OpenOffice.org team has released OpenOffice 3.2. OpenOffice 3.2 brings the following enhancements/features:
- OpenOffice.org 3.2 Calc and Writer have both reduced ‘cold start’ time by 46% since version 3.0 was released just over a year ago.
- OpenOffice.org 3.2 has made further strides in compliance with ODF 1.2, including closer conformance to OASIS ODFF/OpenFormula specifications.
- OpenOffice.org 3.2 provides improved support for other common office document types – Password protected Microsoft Office XML files, OLE objects, form controls and pivot tables can now be read from MS Excel 2007 documents, Encryption support within the Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP filter allows password protected Microsoft Word documents to be saved, Filters for AportisDoc and PocketWord now support type detection based on DocType, When writing string data to SYLK files, embedded double quotes are no longer escaped by doubling; semicolons are now escaped by doubling..
- Support for Postscript based OpenType fonts.
Other than those general fixes above, there are numerous additional fixes for individual modules of OpenOffice like Writer, Calc, Draw etc. For complete list of changes, refer to OpenOffice release note.
Technorati Tags: OpenOffice, ODF, XML, Postscript
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OpenOffice.org team is going to start selling OOmouse soon. The mouse is going to be manufactured by WarMouse. The mouse will have 18 buttons, 52 commands, and a joystick which you can configure the way you want.
For example, you can use the joystick as arrow keys to move around the spreadsheet cells in Calc or Excel, then use it as a joystick to rotate 3D objects in 3D Studio Max. In Writer or other word processing programs, you can click a button once to Copy, double-click the same button to Cut, and click another button to Paste. In Adobe Reader, you can turn the page, switch between views and zoom levels, or search for text with single button clicks. In AutoCAD, you can assign a function that is nested four menus deep to a single button click. In Adobe Photoshop, you can rapidly switch between layers without ever taking your hand off the mouse or moving the pointer away from the pixels that you’re painting. Macros can be recorded and assigned to button clicks, double-clicks, joystick movements, or scroll wheel positions. You can even use it as a number pad for fast data entry, according to OOmouse.
The mouse will cost $74.99 and is compatible with Windows, Linux, Mac, PS/3, unlike the competitors. The mouse has 512k memory, can store 63 profiles and has a dimension of 110 x 68 x 43mm. For more information, visit OpenOfficemouse.com.
source: OOMouse.
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OOo4Kids is a project aimed at making OpenOffice kids friendly. The idea is to provide a 7-12 years software, based on OpenOffice.org source code, by simplifying the usage. This project is currently under heavy development and the current beta version is 0.5 which you can download from here. The website says OO4Kids is available for all 3 OSes. When I tried to download, I got a message saying the requested page is not available.
Source: Unixmen.
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Posted 18 Sep 2009 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu
Ubuntu team has released their 6th alpha version of Ubuntu 9.10 code named Karmic Koala. This alpha brings in some new changes since alpha 5 release. There are some serious bugs exist in alpha 6, so if you are planning to install alph6, read the known issues part in this post. Here are the changes/improvements in alpha 6:
- As part of boot performance work, Ubuntu has now transitioned to Upstart.
- Ubuntu Karmic Alpha 6 includes the Ubuntu Software Store. It’s supposed to be a replacement for multiple software installation options currently available in Ubuntu. It is temporarily located under System, with a plan to replace Add\Remove in the Beta release.
- Ubuntu Karmic Alpha 6 includes the latest GNOME 2.27.91 development release.
- Alpha 6 includes the 2.6.31-9.29 kernel based on 2.6.31-rc8.
- As stated previously, ext4 and GRUB 2 are default for new installations.
- A lot of work went into AppArmor for Karmic. The parser has been improved to use cache files, greatly speeding up AppArmor initialisation on boot. AppArmor also now supports ‘pux’ which, when specified, means a process can transition to an existing profile if one exists or simply run unconfined if one does not. Improved support for globbing has also been added, most notably when using wildcard matching for the binary of a profile. Significantly, the AppArmor patch for Ubuntu has been heavily reworked.
- In addition to the above changes to AppArmor itself, several profiles were added. Enforcing profiles for ntpd, the GNOME document viewer (evince), and libvirt are enabled by default.
- Libvirt now contains AppArmor integration when using KVM or QEMU.
- The Uncomplicated Firewall now has support for filtering by interface and egress filtering when using the ufw command.
Here are the known issues in alpha 6:
- When installing Ubuntu from Alpha 6 in a dual-boot configuration with another operating system, such as Windows Vista, the grub2 configuration will not present an option to boot to the other OS. Investigation of this issue is ongoing.
- Installing a UEC cluster controller under Ubuntu Server will hang on reboot due to a bug in the eucalyptus init scripts.
- Installation of a eucalyptus node will not properly configure the bridge network setup in Alpha 6.
- The OEM installer end-user setup will fail to start in Alpha 6.
- Installing using Wubi will run to completion, but after reboot the newly-installed system will fail to boot with the error message “Could not find a bootloader configuration”.
- In some configurations, users will be unable to use the auto-resize option due to a timestamp problem during ext3/4 filesystem check.
- Some users with Intel video chipsets will experience a black screen on reboot after install because the fbcon module is not being loaded.
- Encrypted partitions other than the root filesystem will not be mounted in Alpha 6 due to a bug in the cryptsetup package.
You can download Ubuntu 9.10 alpha 6 from here.
Kubuntu team has also released their 6th alpha of Kubuntu 9.10. Alpha 6 includes lots of bug fixing and improvements including the ones below.
- Netbook edition is taking shape with continued improvements in the Plasma Netbook shell.
- UserConfig 0.9 – user management tool from the KDE3 days has been resurrected for Kubuntu 9.10.
- The NetworkManager applet offers a more robust networking experience than it did in Kubuntu 9.04.
- OpenOffice 3.1.1 introduces KDE integration. This means that all OpenOffice applications will look at home with the default “Oxygen” KDE theme and use the KDE file dialog for opening and saving documents.
You can download Kubuntu 9.10 alpha 6 here.
Source: Ubuntu.
Technorati Tags: Ubuntu 9.10, Kubuntu 9.10, Karmic Koala, OpenOffice, UFW, GNOME, KDE, AppArmor
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Posted 17 Sep 2009 — by Arun
Category News
Firefox, Skype and OpenOffice are finally cracking Microsoft’s monopoly in the browser, instant messaging and Office software suite. According to InfoWorld, exo.preformance.network, which tracks the actual usage and configurations of thousands of PCs around the world, reported that Firefox is being used in 50.6% of the PCs and Skype became the most widely used instant messaging client and OpenOffice adoption is 50% higher in Europe and Asia than in U.S.
It’s a good news and would finally make Microsoft deliver better products if they want to compete. I also read this morning that Google Docs is giving serious challenge to Microsoft Office in workplace. The survey reported that 1 in 5 companies reported that Google Docs is widely used in their workplace. It’s a good sign and I hope more companies will look into other options before they decide to pay a high price to Microsoft. We use Firefox for browsing, Thunderbird as email client and GMail for emails in our office.
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Firefox, Thunderbird, Skype, OpenOffice, GMail
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IDABC reports that the European Parliament’s IT department is testing the use of GNU/Linux distribution Ubuntu, OpenOffice, Firefox and other Open Source applications. The test proved that the open source configuration meets the Parliament’s office requirements, but it doesn’t mean they’ll immediately replace the currently used system. Most of the European institutions use Microsoft product. This makes them dependent on a single supplier in a dominant position creating problems such as the accessibility of documents produced in proprietary formats and of interoperability. Using open source software will help them get rid of those issues.
Through: MatthewHelmke.net
Technorati Tags: IDABC, Europe, Parliament, Ubuntu, Linux, OpenOffice, Firefox, Open Source, Microsoft
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