OpenOffice Sports All-Around Improvements

By Tiffany Maleshefski
June 13, 2007

Going head to head with Microsoft 2007, the latest version of the free-for-all OpenOffice.org touts across-the-board improvements in the software's word processing, spreadsheet, database and presentation applications.

However, the brightest aspects of OpenOffice.org 2.2, which began shipping at the end of March, are its price tag—free—and its impressively broad platform support. OpenOffice.org runs on: Windows, Linux x86 and PowerPC, Solaris x86 and SPARC, Mac OS X and FreeBSD.

To read the rest of Tiffany Maleshefski's article go to eWEEK.com

1 Billion PCs Forecast in 2008

Forrester predicts the PC population will hit 1 billion next year, and 2 billion by 2015.

Siobhan Chapman, Computerworld UK

Analyst firm Forrester forecasts there will be more than 2 billion PCs worldwide by 2015, with more than 1 billion of these in use by the end of next year.

New research from Forrester predicts a dramatic growth in PCs, particularly in emerging markets, with a worldwide compound annual growth rate of more than 12 percent between 2003 and 2015.

more at PC world...here

Dont Blame Malicious-ware: Blame..Julie Amero

"Spyware is a general term used to describe software that performs certain behaviors such as advertising, collecting personal information, or changing the configuration of your computer, generally without appropriately obtaining your consent first."

"Unlike viruses and worms, spyware does not usually self-replicate. Like many recent viruses, however, spyware — by design — exploits infected computers for commercial gain. Typical tactics furthering this goal include delivery of unsolicited pop-up advertisements; theft of personal information (including financial information such as credit card numbers); monitoring of Web-browsing activity for marketing purposes; or routing of HTTP requests to advertising sites."



From the start, Amero has protested that she’s innocent, contending that spyware hijacked her classroom computer in explaining the pornographic pop-ups that some students at Kelly Middle School saw on 19 October 2004. In truth, Amero, a computer novice, was just the victim of malicious software that took over IE and the PC in the classroom where she was substituting. And you know what every one of us in the world understands, that if you use a windows base PC that goes on the public web, it is at risk form this kind of attack. So why did a jury last January convict Julie Amero on four counts of risk of injury to a minor? Why must we always play this game. I have heard no where that any law enforcement group was going after those responsible for the malicious spyware.


Evidence presented at Amero's trial showed that the school's computer was infected with malicious JavaScript code, after a visit to a Web site devoted to hair styles. No one is blameing the school, the IT administrators or OS, their blameing some one who had no control over the systems or network in question. Windows XP IT administrators everywhere find themselves going into battle against spyware-controlled computers even when these computers are up-to-date on malware detection and patching they can still find it themselves under attack from an unstoppable flurry of popups.People just aren’t clear about what spywares can do. Malicious spyware can take control of your PC and you won’t even know it. I think these are the kinds of facts that needed to be put in front of people or before a jury came to decide on a case such as this. W. Herbert Horner,a computer expert, was not allowed to present some information he considered vital to Amero's defense, because the evidence was never given to the prosecution to review prior to trial; a standard procedure.
But now A superior court judge in charge of sentencing in the Julie Amero case has set aside the guilty verdict. She ruled that the prosecution’s computer expert gave incorrect testimony concerning the computer in the classroom. Its sick if the state thinks it should retry her.

If Kelly Middle School was useing say Novell, Linspire, or Mandriva, I would not even be writing about this tragic state of events. And since all three are based on Linux, they are free from the viruses and spyware that plague Microsoft Windows computers. The basic underlying architecture of Linux was designed with security in mind. The IT administrators at that school would not have to worry about trojan horses, hackers, worms, spyware or any other intruders as much.

Native Gnu/Linux Software

Are you thinking of making the move to GNU/Linux?

Yes, Linux does have a history of being a command line OS (Operating System), but that is old news people. At this point you can still do a lot in a command console, but it's rarely necessary anymore in todays GNU/Linux desktop world. GNU/Linux is generally faster for a given set of hardware specifications. Linux is well known for its amazing reliability...GNU/Linux reduces the need to upgrade or replace hardware when upgrading to newer versions. This is because its code is very efficient and compact. This is due to greater optimization of the source code, including far less code bloat., thus allowing it to work effectively on older computers that are not suitable for the newest versions of Microsoft Windows. People use computers for applications, not the OS. Some people need professional design apps that have real color profiles for high end printing for example, for another there is no video editing program even in the ballpark of Final Cut Pro Adobe After Effects, and no real match for the visual web design ease of Dreamweaver. An OS is only as good as its ISVs (Independent software vendors).

I have a list of the first 31 Linux native programs I fine very useful in a None Windows & Mac OSX world. Im not saying their the most important, only that they or the most useful for me. Many of these programs come in deb. or rpm. installation packages. However many GNU systems have most of these free programs pre installed. Note: Pixel image editor & Nero linux cost money.

30. NDISWrapper (A driver wrapper that allows you to use Windows driver for wireless network cards)

29. BitTorrent (client)
Torrent is a protocol designed for transferring files. It is peer-to-peer in nature, as users connect to each other directly to send and receive portions of the file. However, there is a central server (called a tracker) which coordinates the action of all such peers. In most of these networks, ordinary Internet users trade files by directly connecting one-to-one. The advantage here is that files can be shared without having access to a proper server, and because of this there is little accountability for the contents of the files. Hence, these networks tend to be very popular for illicit files such as music, movies, pirated software, etc. Typically, a downloader receives a file from a single source, however the newest version of some clients allow downloading a single file from multiple sources for higher speeds.

28. FoxyTunes (plugin for Firefox)

Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser.


27. RealPlayer

The Player supports RealAudio, RealVideo 10, MP3, Ogg Vorbis and Theora, H263, AAC and etc.

26. Songbird

It uses GStreamer to play audio files and for other platforms it uses VLC plugin for playing audio files and supports a number of file formats including Ogg Vorbis , FLAC,Windows Media , and MP3 . It can also play some video files .Songbird can be used simultaneously for browsing Internet and listening music and you don't have to launch a new web browser or a media player to do so since it has Internet browser and media player built in it . One can search various music blog for information related to song you are playing also you can configure Songbird to get additional information about the Track you are playing from the Internet and show it simultaneously while you are playing the song .


25. Nero Linux

The new version of NeroLinux brings amazing features like Blu-Ray and HD DVD data recording support, but also an improved GUI (graphical user interface) that is similar to the one from Nero Burning ROM 7 edition.

24. Kopete

Like Gaim, Kopete is an instant messenger supporting AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, Jabber, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Lotus SameTime, and more. Kopete is designed to be a flexible and extensible multi-protocol system suitable for personal and enterprise use.If you have a webcam and want to show yourself to the person you communicate with you can use it. Kopete has webcam support for MSN & Yahoo Messenger.


23. Exaile
is similar to Amarok. Like AmaroK, Exaile also includes a built in shoutcast directory browser and tabbed playlists. It's GTK+ based, so it runs more smoothly in GNOME.


22. Wine

Linux is a software framework that emulates the Microsoft Windows 98 , 2000 and XP. Wine does not require a copy of Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available.


21. Pixel image editor (formerly known as Pixel32)

Pixel is an RGB, CMYK and HDR image editing, photo retouching and manipulating program available for many operating systems formerly known as Pixel32. Pixel Image Editor includes many brushes, gradients, patterns, effect plugins, image import/export plugins (including animated GIFs).


End of Part I