How Much Office Functionality Do We Really Need, Anyway?

Submitted by jbreland on Tue, 10/14/2003 - 19:42

This surprisingly accurate article questions just how much functionality consumers need in an office suite. The author points to the recents statements of Microsoft's Jeff Raikes dismissing open source office suites as "being where we [Microsoft] were with Office 97." But, leaving reality for a moment and accepting that as truth, is that really such a bad thing? Consider: what important feature of any office suite component do you use that was not available in 1997? I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Now, let's jump back into reality. OpenOffice 1.1.0, for example (since it was released just last week), does not contain every feature as Office 2003, or even Office XP. No one would say otherwise. However, it doesn't need every feature, as very many of them are pure fluff. In addition, it supports several features that MS itself can't match, such as native support for PDF and Flash export.

I strongly recommend reading this article. I know I mostly turned this post into a sales-pitch for OpenOffice, but that's neither my nor the author's intention. He questions the need to upgrade to versions of MS Office from any office suite, even previous MS ones, as they all contain the basic functionality that any office worker or home user could need. Definitely an enlightening read.

Transmeta Introduces Efficeon Chip

Submitted by jbreland on Tue, 10/14/2003 - 18:58

Transmeta launched its new Efficeon processor today, once again turning up the heat in the increasingly import low-power-consumption market. The Efficeon is a pretty big improvement over Transmeta's previous Crusoe line, so here's hoping they can get some top-tier vendor backing.

You can read the full article here. There aren't any major revalations, but it does provide a good introduction to both the Efficeon processor and Transmeta, so it's a pretty good read.

Open-Source, Closed Minds

Submitted by jbreland on Fri, 10/10/2003 - 08:11

Noted Professor of Law Lawrence Lessig posted a blurb about recent (failed) efforts to get the World Intellectual Property Organization to consider adopting and supporting "open and collaborative projects to create public goods," of which FOSS was just one example. Things appeared to be going smoothly at first, but once Microsoft started lobbying against these efforst, true ignorance was shown.

Read the full story. It'll answer a lot of questions about why our patent and IP systems are in such a sorry state.

Notes from the SCO Road show

Submitted by jbreland on Fri, 10/10/2003 - 08:02

Because of all of SCO's bad press lately with this Linux lawsuit, they decided it'd be a good idea to go on a city-to-city tour to meet with vendors and customers to update them on their roadmap, answer questions, etc.

One Linux supporter (I'm sure there will be many others) showed up at a recent stop for the inside scoop. You can read the full story here, but here's a personal favorite quote:

The other reason the roadmap was entertaining? I now know how retro SCOs OSes are. Riotous, riotous stuff. How they had the ya-yas to declare Linux an infant OS in need of their IP is beyond me. Upcoming features? PAM. files larger than 2 gigs. NFS over TCP. The 80's called, they want their features back. NTPv4 was a listed big feature on a slide of 10 to 15 upcoming enhancements. How does an NTP enhancement get mentioned as a 'big' feature? Wow. I never knew it was this bad. Maybe I should lend my old 486 running Debian from '97 to Pizza Hut - it sounds like they could use the upgrade.

OpenSSL Security Advisory

Submitted by jbreland on Wed, 10/01/2003 - 14:47

A DoS vulnerability exists in all versions of OpenSSL prior to 0.9.6k and 0.9.7c. Upgrading as soon as possible is recommended. Read the full advisory for more information.

Also, on an unrelated note, two recent vulnerabilities in OpenSSH were discovered. This is a couple weeks old now, but definitely important enough to mention here. Short story: upgrade to OpenSSH 3.7.1p2 ASAP. For more information, read the original advisory, as well as the newer portable advisory.

Security Expert Geer Sounds Off on Dismissal

Submitted by jbreland on Wed, 10/01/2003 - 09:17

For those not up to speed on this story, last week Dan Greer (CTO of security consultant @stake) and several others released a report entitled "Cyber Insecurity: The Cost of a Monopoly," in which they discussed the security issues related to Microsoft's market dominance (actual report can be found on the CCIA homepage).

Surprisingly, Greer was fired from his position as CTO of @stake one day after releasing the report. Why? Although @stake denies any involvement, Microsoft is one of their largest customers. Hmm... piss off a client in legitimate research and get fired? Wonderful.

So now, one week later, Greer himself has finally been interviewed about this. You can read the full story here. Although it's nothing earth-shattering, it does sum up the incredulity of the whole situation. Definitely worth a read.

MSfreePC.com

Submitted by jbreland on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 15:52

Here's an interesting new twist on the MS Anti-trust settlement. Basically, MS owes CA customers $1.1 billion dollars as repayment for their uncompetitive practices. Not one to miss an opportunity, Lindows.com CEO Michael Robertson setup MSfreePC.comwhere "eligible consumers who act quickly can receive their share of the $1.1 billion settlement." See the site for additional details.

MS, however, did not take kindly to this, and sent a cease-and-desist letter threatening legal action. Michael Robertson has just replied with his own press release, and while I'm not personally a fan of Lindows, this is a very worthwhile read. It very nicely sums up many of the "issues."

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