OfficeBuzz

Chances to save millions, but with talking alone you won't get that far   My previous two blogs pointed out that when public administrations make a combined investment in open source software, migrating will become easier, that they themselves profit as well as all other (government) users will do. Governments from Germany and Switzerland already do so . In The Netherlands municipalities can save millions of Euro's each year, with open source office software alone. Now tomorrow, September 12, we have national elections in the Netherlands. In relation to that the topic open source has, as far as I've noticed, been touched by the parties GroenLinks and SP. Besides that, also the party PvdA mentions it and of course it's important for the Piratenpartij. [1]   The past has shown that for the most parties open source software (and open standards) are important. But how useful is 'attention'? It would be really helpful if the new Tweede Kamer (parliament) wou...

Millions to be saved each year with the use of open source office-software   In the previous article I wrote about administrations in Germany and Switzerland that invest in open source software. In a combined project they improve interoperability of LibreOffice and OpenOffice with the latest file formats of Microsoft Office. These administrations almost literally put their hands at work in the important field of open source software. What can I write about the situation at Dutch administrations in this field? The use of open source software in Dutch municipalities can be seen in various parts. At the backside it is done in the form of servers and management systems for websites. And on the desktop one sees Firefox and Zarafa , that is increasingly gaining popularity as Exchange/Outlook replacer.   The use of open source office software is not yet widely spread and it grows slowly. It's exactly this that I want to look at further. Because of my own profession in Nou...

Just before the start of the vacations the news was published about several public administrations make a strong investment in open source software. A project was started to improve the interoperability of LibreOffice and OpenOffice with the latest file formats of Microsoft Office. [1] The parties involved invest a sum of 140.000 Euro in the project. That is what open source really is about: as user of a product you can support the development of features that are important for you. Simple, direct. The products quality growths and the value increases too, also for other users. It's logic that administrations too invest in this way in the quality of their tools. The project that we talk about here, is about improving the interoperability. Important, because a insufficient interoperability is a source of frustration and limited freedom. [2] , [3] More freedom in the use of office software is extra important, because that opens the doors to use open source for the desktop. Op...

After several months of working on LibreLex , it was time to test it on MacOS. After all, we claim it does work there too :-) The fiends in the FourDigits office were so friendly to hand me an old Mac. Starting the Mac, browser.. OS-crash.. I remarked: "Hmm, long time ago that I worked on Windows" which of course must be painful to hear for real Mac-fans ;-) So the FourDigits guy was so friendly to lend me his new fast Macbook for a moment. Colleagues already started to mumble ... "how much of your work time will that cost..." OK, LibreOffice was already installed. So we put the folder with the templates and config-files in the user work-path. Double-click on the LibreLex extension to install.. ah, there is the LibreLex tool bar. Start New document with LibreLex.. great. Print with /without logo.. looks good. Dialogues Place and Mail.. fine too. So that's it. Works. Thanks for your help! Two minutes and it just works. "Huh.." Why huh, what's s...

A very subtile nice gradient :-) (looks best when you install it yourself - LibreOffice 3.6.0 beta 3 will be available very soon!)

Roughly a month to go before LibreOffice 3.6.0 will be finished. So it's time for a little excitement :-) An overview (in progress) of the new features is available on the wiki . The community – users as you and I – is of course assisting with tracing the bugs in the beta releases. Therefore there will be an international bug-hunt party organized on July 6 and 7! According to the plan - and with LibreOffice the plan is usually met - the release will be in the first week of August. Such a first release is of course perfect to give it a good try, but obviously not to deploy immediately in all business processes. Just be careful ;-) The 3.6.0 – I'm looking forward to it!

I am one of a generation in which openness grew. Open communication, and still attempting to be true. Those themes were 'hot'. And luckily, such a period is not unique. Of course there always are processes in which it is impossible to be fully open at any moment. Some topics are sensible business wise or political and can better be traded with in a small committee. It went pretty well with the 'openness' as far as I am concerned. Also in hierarchical relations: child – parent, employee – boss, citizen – government. I wanted to talk a bit more about that government. Not with thoughts about 'open politics' and 'behind closed doors' being objectionable or not. That's something I can do at other places. Here I want to talk about our authorities and open data and open tools. As a result of the growing awareness in the society around IT and the costs and risks of closed software and closed file-formats, the Dutch Parliament in that time expressed itself i...