While the news about the ongoing Oracle-Google trial in the US has been holding my attention, there have been a sequence of news releases about desktop productivity showing up over the last few weeks. It’s all too good to miss, so I’ve written summaries over on ComputerWorldUK and an enhanced version on InfoWorld.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK, InfoWorld | Comments Off on Suite Activity
It’s easy with LibreOffice. Send people attachments you can be sure they can view, but which can also be edited with free, open source software.
Here’s a how-to video that explains how to make Hybrid PDF files – that’s a normal PDF file, but with the ODF source of the document embedded so that anyone with LibreOffice is also able to open and edit it. Both ODF and PDF are widely implemented open standards, so you can be sure that there’s a choice of free and open source software for editing and viewing them and that they will remain accessible in perpetuity.
[youtube http://youtu.be/EuVZcygoZsI]The instruction sheet I edit in the video is available for download. Naturally, it’s an editable PDF!
Filed under: LibreOffice, MinkCast, ODF, Standards | Tagged: ODF, PDF | 2 Comments »
Without it, Ubuntu for Android would probably never have happened. My article for InfoWorld this week includes a video demonstration of it in action, and reflects a little on how open source removes obstacles so that innovation can simply happen and not be bogged down with the inevitable stop-energy proprietary approaches involve.
Filed under: InfoWorld | 2 Comments »
A key insight into the UK Open Standards Consultation is that some of the opposition to truly open standards – ones without restrictions on implementation – comes from another industry where “open standards” means something different. Closing that semantic gap might well reduce the conflict. Read about it on ComputerWorldUK.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK | Comments Off on Standards and Telecoms
Going where angels fear to tread, I wrote in Infoworld today a summary of the “Is the GPL in decline” debate and come to the conclusion that the use of the GPL remains strong and growing but the business game that was extensively played with in peaked in 2006 and has been declining ever since.
Filed under: InfoWorld | Comments Off on GPL: Declining Or Not?
The Cabinet Office has acted on an undisclosed conflict of interest by adding an extra month. Read more on ComputerWorldUK.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK | Comments Off on Open Standards Consultation Extended
Back then, a detailed discussion at the Open Source Initiative – where I am today a director – led to the creation of a statement about what makes a standard open, and a set of criteria for determining if the requirement was met and a standard compliant. Both are very simple as well as fully explained. So why is there even a need for a UK Government Standards Consultation? I discuss in detail on ComputerWorldUK.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK, OSI | Comments Off on “Open” Standards? OSI Did That In 2006!
Plenty on my mind this week, so to focus I’ve written a quick post on ComputerWorldUK listing some of the things I’m thinking about. A bit random; I’d be interested in feedback on this approach.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK | Comments Off on Random Memes
I updated and expanded my speculation about why Microsoft started “Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc.” – sadly without any help from them as all their many evangelists and PR people were too shy to talk to me. Read the results on InfoWorld.
Filed under: InfoWorld | Comments Off on Microsoft Does Open Source – Updated
What does “RAND” really mean for open source? It’s the key issue in the current UK government standards consultation (which I really ask you to complete). I’ve tried to explain why RAND and open source don’t mix in my article for ComputerWorldUK today.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK | Comments Off on ☝ All About RAND
Meshed Insights - Open Source Management Consulting
All views expressed on this blog are those of Simon Phipps and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other entity, including current and former employers and clients. See my full disclosure of interests.
© 2010-23, Simon Phipps. All rights reserved, all wrongs righted. Unless otherwise credited all photographs, videos and other media are included in this statement. Some photographs are available for licensing via iStockPhoto. To contact the author, please use the e-mail form.
Wild Webmink 