OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta: Open Source Posted by: comforteagle From the Oh! OOo dept.: The most immediately visible change to OpenOffice.org 3.0 is the new "Start Centre", new fresh-looking icons, and a new zoom control in the status bar. A closer look shows that 3.0 has a myriad of new features. Notable Calc improvements include a new solver component; support for spreadsheet collaboration through workbook sharing; and an increase to 1024 columns per sheet. Writer has an improved notes feature and displays of multiple pages while editing. There are numerous Chart enhancements, and an improved crop feature in Draw and Impress. Behind the scenes, OpenOffice.org 3.0 will support the upcoming OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2 standard, and is capable of opening files created with MS-Office 2007 or MS-Office 2008 for Mac OS X (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, etc.). This is in addition to read and write support for the MS-Office binary file formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt, etc.). OpenOffice.org 3.0 will be the first version to run on Mac OS X without X11, with the look and feel of any other Aqua application. It introduces partial VBA support to this platform. In addition, OpenOffice.org 3.0 integrates well with the Mac OS X accessibility APIs, and thus offers better accessibility support than many other Mac OS X applications. Published May 07, 2008 - 01:39 PM Read more... Comment

Sun ships OpenSolaris: Open Source Posted by: comforteagle From the New Toy! dept.: A mere three years after starting the OpenSolaris project, Sun Microsystems today releases the first official OpenSolaris version. OpenSolaris includes the all-important Project Indiana, a project from Debian founder Ian Murdock to make OpenSolaris’ package management system more like that of Linux. OpenSolaris is based on the original Solaris kernel but includes features such as the Zettabyte File System (ZFS) which offers a range of tools including instant rollback and checks to prevent data corruption. Published May 05, 2008 - 01:27 PM Read more... Comment

Sun CEO: "Sun Continues to Lead the Open Source Innovation Revolution": Open Source Posted by: comforteagle From the Inside the Sun dept.: 'The world is moving to open source innovation, and Sun continues to lead that revolution,' said Jonathan Schwartz yesterday, as Sun reported its Q3 fiscal 2008 results. 'We continue to invest in the future created by open alternatives to proprietary technologies, best exemplified by the acquisition of MySQL,' Schwartz added. "The U.S. economy presented Sun with significant challenges in the third quarter, masking our progress in developing nations and economies across the world," Schwartz continued. "With double digit year-over-year growth in India and Brazil, and triple digit billings year-over-year growth in our energy efficient, Solaris-based Chip Multi-Threading (CMT) systems, Sun made considerable progress during the quarter." Published May 02, 2008 - 09:02 AM Read more... Comment

What's New in OpenBSD 4.3: Open Source Posted by: comforteagle From the Other White Meat dept.: The OpenBSD project is ready to announce the new release, OpenBSD 4.3, that will be officially available on May 1st... ...Federico Biancuzzi interviewed a large group of developers to talk about the new networking tools (snmpd and snmpctl), the new features and scope of relayd (previously known as hoststated), how the configuration of carp was simplified, improvements in wireless drivers, storage limits and speed-ups, SMP support in sparc64, bug fixes and audits for some tricky coding practices, and much more! Published Apr 30, 2008 - 02:53 PM Read more... Comment

Ian Murdock Talks About OpenSolaris' Upcoming First Release: Open Source Posted by: comforteagle From the Anticipate dept.: Sun's Ian Murdock gave a presentation about OpenSolaris at LugRadio Live this past weekend. He explained how OpenSolaris reflects Sun's changing platform strategy and also discussed some of the technical attributes that differentiate OpenSolaris from Linux. Murdock explained that Sun's traditional strengths in the enterprise are being overshadowed by significant changes in the market and in software adoption processes. He pointed out that much of the success that Linux has enjoyed in the server room is a result of its increasing popularity on the desktop among system administrators and other IT specialists. This is because people tend to deploy the technologies that are most accessible to them, he argues. Published Apr 16, 2008 - 09:34 AM Read more... Comment

Sun: Open Media Codec: Open Source Posted by: comforteagle From the License? dept.: Looking to boost the Web, Sun is working on a royalty-free and open video codec and media system, company officials said Thursday afternoon. ...Detailed at the Sun Labs Open House event in Menlo Park, Calif., the project is called Open Media Stack or the Open Media System. It was derived out of Sun's Open Media Commons initiative for development of royalty-free and open solutions for digital content. Published Apr 15, 2008 - 09:15 AM Read more... Comment

Harvard starts teaching open source: Open Source Posted by: comforteagle From the S.M.R.T. dept.: It's about time that United States elite academic institutions finally got around to not only using open-source software, but also teaching it. In the April 2008 edition of Harvard Business Review, Harvard gives its MBA students a taste of the decision facing every company that leverages technology as part of its business (namely, everyone): Should I embrace or fight open source? Published Apr 12, 2008 - 11:12 AM Read more... Comment

Google Summer of Code Deadline Extended: Open Source Posted by: comforteagle From the Get Crackin' dept.: This year, we experimented with the Google Summer of Code™ program timeline, providing one week for students to discuss project ideas with their mentors and then a single week to submit applications. The good news is that we've heard that overall application quality is much higher this year and that students have really benefited from the opportunity to have extra time to discuss their ideas with their potential mentors. However, we've still heard feedback from the community that it would be useful to provide more time for students to submit their applications, so we've done just that. The new deadline for student applications is Monday, April 7, 2008. Published Apr 02, 2008 - 09:04 AM Read more... Comment

OpenOffice.org 2.4: Open Source Posted by: comforteagle From the OOo! OOo! dept.: The OpenOffice.org Community is pleased to announce the release of OpenOffice.org 2.4, the latest version of the leading open source office productivity suite. OpenOffice.org 2.4 includes many new features, enhancements, and bug fixes to all its core components. OpenOffice.org 2.4 is available for immediate download and the new features are described in the release notes. Published Mar 28, 2008 - 09:46 AM Read more... Comment

Navy to focus only on open systems: Open Source Posted by: comforteagle From the US Navy, that is dept.: The Navy will acquire only systems based on open technologies and standards. Vice Adm. Mark Edwards, deputy chief of naval operations for communications, broke the news March 5 to a Navy IT Day audience in Vienna, Va., sponsored by AFCEA International. Note: Sorry, this is a little late publishing. Published Mar 25, 2008 - 03:21 PM Read more... Comment