Linux and OpenOffice save Microsoft Presentation

EvilGrinUK writes "A presentation about Shared Source (SSI) by the head of Microsoft Ukraine was almost ruined when the Windows machine (a Tablet PC) linked to the projector developed problems. The solution was to adopt OpenOffice.org 1.1.2 and ALT Linux Compact 2.3, which was already running on the presenter's laptop (an IBM Thinkpad). Here's a picture."

Comments

How funny.. Cache slower than original...

[OlivierB]

The original link is fster than the cache

http://paq.osdn.org.ua/~mike/img/MS-uses-OOo/hpim2 544.sized.jpg

Embarassing...

[bobbis.u]

That's almost on an par with the infamous Windows 98 crash video!

Re:haha

[Rei]

Microsoft's public failures are always amusing.

old story, but still

[lheal]

... it's clearly an operating system problem on the tablet, not a hardware problem. Linux to the rescue!
------------------

From the README on the site:
Intro
[...]
1. This is old news: the event happened on October 9, 2004.
2. Microsoft rep in Ukraine had to use free software to get on with a presentation on a free software conference since his munition failed to cooperate with projector.
3. See below (also posted to the places I could track down).
[...]
As for the facts:

* it was not Master but ALT Linux Compact 2.3 (page|ISO|ML)
* it was Third Ukrainian Free Software Developers' and Users' Conference
* it was sponsored by IBM, Novell and EMT (yeah, I work for ...us; another funny thing is that Microsoft proposed to sponsor the conference too but we decided to politely decline the generous offer)
* it is the head of Microsoft Ukraine, Mr. Valery Lanovenko
* it is the Tablet PC which failed to feed the projector on the secondary head properly to blame
* and indeed it's OpenOffice.org on our Linux/ThinkPad running their PowerPoint presentation ;-)
* IMG_0395 has Mr. Lanovenko's personal comment -- he tries to make an impression that it was PDF (we as the conference staff recommended to keep those at hand) but all of us know OOo doesn't display PDFs ;-)
[...]
--
Michael Shigorin
mike at osdn dot org dot ua
EMT.Com.UA * OSDN.Org.UA * Linux.Kiev.UA * ALTLinux.ORG

Re:Is it true?

[Cyberax]

It's a true story. There was a message in Russian LUG about that from a conference participant: http://lists.lug.ru/pipermail/oo-discuss/2004-Octo ber/012275.html

PS: yes, I read Russian.

kind of more full text (Get The Facts, heh)

[gvy]

Well there was the bottom part of the message holding the explanation itself:

Facts (below)

As for the facts:

• it was not Master but ALT Linux Compact 2.3 (page|ISO|ML)
• it was Third Ukrainian Free Software Developers' and Users' Conference
• it was sponsored by IBM, Novell and EMT (yeah, I work for ...us; another funny thing is that Microsoft proposed to sponsor the conference too but we decided to politely decline the generous offer)
• it is the head of Microsoft Ukraine, Mr. Valery Lanovenko
• it is the Tablet PC which failed to feed the projector on the secondary head properly to blame
• and indeed it's OpenOffice.org on our Linux/ThinkPad running their PowerPoint presentation ;-)
• IMG_0395 has Mr. Lanovenko's personal comment -- he tries to make an impression that it was PDF (we as the conference staff recommended to keep those at hand) but all of us know OOo doesn't display PDFs ;-)

You bet there was some debate afterwards but no tomatoes flying (which was quite the fear of Mr. Lanovenko's coworkers) :-) Shameless plugs

BTW, there's going to be 4th such conference this autumn (first weekend of October), you're welcome! (details at the conference site, see above)

Re:Is it true?

[DavidD_CA]

Many times, you can retrieve corrupted Excel documents by using a little Excel trick.

Open a brand new spreadsheet and link cell A1 to the A1 in your corrupted sheet (you'll have to type the formula in manually). Then drag that A1 to all corners of the spreadsheet, and more often than not you'll get your data back -- sans formatting.