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Released: Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15

Press FAQ OpenOffice.org 1.1

Contents


1) What is being announced?

OpenOffice.org is releasing version 1.1 of its OpenOffice.org office-suite software for download at www.openoffice.org.

2) What is the news?

2.1) New Features

  • Export to Adobe PDF
  • Improved Microsoft Office compatibility
  • Improved stability due to new development and QA process
  • Faster initial load time
  • Accessibility features as required by many governments
  • Support for vertical and bidirectional writing and complex text layout
  • XML filter tool including filters for DocBook and XHTML
  • Macro recorder & software development kit
  • See our Features Page for more information

2.2) OpenOffice.org Momentum

World Wide:

So far (August 2003) more than 18,000,000 copies of OpenOffice.org have been downloaded. This number does not include the distribution through Linux bundlings like SuSE, Red Hat or Mandrake.

Germany:

The City of Munich decided to switch to Linux and OpenOffice.org.

Thailand:

The government in Thailand is shipping Linux PC's including OpenOffice.org to ordinary citizens. As a consequence Microsoft is discounting Windows and Office down to $36.

South Africa:

Sahara Computers (www.sahara.co.za), the second largest distributor of PC's in South Africa, has begun to ship OpenOffice.org 1.0.x with all its branded products.

France:

Hospital of Avranches-Granville in Normandy, France, migrated 400 desktops to OpenOffice.org.

US:

Wal-Mart ships many different Linux PC's that have OpenOffice.org installed.

OEM/Bundling:

  • Linux distributions (SuSE, Red Hat, Mandrake, Knoppix, ...)
  • PC's (HP in Thailand, Toshiba with Lycoris, Sony through StarOffice)

3) What makes OpenOffice.org 1.1 unique?

4) What makes OpenOffice.org 1.1 different from OpenOffice.org 1.0?

See 2.1!

5) What are the marketing goals for this announcement?

6) What are the 3 Key Messages?

7) Is this announcement part of a larger strategy?

8) How does this news help the user/developer/customer?

Less training with even greater productivity. Access to office suite software with no licence fees and no time-consuming license management requirements.

9) Why should users care?

There may be no other office suite software available with character-set, menus, help and spelling dictionaries in their first language.

All users can now download an office suite for no charge that is extremely stable on their operating system platform and gain unmatched productivity with equal or less training than it takes to upgrade to a new version of the leading proprietary office suite.

Users and their organizations will enter a new open and well supported office suite arena where they will never again worry about support or file format continuity being broken by their software vendor.

Cost and productivity savings are beyond estimation.

10) What are some of the specific differentiators?

Users and systems administrators can use different operating systems in-house and still have all documents created and stored in a single future-proof XML file format where fine-granular content within documents is finely searchable and extendable to the Web.

An OpenOffice.org document's native XML file format allows content to be accessed, managed and extended OUTSIDE the office suite application, for example, with viewing, editing and transmitting file content with small hand-held devices and PDA's. Despite the open file format confidential documents can be password protected which includes a 128-bit encryption of the content.

OpenOffice.org has many language versions of the software in development, some of which are typically not supported by traditional office suites, e.g. Zulu, Sotho and Afrikaans in South Africa. As a consequence OpenOffice.org will be available to many more users around the world in their first language.

11) What customers or partners can be used as references?

See 2.2!

12) What is the difference between OpenOffice.org and StarOffice?

13) Contact Information

Sam Hiser
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Lead
Email: swhiser@openoffice.org
Phone: +1 508 627-5944

Louis Suárez-Potts
OpenOffice.org Community Manager
CollabNet, Inc.
Email: louis@openoffice.org
Phone: +1 510 384-3843

Erwin Tenhumberg
Product Marketing Manager
Desktop Solutions Group
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Email: erwin.tenhumberg@sun.com
Phone: +1 510 928-1033

Local OpenOffice.org Marketing Contacts
http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html

14) Contact Company Information

About CollabNet, Inc.

CollabNet provides companies with solutions for Collaborative Software Development (CSD) by combining a Web-based software application with a suite of consulting services. Using CollabNet solutions, software teams can collaborate on development across multiple locations within the extended enterprise or securely integrate business partners, contractors, or offshore development firms. CollabNet enables companies to reduce costs and increase revenues by eliminating the inefficiencies and limitations of traditional LAN-based development platforms. The CollabNet SourceCast environment is being used by hundreds of thousands of developers at Fortune 500 and industry-leading enterprise companies around the world, including: Barclays Global Investors (BGI), Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW), HP, Motorola, SK Telecom, and Sun Microsystems. Brian Behlendorf, co-founder of the Apache Software Foundation, established CollabNet in July 1999. For more information, see http://www.collab.net.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com

Sun Press Kits:

http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/index.html

15) Distribution

This is a global announcement for synchronous release.

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