WEAVERVILLE, NC – Are you still driving your documents with Microsoft Word? Are you letting your friends get behind the Microsoft “wheel” when they’ve had too much to write? Well, it’s time that you woke up and smelled the coffee, because “friends don’t let friends use Microsoft Word.”
So, what should you let your friends use? Let them use what most smart people use these days…OpenOffice.org 3.11.
OpenOffice.org 3.11 or OOo3.11 as it is alternatively written, is a very classic, scalable, and efficient office suite package that is compatible with MS Office 97/2000/2003/2007. The difference between these two office suite packages is the former package is absolutely free while the second office suite of applications can cost you both an arm and a leg.
Great Software:
OpenOffice.org 3 is the result of over twenty years’ software engineering. Designed from the start as a single piece of software, it has a consistency other products cannot match. A completely open development process means that anyone can report bugs, request new features, or enhance the software. The result: OpenOffice.org 3 does everything you want your office software to do, the way you want it to.
Easy to Use:
OpenOffice.org 3 is easy to learn, and if you’re already using another office software package, you’ll take to OpenOffice.org 3 straight away. OpenOffice.org 3′s world-wide native-language community means that OpenOffice.org 3 is probably available and supported in your own language. And if you already have files from another office package – OpenOffice.org 3 will probably read them with no difficulty.
And, It’s Free:
Best of all, OpenOffice.org 3 can be downloaded and used entirely free of any license fees. OpenOffice.org 3 is released under the LGPL license. This means you may use it for any purpose – domestic, commercial, educational, public administration. You may install it on as many computers as you like. You may make copies and give them away to family, friends, students, employees – anyone you like.
So, the next time you and your friends are writing and your friend wants to use Microsoft Word, take away the “keys” to his/her laptop and let them use your laptop with OpenOffice.org 3.11. Why? Because friends don’t let friends use Microsoft Word.
by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 31 January 2010 @ 03:57 UTC
REDMOND, WASHINGTON – This author was recently searching on the Internet looking for an old acquaintance—he called OS/2—with which he had lost touch. While searching numerous online newspapers, this author stumbled across an obituary for his friend that confirmed his demise. The obituary was from a newspaper in the Redmond, Washington area that announced the death of OS/2, someone with whom this author was very familiar and had worked with many years ago. This author knew that he had not seen or heard from his old acquaintance in some time but never realized why until he went searching for him and discovered that the OS had passed away.
The obituary that was found was short but very revealing. It described where and when his acquaintance had lived, what the acquaintance had accomplished in his short life span that others like him had not achieved, and it reported what the cause of death was to have been. The obituary, dated 31 December 2006, read something like the following:
“A once prominent figure in the OS world, OS/2, was found dead this morning in his Redmond, Washington home at the young age of 17. Born to the parents of Microsoft and IBM in April, 1987, OS/2 was the brainchild of both companies, which resulted from a Joint Development Agreement between the two parties in 1985. Just prior to his birth, Microsoft and IBM had wanted to name their offspring, CP/DOS, but after his birth, following two years of labor, they settled on the name OS/2, which stood for Operating System/2 because it sprang from the 2nd generation line of Personal System (PS/2) computers that IBM had sired earlier. OS/2 was reared as a text-mode OS but quickly featured a rich API for controlling the video display and handling mouse and keyboard events so that programmers who were writing protected-mode programs no longer had to call the BIOS or access the hardware directly. Other achievements of OS/2, during his short life, included a set of development tools consisting of video and keyboard APIs as linkable libraries that allowed family mode programs to run under MS-DOS, something unparalleled at the time. In addition, a task switcher called Program Selector was developed in OS/2 that allowed for text-mode multitasking of text sessions that could run multiple programs. OS/2 promised a GUI for its text-mode OS and, in October, 1988, OS/2 came through with a graphical interface that was similar to its predecessor Windows 2.1. Later in life, OS/2 introduced distributed database support for IBM databases and SNA communications support for IBM mainframe networks. Also, toward the end of his life, OS/2 developed installable filesystems, introducing the HPFS filesystem, which allowed long filenames for files in the OS. During his warp years starting in 1994, OS/2 offered greater hardware support, the ability to run multimedia programs, Internet-compatible networking, and a basic office application suite called IBM Works (OS/2, 2010; OS/2 Warp – OS/2 Withdrawal from Marketing and Change in Support, 2010).
The cause of death of OS/2 seems to have been associated with its lack of mass market appeal and dropping market share in the technology market with the sales of OS/2 dropping off sharply in December, 2005. It appears that OS/2 never fully recovered and finally succumbed to its financial-illness a year later in December, 2006. OS/2 is survived by its desktop relatives: Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7” (OS/2, 2010).
Did OS/2 deserve to die the way it did? This author would support the notion that during its warp years, OS/2 was considered an OS that had promise to be the OS of the future. However, due to the splitting up of IBM and Microsoft, in 1990, OS/2 lost much needed support from IBM and, as a result, Microsoft’s Windows 3.0 became extremely more popular among users primarily because it came bundled in most new PCs sold by Microsoft while OS/2 remained an expensive standalone OS. Furthermore, OS/2 did not have the driver support of Windows 3.0 and this oversight led to its ultimate demise. As a result, OS/2 may not have met with the death that it deserved, but it certainly lost its battle with the support of its user-base and the market share.
References:
OS/2. (2010). Retrieved January 29, 2010, from Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2
OS/2 Warp – OS/2 Withdrawal from Marketing and Change in Support. (2010). Retrieved January 29, 2010, from IBM – OS/2 Warp: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/os/warp-withdrawal/
by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 29 January 2010 @ 22:10 UTC
WEAVERVILLE, NC – Windows XP® Operating System by Microsoft Corporation™ is the flagship operating system for the desktop that this company has developed since earlier versions of Windows® were developed, such as Windows 95/98/NT and 2000 Professional. This OS comes in four versions but the corporate version of this OS is Windows XP Professional and the corresponding home user version is Windows XP Home Edition. What advantages might you find in the Windows XP Professional and Home Edition OS over the use of another OS that you currently use or might consider using?
Yager (2001) indicates that Windows XP improves the overall stability, security, and performance of corporate desktop and laptop computers. Built on the Windows 2000 core, Windows XP does a better job of cleaning up after applications that forget to free up valuable system resources and, as a result, it’s much harder for applications to freeze up or hang in Windows XP. In addition, in Windows XP, if an application does hang, this OS has the capability for you, as the user, to terminate the application without closing all running applications on the user’s desktop using the Task Manager feature. Furthermore, users will spend less time rebooting with Windows XP as well as calling for technical support, and more time enjoying the experience of using this OS. Windows XP ships with over 12,000 device drivers in its driver library and, thanks to developer guidance from Microsoft, the user rarely has to reboot the OS after installing a new driver for a device that this truly Plug-n-Play OS finds attached to the PC. Also, device drivers installed in Windows XP don’t have the power that they used to have to crash an operating system. Windows XP clearly beats out the competition when it comes to installing hot-pluggable interfaces, such as PC cards, USB devices, and IEEE-1394 (Firewire) interfaces. The transparent encryption built-into Windows XP permits the user to access his/her files using file access that is controlled by strong security that is user-friendly unlike other OSes, such as UNIX, Linux, BeOS, etc. Windows XP has a built-in firewall that helps PCs that access foreign or broadband networks. And, another very important feature of Windows XP is that it has a built-in Remote Access Server, which provides technical support personnel or others more familiar with the OS administrative and supervised access to their desktop to troubleshoot and correct any problems they might encounter.
Russell (2007) identifies the top 10 advantages of Windows XP over other Oses to be: (1) hardware support, specifically with driver availability; (2) support for on-line and off-line gaming; (3) enhanced security the OS provides; (4) support for the most popular suite of office products, Office 2003/2007; (5) user-friendly wireless networking capabilities; (6) software availability for the OS; (7) extensive user help resources available via Microsoft and its associated forums; (8) computer availability associated with the OS; (9) plug-n-play support; and (10) guaranteed support for the OS through its lifecycle.
According to a Ziff Davis Enterprise survey conducted in 2008, 92 percent of users indicated that their primary OS of choice was Windows XP and 72 percent said that the OS they’re using now will be the OS that they will be using in 2009 (Donston, 2008). Microsoft has extended support for Windows XP from 2009 out to 2014 as a result of corporate users who were unwilling or unable to migrate to Windows Vista because they were happy with the current OS or their hardware was incapable of running on Vista, respectively.
One of the biggest advantages that I see that Windows XP has over other competitive OSes is the fact that this OS can run almost all the applications ever written for the Intel-based PC, dating back to the VisiCalc spreadsheet application that was introduced in 1981 when the PC revolution started (Mendelson, 2006). Although some of these applications may tend to run slowly in Windows XP, there are add-ons developed by Microsoft that will allow them to run more quickly or to run at all for those that wouldn’t run initially.
Finally, Boling (2010) indicates the Windows XP OS has many advantages over its predecessors and other OSes in that it is more stable, more secure, more reliable, is a self-repairing OS, and has several new features that enhance the overall user experience. Among these user enhancements include: (1) revised Start Menu; (2) enhanced Task Bar; (3) the introduction of skins called XP Themes that allow the user to change his/her desktop interface to suit their needs; and (4) a new feature called Fast User Switcher, which allows two or more users to be logged on and access the same PC at the same time.
Microsoft developed Windows XP as a revolutionary new operating system built with Xtreme Programming in mind, and was the first Win32®-based operating system designed for both office and home use (Boling, 2010).
—–
References:
Boling, D. (2010). Windows XP Overview: Take Advantage of New Windows XP Features in Your Apps Today. Retrieved January 25, 2010, from MSDN Magazine: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc302210.aspx
Donston, D. (2008). Companies loath to give up XP. eWeek, 25(9), 16. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Mendelson, E. (2006). Run Legacy Apps In XP. PC Magazine, 25(11), 106. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Russell, D. (2007, July 11). Top 10 Advantages of Windows XP. Retrieved January 25, 2010, from Spontaneous Monotony: Blog about news, politics, computers, and the Internet: http://www.davidarussell.co.uk/2007/07/11/top-10-advantages-of-windows-xp/
Yager, T. (2001). Microsoft Windows XP. InfoWorld, 23(49), 50. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
by DONALD CALLOWAY
Published Oct 6, 2009 by Barry Collins of PC Pro Source: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/352213/im-a-mac-and-im-also-a-pc
CLARKSBURG, WV — More than eight out of ten Mac owners also own a PC, according to a new piece of research.
The NPD survey found that 12% of US computer-owning households have a Mac. However, 85% of those also own a Windows PC, suggesting that the Mac/PC divide is not as clear cut as both Apple and Microsoft suggest.
Apple’s “I’m a Mac” advertising campaign pokes fun at Windows PC owners, portraying them as middle-aged nerds compared to the suave, young Mac owner. Now it appears the company has been taking the rise out of the majority of its own customers.
Mac owners are also far more likely to have multiple computers in the house. Two thirds of Mac owners have three or more computers in the home, while only 29% of PC owners have two or more PCs.
“While Apple owners tend to own more computers and more electronics devices, there is also a high correlation among Apple owners and more affluent consumer households,” explains Stephen Baker, NPD’s vice president of industry analysis. “With a higher household income, though, it’s not a surprise that those consumers are making more electronics purchases.”
by DAN CALLOWAY
Published September 5, 2009; The Chronicler’s Web
Posted by Soulskillon Saturday September 05, @05:14AM from theback-in-the-saddledept.
An anonymous reader sends along this update to the ongoing patent battle between Microsoft and i4i involving XML formatting in Word.
WEAVERVILLE, NC - “Microsoft’s motion to stay an injunction has been granted; the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuithas allowed the company to keep selling Wordas it appeals apatent ruling from last month. The injunction had an effective date of October 10, but the motion to stay blocks the injunction until the appeal process is complete. If upheld, the injunction wouldn’t stop existing users from using Word, but it could prevent the software giant from selling Word 2003 or Word 2007, the most common versions of Word currently on the market, and would require the company to significantly tweak Word 2010, which is slated for the first half of next year. The victory is a small one for Microsoft; the company still has the whole appeals process to go through. ‘We are happy with the result and look forward to presenting our arguments on the main issues on September 23,’ a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars. ‘Microsoft’s scare tactics about the consequences of the injunction cannot shield it from the imminent review of the case by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeal on the September 23 appeal,’ said i4i chairman Loudon Owen in response to the court’s decision.”
Thanks for dropping by! Feel free to join the discussion by leaving comments, and stay updated by subscribing to the RSS feed. Also, register on my website through the Register link.
"NPR: Clare Fischer On Piano Jazz-More at http://t.co/Zw0SY52I" — dlcalloway
Today's Date & Current Time Is:
Tuesday, May 22, 12:04 am
Messages & Quotes
Post Target Goal
We're only 8 articles from our October goal of 400 posts
Fighters from Colombia’s main leftist rebel movement attacked an army patrol from Venezuelan territory on Monday, killing at least 12 soldiers and wounding 4 others, Colombian officials said. […]
Some Honduran officials and residents have said that the victims of a fatal gun battle last week were innocent people, challenging the account of American drug enforcement agents. […]
Medellín, Colombia, once famed for murder and cocaine, is now drawing notice for its ambitious urban projects, many aimed at easing life in the city’s slums. […]
Sigifredo López, who was kidnapped along with 11 other legislators in 2002, has been detained under suspicion of helping the FARC plan their abduction. […]
don’t let friends use Microsoft Word.”
Recent Comments