Mjukvara kan bytas ut skrev jag i ett tidigare inlägg. Skälen att göra ett sådant byte kan vara många, man byter till något nyare, något man hoppas fungerar bättre, eller som man gör på flera ställen i Småland (smålänningar har ju rykte om sig att vara ekonomiska) för att spara pengar.

Radio Kalmar rapporterar att Torsås kommun tänker spara en halv miljon genom att gå över från Microsofts officepaket till OpenOffice.org. Landstinget i Kalmar län gör det samma, men bara med hälften av sina datorer, och sparar ändå sex miljoner. Bra tänkt. De pengar vi betalar i skatt vill vi ska gå till bra kommunal service och bra vård – inte till att göda Microsoft.

Tommy k Johansson är inne på samma tema, men mer privat. När man köper en dator följer ofta Microsoft Office med “gratis”, men det är en demo-version, som slutar fungera efter en månad om man inte betalar. Givetvis kan man ta bort Microsoft Office och installera OpenOffice.org i stället. Är det bara ordbehandling man är ute efter bör man också titta på det lite enklare AbiWord.

Både OpenOffice.org och AbiWord kan du hämta kostnadsfritt på Internet.

Förutom kostnaden finns det en massa andra goda argument till varför du bör titta noga på de här alternativen, men de argumenten spar jag till en annan gång.

Vill bara påminna om bloggkollegan Påvel, som skriver mycket om de här kontorsprogrammen och gärna trollar fram fantastiska finesser ur dem, som man knappt trodde fanns.

• Hämta OpenOffice.org

• Hämta AbiWord

Andra bloggar om: Microsoft Office,  ordbehandlare, OpenOffice, AbiWord,  (Intressant?)

Brett Patrick Markley
41839 Amberly Dr.
Clinton Twp., Michigan 48038
Home: 586-416-4875
Cell: 586-214-8027

Objective
To promote the implementation and advancement of technology where my skills, education, and experience can be utilized.

Functional Experience

Senior Lead Electronics Repair Technician/Software Engineer
ABB Inc.
Auburn Hills, MI
06/2003 – 10/2009
Administrate Daily Repair Operations, Coordinate Personnel And Work Assignments, Provide Production And Performance Tracking Of Jobs And Technicians. Forecast Monthly Earnings And Provide Monthly Reports And Analysis. Assist With Warranty Tracking, And Problem Resolution. Facilitate Weekly Departmental Safety Talks. Manage And Source Equipment, Supplies, And Parts. Build, Maintain, Audit, And Repair Test Equipment. Analyze And Expand Repair Capabilities, Create Documentation, And Procedures. Manage, Train, And Assist Repair Technicians. Clean, Test, Repair, And Refurbish ABB OEM Electronics. In-circuit Repair Of Discrete And Surface Mount Component Technology. Administrate Test Computers, Robot Controllers, Networking, Internal Software, Customer Software Creation, Firmware, And Firmware Production. Submission Of Bug Information And Change Requests To Main Office. Expand Product Knowledge Through Periodic Training. Provide Technical Support For Electronics, Computers And Software. Member Of ABB Emergency Response Team, ABB Certified For Hazardous Material Manifest.
Electronics Service Engineer

St-Lawrence-Troy LLC
Madison Heights, MI
10/2001 – 06/2003
Third Party Repair Services. Clean, Test, And Repair Power Supplies, Servo Amplifiers, Teach Pendants, Main CPU, EMG Modules, And I/O Boards From Various Manufacturers Containing Both Discrete And Surface Mount Technology. Identify, Source, Order And Maintain Components And Consumable Inventory Used For Repair. Prepared Documentation For Repairs And Test Procedures.

Electronics Service Engineer/Proposal Engineer
Argus & Associates Inc.
Wixom, MI
10/2000 – 06/2001
Contracted for FANUC Robotics North America Inc. Rochester Hills, MI. Creation Of Custom Rebuild, Refurbishment, Repair, P.M. And Spare Parts Support Packages. Coordinate Customer Contact Meetings, Part Orders, Part Packages, And Material Planning. Provide Interdepartmental Communications And Data Acquisition. Clean, Test, And Repair Power Supplies, Servo Amplifiers, Teach Pendants, Main CPU And EMG Modules Containing Both Discrete And Surface Mount Component Technology. Prepared Documentation For Repairs And Test Procedures. Expand Product Knowledge Through Periodic Training.

Electronics Service Engineer/Proposal Engineer
Epcom Corporation
Troy, MI
01/1999 – 10/2000
Contracted for FANUC Robotics North America Inc. Rochester Hills, MI. Creation Of Custom Rebuild, Refurbishment, Repair, P.M. And Spare Parts Support Packages. Coordinate Customer Contact Meetings, Part Orders, Part Packages, And Material Planning. Provide Interdepartmental Communications And Data Acquisition. Clean, Test, And Repair Power Supplies, Servo Amplifiers, Teach Pendants, Main CPU And EMG Modules Containing Both Discrete And Surface Mount Component Technology. Prepared Documentation For Repairs And Test Procedures. Expand Product Knowledge Through Periodic Training.

Electronics Service Engineer
Tarus Products Inc.
Sterling Heights, MI
08/1997 – 01/1999
Clean, Test, Repair, Assemble, And Retrofit Prototype/Production Computers And Circuit Boards Containing Both Discrete And Surface Mount Component Technology. Software And Hardware Installation And Support. Field Service Support Of CNC Milling And CMM Inspection Machines. Installation And Support Of In-House Network. Organize And Maintain Component Inventory.

Education

ABB Inc.
Auburn Hills, MI
06/2003 – 10/2009
Certifications In S2, S3, S4, S4C, S4C+, IRC5, Trallfa, S4P, S4P+ Electrical Maintenance, Robot Safety, Electrical Safety, Mechanical Safety, HAZMAT, ERT, Ethics, Diversity, SAP, JDE, Leadership, Team Work.

FANUC Robotics North America
Rochester Hills, MI
01/1999 – 06/2001
Certifications In R-J, R-J2, And R-J3 Electrical Maintenance And P200 Mechanical Rebuild, BAAN, MS Office, Visual Basic, ACT, Safari Report Writer, Robot Safety, Electrical Safety, Mechanical Safety, HAZMAT, ERT, Ethics, Diversity

ITT Technical Institute Associate Degree
Troy, MI
03/1996 – 4/1998
Computer and Electronics Engineering Technology
GPA Of 3.85 Member Of National Vocational Honor Society

Affiliations

National Vocational Honor Society in Electronics Engineering Technology Member
06/1997 – Present

Skills

Fabrication & Assembly
Customer Service
Hardware
Programming
Servers
CMM
Database
Industrial Controls
Project Management
Software
CNC
Design
Installation
Repair
Technical Support
Communications
Electronics
Microsoft/Windows
Rework
Technical Writing
Computers
Engineering
Networking
Robotics
Training
Content Management
GNU/Linux
Open Source
Schematics
Troubleshooting
CSS
XHTML
XML
PHP & MYSQL
Apache

Ubuntu nelle sue diverse varianti (Kubuntu e Xubuntu le più note) è senza dubbio la distribuzione GNU/Linux che ha fatto più proseliti, soprattutto tra i newbie, per la sua estrema semplicità d’uso e per il suo “parco” software vastissimo.

Per Kubuntu potete visitare il sito dove è postato l’annuncio ufficiale di rilascio ed un (breve tour) che illustra le caratteristiche salienti di questa versione. Il sito per il download è questo.

In modo simile anche per Xubuntu potete leggere l’annuncio, visualizzare un breve tour grafico e quindi passare al download.

Su Kubuntu in versione live vengono riconosciute e montate le eventuali partizioni windows presenti, così fin da subito si ha la possibilità di aprire i propri file per testare le applicazioni presenti in questa distribuzione, non invece su Xubuntu.

La scelta di Kubuntu è adatta all’utente che sa quello che fa, quella di Xubuntu è invece adatta all’utente che preferisce non correre il rischio di rovinare il file system preesistente sul pc.

Dopo una rapida “esplorazione” ci si renderà conto che non è possibile visualizzare correttamente siti con contenuto flash, come ad esempio YouTube, e nemmeno potersi godere i propri file musicali ed i propri filmati.

Karmic Koala infatti non include i principali codecs audio e video (nemmeno flash) e nemmeno driver proprietari, quali ad esempio quelli della scheda video.

Ciò potrebbe far scoraggiare l’utente che sia avvicina per la prima volta al mondo GNU/Linux, ma occorre sottolineare che bastano pochi interventi perché Karmic Koala diventi perfettamente “usabile”.

I filmati che vi propongo servono soltanto a mostrare l’impatto visivo di queste due distribuzioni e fare una carrellata dei principali software che mettono fin da subito a disposizione.

Le durate dei filmati non corrispondono a quelle reali, infatti prima di postarli ho preferito cancellare i “tempi morti” di durata eccessiva, anche perché per la registrazione mi sono servito di macchine virtuali che non emulano a dovere le caratteristiche hardware dei pc in circolazione.

Kubuntu

L’ambiente desktop è KDE 4.3.2 ed il kernel 2.6.31.14.generic.

Ecco una breve rassegna dei software inclusi (cito solo quelli di uso più comune):

• navigazione web: Konqueror
• posta elettronica: KMail
• chat: Kopete, Quassel IRC
• torrent: KTorrent
• ufficio: OpenOffice.org, Okular (visore di svariati tipi di documenti)
• grafica: Gwenview (viewer)
• audio: Amarok
• video: Dragon Player
• CD burning: K3b
• navigazione file: Dolphin

Xubuntu

L’ambiente desktop è Xfce 4.6.1 ed il kernel è 2.6.31-14-generic

Ecco una breve rassegna dei software inclusi (cito solo quelli di uso più comune):

• navigazione web: Firefox
• posta elettronica: Thunderbird
• chat: Pidgin, XChat IRC
• torrent: Transmission
• ufficio: Abiword, Gnumeric
• grafica: Ristretto (viewer), Gimp (editor)
• audio: Exaile
• video: Totem
• CD burning: Brasero
• navigazione file: Thunar

Gli altri programmi possono essere scaricati ad installazione ultimata.

Kubuntu e Xubuntu sono senza dubbio delle ottime distribuzioni (adatte soprattutto a chi proviene da windows) e le consiglio caldamente. Da quanto vi ho appena descritto, è chiaro che un intervento, seppur minimo, dell’utente è richiesto perché il sistema si adatti alle nostre esigenze.

Sorry to say this, but i think the GNOME Shell (short: GS) looks totally senseless to me. There is not much you can do with it, it reminds me a bit on a mix of the Windows Start button and the Exposé from Macos X. Or add Novells “great” idea of a new Windows XP like menu.

It make me a bit angry to see intelligent people put together so much crap – overloaded menus, lists of applications or lists of recent documents. And then add to all this some animated smooth switching, which eats up some working time.

I am not at all impressed of GS. The opposit. i dnt get the point where it helps me. Similar thought as with GNOME DO. I always used Alt+F2 if I wanted to quick start an application without the terminal. I am not against making that kond of starter better – or if you add that somehow also in the panel. But the gnome shell adds a lot of things to the screen which I never used.

Has starting an application ever been a problem to one of you? Or opening a file? Or moving windows between workspaces?

Maybe I am noit the typical user, but when it comes to what I do often I could not comprehend this to one document or one application. I will try to compile what is important from my viewpoint:

1. Integration of applications. So like lets assume GNOME is a desktop – I dont want to waste my time knowing about applications. I expect the desktop to know which applications to know for what I plan to do. This is also true for actions like attaching files to mails or saving attachments  (which is a real pain)
2. I do get messages. And I like the desktop to save and sort them from me and allow me to manage them, copy them, add notes to them, move them from one application to the other (add a link from jabber to my bookmarks or to a mail) Messages for me are
   • Emails, Jabber-Messages, forum posts, RSS Feeds
   • System Messages, Application Messages
   • System protocols,…
3. What is a task? This is like visitting a website or checking my mail, or sending a mail – or working on some documents. There are documents that I do read often and some I only write once – and others I need ot send often. There is no such thing as “Recent Documentes”. What is this? Recently read, recently written or recently sent? Like you have a protocol that you want to send to a bunch of people.
4. Another problem is finding documents. This is a problem of the place or also the keyword. It would be necessary to be able to tag documents or even categorize them -  making the location secondary. Do I need to know where a document is saved? No – I can leave it to the system where a document resided. What I need is to find it, when I need it. Beagle a s a desktop search also needs some functionality – but sure its as well important to find bookmarks and contents of web pages. Sometimes I need to find a web page where I have read some stuff. Integrating a web based search might help – but my desktop needs to save some search results as I dont want to use Google or Yahoo more than needed.
5. Essentially there is Reading, Writing/Editing , Receiving, Sending of documents and messages. My take on this is, that with the classical object oriented model put into place into a desktop this would be a great thing. If you ask me why I would not have that much of an idea – I really think we do not start with a new GUI. What we would want is a combined effort to redefine the underlying structure and to work out new models of interaction between applications. And we would also need some serious applications which allow navigation into their functions from outside. I mean it must be possible to start an office application with the exact task that I am planing to do. It cant be the way that you start an appication and then need to find out yourself. The desktop should provide an interface to do what you want – and the applications should be the working horses. Right now applications like Firefox or OpenOffice.org are dominating everything and you need to do everything inside of them.

I dont think we will see such things from classical desktops. The GNOME shell is nothing new – its because people still think in the same categories. If GS is what GNOME 3.0 (Topaz) will be I sure will leave GNOME behind.

I have see that Windows XP now sells a tabbed interface as their own invention. Bravo GNOME – leave it to Microsoft to integrate that. I am sure now GNOME will try to copy – because before nobody at GNOME really cared to make applications ready for tabbed interfaces. I have used some tabbed window managers in the past and found the whole idea great – just that I dod not want to switch to tabbed only – and did not want to configure those managers by hand. Regards to Microsoft who just did, what GNOME thought was too innovative for their users. When MS does it, or Apple GNOME follows, but never leads the way. Just my impression. I still love my current interface because it remindes me still (but less and less) of my old Mac OS 7.x interface. I hat that they removed the application switcher applet at the default place on the right side of the panel (just where it was in the Mac Finder). Now what is dominant is that I need to shut down the computer, switch users or change my status. I really do all those things not more than 1-2 times a day – so I have removed Ubuntus “great” FUSA (fast user switch applet). And I constantly ask myself why all the things I need are removed while at the same time more and ore crap is added.

Sorry for not sounding nice. You see I have not written a lot of stuff in this blog for a while. I have watched things develop and have written more  in german in other blogs about other stuff.

I am in the mood to switch to a distribution with  a clean layout – that does not do experiments (hey, where did they dump the whole default desktop search thing?) other than Ubuntu. I need a work environment right now. Fedora is trying to be innovative too – there is currently no distributions which tries to bring you the best of open source on a stable basis. Maybe there is some Ubuntu clone I havent tried yet? I am ok if a distribution adds some innovative new desktop as an option and allows me to test it. But what I hate is when GNOME and Ubuntu make experiments and use us users as a testbed.

And I would love to have a defauilt mail program based on GNOME which does not such. Currently Evolutions sucks big time. Its absolutely unusable – I am currently using Thunderbird 3 beta4 and its really, really nice. Why does Ubuntu continue to suggest Evolution as the default option? At the same time I currently do not use Epiphany instead of Firefox because I always had some stability issues in the Ubuntu packages – and I was waiting for Epiphany-Webkit becoming ready. Currently that did not work out for me and I also found out that Firefox was not a second slower than Epiphany.

I still think Epi is the cooles browser, but it lacks integration and support from GNOME, same is still true for Gnumeric and Abiword. Some days ago I witnessed how Gnumeric taking just a few seconds opening a 1.5 MB Excel file, while OO.orgs calc took 4 minutes.

There is so much good in GNOME, but thinks do not work out well. Other applications do get more money and attention and now get more ahead of GNOMEs applications. There comes the day where OO.orgs Calc will open that file faster than Gnumeric. And then having GNOME not supporting Gnumeric because of it lacks behind OO.org will become the self fulfilling prophecy.

What I would like to see is a new GNOME initiative outside the old GNOME community but which like to bring money and attention back to all the good GNOME stuff – and not running after some mobile devices and the newest hype.

En el mercado encontramos una amplia gama de procesadores de texto, unos más simples que otros, algunos gratis, otros de pago, y todos con funcionalidades muy parecidas. Acá tenés un link de DonationCoder.com que puede resultarte muy interesante si preferís analizar tus opciones antes de apostar por alguno de ellos. Entre los principales encontramos a OpenOffice (gratuito), Microsoft Word 2007 y WordPerfect X3. Luego disponemos de otros programas como TextMaker, Atlantis, Papyrus WORD, AbiWord, Ability Write, EIOffice, PolyEdit y procesadores “vía web”: GoogleDocs, ThinkFree Office Write y Zoho Write.

Procesadores de texto: Descargas

A while back, I wrote about how Abiword was my favorite word processor, due to it’s simplicity and low system requirements and some killer features other word processors lack.  Not to mention it costs $0 and works on Windows, Mac and Linux.  As I am now back in school, I naturally decided to put Abiword to the test by using it as my primary word processor for completing assignments.

For some background on my environment, I am currently attending Howard Community College which uses Microsoft Windows XP exclusively in all of it’s classrooms and computer labs, and provides MS Word 2007 on all of it’s computers for word processing.  I complete almost all of my schoolwork on my Dell Mini 9, currently running a pre-release version of Ubuntu Linux 9.10.  I do frequently need to use the college’s Windows XP systems for purposes of printing documents and completing online classwork in rooms without Wifi.

For the most part, I have found Abiword to meet my needs satisfactorily.  Abiword starts extremely fast on my computer, and provides sufficient tools for doing almost everything I need to do.  While Abiword does support MS Word document format (.doc) and OpenDocument Format (.odt), I have chosen to stick with the default .abw format so I don’t need to worry about any formating incompatibilities when I go to print my completed work.  I initially intended to save all of my finished documents to PDF for final printing (saved to a USB flash drive), but I discovered that while my PDFs are perfect in Ubuntu, they were all blank documents in Windows.  (I attempted this with 3 documents using Abiword’s built in save as PDF feature.  Exporting to PDF in Ubuntu using OpenOffice.org works fine).  Luckily, I had the installer for Abiword on my USB flash drive, and installation of the word processor only takes about 15 seconds.  Once Abiword was installed in Windows, printing my .abw documents were simple.  Another option I could try is installing and running Abiword directly from my USB flash drive.  This is reported to work very well, and very simple instructions are available here.

My greatest challenge in using Abiword came when I was required to use MLA formating for the first of many essays I’ll be writing.  First, Abiword doesn’t have a typical outline generation option, but this honestly made it easier for me to crank out the outline according to the required format (I., A., 1., a).  To be clear, Abiword can be used to generate outline numbering, but it doesn’t automatically handle the hierarchy part.  To add an indented section you just tab in (after adjusting the tab stops), and start a new numbered list.  Abiword also supports the feature of continuing a numbered list from a previous part of the outline, which makes the task easier.  The one thing Abiword could not handle, was the seemingly simple task of changing the format of the page numbering.  I was required to use lowercase Roman Numerals for the outline, and Abiword doesn’t support changing the formating of the page numbers at all.

OpenOffice.org (which also costs $0 and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux) came to the rescue.  I tried saving my Abiword document in OpenOffice.org Writer’s format (.odt), but I lost all of the outline formatting I had worked so hard on (Abiword does support saving to .odt document format, but it’s not 100%).  In contrast to Abiword, re-formatting the outline in OOo Writer was a major pain.  OOo Writer does have a traditional style word processor outline tool (where it tries to guess what you want to do with the outline, Clippy style) but it only managed to make the job more complicated and more difficult.  OOo Writer also generates the numbering/lettering of the outline hierarchy for you, but none of the options available matched the specific formatting I was required to use, so I had to do some tricky tabbing in the end anyway.   Writer gave me no problems changing the page numbering to lowercase Roman numerals which was fantastic.

In the end, I still think Abiword is Awesome, but I don’t think I’ll be using it for any formal papers anytime soon.  For that task, I’ll stick with OpenOffice.org Writer.  Another advantage of using OpenOffice.org for my schoolwork is that OOo Writer’s default document format .odt is supported by MS Word 2007, and I’ve noticed no formatting issues opening .odt files in Word ‘07 for printing (thanks Microsoft).

In conclusion, Abiword is a fast, easy to use word processor, but it doesn’t provide me with all of the tools I need for writing essays in college.  If anyone knows how to get Abiword to change the formatting of page numbers, or if you’d like to share your experiences using Abiword, OpenOffice.org Writer, or another alternative word processor in an educational environment, please leave a comment!

I often get emails from folks asking for support for different platforms.  I love to help folks and I’m very interested in solving a problem.  I don’t have the expertise in all the platforms folks want AtD to support.  Since it’s my occupation, I plan to keep improving AtD as a service, but here is my wish list of places where I’d like to see AtD wind up:

Wikipedia

I’d like to meet Jimmy Wales, one of the founders of Wikipedia.  First because I love Wikipedia and it tickles me pink that so much knowledge is available at my finger tips.  I’m from the last generation to grow up with hard bound encyclopedias in my home.

Second, because I’d love to explore how After the Deadline could help Wikipedia. AtD could help raise the quality of writing there.

Since the service will be open source there won’t be an IP cost necessarily.  The only barriers are AtD support in the MediaWiki software and server side costs.  Fortunately I’ve learned a lot about scaling AtD from working with WordPress.com and given a number of edits/hour and server specs, I could come up with a good guess about how much horsepower is really needed.

I’d love to write the MediaWiki plugin myself but unfortunately I’m so caught up trying to improve the core AtD product that this is beyond my own scope.  If anyone chooses to pick this project up, let me know, I’ll help in any way I can.

Online Office Suites and Content Management Systems

There are a lot of people cutting and pasting from Word to their content management systems.  There are many web applications either taking over the word processor completely or for niche tasks.  For this shift to really happen these providers need to offer proofreading tools that match what the user would get in their word processor.  None of us are supposed to depend on automated tools but a lot of us do.

Abiword, KWord, OpenOffice, and Scribus

It’s a tough sell to say a technology like AtD belongs in a desktop word processor.  I say this because AtD consumes boatloads of memory.  I could adopt it to keep limited amounts of data in memory and swap necessary stuff from the disk.  If there isn’t a form of AtD suitable for plugging into these applications, I hope someone clones the project and adapts it to these projects.   If someone chooses to port AtD to C, let me know, I’ll probably give a little on my own time and will gladly answer questions.

Za vježbu uređivanja teksta, ovdje su materijali koji se mogu koristiti u dokumentu, a preuzmite (download) ih na svoje računalo uz pomoć desne tipke miša i naredbe ‘Spremi cilj kao’ (Save Target As).

Zapamtite u koju mapu ste pospremili preuzete datoteke (file), kako bi iste mogli učitati u Vaš program za uređivanje teksta.

Vježba izrade tekstualnog dokumenta

Slika potrebna za vježbu

Ich hatte gerade mal Lust eine Übersicht der Interfaces von Textanwendungen zu machen. Über Funktionsvergleiche könnte man seitenweise Texte schreiben, und die Zielgruppen sind sowieso anders. Eine Interface Übersicht sagt also nicht wirklich viel aus. Ich fand es trotzdem mal ganz lustig und interessant.

Apple iWork ´09 Pages 4.0.2

Microsoft Office 2008 Word 12.2.1

OpenOffice.org 3.1.0 Writer

NeoOffice 3.0 Patch 7 Writer

AbiSource AbiWord 2.4.5

James Hoover Bean 2.3.1

Mir persönlich gefallen Pages und Bean am besten. Am schlechtesten finde ich Word und Abiword in der Mac Version. Natürlich gibt es noch viel viel mehr Schreibprogramme, aber ich denke die wichtigsten und bekanntesten habe ich abgedeckt.

Für die offizielle Seite des Programms jeweils einfach auf die Bildüberschrift klicken.

I’ve just uploaded some more issues of Nathan’s Newspaper, my very own self-published newspaper, to the web, and you can get them here or from Scribd:

*currently, the WP dowload link is not working, so get you can get them from Scribd:

read my newspaper, today? please please please? and do order a subscription please!

This week Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) formally appealed the judge’s ruling that MS Word application violates the patent 5,787,449 held by i4i. Microsoft was forced by last weeks ruling that Microsoft must stop selling MS Word in the U.S. containing the patented customized XML tool in the next 60 days. Microsoft was ordered to already pay upwards of $240 Million in fines, however Office software accounts for $3 Billion in world wide sales last year. i4i is a small software firm going against the big guns, how long will they last?

If you get a chance, please visit my site at  http://www.bretttek.com

MS Office uses i4i patented process (U.S. Patent number 5,787,449) for opening and saving .XML, .DOCX, .DOCM files.

Will this really hurt Microsoft?

Microsoft could win the appeal, settle with i4i, buy i4i and its patent, or disable the customized XML.

i4i is a small Canadian technology firm, that employs 30 people. i4i makes software for drug and defense companies, and they also hold the patent for the customized XML since 1998.

Microsoft’s total payout for this XML patent infringement is now at $290 million and a permanent injunction, stopping them from selling Word 2003 & 2007 with customized XML after October 10, 2009. However all Microsoft has to do is tweak the software by disabling the customized XML and change the SKU number of the product, to resume sales after October 10, 2009.

The bigger question is how many other software manufacturers are using the same customized XML? Could any of following such as Adobe, Openoffice, Delphi, AbiWord, Apple’s iWork, Altova XMLSpy, Arbortext, Oxygen XML Editor, Syntext Serna, XmetaL, XML Notepad, XML Studio, Xopus and the list goes on?

Is not XML under GPL?

Could not open source take i4i to court for GPL infringements?

If you get a chance, please visit my site at  http://www.bretttek.com

AbiWord, a dedicated, easy-to-use word processor, can handle any basic word-wrangling task you throw at it.

The interface is straightforward, so you won’t need to waste time getting lost in ribbons or multilevel menus. Simple icons and menus across the top of the page give you access to all of the program’s features, and there are many of them. The application performs mail merges; inserts page numbers, the date and time and other auto text; and provides some very nice table tools. On top of all that, it can insert and handle images.

Be aware that the program has some drawbacks; for one thing, it won’t support the newest .docx Office file format. Still, if you don’t need to work with .docx files, give this freebie a try.

Download AbiWord | Price: Free

A personal information manager (PIM) can help you maintain your schedule and to-do list, keep track of your contacts and create outlines as you brainstorm.

EssentialPIM Free is an excellent PIM choice for anyone who doesn’t want to spend any money. Exceptionally simple to use, it offers just about everything you could want. Scheduling recurring events is a breeze and prioritizing your to-do lists is easy. The note taker is nifty, too, and the app even has a surprisingly good built-in e-mail client.

The program also imports data from Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, allows you to configure its look and feel and provides printing options. The creators offer a for-pay version, which has additional features such as synchronization with mobile devices, Outlook and Google Calendar. But if you don’t need advanced features, the free version is a great bet.

Download EssentialPIM Free | Price: Free

The name of this program says it all: It lets you create sticky notes on your PC similar to the paper Post-It notes that litter people’s offices. Just double-click the program’s icon in your system tray and it makes a note for you. Type in whatever you want to remember and you’re done. You can drag the note to any location on your desktop.

Want to change the font or the text color? You can do that and make the text bold or italic. How about changing the note’s color? Yes, you can do that, too, and you can change its opacity. You also can hide notes, print them and even automatically send their text via e-mail.

Overall, Simple Sticky Notes is straightforward and a snap to use — and it won’t waste your time.

Download Simple Sticky Notes | Price: Free

Chances are, you spend a big chunk of your workday going through your e-mail. Free office suites such as OpenOffice.org don’t have an e-mail client, while Microsoft Office does, in Outlook.

Thunderbird, a product of Mozilla, the same group that develops Firefox, offers a slew of high-end e-mail features, yet is extremely simple to use. In addition to all the standard e-mail features, it can encrypt messages, digitally sign messages and create filters for handling mail automatically when it arrives. It even supports RSS feeds and newsgroups, so you can keep up on the latest blogs, news and discussions. If you already have an e-mail client, Thunderbird will import your existing settings, so switching over is effortless.

Unlike Outlook, Thunderbird has no calendar, to-do list or other PIM features. If you need those, check out EssentialPIM Free, described above.

Download Thunderbird | Price: Free

If you already use Outlook but you want to improve your productivity and reduce e-mail overload, here’s the best way to do it. Xobni cuts through e-mail clutter, makes keeping in touch easier and streamlines searching for messages and contacts.

The program works as an Outlook add-on. When you need to use Xobni, it slides out from the right side of Outlook; when you’re done with it, the app hides away.

The program indexes all of your e-mail and its search is faster than the one built into Outlook. For each of your e-mail messages, it gives information about the person with whom you’re conversing, including a threaded list of every e-mail between the two of you. It also provides a list of every file you’ve exchanged, as well as the person’s phone number and “social network,” which is a list of people with whom the person has exchanged e-mail. Xobni integrates with the social networking sites Facebook and LinkedIn and it grabs information about your contacts from those sites, too.

You’ll find a lot more in this program, including analytics tools that report personal statistics such as the average amount of time you take to respond to people by day, month and week.

Download Xobni | Price: Free

Without a doubt Microsoft word is the best word processor money can buy but not all of us cannot afford it, also most of the people who buy Microsoft word never use all the features it offers. Hence Here is a list of best free word processors available in market for download.

1. Abiword: Without a doubt one of the best freeware word processor available. Abiword can read and edit almost all the coomon documet formats like MS word documents, open office documents, rtf files, txt files etc. Also Abiword is multiplatform it can run on windows, linux, solaris etc giving user the flexibility to run on any operating system. Another major plus point about Abiword is its ligh weight and quick startup , it almost starts in an instant so you are not pestered by annoying splash images at start and can jump into work right away. Give it a try and it will be liked for sure. Abiword can be downloaded for free here.

2. OpenOffice.org Writer: Probably the best MS word alternative known to most people. It has almost all the features that MS word can offer and a common man can use. Very simple to use and an elegant interface are an added advantage. Only disadvantage i can think of is that it is slightly slow to start with that annoying splash, which will bog down a few potential users. But for users looking for a complete word processing package to replace MS word Openoffice.org Writer is the best choice. Try it here.

3. Google docs : For all the online lovers word processing cannot get better than this. Although the product is in beta stage it mimics almost all the most used features of MS Word. And with offline functionality of google docs ( with google gears ) it can be used without internet connection which makes it one of the best competetor in word processing market. The biggest plus point for google docs is availaility of documents on the move ( atleast where ever internet is available ). Also google docs can read and import all the common document types. Give google docs a try and you will love it. Try Google docs here.

4. IBM Lotus Symphony : Relatively unkown in office suite market IBM lotus Symphony is attrating good share of attention these days. This office suite based on openoffice.org includes a writer with very good features and support for all the common document types. The interface is much smoother and betterl organized than openoffice writer. Try it out here.

5. Zoho Writer: Zoho office was one of the first complete online office suites available, and as with all the other online office tools its still in beta stage. But dont let this beta stop you from using it, zoho writer is probably the best online writer available and in my personal opinion beats google docs fair and square. It even supports offline editing just like google docs. For all those willing to give it a try its right over here.

Netbooks , smaller and stripped down versions of laptops are creating quite a buzz in industry. The most common factor in all these netbooks is display size. Most of them have a standard 10 inch display, which is pretty small for most of the software’s around. Being a netbook  (samsung N110) user myself i found the following list of software’s really useful in enhancing the netbook experience.

1) Dexpot: One of the best free virtual desktop softwares. Both Features and usability are topnotch. By default it comes with 4 virtual desktops, in netbook where space is a real constraint this is really useful. More abt it here.

2) The KMplayer: Being low on resources netbooks need a very good media player to play 720p videos. I tried windows media player, VLC player and noticed small hitch in both of them when playing 720p videos, but when i tried KMplyer no hitch was noticed. Just make sure that during initial configuration you select 1Ghz as your processor speed for good performance. Also KMplayer plays almost any video you throw at it. It can be downloaded here.

3) Chrome/Firefox: Its very hard to decide which one to use. I will say both are good chrome is best suited for netbooks because of its minimalistic interface thereby increasing the space avaialbe for browsing. Get it here.

Firefox can be configured to do the same using small tweeks like full screen mode, hiding status bar, hiding  bookmarks bar. But dude to firefox addons i prefer firefox more than chrome.  Get firefox here.

4) Avira Antivir: Freeware Antivirus cant get better than this. Just try it and you will know what you have been missing. After trying avast, comodo i finally found this much better. Only drawback is one pestering Ad per startup. Anyways get it here.

5) Everything: Everything is a must have for any computer with ntfs file system. Instantaneous search is what you get by using this software. Best of all it can be run from a pendrive. Only drawback i can think of is that it cant search in fat file system. Just use it to believe it, windows default search is ages behind this tool. Get it here.

6) Free Commander: Since netbooks lack desktop real estate, opening too many windows can be a real hassle, this is where free commander comes to rescue, with ability to open upto four locations at a time, tabbed file manager support. Free commander is the best alternative to standard windows file manager. Get it here.

7) Teracopy: Speedup, Pause and be in total control of your file copying using teracopy. Teracopy is a worthy replacement to standard windows copy function, with many addons that will make you forget windows copy in a jiffy.The best feature of teracopy is ability to pause and resume copying. Tera copy with free commander is a superb combination that will put windows explorer to shame. Get teracopy here.

8 ) Pidgin: Having a simgle IM client handle all your accounts is really useful for a netbook as it reduces the resources utilised, there is no better free universal IM cleint for windows than Pidgin. Get Pidgin Here. Another worthy mention here is Digsby. But it is still not as polished as Pidgin.

9) CCleaner: This a free privacy, registry and optimization tool. It is more important for netbooks since there is less ram and processing power in hand and keeping it optimized is always a requirement. Get CCleaner here.

10) Openoffice.org: Last but by no means the least is openoffice.org. The best freeware office suite available, and also it is very light on resources hence the best office suite for netbook. Get Openoffice.org here.

Another superlight weight wordprocessor worthy of mention is Abiword. It is best for users who are looking only for word processing. Get it here.

Any comments or additions to the above list are most welcome.  Also all the opinions above are purely personal, If any of the softwares cause harm to your computer its none of my responsibility.

AbiWord é um processador de texto similar ao Microsoft Word, porém multi-plataforma, multilinguagem e gratuito. Sua tarefa é unicamente o processamento de textos, já que não se trata de uma suíte como outras opções encontradas na grande rede, e que manipulam além de textos, planilhas, apresentações e bancos de dados.

Das características que diferem o AbiWord do Microsoft Office, a principal é o preço, porque o AbiWord é gratuito (freeware), além de livre. Mas alguns podem questionar o porquê não escolher o processador de texto da suíte OpenOffice por exemplo? A principal vantagem do AbiWord sobre o OpenOffice é o seu baixo consumo de recursos do computador.

A última versão do AbiWord, ainda em fase beta, é capaz de importar o formato proprietário Office Open XML (. Docx). Além disso, ele reconhece os arquivos de texto nos formatos mais comuns, incluindo o DocBook, OpenDocument, WordPerfect e Microsoft Word. O AbiWord pode ser utilizado em ambientes Windows, Mac OS X e Linux. Para efetuar o download clique aqui.

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