Openoffice.org News & Articles

This week, only a couple of weeks after upgrading its document management software, Nuxeo offers digital signatures, LibreOffice schedules an enterprise release for August, Google Docs outlines medium terms projects, PSIGEN offers more for SharePoint and Primadesk provides document search wherever your documents are stored.

OpenOffice.org (news, site) – an open source alternative to Microsoft Office – is now out with version 3.2, boasting faster startup times and Office 2007 compatibility.  

I was a strong open source proponent in the past, but in the past few years I’ve gotten lazy.

I primarily use Windows on my desktop and commercial office suites. To date, few open source projects have received particularly strong reviews.

There has been a lot of discussion over whether or not it can chip away at Windows’ dominance on the desktop. Though well received, these efforts are considered a bit of an “also ran.” I’ve used Linux in some way, shape, or form for something over 7 years, so I’m not exactly new to the platform.

But, having begun digging deeper into what “open source” means today, I’m compelled to state the platform has come quite a long way!

In English this time: IBM has joined OpenOffice.org, reportedly to “collaborate on software development for the Open Document Format (ODF), an ISO standard that governs the creation, storage, and exchange of documents,” says Mark Long of newsfactor.com.

IBM will start by sharing the code it’s been developing for its Lotus Notes software, including certain accessibility fixes that may allegedly help OpenOffice “reach parity” with Microsoft’s current offering for disabled workers via Office.