#########################################################################
                       OPENOFFICE.ORG NEWSLETTER

                   Volume 01  -  Issue 3  -  09/2003
#########################################################################



Highlights in this Newsletter
#########################################################################

* Siemens says Linux will get 20% desktop market share
  within 5 years

  - Linux will save 20% to 30% in administration costs, 
    50% in hardware costs, and 80% in licensing fees

  - Migration to Linux desktops no greater disruption 
    than Windows

* MSBlast/LoveSAN Worm
  
  - Symantec identified over 600,000 computers
  - cleaning infected systems to be at least $320 million alone
  - Computer worm grounds Air Canada
  - US Navy Marine Corps confirmed 100,000-seat intranet was unusable
  - Sun invites to Mad Hatter early access registration

* Microsoft announces office pricing 

  - pricing same as old Office XP pricing
  - StarOffice and/or OpenOffice.org mentioned as competition in many 
    press articles

* Microsoft discounts Windows and Office down to 
  $36 in Thailand due to Linux/OpenOffice.org threat

  - government in Thailand is selling Linux and Windows PC's
  - 50,000 PCs have been sent to ordinary citizens so far



Announcements
#########################################################################

OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC3
----------------------
"OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC3 is ready for download.  It incorporates some
bugfixes and significantly advances the development of the Mac OS X
port.  OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC3 is the first version to support building 
out of the box on Mac OS X."

http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?msgId=786912&listName=announce



Statistics
#########################################################################

* more that 19,100,000 have downloaded OpenOffice.org
  so far (as of August 30, 2003)

* the OpenOffice.org projects has more than 13,300
  unique people subscribed to the mailing lists
  (as of August 23, 2003)

* 293 people and companies have signed a JCA and are thus 
  either already contributing or considering to do so
  (as of September 2, 2003)

* 980 people have participated in the OOo developer
  survey so far (as of september 2, 2003)

* 518 messages were sent to the dev@api.openoffice.org mailing
  list in August. This is a new record! The increasing load on
  this mailing lists indicates that more and more developers
  are using the OpenOffice.org SDK to integrate and/or extend
  OpenOffice.org.


More statistical data at: 

* http://stats.openoffice.org/
* http://oosurvey.gratismania.ro/results/index.php
* http://oosurvey.gratismania.ro/developer/results.php
* http://www.openoffice.org/copyright/copyrightapproved.html



Success Stories and References
#########################################################################

  United Kingdom
  ==============

  Skipton Girls High School is the only specialist engineering 
  school for girls in the UK. The school is sponsored by Rolls 
  Royce and is currently updating its IT infrastructure making 
  OpenOffice.org a key application, from teaching the principles 
  of object based drawing in Draw to enabling all families to 
  provide low cost facilities for computer based work at home. 
  Headteacher, Jan Renou, is keen to make the principles of Open
  Source software part of the school's curriculum. "Nearly all 
  our girls go on to university and 7 scored in the top 5 marks 
  in the country in recent Advanced Level exams. We want to 
  make sure that we prepare our students for the world of the 
  future and its clear from world trends that Open Source 
  software is going to be a key part of that future. Students 
  at school now need to understand the issues of the future, 
  not just the tools of to-day."


  St Monica's Language College in Bury, UK are installing 
  English, German, Italian and Spanish localisations of 
  OpenOffice.org. Head of Languages Eric Farrell was extremely 
  pleased to learn that this was going to cost nothing and that 
  the company installing the computer system would install these 
  at no extra charge. The school are experimenting with the 
  GNU/Linux operating system as well as Windows and a key 
  advantage for Eric is that all his language localisations 
  work very much the same with OpenOffice.org on both platforms.


  France
  ======
  A success story for Chronopost International (one of the most 
  important french transportation and logistics company) who has 
  moved 300 desktops under Linux and OOo.
  http://www.indexel.net/doc.jsp?id=2313&origin=900 


  Argentina
  =========

  On Monday 04.August.2003 10:38 am, Ing. Leonardo M. Baldi 
  wrote:

  In Civil Engineering, several presentations using Impress 
  with details created in Draw, such as the following in the 
  Faculty of Architecture and City Planning in Cordoba National 
  University, Argentina:

  1. Course in Planning, Management, and Direction of Projects
  2. Multi-criterion Matrix for Selection of Alternatives
  3. Module of Management and Control of Works

  In my work as Civil Engineering Consultant I have installed 
  it on three machines.  With the passage of time, no one has 
  objected to the use of the software, although I'm using it 
  unannouced. 

  On the lighter side, I use it to recover damaged Excel files 
  that Excel won't open; to recover and return to my colleagues 
  to continue working in Excel, for now. 

  GrULic: Linux Users Group in Cordoba:
  On 11-April-2003 was the 5th DemoDay in the Math Department 
  at the Cordoba University.  Gave presentation on OpenOffice.org 
  to the group. 

  On 22-August-2002 was the 4th DemoDay.  Demonstrated the use of 
  OpenOffice.org in Linux.

  [translation richard@openoffice.org]


  Colombia
  ========

  Porvenir S. A.       1,000 Pc´s          installed
  Proteccion S. A.       800                   "
  Epm                 50,000         planned & progressing
  Educame             14,000                   "
  Bogota ON-line      25,000                   "
  Politecnico Jic        800               installed
  NewStetic S.A.         160               installed
  Comfama              1,800         planned & progressing
  Multienlace S. A.    1,500               installed
  IGAC                   700                   "  
  
  Distribution: 55% StarOffice  & 45% OpenOffice.org
  Source/Contact: Luis E, Vasquez R. (starsuitesun@msn.com)


  OpenOffice.org Success Cases in Colombia
  by Luis E. Vasquez (levarcol@openoffice.org)
  [translation richard@openoffice.org]

  Colombia seems to be a special case in light of the facts 
  and results achieved with StarOffice/OpenOffice.org in Latin 
  America and especially in projects developed in the public 
  and private sectors.  Below are listed some of the projects, 
  by sector, that have been accomplished or which are in process:


  End User Sector:  
  Projects aimed at making the home user a regular user of 
  internet and productivity applications. The prime goal is to 
  popularize the use of the internet and related tools. 

  1. Public companies of Medellin began a project for massive use
  of the internet in Nov-2002. The objective is to place 200,000 
  PCs in homes in Medellin. It is planned that 86% of them will 
  have StarOffice installed. (www.epm.net.co)

  2. Telephone company of Bogota, www.007mundo.com, began in 
  May-2003 a program called "Bogota On-Lin". The objective is to 
  place 300,000 PCs in Bogota within two years, all of them 
  pre-installed with OpenOffice.org / StarOffice. 


  Educational & University Sector: 
  Projects to strengthen teachers, administrators and in general 
  all levels of students involved in the programs.  The most 
  outstanding are the following:

  1.  Program "EDUCAME" (educate me) from the Secretary of 
  Education, Medellin, was begun in April-2003 with 14,000 PCs, 
  all with StarOffice 6.0 donated by Sun Microsystems Colombia. 

  2. "Jaime Isaza Cadavid" Polytech Institute of Medellin.  
  All of their 450 PCs installed with OpenOffice.org/StarOffice 
  donated by Sun Microsystems Colombia. 

  3. Antioquia School of Engineering at Medellin with 150 of 
  their PCs and workstations equipped with StarOffice and 
  intensively used in education and teaching by the different 
  careers taught by the university.

  4. Colombia National University at it's four campuses in the 
  cities of Bogota, Medellin, Manizalez, and Palmira began in 
  June-2003 a program of massive use of OpenOffice.org en close 
  to 1,500 stations. 

  5. Ceipa, a university level institution in Medellin, has 
  150 PCs equipped with OpenOffice.org and StarOffice for their 
  teachers.

  6. There are also other universities, such as the following:
  Francisco de Paula Santander University, Pamplona;  
  Francisco Jose de Caldas District University, Bogota;
  Northern University, Barranquilla; San Buenaventura University, 
  Bogota, Medellin, Cali; and Valle University, Cali,
  comprising a total of close to 400 PCs with OpenOffice.org.


  SMEs: Small-to-Medium Enterprises:
  There are projects in this area of small to medium companies 
  (up to 500 PCs) and corporations (more than 500 PCs), that are 
  using OpenOffice.org or StarOffice in their daily activities 
  of office automation.  In this accounting, we include the more 
  notable, based on personal investigation primarily in Bogota 
  and Medellin in which we found in March-2003, 250 SMEs using 
  the product. However, in truth, there is not a detailed 
  inventory and we are behind in the implementation. (This could 
  be realized perhaps as a pilot project for implementation for 
  Latin America. 

  1. Multienlace SA, a call center service company that has the 
  product installed in 1200 machines that are used in servicing 
  their clients.

  2. Porvenir SA, a pension fund administrative company that had 
  installed on 900 stations since November-2002. This company is 
  part of the large Grupo Aval, a Colombian financial group that 
  owns at least five large corporations with 6000 stations in all 
  of Colombia. This project is the pilot for the group and if 
  successful will generate a huge move to OpenOffice.org.

  3. Proteccion SA, a pension fund administrative company that 
  had installed the product on 900 stations since October-2000 
  with StarOffice 5.2 and actually uses it in conjunction with 
  MsOffice XP.

  4. Culture and Recreation District Institute of Bogota has 
  150 PCs that use OpenOffice.org as their only product in their 
  daily use. 

  5. ETB (telephone company of Bogota) began in March 2003 a 
  massive process of installing and implementing OpenOffice.org 
  on 600 machines.

  6. NewStetic SA, a company dedicated to the manufacture and 
  worldwide distribution of orthodontics products. They have 
  installed on 150 machines as their official product, 
  StarOffice 6.

  7. Almagran SA, a company dedicated to warehousing of 
  import/export with more than 20 offices in Colombia has 
  installed OpenOffice.org in all of their 150 PCs.


  New Zealand
  ===========
  NZ firm puts Linux on desktops
  "Desktop Linux has made a small inroad into New Zealand business 
  with the news that BGH Group is installing 67 Linux thin clients 
  into offices around the country. [...]
  Some thin clients will be used as POS machines, Pope says. Others 
  will run the KDE desktop software with the Evolution email and 
  workgroup client, Mozilla browser and OpenOffice suite."
  http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=1386913021&fp=2&fpid=1


  Misc
  ====

  KOffice will switch to OpenOffice.org file format
  -------------------------------------------------
  "We will switch to the OASIS (OpenOffice.org) file format 
  for all the major applications. This has many advantages:

      * file format shared with the OpenOffice.org suite, 
        we don't have to reinvent the wheel
      * we'll be able to drop our OOo import filters and 
        use the export filters as a compatibility layer for 
        older KOffice versions documents
      * we can actively participate in the standard file 
        format creation in the the case of Kexi and Kugar 
        which are applications that don't currently exist 
        in OOo

  This is also a good opportunity to switch the names of 
  our MIME types to the vnd.kde... naming scheme and to 
  drop our KOffice-specific file extensions. It's again 
  the users who will benefit from this step, e.g. on 
  Windows it will be possible to open files created with 
  a KOffice application using the OpenOffice.org suite."

  http://dot.kde.org/1061919133/


  StarOffice
  ==========
  http://wwws.sun.com/software/star/successstories/index.html


  Spain
  =====
   
  Juan Rey Saura said, "If it counts, Sun Microsystems, Inc will 
  distribute StarOffice to more than 22,000 schools in Spain."
  [translated byRichard@openoffice.org]
  
  Spanish article:
  http://elmundo.es/universidad/2003/06/24/tecnologia/1056468789.html


  India
  =====

  StarOffice makes strong inroads in India
  ----------------------------------------
  "Leading banks like HDFC Bank, business process outsourcing 
  firms like ICICI One Source, new economy companies like Apnaloan, 
  corporations like J K Corp, government organisations like 
  Karnataka Public Works Department, Department of IT-Karnataka, 
  select government schools and colleges and also defence 
  organisations have adopted StarOffice.

  By making the change to StarOffice and OpenOffice from Microsoft 
  Office, HDFC bank is estimated to have saved a minimum of Rs.4.46 
  crore (Rs 44.6 million), apart from the savings on corporate 
  licencing fees. HDFC uses over 3500 PCs.

  Three months ago, Apnaloan began shifting its users to StarOffice 
  and brought down their costs by about 50-60 percent vis-à-vis 
  Microsoft Office.

  "Over the next few months, we plan to deploy Linux on all our 
  desktops and shift to a mix of StarOffice and OpenOffice. This 
  will save the organisation 70-80 percent of the cost of the 
  operating system," says Parag Patankar, co-founder and CIO, 
  Apnaloan.

  Sun Microsystems which owns the StarOffice suite says that the 
  government, the biggest spender on IT in India, is also seriously 
  considering switching over to StarOffice."

  http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/sep/04sun.htm



Customer Feedback 
#########################################################################

Interview with Ernie Ball (Sterling Ball)
-----------------------------------------
"I know I saved $80,000 right away by going to open source, and each
time something like (Windows) XP comes along, I save even more money 
because I don't have to buy new equipment to run the software. One of 
the great things is that we're able to run a poor man's thin client 
by using old computers we weren't using before because it couldn't 
handle Windows 2000. They work fine with the software we have now."

http://news.com.com/2008-1082-5065859.html
http://insight.zdnet.co.uk/business/management/0,39020490,39115887,00.htm
http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=13565&category=main
http://slashdot.org/articles/03/08/21/0515229.shtml?tid=109&tid=126&tid=163&tid=185&tid=187


Linux invasion takes off in corporate India
-------------------------------------------
"Apnaloan has 175 desktops. Three months ago they began shifting users
to StarOffice and brought their costs down by 50-60 percent vis-à-vis 
Microsoft Office. Apnaloan chose StarOffice over OpenOffice because 
Sun provides support for StarOffice. (OpenOffice is available for free 
while StarOffice is a packaged version of OpenOffice sold, complete 
with support, by Sun).

Over the next few months, Apnaloan plans to deploy Linux on all 
desktops and shift to a mix of StarOffice and OpenOffice. Patankar 
estimates that this move will save the organisation 70-80 percent of 
the cost of the operating system. Since Linux is free, the 20-30 
percent will be spent on one-time training costs."

http://www.cmpnetasia.com/ViewArt.cfm?Artid=20998&Catid=8&subcat=79



Awards & Reviews
#########################################################################

Breaking the Word Processor Curve
---------------------------------
"OpenOffice.org Writer not only stands toe-to-toe with MS Word for 
nine rounds, but it wins the fight. Okay, it wins on a technical 
decision instead of a knockout, but the victory still is worth a 
cheer.

When you first switch to Writer, this claim that Writer beats Words 
may seem hard to swallow. And no wonder; you're too busy learning 
the new menus to get beyond the fact that everything's only 
half-familiar. And if you're an unsophisticated user who has yet to 
learn (to steal the title of Robin Williams' book) that the PC is 
not a typewriter, you might never notice. However, if you're an 
advanced user for whom style, structured text and long documents are 
all part of word processing, then the claim soon becomes self-evident.

Understand that I'm not talking features here. True, with its PDF and 
Docbook export filters alone, version 1.1 of Writer leaves MS Word 
playing catch up. However, features are an arms race in which 
superiority rarely lasts for more than one version. When I say that 
Writer is the superior piece of software, I'm talking about the 
basics, the everyday functionality that can't be improved without 
massively rewriting the code. "

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7120&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0


CodeWeavers brings Linux the benefits of Windows...and some of 
the drawbacks
--------------------------------------------------------------
"As impressive as OpenOffice tools are, I'm just not confident I'll 
get the results my colleagues expect to see when I use OpenOffice to 
manipulate the MS Office files I share with these people.
[...]
Word has some features I wish OpenOffice Writer had, and from brief 
trials I can tell that OpenOffice Impress is way behind PowerPoint 
in stability."

http://www.onlamp.com/pub/wlg/3696



Linux/OpenOffice.org/StarOffice Usability
#########################################################################

Linux in the Enterprise: Now What? 
----------------------------------
"These sorts of basic architectural improvements may smooth the path 
for desktop Linux, but the toughest challenges in this area involve 
packaging and delivering Linux to companies in an effective, 
manageable form.
[...]
While OpenOffice.org does a good job of replicating the functionality 
of Microsoft Corp.'s Office, Microsoft's productivity suite is a 
moving target. The new Office application Infopath, for example, is 
meant to introduce to knowledge workers a new sort of document 
that's rich with data, formatting and business logic—a richness that 
requires a thick client that happens to run only on Windows 2000 or 
better.

As long as the industry's most prolific application software vendor 
is also its dominant client platform provider, these sorts of 
application compatibility issues will prove tough to avoid 
completely. "

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1236250,00.asp


MOXIE: Microsoft Office-Linux Interoperability Experiment
---------------------------------------------------------
"StarOffice 6.0 is the winner of the compatibility sweepstakes, with 
only one to five unusable files in each category. OpenOffice, which 
is a fully open source application based on the StarOffice 5.2 code 
base, is a close second. Gnome Office and KOffice are distant 
contenders. They have much more immature presentation applications, 
with KPresenter unable to load any of the PowerPoint graphics. 
Agnubis was not tested because we couldn't find a working version."

http://www.acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=printer_friendly&pid=55


Is Linux ready for mom?  	 
-----------------------
"One morning, when I hadn't logged out of my Linux desktop, I noticed 
that there were some windows open on one of the machine's virtual 
desktops. A check revealed a browser running with a selection of 
music and style sites: stepson John Getze, a 28-year-old economics 
major at the University of San Francisco who normally uses an iMac, 
had figured out during an evening visit how to use the virtual 
desktop to keep from disturbing files I had left open on the machine. 
So its safe to say that the Mozilla browser experience is within 
reach of people who can use browsers on Windows and Mac OS."

http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/09/02/1823212&mode=thread&tid=23


Study: Linux nears Windows XP usability
---------------------------------------
"The study findings suggest that it is almost as easy to perform most 
major office tasks using Linux as it is using Windows, which has a 
long history in the consumer market.

Linux users, for example, needed 44.5 minutes to perform a set of 
tasks, compared to 41.2 minutes required by the XP users. Furthermore, 
80 percent of the Linux users believed that they needed only one week 
to become as competent with the new system as with their existing one, 
compared to 85 percent of the XP users. "


http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/04/HNusabilitystudy_1.html
http://www.relevantive.de/Linux_e.html


Siemens Study: "[Linux desktop] requires two days of training"
--------------------------------------------------------------
"That's why testing was conducted with "secretaries and managers, 
not IT people." McNutt believes that the Ximian desktop and 
application suite, running on either SuSE or Red Hat, requires two 
days of training, which is the same as what most enterprises budget 
for a Windows/MS Office version upgrade: one day to acquaint users 
with the desktop, and one day to introduce the OpenOffice suite."

For further data see "Linux desktop will capture 20%" below.



Linux/OpenOffice.org/StarOffice Market Share
#########################################################################

Will Sun’s Mad Hatter lend Linux a crown?
-----------------------------------------
"But I see the desktop Linux market growing exponentially in India 
and there’s certainly place for one more offering", says Tapia.
[Country Head, Red Hat India]"

http://www.ciol.com/content/news/2003/103090314.asp


As Good as It Gets for Linux?
-----------------------------
"When it comes to making inroads on the desktop, Linux provides 
users with several options. Technical and scientific environments 
can replace Unix workstations with Linux, Quandt noted. Specialized 
industries, such as insurance and retail, can build Linux-based 
custom applications with relative ease. And, in addition to being 
compatible with OpenOffice and other open-source alternatives to 
Microsoft Office, Linux now can cross over and run Office itself 
on top of it."

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/31470.html


Linux desktop will capture 20%
------------------------------
"One of the world's largest IT companies [Siemens Business Systems] 
declaring that the Linux desktop will capture 20% of the market for 
desktop computers in large enterprises within 5 years."

[...]

"McNutt went on to say that Ximian's suite -- consisting of a 
Gnome-based Linux desktop, Evolution mail and calendar app, a tweaked 
OpenOffice suite, and Red Carpet admin tools -- can be deployed in 
very large enterprises at lower cost and with no greater disruption 
than a Windows upgrade, and with significant savings going forward. 
McNutt says that Linux will save 20% to 30% in administration costs, 
50% in hardware costs, and 80% in licensing fees."

http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/08/13/1424212 
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/17/1459202&mode=nested&tid=126&tid=163
http://www.ximian.com/about_us/press_center/press_releases/?pr=xd2_announce


Linux will pass Mac OS ... possibly by the end of 2003
------------------------------------------------------
"IDC estimates that the market share for Mac OS dropped to 3.1 
percent in 2001 from 4.6 percent two years earlier. Windows, 
in contrast, has more than 90 percent market share.

"Certainly by...2005, possibly by the end of 2003, Linux will pass 
Mac OS as the No. 2 operating environment," said IDC analyst Dan 
Kusnetzky."

http://www.macobserver.com/article/2002/12/19.13.shtml


Jupiter Research
----------------
According to Jupiter Research OpenOffice.org is deployed 
at 6% of SMB with another 3% with plans to deploy it in 
their next fiscal year.

Link:  http://www.idg.net/ic_1326566_9698_1-5060.html



Competitive/Market Info
#########################################################################

Microsoft Uses Linux To Publish Its Own Web Site
------------------------------------------------
"Microsoft using a Linux service is ironic, given that Microsoft has 
identified Linux as its biggest competitor. In a conference call with 
analysts last month, company CFO John Connors ranked Linux as the #2 
risk faced by the company. The #1 risk was the general economic 
environment, Connors said. Nearly one in five small and mid-sized 
businesses are using Linux on the desktop."

http://www.channelweb.com/Components/printArticle.asp?ArticleID=44033


Sun, RealNetworks in desktop software deal
------------------------------------------
"Network computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. said on Thursday that 
it is working with RealNetworks Inc. to feature the Internet media 
company's RealOne media player on its Linux-based desktop system.

Sun, which is promoting a desktop operating system based on Unix that 
it calls Project Mad Hatter, said that the deal to feature 
RealNetworks's software will allow users to get rich audio and video 
content on their desktops."

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=166602


Shanghai Schools Remove Microsoft's Office
------------------------------------------
"A Chinese-made desktop productivity suite will reportedly replace 
Microsoft Corp's Office in Shanghai schools. Kingsoft's WPS Office 
2003 will this month begin to replace Office at schools, just weeks 
after 15 major Chinese ministries began installation of the suite."

http://www.cbronline.com/cbrnews/64d7db2e4165724980256d940018c9bd


China's Red Flag Linux to step onto global stage
------------------------------------------------
"An alliance between Hewlett-Packard Co. and Chinese Linux 
developer Red Flag Software Co. Ltd. established last month should 
lead to cooperation between the two companies on technology 
development and marketing of Red Flag Linux to companies in China 
and around the world."

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/09/04/HNredflag_1.html


Japan, China, Korea plan joint open-source project
--------------------------------------------------
"The governments of Japan, China and South Korea have reached basic 
agreement on the formation of a joint open-source software project 
that could encompass desktop applications, embedded programs, 
middleware and operating systems.
[...]
"A brand new operating system starting from zero is impossible," 
he said. "Developing a new operating system is time consuming and 
very expensive. In general, it could be based on Linux with some 
specific functions added. There are already a lot of Linux engineers 
out there. (The Japanese real-time OS) TRON could be a candidate for 
the core portion of the new OS and China may have another basic idea."
[...]
Microsoft is already feeling pressure from the spread of open-source 
software in Asia. The company recently offered its Windows XP 
operating system and Office software package for US$40 as part of a 
Thai government program to offer low-wage earners a computer and 
Internet connection. The cuts came after the government chose to use 
Red Hat Inc.'s Linux operating system and Sun Microsystems Inc.'s 
StarOffice software in the program."

http://www.itworld.com/AppDev/344/030904japan/
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/09/04/HNosasia_1.html


China blocks foreign software use in gov't
------------------------------------------
"At a special congress held to encourage ministries to upgrade to 
WPS Office 2003, a China-made office productivity suite, Gao said 
that only hardware pre-installed with domestic operating systems and 
application software will be purchased by government. Those seeking 
exceptions will need to submit a special request."

http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/os/story/0,2000048630,20277354,00.htm


Microsoft releases Windows Rights Management client
---------------------------------------------------
"The Microsoft Windows Rights Management Client 1.0 was posted for 
free download on Tuesday.
[...]
In addition to the free client download, Microsoft also released 
pricing information for its Windows RMS server software. Windows 
RMS client access license is priced at $37 each. A client access 
license five pack is $185. The product is available only through 
volume licensing programs."

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/09/04/HNwindowsrms_1.html


Microsoft Prepares Office Lock-in
---------------------------------
"This will not only coerce those running older versions of Office 
to upgrade, which has been a problem for MS in the last few years, 
but it will also shut out competing software, such as OpenOffice. 
Now think about this for a second. Even if the developers of a 
competing office suite could figure out how to get their software 
to open an Office 2003 document, doing so would be a DMCA violation, 
since they'd be bypassing an anti-circumvention device."

http://slashdot.org/articles/03/09/02/1659244.shtml?tid=109&tid=185&tid=187
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/cnet/stories/5069246.htm
http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5069246.html


Lindows: A Real Linux Desktop Alternative to Windows
----------------------------------------------------
"After reading several reviews of Lindows 4.0, I take the plunge and 
order it with a one year subscription to the Click-and-Run system. 
I get instant access to the iso's, download them, and an hour later 
I am installing Lindows 4.0. By the way, this is by far the simplest 
and fastest OS install I have ever used. In 10 minutes, as advertised, 
I am using lindows, it has detected all my hardware correctly, even 
the wireless 802.11b card, and I am online logging into the 
Click-and-Run system. This is great!

The Click-and-Run system for installing and finding software has hit 
the nail on the head for the novice users. It works very well and the 
software is fine-tuned for Lindows. I donnload the DVD player, 
Mplayer, Latest Mozilla version, Flash and IBM Java, not to mention 
a few games like Doom and Quake II. "

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=4378
http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=4378&limit=no


Lindows.com introduces cheap business PCs
-----------------------------------------
"LindowsCD is simply a version of the Linux-based Lindows OS that 
boots from a CD inside each BusinessStation. The operating system 
also comes with OpenOffice, a office productivity suite developed 
by Sun Microsystems that produces documents compatible with 
Microsoft's Office suite of products.

For $10 a year per machine, Lindows.com will provide customers with 
services such as profile management tools to customize start-up pages 
at a particular BusinessStation kiosk, the spokeswoman said. 
Administrators can remotely configure and monitor the BusinessStation 
over a corporate network. "

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/28/HNlindowscheap_1.html


Microsoft Gears Up Software Assurance Changes  
---------------------------------------------
"The latest tweaks will allow customers who buy Microsoft products 
through OEMs to sign up for the Software Assurance program.
Originally, when Licensing 6.0 launched, application product licenses 
acquired through the OEM channel were not eligible for upgrade 
protection through Software Assurance. The tweaks also add a 
limited-time program that will allow customers to alter their 
licensing schemes in the wake of Microsoft's newly aired decision to 
differentiate applications in the 2003 editions of Office."

http://boston.internet.com/news/article.php/3069791
http://www.cbronline.com/cbrnews/6f7fef9f0c68603b80256d910018ca8c


'Longhorn' Rollout Slips 
------------------------
""We do not yet know the time frame for Longhorn, but it will 
involve a lot of innovative and exciting work," said Gates at a 
company financial analyst meeting this summer. Since then, other 
Microsoft officials have neither retracted nor clarified Gates' 
statement."

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1235051,00.asp


Q&A: Microsoft's Jim Allchin on the Longhorn timetable
------------------------------------------------------
"During an interview last week with Computerworld, Jim Allchin, group 
vice president of platforms, confirmed that the target date for the 
next version of the Windows client operating system is still sometime 
in 2005. Allchin also discussed the philosophy behind the company's 
operating system plans as well as the next service pack for Windows 
XP, which is due next year."

http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/windows/story/0,10801,84362,00.html


Microsoft sends OneNote to school
---------------------------------
"Looking to make a good start for its OneNote application at schools 
and colleges, Microsoft plans to give away its upcoming note-taking 
software to certain institutions and will offer special academic 
pricing for the product, the company said Monday."

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/25/HNmsonenote_1.html


Microsoft seeks cash from IM client makers
------------------------------------------
"Microsoft Corp. is contacting providers of instant messaging (IM) 
software to try to cut licensing deals before it boots the clients 
from its MSN IM network."

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/28/HNmicrosoftim_1.html
http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/groupware/story/0,10801,84456,00.html


Microsoft: IM Party's Over
--------------------------

"But developers of open-source IM clients say that while upgrading 
clients might improve security, blocking third-party access won't.

"Using security as an excuse to apply stricter licensing on 
competing software is … just ridiculous," wrote Martin Öberg, 
project manager for Miranda IM, in an e-mail interview. "If their 
protocol was secure, then a badly written client would never be able 
to do anything harmful." "

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1231449,00.asp


Microsoft's entrance to spark corporate IM
------------------------------------------
"With Live Communications Server, companies will be able to run their 
own enterprise IM network, address security concerns related to 
public services, and log and manage employees' IM usage. The product 
is capable of determining whether a user is online and available for 
communication in Office applications and can extend this "presence" 
information to other applications such as custom portals."

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/22/33NNmsim_1.html


Microsoft explores automatic patching
-------------------------------------
" In the wake of a widespread Internet worm, Microsoft Corp. is 
weighing options to get more users to secure their computers, 
including automatically applying security patches to PCs remotely, 
the company said."

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,84286,00.html
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/22/HNautopatch_1.html


Microsoft, EDS Untangle Desktop Deployments
-------------------------------------------
"Microsoft Corp. stepped into to the desktop deployment and migration 
miasma Tuesday with a new package of guidelines, tools and scripts 
designed to reduce the complexity of large-scale deployments.

At the same time, services partner Electronic Data Systems Corp. 
teamed up with the Redmond, Wash., company to launch a new 
pay-for-use service framework for provisioning and automating the 
delivery of new applications.

Microsoft's new Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment 
(BDD) is designed to reduce the manual tasks associated with 
deployment of Windows XP, Office XP and Office 2003 by as much as 75 
percent per desktop."

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1226751,00.asp
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/20/HNedsintro_1.html


EDS introduces Microsoft desktop management service
---------------------------------------------------
"Features of the offering, called myCOE (my Consistent Office 
Environment), include giving end users flexibility in choosing 
applications for their desktops and a pricing model under which 
companies pay only for the services used, according to Plano, 
Texas-based EDS."

http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/apps/story/0,10801,84183,00.html?nas=AM-84183


Portals Not Suites for Linux, Says IBM
--------------------------------------
"IBM Corp has poured cold water on the concept of a Linux desktop 
productivity suite, downplaying today's open source contenders in 
favor of a portal-based approach.

With Sun Microsystems Inc preparing to launch its Mad Hatter desktop 
next month, including an open-source productivity suite, IBM has said 
it does not yet see any open-source replacement package for Microsoft 
Corp's Office.
[...]
Smith said IBM does offer customers OpenOffice, but a portal approach 
matched IBM's strategy of On Demand computing, with customers calling 
on applications when they require them."

http://www.cbronline.com/latestnews/1d3d21eb6a38b82780256d870032ca62


IBM dismisses OpenOffice as child's play
----------------------------------------
"IBM claims to have put more than $1 billion behind open source 
software, but the company is failing to pay even a modest amount 
of lip service to one of free software's most needed products.

Karen Smith, vice president of Linux strategy and market 
development at IBM, has been telling a number of publications 
that no open source equivalent of Microsoft Office exists. 
Lest you think Smith has been living in a cave, rest easy. 
She does appear to be acquainted with OpenOffice and its StarOffice 
incarnation from Sun Microsystems. These suites, however, are not 
good enough for IBM."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/32461.html


D.H. Brown reports IBM's Linux leadership
-----------------------------------------
"The report, Linux Strategies and Solutions. . . Linux Suppliers 
Contend for Leadership, compares Linux strategies, products, 
offerings, and services available from major system vendors and 
rates IBM as an industry leader, highlighting IBM's comprehensive 
Linux strategy and crediting the company with bringing Linux to 
the enterprise."

http://lwn.net/2002/0502/a/ibm-dhbrown.php3
http://linuxpr.com/releases/6139.html
http://www.dhbrown.com/cffiles/index.cfm?SENTID=49522551


Mad Hatter Plans OS/2 Tea Party
-------------------------------
"Curtis Sasaki, Sun vice president of engineering for desktop 
solutions, told ComputerWire the company "conservatively" 
estimates there are 20 million customers stranded on IBM Corp's 
legacy operating system. Many are also using dated desktop 
productivity packages such as Lotus' SmartSuite.

These organizations will be increasingly forced to migrate to 
another desktop hardware and software set-up because of decreased 
support from IBM. When they jump, Sun hopes it can catch them 
with Mad Hatter."

http://www.cbronline.com/cbrnews/dd0244b99fee78e280256d8a0018cb10
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2116578132.html


Novell Acquires Ximian
----------------------
"Together, Novell and Ximian offer tremendous benefits for customers," 
Patrick said. "Our breakthrough management and desktop products strongly 
complement Novell applications on Linux and Novell Nterprise Linux 
Services. The global Novell channel, partnerships with industry leaders 
and proven customer support will benefit customers. Novell as an 
enterprise company is the ideal choice for us to drive growth for the 
Linux market as a whole."

http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/2243891
http://www.ximian.org/about_us/press_center/press_releases/index.html?pr=novell


Novell posts loss, cuts work force by 10%
-----------------------------------------
"Novell said the next version of NetWare, due out in early 2005, will 
offer the Linux option.

"Linux represents a significant revenue opportunity for us," Messman 
said, noting that the free operating system is gaining fans among 
mainstream corporations that make up Novell's customers."

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=142199
http://www.computerworld.com/news/2003/story/0,11280,84269,00.html


Novell axes 600 but commits to more Linux
-----------------------------------------
"But Novell said it would probably make a profit in its fourth quarter 
and is committed to expanding its Linux offerings, its chief executive 
said.

Jack Messman told investors that it is going to expand its Linux 
offerings. Earlier this month it paid $40 million to buy Ximian."

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11156
http://edition.cnn.com/cnnfn/2003/08/21/technology/novell.reut/
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1228437,00.asp


Nterprise Linux Services signal a sea change for Novell
-------------------------------------------------------
"Among the services included in the Nterprise suite are eDirectory 
with DirXML (for identity management and for connections to NT, 
Active Directory, and Exchange databases); file services using 
iFolder; print services based on iPrint; messaging services using 
NetMail supporting up to 50,000 messaging and calendar users on a 
single server; systems management using ZENworks; and systems 
administration using iManage. Already, IBM, HP, and Dell have 
signed on to provide Nterprise Linux Services to their Linux 
customers."

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6261_11-5062241.html


Ximian to deliver Mono 1.0 Release Candidate
--------------------------------------------
"Ximian executives said the company plans to deliver a preview of its 
open-source implementation of Microsoft's .Net for Linux, Unix and 
Windows in September, and a release candidate of version 1.0 by 
year's end. "

http://www.itnews.com.au/storycontent.cfm?ID=10&Art_ID=12683


Making Linux more like Windows than Windows
-------------------------------------------
"He thinks that Novell, with its deep understanding of enterprise 
IT - from both user and administrator perspectives - along with its 
recent embrace of Open Source and its strategic acquisition of 
Ximian - is perfectly positioned to drive Linux desktop acceptance 
to a wider audience in large enterprises. And he thinks that their 
customers are ready - today - to jettison Windows, at least in 
selected departments."

http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/08/09/1329244&mode=thread&tid=23


Sun and Novell push Linux
-------------------------
" Both Sun and Novell used the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, 
which opened in San Francisco Monday and runs through Friday, 
to put their stamp on Linux."

http://www.cmpnetasia.com/ViewArt.cfm?Artid=20821&Catid=2&subcat=19


Disney will use Photoshop on Linux
----------------------------------
"Rather than wait, Disney, along with two other motion picture 
animation studios (which declined to be named for this article), 
decided to jointly fund the development of a Windows-to-Linux 
porting solution. The idea: develop technology using the Wine 
emulator to run Adobe Photoshop on Linux.
[...]
Disney deployed Red Hat Linux 7.2 on more than 600 desktops. 
All the desktops run CodeWeavers Inc.'s CrossOver Office 2.0.1, 
which enables non-Linux applications to run on Linux."

http://www.eweek.com/print_article/0,3668,a=45783,00.asp



Linux Migration
#########################################################################

German Department of the Interiors releases Migration Guide
-----------------------------------------------------------
The German Department of the Interior released a software
migration guide that is supposed to help companies and
govnernment authorities to migrate from old Microsoft
platforms to newer ones or from Windows to Linux. 
The documents mentions OpenOffice.org and StarOffice
quite a few times!

German PDF file: http://download.bund.de/mlf_v1_de.pdf


German OpenOffice.org Study (German only)
-----------------------------------------
"Eine Umfrage hat ergeben, dass angesichts der Microsoft Lizenzpolitik
immerhin 15,4 % der Befragten einen Einsatz von OpenOffice Software 
und 14,3 % einen Einsatz der kommerziellen Variante StarOffice erwägen."

translates to

"A survey shows that due to Microsoft's licensing scheme 15.4% of the 
interviewed people consider the deployment of OpenOffice.org and 14.3% 
consider the usage of the commercial derivative StarOffice."

http://www.competence-site.de/ebusiness.nsf/3c26e7f55f24138ac125691800380650/d34e71ea99d37abec1256d5000371bbc!OpenDocument


Munich's Microsoft vs. Linux/OpenOffice.org Study
-------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY:

* Munich published a short version of the study that they
  used for their recent decision regarding the usage of
  Linux on the desktop (14,688 seats).

* 5 solutions were compared:

  - Windows XP + Office XP (XP/XP)
  - Windows XP + OpenOffice.org (XP/OSS)
  - Linux + OpenOffice.org (LX/OSS)
  - Linux + OpenOffice.org + VMWare (LX/OSS/VM)
  - Linux + OpenOffice.org + Terminal Server (LX/OSS/TS)

* The best solution cost wise incl. training and
  migration turned out to be Windows XP and Office XP
  followed by LX/OSS/VM.

* After applying quality related and strategic factors
  like the dependence on Microsoft the best solution
  was Linux plus OpenOffice.org and VMWare followed
  by the pure Microsoft solution.

* PDF file of study (German):
  http://www.muenchen.de/aktuell/clientstudie_kurz.pdf 


Frederick Labbe's Thesis (French)
---------------------------------
Memoire Ingenieur CNAM (121 pages)- Format PDF (2.6 Mo)
(2089 )  - Format OpenOffice.org (1.6 Mo) (407 )
http://oootools.free.fr/memoire_cnam/

Comments from Paul Miller (OpenOffice.org Community):
"This is an outstanding migration study from Office 97 
to OpenOffice.org of a two site hospital with several 
hundred machines which has to change because of cost & 
compatibility issues with newer/older machines because 
Office 97 can no longer be purchased legally.  Cost savings 
was 40% of migrating to Office XP in first year and 50% 
for two more years.

The thesis is in French but is so well written that I was 
able to decipher the essence of it using Babelfish. ..."



Security
#########################################################################

IT links to blackout under scrutiny
-----------------------------------
"Government and industry experts speaking unofficially with 
Computerworld have linked Blaster to the severity of the blackout, 
since on the day of the blackout Blaster affected the communications 
networks used to manage the power grid (see story). But the degree 
to which the hampered flow of data over those networks might have 
contributed to the blackout is still unclear."

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/recovery/story/0,10801,84640,00.html?SKC=news84640

    	
Users turn to automated patch management tools
----------------------------------------------
" Hoping to better protect themselves against escalating security 
threats such as the W32.Blaster worm, user companies are taking a 
fresh look at automated patch management technologies."

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/holes/story/0,10801,84516,00.html


Microsoft warns about new software flaw in Office suite
-------------------------------------------------------
"The world's largest software maker said that a flaw that it rated as 
"critical" in its Visual Basic for Applications software, used to 
develop applications for Windows and Office, could enable a malicious 
programmer to create documents that would launch attacks on 
unsuspecting users.

Microsoft has vowed to improve security and reliability of its 
software, which has been hit by several high-profile flaws this year. 
The Slammer worm nearly brought the Internet to a halt in January, 
and the Blaster worm and its variants crippled hundreds of thousands 
of computers in August. "

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/holes/story/0,10801,84581,00.html
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1237708,00.asp
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/09/04/HNmsofficewarning_1.html

    	
Report: Japan, Korea, China to break Windows ties
-------------------------------------------------
"Governments, private sector companies to jointly develop new rival OS
[...]
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, quoting "sources close to the matter," 
said a new operating system was being considered after the recent 
spate of viruses that has targeted the Windows operating system. 
Work to be undertaken will include development of new applications 
such as word processor and spreadsheet software."

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/09/02/HNbreakties_1.html


Update: Rival groups debate DHS deal with Microsoft
---------------------------------------------------
"The contract, awarded June 27, named Microsoft as the "primary 
technology provider" to the Department of Homeland Security, supplying 
desktop and server software critical for the agency.

In a letter yesterday to Tom Ridge, the secretary of the DHS, Ed Black, 
the CEO and president of the Washington-based CCIA, asked the agency 
to "reconsider" its decision to use Microsoft software inside an agency 
with critical security needs"

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,84434,00.html


Blaster worm linked to severity of blackout
-------------------------------------------
"The inability of critical control data to be exchanged quickly across 
the grid could have hampered the operators' ability to prevent the 
cascading effect of the blackout, he said. Seifert stressed, however, 
that no one is certain at this point what caused the blackout.

A former Bush administration adviser who has consulted with the U.S. 
Department of Homeland Security on the power grid issue said the 
Blaster worm also hampered the ability of utilities in the New York 
region to restore power in a more timely manner because some of those 
companies were running Windows-based control systems with Port 135 
open - the port through which the worm attacked systems. "

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/recovery/story/0,10801,84510,00.html


Symantec: Blaster victims top 330,000 machines
----------------------------------------------

"Another security firm, RedSiren, is pegging the damage in terms of 
lost productivity related to IT staff detecting and cleaning infected 
systems to be at least $320 million alone.
[...]
Sun director of marketing in the desktop solutions division, Peder 
Ulander, noted that the company in September is scheduled to unveil 
its Linux- and Solaris-based product suite called "Mad Hatter," which 
includes Java-based office-productivity applications."

http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0814blastsym.html


Howling for a Secure Alternative
--------------------------------

"... and managing the complexity of MSBlast, alone, exceeds any 
potential cost of retraining a user to expect a new color scheme ..."

http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=827_0_1_0_C


What, me worry?
---------------
"Nevertheless, this is not an occasion for gloating, as the attack 
caused widespread inconvenience -- ask anyone who visited any of 
Maryland's Motor Vehicle Administration offices last Tuesday -- and 
surely cost the nation's businesses millions of dollars in lost 
productivity.

http://www.sunspot.net/technology/custom/pluggedin/bal-mac082103,0,7518456.column?coll=bal-business-indepth


 Week In Review: The Worm Turns
-------------------------------
"The worm didn't disappoint those projections and ultimately 
infected more than 250,000 PCs and systems, taking down the 
network for the state of Maryland's motor vehicle agency and 
booting Swedish Internet users offline. But even by Tuesday 
night, the worm's replication began to slow."

http://www.internetwk.com/breakingNews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=13100401


Computer worm grounds Air Canada
--------------------------------
"The Canadian arm of IBM Corp., the world's largest technology 
provider, which won a $1.4-billion contract to supply Air Canada 
with information technology operations in July 2001, could not say 
how long it would take to rid the airline of the computer worm.
[...]
Symantec identified over 600,000 computers on Tuesday afternoon that 
were affected."

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/news/story.asp?id=1999F9CA-ED14-4020-B334-E046D9D5E584


Worms Hit Airline, Military as Microsoft Mulls Forced Fixes
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Air Canada said yesterday that Nachi, a worm related to MSBlast, 
crippled its check-in and reservation systems, causing flights to 
be delayed and cancelled. The situation compounded the problems 
already seen by the airline after last week's power outage.

The US Navy Marine Corps confirmed yesterday that its 100,000-seat 
intranet was essentially unusable for a sustained period starting 
Monday afternoon, due to the excess traffic created by Nachi 
infections on its servers.

And over the weekend, spokespeople for Edwards Air Force Base in 
California, where the US Air Force tests its cutting-edge planes, 
told the Washington Times that its network had been take offline 
in response to MSBlast."

http://www.cbronline.com/latestnews/26ba15ea3f84730680256d880018c816


Virus attacks computers at Highway Patrol 
-----------------------------------------
"Ricks said technicians had sealed off the virus from the network 
by early Thursday. Ricks said there are about 2,000 personal 
computers throughout the patrol and it remained unclear how many 
were hit by the virus."

http://newstribune.com/stories/081503/sta_0815030001.asp


Computer worm wreaks havoc at firms
-----------------------------------
"Mr. Puri, who is director of information technology at the 
Toronto-based company, said he lost nine person-days in his 
department as his staff spent all day and night cleaning out the 
computers used by the 500 Y&R employees in Canada.

Mr. Puri estimates that the total cost of MSBlast -- in overtime, 
lost productivity and extra bandwidth costs -- to be about $500,000."

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030814/RNETT/TPBusiness/TopStories


Computer worm costs county work time, $70,000 in repairs
--------------------------------------------------------
"Technicians scrambled Wednesday to fix thousands of county 
government computers infected with a viruslike worm that disrupted 
work routines and generated a $70,000-plus repair bill.

About 3,500 of the county's 6,500 active computers were infected 
with the worm, called the "Blaster" or "LoveSan," said J. Matt 
Carroll, Ventura County's chief information officer."

http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/county_news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_2181663,00.html


Virus-hit PCs flood HB shops
----------------------------
"It costs about $70 to have the virus removed, depending on the level 
of infection, and most computers were ready to go home on the same 
day, he said."

http://www.mytown.co.nz/story/mytstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3518047&thecity=hawkesbay&thepage=home&type=nzh&storytoolsnzh=1


Hey! Another creepy worm on my PC?
----------------------------------
"According to Best Buy's Stephens, consumers and businesses suffered 
billions of dollars in lost data, lost time and business, and repair 
costs in the aftermath of the nefarious Code Red virus in 2001."

http://money.cnn.com/2003/08/13/news/companies/virus_impact/?cnn=yes


Sobig Virus Becomes A 'High Threat'
-----------------------------------

"Because of its mass-mailing capabilities, Sobig can eat up bandwidth
and slow a company's network performance. The virus, however, isn't 
considered as malicious as others, since it doesn't delete files or 
damage the infected PC.

Nevertheless, the bigger danger lies in its ability to open a port 
in a computer, enabling a hacker to upload a Trojan. The small 
application can let a hacker take control of a computer or search 
for passwords in the system to break into people's online accounts.

Sobig.F poses a bigger threat than the last variant of the email 
virus. MessageLabs, which monitors corporate E-mail traffic for 
spam, viruses, and other nuisances, has intercepted 360,000 E-mails 
infected with Sobig.E since it appeared June 25."

http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20030819S0019


Sobig strikes again and again
-----------------------------
"Indeed, the number of virus-carrying emails intercepted by 
MessageLabs increased from 10,000 at 8:30 am EST Tuesday to more 
than 100,000 by 1 pm EST. "It's a lot, but there have been a number 
of other viruses with a faster infection rate," a MessageLabs 
spokesman said. "In terms of Sobig variants, it's up there with the 
last one.""

http://www.itnews.com.au/storycontent.cfm?ID=9&Art_ID=12718


MessageLabs: Sobig.F breaks speed records
-----------------------------------------
"Virus produced more than one million copies in first 24 hours"

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/21/HNsobigger_1.html
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1227345,00.asp


Sun promotes Mad Hatter as secure alternative to Microsoft
----------------------------------------------------------
"Designed to compete with Microsoft Corp., Project Mad Hatter is 
being positioned by Sun as a cheaper, secure alternative desktop 
operating system to Microsoft's various desktop offerings. The 
announcement was made as the MSBlaster worm, which exploits the 
Microsoft OS, continues to spread."

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=1265006281&fp=16&fpid=0
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,112015,00.asp
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/31360.html
http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/31341.html
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1142999


Solutions
#########################################################################

Content Management
==================

iCoya OpenContent by Struktur AG
--------------------------------
"The icoya OfficeIntegration provides a powerful integration of 
OpenOffice.org and StarOffice documents including images and tables 
within the icoya Content & Collaboration Management Systems."

http://www.icoya.com/produkt/module/index_html/tocarticle_view#1


e-Government
============

OpenPlenum by PROTEXT COMPUTER GmbH
-----------------------------------
OpenPlenum is some kind of document management and workflow 
application that focusses on processes that authorities 
like city councils have to deal with.

German website:
http://www.protext.de/OpenPlenum/OpenPlenumstart_mit.htm


Education
=========

StarOffice4Kids
---------------
"StarOffice 4 Kids is a  product suite  for teachers and students. 
Emerging from a technological research project in collaboration with 
Sun Microsystems, Inc. and the Heinz-Nixdorf-Institute at the 
University of Paderborn, kippdata developed StarOffice 4 Kids into 
an integrated learning environment with highly flexible functionality 
and user interface."

http://www.kippdata.de/produkte/so4k/so4k_en.html


Document Management
===================

Tamino XML Integration by Software AG
-------------------------------------
"Darmstadt, Germany - May 20, 2003 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. 
(NASDAQ: SUNW) and Software AG have formed a business alliance to 
deliver add-on technology for Software AG's Tamino XML Server 4.1 
to support Sun's StarOffice(tm) Software 6.1 productivity suite. 
The Tamino/StarOffice add-on delivers a cost-effective solution, 
increasing workgroup productivity and security by providing access 
to powerful collaboration functionality, digital signature support 
and connectivity with back-end applications."

http://www.softwareag.com/corporat/news/may2003/Tamino_Staroffice.htm


Collaboration
=============

InView Software's Momentum
--------------------------
"FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS

* A distributed desktop software application for end users
* Real-time collaboration and multi-user editing/viewing
* A drawing editor
* An outliner and task manager
* Messaging and instant messaging
* Document versioning and change notifications
* Integration with Microsoft Office, StarOffice, OpenOffice, and 
  Adobe Acrobat (.PDF)"

http://www.inviewsoftware.com/products/momentum/momentum_data_sheet.pdf
http://www.inviewsoftware.com/products/momentum/index.htm

"Integration with Your Desktop Applications
Momentum extends the way you already work, letting you use your 
favorite applications, including Microsoft Office, StarOffice, 
OpenOffice, and Adobe Acrobat, when you work with others."

http://www.inviewsoftware.com/products/momentum/prodinfo.htm


Misc
====

OpenOffice.org Viewer for KDE
-----------------------------
"After reading tons of OpenOffice.org documentation (just the 
major parts—I did not have the patience to read it all), studying 
the Java examles, learning from others and after some experiments 
I finally have a KDE Part, which can be used as a viewer of all 
documents supported by OpenOffice.org. Of course, there is a lot of 
things to improve (everyone can surely imagine OOo fully integrated 
to KDE—from Qt widgets to drag'n'drop), but even at the current stage 
it is useful. At least, Word, Excel or PowerPoint files look cool 
when opened in the Konqueror window:)"

http://artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~kendy/cuckooo/index.php


EndNote now supports StarOffice and OpenOffice.org
--------------------------------------------------
"CARLSBAD, Calif., Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomson ISI ResearchSoft 
ships a major upgrade to EndNote(R) -- the bibliographic software 
used by millions of researchers and students.  Known for introducing 
innovative features to search online bibliographic databases, organize 
references and create instant bibliographies, EndNote7 delivers 
subject bibliographies, flexible image handling, and connectivity to 
explore and mobilize reference collections.
[...]
EndNote 7 now offers the ability to create bibliographies with 
StarOffice, OpenOffice, AppleWorks, FrameMaker and more using Rich 
Text Format (RTF) Files."

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK2.story&STORY=/www/story/08-26-2003/0002007030&EDATE=TUE+Aug+26+2003,+08:07+PM



Pricing
#########################################################################

Gartner: Microsoft cuts Windows price to $40 in Thailand
--------------------------------------------------------
"Could lead to lower prices in other countries [...]
"Microsoft -- in response to a Linux threat -- recently reduced 
pricing to $40 for an Office and Windows package it offered as part 
of a government initiative in Thailand," the report said.

"Microsoft may offer a similar package in China as an incentive to 
keep Chinese enterprises using its products," the report added. "

http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/story/0,10801,84284,00.html
http://ups.asia.cnet.com/c/as.ch.nt.top.030823b/asia.cnet.com/newstech/industry/0,39001143,39147732,00.htm
http://www.idg.com.sg/idgwww.nsf/unidlookup/57F719F988F6415548256D8D003789A6?OpenDocument
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/25/HNwindowsprice_1.html


Microsoft discounts Windows and Office down to $36 in Thailand
--------------------------------------------------------------
"...
Yet Mr. Chom's participation in the novel Thai computer
program -- which has sent about 50,000 PCs to ordinary
citizens so far and aims to deliver a million by the end
of next year -- highlights the potential for free, "open
source" software like Linux to spread in the developing
world.
...
Microsoft even paid for a mailing from the Thai government,
informing people who had already signed up for a People's PC
that they could pay extra for a Microsoft-powered computer
instead. If a computer had already been shipped, and its new
owner requested Microsoft software, Microsoft got permission
for its hardware partners to open up the computer on government
property and install its own software, according to Mr. McBean. 
Microsoft even did away with the controversial "product
activation" feature of its software, which requires people to
officially register the product.

Of the 134,000 desktop PCs ordered so far, according to the
computer association's Mr. Pisit, somewhere between 20,000
and 25,000 have been outfitted with Windows and Office, as
opposed to Linux. Mr. McBean puts the number at about 33,000.
More computers will go on sale later this year.
..." 

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB106081614955559800-H9jeoNolal2n5yraX6HbaqJm4,00.html


Office 2003 pricing remains same as Office XP
---------------------------------------------
"Microsoft's Office also faces competition from low-cost competitors 
such as OpenOffice and StarOffice. Microsoft said it will launch 
several different editions of Office, including a standard edition 
for $399, a professional edition for $499, and small business 
edition for $449. There is also an education Student and Teacher 
Edition for $149.

Upgrades from previous versions are usually $50 to $70 cheaper and 
each of the individual Office programs will be available separately, 
Microsoft said. "

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/08/20/microsoft.office.reut/
http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/apps/story/0,10801,84161,00.html
http://www.cbronline.com/latestnews/e4ffaa937bca85a980256d880018c814
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/19/HNofficeprice_1.html


Launch of Microsoft Office System 2003
--------------------------------------
"What makes it relevant to workplaces rather than the home or home 
office is that these core products can be extended to take advantage 
of Microsoft's server-based products such as SharePoint Portal Server 
2003, Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

Three new back-end programs comprise Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003, 
Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003 and Microsoft Office 
OneNote 2003.

That mind-numbing list of names means you have to buy and maintain 
these expensive back-end applications to exploit many of the powerful 
collaboration features in the new software suite. 
[...]
If you want a multifunction package for use on a home PC, a more 
affordable alternative is Microsoft Works Suite, which includes Word, 
for about $230. Competing packages are available from companies such 
as Corel (WordPerfect Office), Sun Microsystems (Star Office) and the 
free OpenOffice.org suite."

http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,7032101%255E21669,00.html



Miscellaneous Product News
#########################################################################

OpenOffice for Mac OS X Delayed
-------------------------------
"OpenOffice.org is delaying the projected release, originally 
expected in early 2004, until the first quarter of 2006, largely 
because of a lack of developers contributing to the effort, said 
Louis Suarez-Potts, community manager for the open-source project.

"To move to Aqua requires substantially more resources for 
development," Suarez-Potts said, referring to the user interface 
built into Mac OS X. "We've had tremendous response … and many 
developers say they want to help out. But there's a big difference 
between people saying they want to help and them actually helping." 

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1228468,00.asp
http://www.betanews.com/article.php3?sid=1061544321
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030822.gtmacaug22/BNStory/Technology/
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/cnet/stories/5067166.htm


Sun Microsystems steps closer to providing choice on the desktop
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Schwartz also reaffirmed Sun's commitment to open communities and 
open standards by detailing its contribution of over 8 million lines 
of code to the open source community, driving participation in 
OpenOffice.org, Mozilla.org, java.net and its recent membership of 
the Open Source Development Lab."

http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/computing/2003/0308220727.asp?A=HOME&O=FPIN



New OpenOffice.org To-Do's
#########################################################################

Quality Assurance
-----------------
http://qa.openoffice.org/helping.html


Bibliographic Project
---------------------
http://bibliographic.openoffice.org/developer.html


GLOW Groupware Client
---------------------
http://groupware.openoffice.org/glow/dev/opentasks.html


Other To-Do's
-------------
http://website.openoffice.org/developer/todo.html

All to-do's are marked as a TASK with the keyword
"needhelp".

In order to get new to-do's added please contact
Erwin Tenhumberg (erwin.tenhumberg@sun.com)!



Contact Information (regarding this newsletter)
#########################################################################
newsletter@marketing.openoffice.org

   or

erwin.tenhumberg@sun.com

