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Google Lends Credibility To Sun StarOffice

2007-08-16T06:52:51Z

Google has officially begun distributing office suite and Microsoft Office competitor Sun StarOffice as part of the Google Pack.

The proprietary office suite is based on the same code base as Open Office and was previously offered for $70.

The move was first revealed August 11 but was officially announced August 15.

Don Dodge, Director of Business Development for Microsoft’s Emerging Business Team not surprisingly went negative on the move, writing “What has changed? Star Office has been around for 8 years and has gained no traction.”

To answer Don’s question: credibility.

Google offering StarOffice is a massive credibility boost for the package. The benefits of desktop Microsoft Office alternatives have been promoted for years and although among niche communities they might have found some market share, nothing so far has come close to gaining traction against Microsoft.

General consumers have long since accepted packaged downloads from Google and for good reason; packages such as Picasa and Google Earth are quality offerings that have gained wide acceptance. StarOffice will now benefit from not only becoming a standard download as part of the Google Pack, but also due to the positive consumer sentiment given to most (if not all) downloadable products from Google. Expect StarOffice to have a bigger user base than OpenOffice within 12 months, and at least a measurable marketshare in a similar time frame. It probably wont be double figures, but it will make an impact.

There was no word from Google whether future editions of StarOffice would sync with Google Docs and Spreadsheets.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Improvements Coming in OpenOffice.org 2.3 Writer

2007-07-24T14:12:49Z

Mathias Bauer writes a summary of Highlights of OpenOffice.org 2.3 Writer for the GullFOSS blog.

Lots of good changes are coming this September. Among them are UI improvements, support for the updated ODF 1.1 standard, and a filter to save files in MediaWiki markup, to easily upload and add to a MediaWiki based site like Wikipedia or Wikipages. Many small fixes too, so be sure to check it out!

Open Source and ROI

2007-07-23T22:28:46Z

New article out by Technology and Learning magazine. It appeared in their Special Issue on Funding 2007 (July, 2007; Vol 27, #12). Although it appears in print, you can the read article in its entirety online.

Here's the lead:

A switch to free open source software can minimize cost and allow funding to be diverted to equipment and other programs. For instance, the OpenOffice suite is an alternative to expensive basic application programs offered by major vendors. Many such programs on the market offer features seldom used in education but for which educators must pay. From an ROI standpoint, it makes sense to take the money earmarked for widespread licensing and apply it to a different area of need, such as consultant services.

Neat thing is that it mentions what Indiana is doing as well as points to Solveig Haugland's work.

Another article worth reading is the one entitled, Assessing Your Assets. I'm not just saying that because it was written by my supervisor at work, Patti Holub! <wink> Here's the lead for that article:

The average school district loses more than $80,000 per year because of lost or damaged IT assets, according to a QED survey cosponsored by Follett Software Company. And many districts—59 percent—still use manual systems to track assets. Enter asset management systems. As executive director for technology in a large urban district, I can attest that software for managing assets, when implemented properly, can save time, money, and human effort. The following are suggestions to help you realize the promise of automated asset management in your district.

Have fun!

Open Source Invading Australian Education

2007-07-17T16:45:51Z

"Australian schools are subscribing to proprietary software--but the choice between proprietary and open source may have not been made on entirely equal ground, according to Kathryn Moyle, an Associate ...

Open source 15,000-seat VOIP network arrives at uni

2007-02-03T08:00:00Z

Open source tools such as Asterisk and SIP Enterprise Router are facing their biggest test yet at the University of Pennsylvania, where deployment of 15,000-seat VOIP network based on these open source IP ...

Don’t be fooled, Linux is not free - ZDNet.com blogs

2007-07-09T01:35:47Z

Don’t be fooled, Linux is not free
ZDNet.com blogs - Jul 8, 2007
In fact, open source solutions existed for UNIX before Linus Torvalds wrote his first line of code. That education IT pays substantially more for one ...

After Months of Wrangling, GPL v3 Unleashed

2007-07-02T12:28:05Z

The Free Software Foundation on Friday released the third version of the GNU General Public License.

Jonathan Schwartz on OpenOffice’s Rapid Growth

2007-07-02T13:48:07Z

Jonathan Schwartz, Sun CEO, talks about the importance of OpenOffice to Sun, and its rapid growth across the world.

“I’ve been across the planet for Sun, and everywhere I go, I see OpenOffice growing in adoption. It’s built, evangelized and localized by a massive community - it runs government agencies in Brazil, banks in India, high schools and universities across North America and Europe. We’re making huge progress across China. OO.o is in call centers and hospitals and legislatures and elementary schools, and localized globally, it exists in more languages than its (only) major competitor. It’s driven competition into a market which historically had none - and it’s created an opportunity for the world to standardize on an open, royalty and patent free file format for exchanging documents. Most recently in Norway, and eventually everywhere that believes in a free press.”

links for 2007-06-08

2007-06-08T06:22:52Z

Bringing free software down to earth | Economist.com

“To me, open source is about making sure that everyone has access to the next wave of thinking,” he says. In 2001 he set up the Shuttleworth Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to educational and open-source projects in South Africa.

(tags: open-source education linux)

US Navy gives equal footing to Free Open Source Software

2007-06-06T01:57:11Z

The United States Navy has decided that Free Open Source Software (FOSS) will be given equal footing with Commercial Off The Shelf Software (COTS) in regards to procurement and deployment. The decision is the topic of a memorandum written by the Navy's CIO, Robert J. Carey, which is the first in a series that will further outline the Navy's approach to FOSS in development and distribution. This move is not surprising, in light of the fact that the Navy itself has supported R & D in the development of FOSS software

We at the DTP think that this is a pretty big digital tipping point, because the US government is a major purchaser of software in North America, and a major portion of the massive annual US budget is consumed by the US military. Budgeting is one of the biggest acts that any government does on a regular basis, and having the stamp of approval by the US military on Free Open Source Software sends businesses the signal that the world's most powerful military thinks that FOSS is reliable and secure. The Slashdot discussion is here and the Digg discussion is here. Also, go here for a story on Raytheon's use of GNU Linux for US Navy destroyers.

$1.8 Billion Worldwide and Expected to Grow to $5.8 Billion by 2011

2007-06-04T20:30:18Z

According to IDC the worldwide revenue for open source software stands at about $1.8 billion for 2006 and is predicted to grow to $5.8 billion by 2011. That is a lot of money spent on free software. Excerpt: “Standalone OSS market to hit US$5.8bn 01.06.2007 - Significant demand for standalone open source software (OSS) will see [...]

OpenSUSE aims Linux initiative at schools

2007-06-05T05:27:03Z

Novell's openSUSE project has launched a new initiative dedicated to advancing the public awareness of the popular Linux distribution in the educational community.

SixApart to Open Source Blog Platform - eWeek

2007-06-05T18:12:48Z

SixApart to Open Source Blog Platform
eWeek, MA - Jun 5, 2007
The move to open source MT marks a dramatic shift in strategy for the company, which for several years enjoyed near celebrity status among bloggers, ...

The Microsoft Xandros Deal

2007-06-04T14:30:31Z

"Microsoft, Xandros Broad Collaboration Agreement Extends Bridge Between Commercial Open Source and Microsoft Software"

And so it begins again ...

What was Announced
The actual details will presumably be held secret for as long as possible, just like the Novell Microsoft deal. Here are the details from the announcement on Microsoft's press wire:

Over the next five years, Microsoft and Xandros will focus on five primary efforts:

Systems management interoperability: Xandros and Microsoft believe advances in system management technology can significantly reduce the cost of operating large computer networks running diverse platforms. Xandros will partner with Microsoft to deliver value-added heterogeneous management capabilities that will work with the next generation management capabilities that will work with the generation of Microsoft System Center and Xandros Systems Management products, which provide end-to-end service management. Xandros will also join Microsoft and other management vendors in implementing the WS-Management set of protocols in Xandros BridgeWays cross-platform management products and in various systems management standardization efforts.

Server interoperability. Xandros will license a broad set of Microsoft server communications protocols. Xandros will develop enhancements to Xandros Server, allowing it to interoperate more smoothly with Windows Server in a network setting.

Office document compatibility. Xandros and Microsoft share the view that competing office productivity applications should, by design, make it easy for customers to exchange files with one another. To that end, Xandros will join Microsoft and other companies that are building open source translators fostering interoperability between documents stored in Open XML and Open Document Format. Xandros will ship translators in upcoming releases of its Xandros Desktop offering.

Intellectual property assurance. Through the agreement, Microsoft will make available patent covenants for Xandros customers. These covenants will provide customers with confidence that the Xandros technologies they use and deploy in their environments are compliant with Microsoft's intellectual property. By putting a framework in place to share intellectual property, Xandros and Microsoft can speed the development of interoperable solutions.

Microsoft sales and marketing support. The companies are committing to a set of sales and marketing efforts to promote the output of their technical efforts. As part of this effort, Microsoft will now endorse Xandros Server and Desktop as a preferred Linux distribution dues to Xandros' efforts to establish rich interoperability and deliver IP assurance to its customers. Also, a specialized team of Microsoft staff will be trained on the value propositions of this collaboration to customers and channel partners. Xandros will also become a member of the Microsoft Interop Vendor Alliance.

Fine. Whatever. I really wish marketing people would remember how to speak English like the rest of us. The hyperbole and bombast just deaden the senses.

What might it mean for Xandros
Xandros is looking for love (possibly in all the wrong places). A quick tour of DistroWatch for the comparative view for Xandros over the past 12, 6, 3, and one month periods shows it falling from 25th to 28th to 31st to 40th respectively. Ubuntu sat in first until the past month when it dropped to second in interest behind PCLinuxOS. The harsh part of the story is that regardless of which period you view, there are a lot of well know, well packaged systems ahead of Xandros including Ubuntu, OpenSuSE, Fedora, Debian, Gentoo, and Mandriva and that's just staying in the top dozen. Even FreeBSD consistently ranks above Xandros on distrowatch.

I appreciate this is "interest" rather than sales as measured for Linux vendors. But I'm looking for brand recognition here. I even had to remind myself who Xandros was when I heard the news. While that simply shows my ignorance, Xandros has been trying to be the "business person's" linux desktop, but Ubuntu and Novell have got to be hammering them pretty hard at this point in history.

Novell signed its deal with Microsoft seven months ago. They've made a lot of noise about how the coupon program has been GREAT for business. (Other views differ.) They weathered the community storm. They have consistently said they don't believe Linux infringes any Microsoft patents, and that the IP related parts of the deal weren't about any current Linux patent infringement. If you buy the public message, then the deal has likely been net positive for Novell, if only for the cash injection. For Xandros this deal is their perceived chance to get some commercial love which they probably would like about now.

Corel is an investor in Xandros along with Linux Global Partners. Corel has had a bizarre history with Microsoft, alternately suing and collaborating with them. It should come as no surprise that a Corel spin-off like Xandros considers a deal with Redmond good business.

Xandros is giving:

Xandros will implement WS-Management in BridgeWays (presumably in the next five years).
Xandros is now a server communications protocol licensee.
Xandros will join the ODF translator community.

Xandros is getting:

The same deal on IP from Microsoft, i.e. Microsoft is generously promising not to sue Xandros customers. Whatever.
Lots of co-sales and co-marketing love.

"By putting a framework in place to share intellectual property, ...." There is no "sharing" happening today. A quick search of the USPTO database reveals the number of patents with "assignee name" of Xandros: ZERO. The number of patents with an "assignee name" of Microsoft: 6776. The number of patents with an "assignee name" of Corel (one of Xandros investors): 40. It might be interesting to know what rights Xandros had to Corel patents, and what rights they may have just cross licensed, but that's Corel's problem.

What does it mean for Microsoft
They get a new protocol licensee which I'm sure they'll be pleased to trumpet to the EU.

They get a renewed messaging platform for their continued infatuation with customers and patents instead of customers and solutions. It's a broken platform which shows no leadership, but that apparently won't stop them from pushing it.

They get to continue the messaging shades of grey around Microsoft Office Open XML and ODF. "Xandros and Microsoft share the view that competing office productivity applications should, by design, make it easy for customers to exchange files with one another." Microsoft sees its death in ODF. They will fight like a cornered rat and message appropriately.

"Microsoft will now endorse Xandros Server and Desktop as a preferred Linux distribution dues to Xandros' efforts to establish rich interoperability and deliver IP assurance to its customers." I've confidence the discussions with Novell on this are hysterical in both meanings of the word. It has the potential to be a distracting headache from a reasonable partnership with a first-tier commercial distributor of Linux, to be able to tout an IP message with a third-tier player.

Is there an implication with GPLv3?
Damned if I know. GPLv3 is not truly finalized, and I've confidence better minds, legally trained and hard-wired to the current GPL development process will weigh in here. BUT, I'd be hard pressed to say this deal actually matters. Linux is what it is. The way it's licensed will be decided by the community that invests in it. The GPLv3 will be what it will be. It will be used by the communities that choose to use it. Any conjecture on whether Microsoft signing a deal with a third-tier commercial Linux distributor is going to effect the process seems a bit wild. I've confidence saner heads will prevail. Well ... after an initial snarl or two.

Should anyone care?
I saw Allison Randall on a recent OSBC panel on whether the Novell-Microsoft Deal was "good" for open source. She sat with Sam Ramji (Microsoft), Justin Steinman (Novell), and Jonathon Corbet (LWN.net). Sam and Justin did a mostly fine job of clarifying the agreement, but Allison's point that the deal is irrelevant for open source was more important.

The Novell-Microsoft deal was a deal between two vendors just like any other deal involving co-marketing, technical co-operation, and IP cross licensing. (With Xandros there's apparently no cross license as they have nothing to license.) Novell thinks its best serving its customers. Microsoft thinks its best serving its investors. So too with this Xandros-Microsoft deal.

There is no more patent infringement validation here, despite Microsoft posturing, than the Novell-Microsoft deal. A hundred companies using free and open source software in their offerings to customers could sign patent cross licensing or covenant deals with Microsoft, and it means nothing with respect to the veracity of Microsoft's infringement claims. Patents are tickets to negotiations. They are (sometimes) interesting opportunities for discussions. But they are utterly unproved until they enter a courtroom. Some companies see a Microsoft deal as a strategic leg up in their business. It means nothing with respect to possible claimed infringement, and even less to other mainstream players like IBM, and Red Hat. It's all just business.

Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

- Macbeth, Act V, Scene V

[Disclaimer: Microsoft is a client of mine.]

Singapore Airlines passengers get Linux and StarOffice

2007-05-30T11:01:22Z

Passengers in Singapore Airlines new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft can
run StarOffice and Linux from terminals in the seat backs. A USB drive in the arm rest allows access to files carried on a flash drive. StarOffice supports the OpenDocument format for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and databases as well as a number of common legacy file formats. To begin with, StarOffice is available on flights to or from Paris, Zurich, Seoul, San Francisco, Milan, Barcelona, and Hong Kong.

New Zealand Rejects Office For Macs

2007-05-29T14:03:10Z

An anonymous reader writes "The New Zealand Ministry of Education has declined to renew a licensing deal for MS Office on 25,000 Macintosh computers in the country's schools.

From Eweek: H&R Block Embraces Benefits of Open Source

2007-05-23T15:50:05Z

Excerpt: “‘So, our challenge is to retain staff and make all this happen every year. You want pressure? Try to do all this while adding innovation into that mix, and do it from a technology perspective,’ West said. H&R Block runs a lot of Red Hat Linux software as well as ‘a fair bit’ of Unix, West [...]

ZDNet Editor Technology management in education - ZDNet.com blogs

2007-05-22T07:06:45Z

ZDNet Editor Technology management in education
ZDNet.com blogs - 2 hours ago
Better yet, it appears that Dell is finally giving manufacturers the push they need to begin developing open source drivers for third-party hardware: ...

San Diego Students Learn on Linux Desktops From Novell

2007-05-21T13:36:42Z

San Diego Unified School District has selected SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop from Novell as the standard platform for its Always-On Learning Initiative, a one-to-one mobile computing initiative designed to give ...

DeWitt Public Schools (Michigan) Moving to OpenOffice

2007-05-16T21:25:53Z

The Lansing State Journal writes, District set to use free productivity software.

Moving to OpenOffice.org will save the DeWitt Public Schools over $48,000 in software licensing fees next year:

“Microsoft Office® licenses for next year, if purchased, would cost the district almost double the current $24,000 price tag! This hefty annual fee has caused DeWitt, similar to others in the county, state and even nationally, to look for other options. One option is the OpenOffice software suite offered by the OpenOffice.org Project.”

Even more important than saving money, is offering the students the best possible education:

“Our students will be expected to be versatile in a variety of technology tools upon their graduation, not just the one application promoted in the states. OpenOffice.org is available in 65 languages and is quickly becoming the global standard for colleges, corporations, international communications and world markets as the number one productivity suite. In fact, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), a global standards development body has selected the open document format used in OpenOffice as the basis for interoperability among office software packages worldwide. We owe it to the children’s future to provide them with an understanding of software that fully embraces such global standards.”

What a forward-looking district, and what a boon this move will provide to students being educated there!