I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet Mr Eric Allman (the author of Sendmail) in person when he came to Singapore, presumably on a business tour and gave a talk in a local university (of which I am a student in). While he is a very interesting fellow, his talk bordered on the brink of being a cure for insomnia because he only talked about some history of the Internet (for what? none of the attendees are history students) and some general issues on email and nothing (really) about Sendmail. It was disappointing for me because I thought he would be lecturing on the technalities on Sendmail. I would later understood from the organiser that it was the organiser's intention not to have Mr Allman to talk about his Sendmail. What a shame.

Unfortunately, there seems to be quite a few of qmail fans attending the talk and hence I could detect a tinge of hostility during the Q&A session. Bad qmail fans, go away!

I am a south-east asian and I can tell you what software piracy in south east asia is all about. Pirated software are essentially learning and evaluation versions for the masses; one can have the latest and best software for mere peanuts. Software is pretty useless if one does not use it or learn how to use it. The governments close one of their eyes because they know pirated software is needed to promote IT literacy which would in turn boost their economies with a more skilled workforce. How else would so many students know how to use Microsoft Visual Studio or so many of those not in the IT industry know how to use Microsoft Office. They had to start from somewhere and that somewhere is usually at home (or even workplace) with pirated software.

Now that the IT literacy rates have improved vastly over the year, those software companies (with Microsoft) which have been hovering like watchful hawks (or vultures as some would prefer), started to swoop for their right of prey (in truth and law, they deserved to be compensated in one way or another). Software audits are no longer done in a hush-hush manner and whistle-blowers are rewarded for squealing on their usually ex-employers. The governments can no longer act blur to the illegal use of software, use of illegal software and the illegal software itself otherwise it would face multiple sanctions. Raids on software pirates were widely successful (someone has to be the scrapegoat) and pleasing to the various software companies (I am actually still wondering on their real reactions). Education is in place to steer the people to the right way of using the software. It's harvest time for the software companies (or is it not)!

Then something peculiar happened. In fact, this is still in the trickling stage and I invite you to witness this phenomenon together. Someone started to invite Mr Penguin (GNU/Linux) around. Suddenly, people are realising the virtues and strength of free and open source software such as GNU/Linux. They are not exactly difficult to pick up because the fundamentals are already in place. Some governments made a knowingly wry smile; an almost suppressed one. Some of them still need the support from software companies such as Microsoft but some other governments have decided to be anti-western (what has it got to do with software, no one really knows) and to adopt free and open source software which is supposed to belong to everyone on earth.

Ah, socio-economic and political tides know no magnitude and directions. Hear Hear. Alas, only in my birthplace are our countrymen forever doomed to stand in the shadow of others because we are too small to be a giant.

Wondering if any of you here have read the book "Joy of Linux" by Michael Hall and Brian Proffitt? What do you think of this book? My opinion of this book is that it does explain, in some details, why GNU/Linux is popular with some folks. It is not so much a history textbook in the likes of "Rebel Code: Linux And The Open Source Revolution" by Glyn Moody and "Free for All: How LINUX and the Free Software Movement Undercut the High-Tech Titans" by Peter Wayner. A comic book featuring the Linux Lass (from the Joy of Linux) will be very interesting. If you don't know what I am talking about (it's fine), pop over to http://www.geekculture.com/

For those who want to know more about this book, you may refer to
http://www.premierpressbooks.com/searchdetail.asp?ID=53151

Turbolinux has issued a serious rebuttal to fend off rumours that it is going to close down although it ominously admitted that it would need to restructure its US operations due to the last-second pullout by an investor. So what can we make out of this case? Was it good for LinuxGram (the original source of the "rumour") to point out TurboLinux might be facing some problems? What are LinuxGram's and LinuxToday's agenda in surfacing this? One can always look at it in the two sides of the coin. The negative side is that unfounded rumours might ruin the company's reputation albeit temporarily but definitely could be disastrous enough to smear dirt on the chastity (tomato ketchup on satin will never go away without the help from the laundry). The positive part is that the Linux Community is very responsive and sensitive towards the health of all Linux commercial (as well as non-commercial) entities and the Community has an interest to keep companies healthy. Whenever anything seems to go wrong, point it out and then fix it. The Community can help.

I was alarmed when I reloaded my LinuxToday webpage this morning only to find a link citing that TurboLinux is going to close shop, pack their bags and go home after a long arduous struggle to float in the bottomless sea of what-they-called-the-real-world. Huh? was my first reaction. While I do not pay much attention to Turbolinux usually, I know that they are doing alright in Japan if not in Asia in general. They are also offering valuable professional services such as clustering and stuff that matters. Then, how can it suddenly slide to the brink of non-existency? It is rather hard to fathom this truth but hopefully, Turbolinux would quickly issue a rebuttal complete with supporting information that they would probably still be around to witness the dethrone of MS by GNU/Linux.

Copyright (c) 2002 William Ku
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be accessed at
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#FDL

Part 3 of 3

Some concluding remarks
-----------------------
I would consider that Openoffice.org with its present extensive set of
features and being in the state of continous improvement, can give
Microsoft(R) Office and Staroffice(R) a really good run for their money.
For GNU/Linux users, Openoffice.org is the much-awaited boon that fill
in the void of a complete and integrated office productivity suite. For
Microsoft(R) Office users, Openoffice.org might just provide the break
from the dependence of Microsoft(R) products. One can have a completely
free (and yet fully functional) office workstation (that is, minus the
hardware costs). Do give Openoffice.org a try; you will not regret it!

System requirements
-------------------
Openoffice.org is available for the Microsoft(R) Windows, SPARC and
GNU/Linux platform. A Macintonish version is on the way. As for
hardware requirements, Openoffice.org is not quite as resource-hungry as
Microsoft(R) Office or Staroffice(R) but it require at least a decent
Pentium(R) PC with 64 MB RAM and some 250MB of hard disk space. I would
encourage that for a smooth Openoffice.org performance, install it in a
PC with lots of RAM; you would feel the blazing difference in speed.

Installation matters
--------------------
Installation of Openoffice.org 1.0 is generally such a breeze that it is
not worth mentioning anything about it.

Where to get Openoffice.org (only for those staying in Singapore)
-----------------------------------------------
You can download your copy from one of the mirrors listed at
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/source/1.0.0/index.html. An
unofficial mirror is at http://oss.comp.nus.edu.sg/ftp/www.sun.com/.
Alternatively, you can buy an unofficial Openoffice.org CD (containing
both Microsoft(R) Windows and GNU/Linux versions) from Mynasoft
(http://www.mynasoft.com).

Differences between Staroffice(R) and Openoffice.org
----------------------------------------------------
According to the Openoffice.org website, the main differences between
Staroffice(R) and Openoffice.org are mainly that Openoffice.org does
not contain certain components of Staroffice(R) such as certain fonts,
the database component (Adabas D), some templates, clip art gallery,
some file filters and some other minor features. The average Openoffice.org user will not feel the absence of these differences.

Trivia
------
Always refer to the Openoffice.org Office Suite as Openoffice.org;
Openoffice or Open Office are not acceptable for legal reasons.

Copyright (c) 2002 William Ku
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be accessed at
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#FDL

Part 2 of 3

Openoffice.org 1.0
------------------
There are 5 main components in Openoffice.org 1.0. They are Writer,
Calc, Impress, Draw and Math. Writer is a word processor; Calc is a
spreadsheet application; Impress is a presentation application where
you can create slides like in MS PowerPoint(R); Draw allows you to
express your creativity as a digital graphic artist; Math makes the
construction of mathematical equations look almost as good as
handwritten ones.

Writer
------
Used to Microsoft(R) Word? Its universal loved look-and-feel has been
adopted and adapted by most of its successful alternatives such as
StarWriter (from StarOffice(R)), KWord (from KDE's KOffice) and Abiword.
In this "attack of the clones", Openoffice.org's Writer is no different
and its look-and-feel will immediately set you in ease; you can start
using it immediately!

The usual features are all there: popular fonts, style formatting,
tables, spellcheck and others-you-name-it-they-should-have-it. If you
found that your favourite feature is missing, you can actually visit the
Openoffice.org website and make a request for this particular feature
and the chances are that it will get implemented if this feature is also
being requested by other users. Found a bug? Report it too and get it
crushed.

For those who are worried about document inter-compatibility, the
support for Microsoft(R) Word documents is reported to be better than
before (as in Staroffice(R) although there are still a few Microsoft(R)
Word features that Writer could not decipher. You can save in
Microsoft(R) Word 97/2000/XP, 95, 6.0 formats although
Openoffice.org-specific features will be lost. In addition, there is no
support for WordPerfect documents.

Calc
----
Microsoft(R) Excel is yet another Microsoft(R) killer application for
which Calc, Openoffice.org's spreadsheet component, is a good
substitute. Plot pie-charts, define functions to compute consolidating
figures.

Support for Microsoft(R) Excel documents is just as good. There are no
problems opening some of my important Excel files; no losses in format
too. Calc can save in Microsoft(R) Excel 97/200/Xp and 95 format.

Impress
-------
Impress your peers with a non-Microsoft(R) PowerPoint presentation. The
usual transition animation and effects are included along with a host of
other unique ones. An integrated drawing tool (Draw) complements
Impress, Openoffice.org's presentation component, well and allows the
creative user to draw specific clip arts for the presentation. Functions
for some fancy font design and 3D effects & animations are also
available.

Draw
----
Draw is Openoffice.org's drawing tool to churn out 2D clip art. 3D
animations and effects are also possible. While Draw is meant as a
complementary tool to Writer, Calc and Impress, it can be used as a
standalone. However, there is no provision to save in any graphics
format which clearly reduces the reusability of the masterpieces that
the user has created.

Draw cannot compete with digital graphics applications such as Adobe(R)
Photoshop(R) and GIMP but it would suffice for simple drawing. For
those who wanted to dabble in digital art, Draw might be the initil
stepping stone that you are looking for.

Math
----
Anyone who needs to prepare documents containing mathematical equations
would know that it is not easy to find an application that combines the
required presentation of word processing and the representation of
mathematical equations to look like as if they are hand-written. Even
Microsoft(R) Word and its companion Maths Equation Editor do not fully
satisfy this requirement. As such, many have turned to typesetting
software such as LaTex but at a tradeoff of complexity and the power of
word processor software.

Math, Openoffice.org's mathematical equation editor, can be helpful in
this aspect. As with LaTex, the user will input commands to specify the
type of equations that are needed. In Math, each equation can be saved
as an embedded object to be used with the other Openoffice.org
components and thus allowing for an integrated presentation. However,
the reusability of these Maths objects is restricted to within
Openoffice.org (and Staroffice(R)).

Copyright (c) 2002 William Ku
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be accessed at
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#FDL

Part 1 of 3

Introduction
------------
You may have heard of Sun Microsystems(R) Staroffice(R) which is being
offered as a viable and cheaper alternative to Microsoft(R) Office(R).
Openoffice.org is the open source (or free) cousin of Staroffice(R).
Staroffice(R) used to be free as in you can freely download and install
in as many computers as you like but Sun Microsystems(R) has recently
decided to charge for Staroffice(R). However, pleased do not fret as
Openoffice.org will always be free and we are going to show you in this
article how and why Openoffice.org instead of MS Office(R) and
Staroffice(R) is for you.

Openoffice.org was started as a community project whereby the source
code of certain parts of Staroffice(R) were released to the public for
volunteers to work on and improve upon them. While these improvements
will always be made freely available to the public, Sun Microsystems(R)
reserves the right to incorporate the improvements to StarOffice(R)
which is still a closed-source project. For those of you who are
familiar with the Netscape/Mozilla story, it is the same model that
Sun Microsystems(R) is using. You might be wondering that if that is
the case, StarOffice will always be the better product. However, this
may not be the case since Openoffice.org is constantly being improved
by expert programmers all around the world who have kindly contributed
their time towards this community cause and improvements are being made
available quickly in the form of frequent software upgrades (could be in
the space of a few weeks) while new versions of Staroffice(R) (and
Microsoft(R) Office are typically only made available between intervals
of several months.

Openoffice.org has since evolved and come of age. Recently, its
milestone Openoffice.org 1.0 Office Suite was released and we are going
to show you how and why Openoffice.org 1.0 will work for you.