Open Office 1 to 3
16th December, 2008
Sun Microsystem’s Open Office has taken a giant leap from it’s 2.4 version to 3.
I
happen to see this version on a Laptop with a Linux Distribution and
was bit curious since, I had been using Open Office from its version 1
which was Star Office of Sun Microsystem’s Open Office package released
to the web as an Open Source software.
Linux people grabbed this with enthusiasm and it has bundled with all the Linux distributions.
This was the time I was migrating from Windows to Linux and its features included with Web format as well as PDF format.
I
used to import Microsoft’s Office document and remove all the Macros
with proprietary claims which is unnecessarily makes the word file
bigger than it aught to be.
In addition these Macros attract viruses and make page laying extremely difficult from page to page.
It is a nuisance Microsoft uses have to encounter.
Auto formatting was a pain in the neck for me.
Other
features include, one can save the document in many formats as one
wishes so that the recovery of a Microsoft document (does not happen
with Open Office) gone haywire with just a touch of a button.
It has
automatic recovery system when the power fails (if one does not have a
battery backup when the power fails) which I found annoying but a safety
feature that is important if you are working on a long file.
Over a
five year period this happened only three or four times and one can see
what a “Finicky Soul" I am when working with computers.
I have had
only one file corruption (one of those recovery incidents) over the
period of five years that was all due to my 128 RAM getting overloaded
(hardware problem not software) by many programs running at the same
time.
I only had to shutdown (I did not use adequate Swap partition
on those early days) and restart and the file was recovered in a few
minutes, since the program gave me prior warning of the impending file
corruption and the misbehavior.
That is the virtue of this package
which I have no hesitation in recommending it to any one especially one
who is short of cash to buy the Microsoft’s new office package (I
believe a waste of money).
The real reason I use it was its PDF format which was necessary ingredient for transferring files across the Web.
New version has arithmetic (Formula Feature) and calculation function which would be very useful for school kids.
One
you are registered with the Open Office home site automatic upgrading
is available and one does not have to wait for the next issue.
Only
downside of it is the database cannot upload an old database which I have
to live with for the time being but very soon the community would find a
way out of this scenario and remove all the Macros and Active-X 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 from China, raises the question how safe is the Microsoft
Software including Office.
Linux has many Internet Explorers from Dillo to Firefox (Firefox is my favorite).
Why Ceylonese not using them speaks of our up to date knowledge of IT Industry.
It
is time to move to Linux especially SuSe 11 and Mandrake 9 (both become
defunct with one gone commercial and the other gone bust but Mageia
Linux is a derivative).
Ironically SLT (Sri-Lankan Telecom) does not support its wired service to Linux.
The modes they dishing out (freely) this Christmas does not support Linux.
The are hooked to Microsoft.
Microsoft has sucked out our money and no wonder we are billions bankrupt.
It is too late to go to Linux and JVP guys are using Microsoft locally and when they travel abroad.
