Open Office Version 1 to 3 (dated16-12-2008)

Open Office Version 1 to 3 (dated16-12-2008)

SunMicroSystem Open Office has taken a giant step from its 2.4 version to 3.

I happen to see this version on a laptop with Linux distribution and was bit curious since I had been using it from version 1 which was the Star Office of Sun MicroSystems Office package released to the web as an open source software. Linux guys grabbed this with enthusiasm and it was bundled with all the Linux distributions.

This was the time I was migrating from Windows to Linux and its features included Web Format as well as PDF format.

I used to import Microsoft Office documents and remove all the Macros with proprietary claims which unnecessarily makes the the word file bigger than it ought to be.

In addition these Macros attract Viruses and make page laying extremely difficult from page to page. It is the nuisance Microsoft users have to encounter.

Auto formatting was a pain in the neck.

Other features of Open Office included that one can save the document in many formats as one wishes so that the recovery (this does not happen with Open Office) of a Microsoft file gone haywire was just a touch of a button.

It has a automatic recovery system when the power fails (if one does not have a battery backup when power fails) which I found annoying but it was a safety feature that was important if you are working on a long file.

Over five year period this happened only  three or four times and you can see what a "Finicky Soul” I am when working with computers.

I have only had one file corruption (one of these recovery incidents) over period of five years that was all due to my 128 RAM getting overloaded (hardware problem and not software) by many programs running at the same time.

That is the beauty of Linux with  multitasking abilities.

I only had to shutdown and restart and the file would be recovered in a few minutes, since the program gave me an adequate warning of the impending file corruption (due to RAM overload) and the misbehavior. I did not use enough swap file in those early days.

That is the value of this office package which I have no hesitation to recommending to anyone especially one is short of cash to buy the Microsoft new office package. I believe it is a waste of money.

The real reason I used was its PDF format which was a necessary ingredient for transferring a file across the Web.

The new version has arithmetic (formula feature) and calculation function which would be very easy for school kids.

Once you are registered with the Open Office home site automatic upgrading is available ad one does not have to wait for the next version.

Only down side that the database cannot be uploaded to an old access database. I have to live with it for the time being but very soon he community would find a way out of this scenario and remove all the Macros and ActiveX script and get the database raw table into its domain, whether Microsoft likes it or not.

Footnote

The exposure of the Internet Explorer to hackers probably from China, raises the question how safe is the Microsoft Software including Office.

Linux has many browsers (explorers) from Dillo to Falkon to Firefox.

Why we Ceylonese not using these browsers speaks of our up to date knowledge of IT Industry.

It is time to move to Linux especially Suse-11 and Mandrake 2009.

Ironically SLT (Sri-Lankan Telecom) does not support its wired service to Linux.

I had to go to Singapore in 2009 and buy a Router for our private use.

The modems they dish out freely in the past and dishing out in this Christmas do not support Linux

They are hooked to Microsoft.

16th December 2008