Category: opensource

OpenOffice.org 1.1 Beta Available

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

I saw on OpenOffice.org’s announce mailing list that OpenOffice.org 1.1 Beta has been released. New features include:

  • Many new import/export formats like PDF, Macromedia Flash, DocBook, several PDA Office file formats, flat XML and XHTML
  • Support for Complex Text Layout (CTL) and vertical writing languages, such as Thai, Hindi, Arabic, Hebrew
  • Enhanced integration with Java, with up to 10 times better performance
  • Support for Accessibility throughout the entire suite
  • Support for add-on components
  • Initial support for recovering damaged OOo files
  • Support for a new data source type - MySQL
  • Improved online help

And, that’s just from the e-mail announcement. There are some interesting gems from the complete list as well:

  • The splash screen now has a progress bar.
  • Additional property pages for OpenOffice.org file types in Windows Explorer.
  • A new java-native-uno bridge with up to 10 times better performance.
  • New FTP file access component.
  • […]

OpenOffice.org is already pretty good, but I look forward to trying this new version.

OpenOffice.org 1.02 Released

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

As mentioned on the OpenOffice.org announce mailing list, OpenOffice.org 1.02 has been released:

OpenOffice.org 1.0.2 is available for download. It is a “micro” release and does not include new features. Rather it incorporates many bug fixes. Reports indicate that it is faster and more robust. For a full report, please read the Release notes. […]

As mentioned, this is a maintenance release, so the changes are just in the way of bug fixes. Looking over the list of bugs-fixed, it appears that the fixes are mostly for the Calc component or Max OSX-based. And, I’m curious as to whether this release (1.02) is more current than the current “Developers Release” :-/.

Gnome 2.2 Coming Along Nicely

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

As mentioned on the Gnome-announce mailing list, Gnome 2.2 Release Candidate 1 has been released. Like the Linux kernel, odd version numbers are used for betas and development builds, so this release is officially 2.1.90.

If you’re a big fan of GNOME, but haven’t had the courage to install one of the 2.1.x unstable releases, now is the time to give it a try! This release candidate is very stable for daily use, with no horrible, time-wasting bugs to distract you (though it does have its fair share of niggles). We're very keen to see more testers play with the new code before we give it the big “Two Point Two Final” rubber stamp.

Bottom line: If you have children, RC1 won’t hurt them; and if you don’t, it won’t make you pregnant. Have fun! […]

Looking over the description and screenshots, it seems promising so far. In particular, Gnome 2.0 brought anti-aliased text to Gnome, and that support should be maturing now:

One of the great new features in GNOME 2.2 is desktop-wide support for fontconfig and Xft2, giving us enhanced font configuration and rendering on screen (and, in the future, on paper). […]

As I’m just someone that would be using a distribution for Linux, I’m curious as to which of the major distributions will be including Gnome 2.2 first.

WOTD: GandhiCon Three

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

Today’s word-of-the-day (or, I suppose, phrase-of-the-day) is from Eric S. Raymond’s report on The Halloween Documents VIII, about a leaked memo from Microsoft showing their concern of open source:

Everybody remember the Gandhi quote?

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Gentlemen and ladies, this newest leaked memo from Microsoft confirms that we are advancing through GandhiCon Three. […]

The set of leaked memos (there are eight now) are so-called because the first one was leaked right around Halloween. If you haven’t read them before, they provide keen insight into Microsoft’s thought process on open source. And the interspersed commentary from ESR makes for an interesting read.

Slicker for KDE

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

In this Slashdot story covering John Dvorak’s notion that Linux is too much like Windows (yawn) was mention of Slicker, a replacement for KDE’s Kicker.

Coding hasn’t started yet, but there are several screen mockups of a proposed design. So far, I’m very much impressed, and I hope this project succeeds. (There’s also discussion of Slicker development in the Gentoo forums, so perhaps it has a chance after all.)