spotted an interesting Microsoft job advert – I’ll quote from it below in case they pull the ad:

Job Category: Marketing
Location: United States, WA, Bellevue
Job ID: 700901 9914
Division: Marketing
Linux and Open Office Compete Lead, US Subsidiary (CSI Lead)

If you’re looking for a new role where you’ll focus on one of the biggest issues that is top of mind for KT and Steve B in “Compete”, build a complete left to right understanding of the subsidiary, have a large amount of executive exposure, build and manage the activities of a v-team of 13 district Linux & Open Office Compete Leads, and develop a broad set of marketing skills and report to a management team committed to development and recognized for high WHI this is the position for you!
The Commercial Software Initiative (CSI) Lead plays a pivotal role for the Subsidiary GM, the BG leads and the BMO by building a discipline within the US that is focused on competing against. The core mission of CSI is to win share against Linux and OpenOffice.org by designing and driving marketing programs, changing perceptions, engaging with Open Source communities and organizations, and drive internal readiness on how to compete with Commercial Linux and participate with Open Source Communities.

(my emphasis)

If you share our belief that several hundred marketing volunteers around the world can be more than a match for 14 hired hands in the US (and how many more worldwide?) and want to join in the fray, please join the OpenOffice.org Marketing Project and have a great 2010!

Following our shortlisting for the Best Online News release Award of 2009, it was great to see the news today that “PRWeb, the online news distribution service of Vocus (NASDAQ: VOCS), today announced that an OpenOffice.org news release was named the winner of The Best of PRWeb contest.”

We’ve long known that “many eyes make great software” – we’ve now shown that community efforts can also hone effective press releases. Thanks to all the team at OpenOffice.org for their work.