We are working towards developing a comprehensive set of sample documents for the OpenDocument specifications developed by the Oasis consortium.
Every document has associated rendering samples created with:
* OpenOffice v2.0.1 on Windows XP SP2
* KOffice v1.5beta on Gentoo Linux
The set of sample documents was developed at the Networking and Mobile Computing Laboratory at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Central Florida.
Developed by: Yi Luo and Majid A. Khan under the supervision of Dr. Lotzi Boloni.
The development was sponsored by Intel corporation and released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
The oft-hyped training issue is a complete myth in my experience.
My parents (age 70+) are happily running Fedora Core 5. training was neglible. They e-mail, surf, and play games with no problems at all.
My present company is completely linux-based using thin-clients. Training issues? None, nada. Complaints? None, nada. No issues teaching people to use Linux, no issues teaching people to use OpenOffice.org, or Gaim, or Evolution, or any of the other applications we use.
We are a medical facility. Our staff are trained to treat patients and are by no means computer people. They just want the computer to work so that they can get their jobs done. And you know what? That's exactly what it does.
Linux is not perfect, but neither is Windows. Each is better at some things than the other. Your comments are simply ignorant.
At my previous employer we supported 100's of folks using OpenOffice.org 1.x under Terminal server (NT 4.0 w Citrix MetaFrame) with no problems at all. OOo 2.x should be even easier to run this way.
Yeah, Microsoft is big on allowing users to actually make a choice. That is why, when I went to purchase computers for our company and simply wanted the Windows licenses not to be tied to the machine I was told that *Microsoft* wouldn't allow it.
Microsoft also wouldn't allow our vendor to sell us machines without windows at all. We were told that we could purchase Windows *again* to get what we wanted. Rediculous.
Who cares what the customer wants, it's what Microsoft wants that matters.
About the same time this happened it was revealed that Microsoft was giving "rewards" to vendors who reported on customers who asked for naked machines. It's amazing that Microsoft felt that they had some right to know about a transaction from which they were explicitly excluded.
I also think that this is more of a tactical move to prevent adoption of ODF. Let's look at it shall we?
For Open Document Format (ODF):
1. Created and maintained through an open process anyone, even individuals, can join.
2. Multiple companies/organization (not all IT companies either) were involved in its creation.
3. ODF is an OASIS ratified standard NOW.
4. ODF is already in ISO approval process (approval expected in ~6 months)
5. Multiple implementations are available NOW.
6. Format is completely usable by anyone NOW. No known IP issues.
For Microsoft Office 12 XML:
1. Creation was closed. No details available on how it will be maintained. Individuals cannot join ECMA and cannot participate in ECMA committees except by invitation.
2. Created by a single company to support a single product.
3. ECMA approval expected to take ~18 months
4. ISO aproval process can only be started after ECMA approval
5. No implementations available. None can expected until at least the first draft of the standard is issued by ECMA.
6. There are still IP issues which are unclear. Currently Microsoft has only issued a patent covenant for the Office 2003 XML schemas. These are not the schemas used by Office 12.
While Microsoft has *promised* to issue a covenant for Office 12 schemas, it has not done so. Such a covenant really has no meaning until the ECMA process has at least produced a draft standard.
The Office 12 *format* is not the Office 12 XML schemas. The Office 12 format follows another Microsoft tecnology called "Open Packaging Conventions (OPC)" which has it's own associated licenses. The current license for OPC has the same IP issues that the orginal schema license had. I have seen no written indication that this has changed.
Unless the OPC is also passed to ECMA, this whole thing is rather useless since the actual Office 12 formats will not be under a standard, but still controlled at the whim of Microsoft.
We're a medical clinic with offices in two cities. We run a thin client setup. We've got 15 terminals and 13 printers connected to a quad 500MHz (w 2MB cache/processor) PIII Xeon with 2GB RAM. Certainly not a powerhouse by today's standards. We've been using this system for over 5 years now.
We use OpenOffice.org extensively as well as PDF, Firefox, Evolution, etc. Everything works really well. We've seen the same issues that you describe although for us, it has never really had a big impact. A runaway process might tie up one CPU, but the others keep processing just fine.:-)
The benefits of thin clients far outweigh the issues you raised. You didn't say whether your server was SMP so I assume it was a single CPU. You might want to re-evaluate your decision to go local. Check out the cost of a good multi-core server vs the cost of multiple local machines. I think you're trying to solve your problem the wrong way.
When we upgrade it'll be to a multi-core Opteron.:-)
LOL. You obviously don't know too much about nature. Did you know that the most feminine of women are actually genetically male (XY Chromosomes)? They are to all outward appearance female. Internally, however, they have no womb and no ovaries, but instead undecended testicles. They are also perfectly natural and like most XX women, are sexually attracted to men. Are they gay?
They are more feminine than XX women because their bodies cannot respond to male hormones (androgens) *at all*. Their bodies only respond to female hormones. The default for all humans is female unless directed otherwise by androgens.
This condition is known as CAIS, Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. It also occurs in a partial form (PAIS) which has varying levels of androgen insensitivity. PAIS individuals span the range from female to male. Having both male and female characterisitics, would you consider these people gay and unnatural?
Your comment merely showcases your ignorance. The world is a much more diverse place than you think. Degrading others relects poorly on you, not the person(s) you attempt to degrade.
I have been fortunate in my career to have used many different computing systems besides those made by Microsoft. If you only know a single system (doesn't matter which one), your thinking and approach to problems will be framed by that knowledge. I've seen this verified many times by new hires.
The article credits Microsoft with way too many things and shows a definate lack of knowledge of computing history. It's more sad than anything. If you've never seen or been in a car, of course you'll think that the company who makes the bicycles everyone has is really great.
My personal opinion is that Microsoft has put the computing industry at least *10* YEARS behind where it should be. I feel this way because of all the non-Microsoft systems I have used over the years. There have been so many excellent ideas that appeared years before Microsoft incorporated them, if they incorporated them at all.
Sigh. Ignorance that great shouldn't be displayed public.
While the Amiga certainly had it's flaws, it did have features that even current systems don't have. Older systems still have value in what they can teach folks today. Things to be avoided, and things that might be possible.
Well, considering that the same guy who designed the graphics chip in the Atari 8-bit also did the diesign of the graphics chips inthe Amiga I would would have to say that that the Amiga *was* the the true sucessor.:-)
I worked for several years on Johnston Atoll, which is located about 820 miles SW of Hawaii. The atoll consists of four tiny islands: North, East, Sand, and Johnston. Johnston Island (the largest) is 2 miles long x.5 miles wide and 7ft above sea level.
There is nothing but water for 500 miles in every direction and even then the closest land is an another uninhabited rock. The closest civilization is Hawaii (820 miles), a 2.5 hour journey by jet.
You had 640K? You had it easy, enough memory to wallow in.:-) I used Turbo Pascal under Montezuma Micro CP/M on a TRS-80 Model 4 with 64K of RAM to write software to monitor an environment simulation chamber used to test new heat pump designs. It was a truly wonderful product and worked flawlessly. Compilation speeds on the 4MHz Z-80 blew everything else away.
The age of NT 4.0 is not relevant. What is relevant is that Microsft said that they would provide security fixes until a certain date and they aren't. As an IT manager, this tells me that this company is not reliable. If you promise me service, I expect to get that service.
Note that is not possible to verify Microsoft's claims as why they can't fix it, nor is it possible to get anyone else to fix it since the code is not available. This situation is a perfect example of why a business is better off with open source.
In all I have read about Microsoft's "Shared Source" programs, there doesn't seem to be *any* method of verifying that the source you are given is the same as the source given to someone else. You simply have to trust Microsoft because you aren't allowed to discuss it with anyone else, even those people who supposedly have the same access that you do. Isn't that a bit odd?
If I download some source for some Open Source package, like the Linux kernel, I can not only build it completely, but also compare what I got with whomever I wish. There are no secrets. I can have some faith that what I have is the real thing. That is simply not true with Microsoft's "Shared Source".
Slashdot Mirror
This site http://netmoc.cpe.ucf.edu/Projects/OpenDocument/Te stSuite.html
has Sample ODF documents intended as references. From the site:
We are working towards developing a comprehensive set of sample documents for the OpenDocument specifications developed by the Oasis consortium.
Every document has associated rendering samples created with:
* OpenOffice v2.0.1 on Windows XP SP2
* KOffice v1.5beta on Gentoo Linux
The set of sample documents was developed at the Networking and Mobile Computing Laboratory at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Central Florida.
Developed by: Yi Luo and Majid A. Khan under the supervision of Dr. Lotzi Boloni.
The development was sponsored by Intel corporation and released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
That clause pre-dates the existance of GPL QT.
The oft-hyped training issue is a complete myth in my experience.
My parents (age 70+) are happily running Fedora Core 5. training was neglible. They e-mail, surf, and play games with no problems at all.
My present company is completely linux-based using thin-clients. Training issues? None, nada. Complaints? None, nada. No issues teaching people to use Linux, no issues teaching people to use OpenOffice.org, or Gaim, or Evolution, or any of the other applications we use.
We are a medical facility. Our staff are trained to treat patients and are by no means computer people. They just want the computer to work so that they can get their jobs done. And you know what? That's exactly what it does.
Linux is not perfect, but neither is Windows. Each is better at some things than the other. Your comments are simply ignorant.
Well, that is one reason why the person who made the determination that the documentation was not adequate was from a list provided *by Microsoft*.
At my previous employer we supported 100's of folks using OpenOffice.org 1.x under Terminal server (NT 4.0 w Citrix MetaFrame) with no problems at all. OOo 2.x should be even easier to run this way.
Yeah, Microsoft is big on allowing users to actually make a choice. That is why, when I went to purchase computers for our company and simply wanted the Windows licenses not to be tied to the machine I was told that *Microsoft* wouldn't allow it.
Microsoft also wouldn't allow our vendor to sell us machines without windows at all. We were told that we could purchase Windows *again* to get what we wanted. Rediculous.
Who cares what the customer wants, it's what Microsoft wants that matters.
About the same time this happened it was revealed that Microsoft was giving "rewards" to vendors who reported on customers who asked for naked machines. It's amazing that Microsoft felt that they had some right to know about a transaction from which they were explicitly excluded.
I also think that this is more of a tactical move to prevent adoption of ODF. Let's look at it shall we?
For Open Document Format (ODF):
1. Created and maintained through an open process anyone, even individuals, can join.
2. Multiple companies/organization (not all IT companies either) were involved in its creation.
3. ODF is an OASIS ratified standard NOW.
4. ODF is already in ISO approval process (approval
expected in ~6 months)
5. Multiple implementations are available NOW.
6. Format is completely usable by anyone NOW. No known IP issues.
For Microsoft Office 12 XML:
1. Creation was closed. No details available on how it will be maintained. Individuals cannot join ECMA and cannot participate in ECMA committees except by invitation.
2. Created by a single company to support a single product.
3. ECMA approval expected to take ~18 months
4. ISO aproval process can only be started after ECMA approval
5. No implementations available. None can expected until at least the first draft of the standard is issued by ECMA.
6. There are still IP issues which are unclear. Currently Microsoft has only issued a patent covenant for the Office 2003 XML schemas. These are not the schemas used by Office 12.
While Microsoft has *promised* to issue a covenant for Office 12 schemas, it has not done so. Such a covenant really has no meaning until the ECMA process has at least produced a draft standard.
The Office 12 *format* is not the Office 12 XML schemas. The Office 12 format follows another Microsoft tecnology called "Open Packaging Conventions (OPC)" which has it's own associated licenses. The current license for OPC has the same IP issues that the orginal schema license had. I have seen no written indication that this has changed.
Unless the OPC is also passed to ECMA, this whole thing is rather useless since the actual Office 12 formats will not be under a standard, but still controlled at the whim of Microsoft.
We're a medical clinic with offices in two cities. We run a thin client setup. We've got 15 terminals and 13 printers connected to a quad 500MHz (w 2MB cache/processor) PIII Xeon with 2GB RAM. Certainly not a powerhouse by today's standards. We've been using this system for over 5 years now.
:-)
:-)
We use OpenOffice.org extensively as well as PDF, Firefox, Evolution, etc. Everything works really well. We've seen the same issues that you describe although for us, it has never really had a big impact. A runaway process might tie up one CPU, but the others keep processing just fine.
The benefits of thin clients far outweigh the issues you raised. You didn't say whether your server was SMP so I assume it was a single CPU. You might want to re-evaluate your decision to go local. Check out the cost of a good multi-core server vs the cost of multiple local machines. I think you're trying to solve your problem the wrong way.
When we upgrade it'll be to a multi-core Opteron.
LOL. You obviously don't know too much about nature. Did you know that the most feminine of women are actually genetically male (XY Chromosomes)? They are to all outward appearance female. Internally, however, they have no womb and no ovaries, but instead undecended testicles. They are also perfectly natural and like most XX women, are sexually attracted to men. Are they gay?
They are more feminine than XX women because their bodies cannot respond to male hormones (androgens) *at all*. Their bodies only respond to female hormones. The default for all humans is female unless directed otherwise by androgens.
This condition is known as CAIS, Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. It also occurs in a partial form (PAIS) which has varying levels of androgen insensitivity. PAIS individuals span the range from female to male. Having both male and female characterisitics, would you consider these people gay and unnatural?
Your comment merely showcases your ignorance. The world is a much more diverse place than you think. Degrading others relects poorly on you, not the person(s) you attempt to degrade.
I have been fortunate in my career to have used many different computing systems besides those made by Microsoft. If you only know a single system (doesn't matter which one), your thinking and approach to problems will be framed by that knowledge. I've seen this verified many times by new hires.
The article credits Microsoft with way too many things and shows a definate lack of knowledge of computing history. It's more sad than anything. If you've never seen or been in a car, of course you'll think that the company who makes the bicycles everyone has is really great.
My personal opinion is that Microsoft has put the computing industry at least *10* YEARS behind where it should be. I feel this way because of all the non-Microsoft systems I have used over the years. There have been so many excellent ideas that appeared years before Microsoft incorporated them, if they incorporated them at all.
Sigh. Ignorance that great shouldn't be displayed public.
While the Amiga certainly had it's flaws, it did have features that even current systems don't have. Older systems still have value in what they can teach folks today. Things to be avoided, and things that might be possible.
Well, considering that the same guy who designed the graphics chip in the Atari 8-bit also did the diesign of the graphics chips inthe Amiga I would would have to say that that the Amiga *was* the the true sucessor. :-)
It's quite simple. You have to have a compiler to build that bright new shiny OS. :-)
I worked for several years on Johnston Atoll, which is located about 820 miles SW of Hawaii. The atoll consists of four tiny islands: North, East, Sand, and Johnston. Johnston Island (the largest) is 2 miles long x .5 miles wide and 7ft above sea level.
:-)
There is nothing but water for 500 miles in every direction and even then the closest land is an another uninhabited rock. The closest civilization is Hawaii (820 miles), a 2.5 hour journey by jet.
This guy has it easy.
You had 640K? You had it easy, enough memory to wallow in. :-) I used Turbo Pascal under Montezuma Micro CP/M on a TRS-80 Model 4 with 64K of RAM to write software to monitor an environment simulation chamber used to test new heat pump designs. It was a truly wonderful product and worked flawlessly. Compilation speeds on the 4MHz Z-80 blew everything else away.
The age of NT 4.0 is not relevant. What is relevant is that Microsft said that they would provide security fixes until a certain date and they aren't. As an IT manager, this tells me that this company is not reliable. If you promise me service, I expect to get that service.
Note that is not possible to verify Microsoft's claims as why they can't fix it, nor is it possible to get anyone else to fix it since the code is not available. This situation is a perfect example of why a business is better off with open source.
In all I have read about Microsoft's "Shared Source" programs, there doesn't seem to be *any* method of verifying that the source you are given is the same as the source given to someone else. You simply have to trust Microsoft because you aren't allowed to discuss it with anyone else, even those people who supposedly have the same access that you do. Isn't that a bit odd?
If I download some source for some Open Source package, like the Linux kernel, I can not only build it completely, but also compare what I got with whomever I wish. There are no secrets. I can have some faith that what I have is the real thing. That is simply not true with Microsoft's "Shared Source".