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Posts Tagged: openoffice

Yet another reason to ditch Microsoft Office for web based apps

photo credit: thoth92

This news story has flown mostly under the radar of most computer users for weeks. In a nutshell, it’s a patent infringement suit brought upon Microsoft by a Canadian company called i4i. The suit alleges that Microsoft knowingly used proprietary technologies in Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007. Last week, a judge in Texas, ruled in favor of i4i and ordered Microsoft to remove Microsoft Word from being sold and fined them nearly $300 million. Microsoft, of course, immediately filed an appeal that will draw the case out even longer.

While the appeal is being considered, Microsoft Word can still be purchased, but for how long? This case builds yet another argument for home and business computer users to consider using online based business applications like Zoho.com or Google Docs. If you want desktop software, look to OpenOffice.org.

Read more on the suit between i4i and Microsoft in the article below:

NewsFactor Network | Appeal Seeks To Keep Microsoft Word on Store Shelves.

Riding Shotgun with Rick — 5 Comments
25
Apr 09

2 laptop suggestions for college students

photo credit: jarnott

Millions of high schoolers will be graduating soon and will be leaving for their respective campuses (campii?) at the end of the summer. These students will more than likely go to college with a computer…probably a laptop. I would like to suggest two possible laptops ideas for these students.

Both of my ideas involve good systems that will allow college kids to word process, chat, email, listen to music, watch DVD’s, browse the web wirelessly(for school research of course), create presentations, spreadsheets, download and edit photos and much more. Neither involve Windows and thus don’t require a degree in computer security and maintenance. One of the computers costs between $1200-1800 and the other costs less than $700.

My recommendations stem from first hand accounts from parents whose college kids call home frequently with tales of woe about a slow, non-functioning new computer. Students need to have their computers operational, and running around to the campus IT people or dropping the computer at a fix-it shop for expensive repairs. These two recommendations will keep calls home for repair money, tales of woe, and computer down time to a bare minimum. Continue reading →

Riding Shotgun with Rick — 17 Comments
11
Jan 09

Windows 7 – First Impressions

Windows 7 Desktop

I just finished installing the Windows 7 Beta version released by Microsoft on Friday. I installed it on my Toshiba Intel dual-core processor with 4 GB of RAM. It was running Windows Vista which took more than 4 minutes to fully boot (I consider the boot up process to be finished when the hard drive stops spinning and I don’t have to compete with a still booting computer to do what I want to do), and running any applications was like walking through molasses. I can say that my expectations were pretty low, but I am pleasantly surprised…so far.

It took exactly 21 minutes from when I inserted the install DVD until I reached a workable desktop. Very impressive! The setup was painless and required very little input. In fact, it was so easy, I think that the folks at Microsoft must have taken a page out of the Linux/Ubuntu installs. It was easily the fastest and easiest install of any version of Windows. I hope it doesn’t change much with the final version.
Bootup time is faster than Vista too. With my fresh install of Windows 7 and no security software, boot time was just under 2 minutes.
Overall, the new OS feels snappy and clean. I haven’t seen any User Account Control (UAC) pop-ups yet.
On my Toshiba laptop, like Linux, I didn’t have to install a single driver. Once the quick install finished, my wireless, Ethernet, sound, video, SD card, and web cam all worked perfectly.
Microsoft has revamped and simplified the wireless connectivity…again very Ubuntuish in my opinion.
This beta version of Windows 7 also includes the new Internet Explorer 8 which doesn’t feel much different than 8, but is supposed to be more compatible and flexible than 7. I will test it a little, but still prefer Firefox. I will probably install Google Chrome as well to see how it runs in Windows 7.
The revamped Start menu has a new feature that when you hover on a recently used program it will also present to you your most recently used documents for that program. Nice.
The taskbar has also been changed, but I need to work with it some more before deciding exactly how those features affect uability and productivity.
I plan on installing AVG or Avast antivirus and OpenOffice to test them and will report more about speed and usability.

I’m writing this article and took the two screenshots in Windows 7 using the Snipping Tool introduced with Vista. I did use picnik.com to edit the photos, however, since the updated Paint program, although it does have a new Crop and Resize feature, the resize feature doesn’t have much flexibility.

Stay tuned for more articles about Windows 7 leading up to its release later this year, or early next year. If there are questions YOU have about Windows 7, leave a comment below and I will test them out for you.

Windows 7 taskbar

Riding Shotgun with Rick — No Comments
17
Oct 08

What is Open Source?

Open Source software began soon after computers became main stream in offices and then homes. In a nut shell, Open Source refers to software developed under a set standard of rules that developers agree upon to make the software freely available, no penalties for copying or sharing the programs (in fact, it is encouraged to share the software), the source code (programming) must be made available to anyone, and the software must also have no restrictions on others making variations of the software. You can read an exact definition and read the licensing information at the Open Source Initiative web site here.

Open Source software seems to be gaining more and more traction in the computer world as budgets start to tighten in an uncertain financial climate. This week, OpenOffice.org released the newest version of their Open Source office suite software. I’ve been using the beta version of the software for a couple of months and find it to be quite good. OpenOffice is considered one of the bright lights in the Open Source software world and for good reason. It offers an extremely viable option to Microsoft Office and gains new users and fans every single day.

Another Open Source darling is Linux and its various forms (distros). Linux is an Open Source operating system and the poster child for it today is Ubuntu. Ubuntu, like OpenOffice, garners new fans by the thousands every single day because it offers a real alternative to Microsoft Windows for no cost.

Just yesterday, I read an article by Matt Hartley titled 10 Simple Methods for Happily Running Ubuntu. I enjoyed the article, but number 7 in his list stuck with me the most. It was titled, There is no free lunch. He described Open Source as being free from any initial monetary investment, but that Open Source refers more to freedom of use than free ride. What he refers to is that although Open Source software doesn’t cost any money, it does require an investment in time. Time to learn the software, time to research and troubleshoot answers to your questions, and time shared with others on public bulletin boards or other forums sharing any solutions to problems you found or sharing tips that you might have about a particular software. Matt’s sage description stresses the importance of the Open Source movement as being an active solution that everyone can and should contribute to versus a passive one where you take something but never return anything.

I think I’m drawn to Open Source software for a few reasons. 1) The talent and knowledge of the programmers who develop the software amaze me. 2) The thought of being self-reliant and learning to use resources (existing knowledge and collaboration with others) to solve a problem makes sense to me and is extremely self-satisfying, and 3) Paying money for something that doesn’t completely solve a problem for me doesn’t make a lot of fiscal sense.

Getting more people to adopt Open Source software is not always easy. I think this is so because consumers are so brand conscious these days. If it doesn’t have a flashy logo or name on the software or device, then it can’t possibly be worth their time…especially if it is free. I try to look at anything I buy or use from a perspective of; can it do what I need it to do, can it do it efficiently, and can I readily find help for it when I run into a problem or need to learn something new. Open Source often time does fit the bill quite nicely. Sometimes it does not. However, I think any computer user owes it to him or herself to investigate Open Source alternatives to commercially available software. You may be surprised at the quality and functionality of Open Source software while at the same time saving money and becoming a little more knowledgeable and self-sufficient when it comes to your computer use.

Photo by Antikris

Riding Shotgun with Rick — 10 Comments
2
Jul 08

Adobe Reader 9 update – DON’T DO IT!

Adobe released version 9 of their PDF (Portable Document Format) Reader program. Once the king and almost sole PDF reader on the market, it, like so many other mainstream programs, has become bloated beyond recognition. This software bloat slows down the performance of even the fastest computers, and for this reason, I firmly stand against software bloat.

I added Adobe Reader to my do not use list almost two years ago. Instead, I recommend the svelte and fast FoxIt Reader which does everything that Adobe Reader does, faster and better. The download for Adobe Reader 9 is almost 35 megabytes compared to under 3 megabytes for FoxIt Reader. Also, if you aren’t careful, you will add 12 megabytes to the Adobe download and end up with eBay Desktop, whatever that is. Do not upgrade to the Adobe Reader 9, and better yet uninstall all versions of Adobe Reader you may have and use the FoxIt Reader instead. Like Adobe Reader, FoxIt is free and a link can be found in the Links and Resources section of the site.

For those interested, my do not use list and their superior equivalents now looks like this:

DO NOT USE	USE INSTEAD
AOL	Any other Internet provider
Any Norton security or Utility product	AVG or Avast security
McAffee	AVG or Avast
Internet Explorer	Firefox or Opera
Windows Vista	Windows XP, Mac OS X or Ubuntu Linux
Microsoft Office 2007	Any previous version of Microsoft Office or OpenOffice.org or Zoho.com’s online productivity suite

Riding Shotgun with Rick — 4 Comments
18
May 08

“If it is free, it must not be any good.”

This statement was uttered by an imbecile. A customer of mine told me last week that he heard this quote from a tech person from some company after a discussion of AVG Free.

The week before this customer’s computer was almost crippling slow primarily because it had one of the newer versions of Norton Internet Security installed. After taking Norton off the system (approximately 20-25 minutes to do so) and adding AVG, the system sped up by at least 50%.

You all know that story, however, I want to instead focus on the “free is inferior” statement. My first rebuttal is Google. Google is free and arguably one of the most useful offerings to mankind in the last 30 years. Is Google inferior?

My next rebuttal is OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice is a project supported in part by Sun Microsystems that offers an outstanding, full-featured word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and database…for free. And it is fully interoperable with computer users who spent hundreds of dollars on Microsoft Office.

I could come up with dozens of other rebukes to this imbecile’s childish and uninformed comment, but I will end this diatribe with just one more example of a freebie that is superior to any paid product in the tech world. The free web browser embodies this notion that free products can exceed the functionality of a paid product. Mozilla Firefox and the Opera web browser both offer superior functionality and customization than Internet Explorer. In addition to this, they both offer a tremendous security advantage over Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Again, I could come up with dozens of instances where free products exceed or match the functionality and usefulness of paid products, but I’m hoping you can help build this list by leaving a comment below of your favorite free product that either exceeds a paid products function or provides a function for you that no paid product currently offers.

Macintosh — 4 Comments
27
Mar 08

Microsoft Office function without the MS price – on a Mac! – Video Tip

This is the first of what we hope to be many Macintosh video tips here at HelpMeRick.com. We posted a similar tip to this one a few months back for Windows and Ubuntu users, but this one applies to Mac users only.

In this tip, I describe to you how you can use the free NeoOffice product from neooffice.org to seamlessly create Microsoft Office compatible documents. Of course, the software also allows Mac users to open any Office document as well. NeoOffice gives Mac users complete abilities to share documents with any Windows user or fellow Mac user.

This short video demonstrates how to set your copy of NeoOffice so that it automatically saves your documents in the Microsoft Office format:

Ubuntu Tips — 2 Comments
4
Oct 07

OpenOffice Tip for Ubuntu, Mac & Windows Users – Video Tip

With Microsoft putting out less-and-less usable software and better-and-better options becoming available online, there is no reason to shell out hard earned money for Microsoft Office. If you aren’t quite ready to move your data and applications online (search our site for Web 2.0), then OpenOffice.org’s free office software is a wonderful option.

If you are an Open Office user or plan on becoming one, you still want to be able to share documents with your work colleagues, friends and family, today’s tip takes care of that for you. Open Office not only opens any Excel, Word, or PowerPoint file (except 2007 versions at the moment), but it can save in these formats as well. Watch the video below (less than 3 minutes) to learn how to create Microsoft Office compatible documents in the FREE OpenOffice software:

Riding Shotgun with Rick — 6 Comments
30
Jul 07

Ubuntu – Day 14 – Final Report

Ubuntu Header graphic

I can’t believe it has been two weeks already that I’ve used Ubuntu Linux exclusively. If I had to sum up the experience in one word, that word would be “satisfying.” And my regular readers/listeners know that I can’t sum anything up in one word, so I will use this format to provide a complete synopsis of my Ubuntu thoughts.

Minimum Requirements

Ubuntu and its derivatives can run on extremely modest computers. Ubuntu works best on a system with at least a 500mhz processor and 192 mb of RAM…specs that even the six year old Windows XP would choke on and Vista needs triple those specifications to even get close to running at any appreciable speed. Xubuntu is a very basic operating system capable of doing all the major computer functions, but only requires a 166mhz processor and 48mb of RAM! That’s a computer that was sold in the early 90’s!!

These modest system requirements are what first drew me to Ubuntu. Compared with the monster hardware required to run Vista, Ubuntu gives new life to computers previously thought ready for the scrap pile. The fact that Ubuntu is FREE on top of all this is just a bonus.

Available Applications

A fresh install of Ubuntu (typically less than 30 minutes) gives any computer user the ability to:

Browse the Internet
Send and receive email
Download digital photos from a camera
Edit digital photos
Create word processing documents
Create spreadsheets
Create slide presentations
Play games like Sudoku, solitaire, blackjack, Mahjongg and more

All of the above are full version programs…not time limited or crippled versions and they are all free.

Who can use Ubuntu?

Literally anyone that can click a mouse or type on a keyboard can you use Ubuntu. The real question is; Who is right for Ubuntu? Here are my thoughts:

Any aged computer user who only needs a computer for Internet, email, and occasional word processing. This is probably my idea of the number one demographic for Ubuntu.
Any aged computer user who wants to do the activities I listed above plus download and do light editing of photos and play basic games.
Families who want a solid, inexpensive, worry free computer system that the kids can do homework on and play Internet games on as well.

About the only group of people who I think should not use Ubuntu are those who require specialized industry software or software only available for Windows.

Ubuntu Support

Dell started selling Ubuntu desktops earlier this year and if you buy a computer with Ubuntu pre-installed at Dell or other vendors you might find, you will have the option for phone support. However, the power of Ubuntu is its community. The Ubuntu forums are second to none in being able to find answers to many existing questions and the ability to ask questions that come up as you use the system. I have found the forums to be extremely well organized and frequented by cordial, knowledgeable individuals. Also, many states offer Ubuntu users groups called LoCo groups for even more localized support.

Ubuntu Weaknesses

As much enthusiasm as I have for Ubuntu, I am not so blinded by love that I don’t see the chinks in the armor. And like ANY software or operating system, Ubuntu has a few chinks. The most glaring, in my opinion, are:

Hardware support. The Ubuntu community continues to work hard at providing drivers and programs that will work with every printer on the market and off the market as well as scanners, digital cameras (use a card reader for no problems at all), web cams and other devices. However, the number of hardware devices that have been available over the past ten years is staggering and Ubuntu has a lot of catching up to to do.

Wireless Internet. Once I figured out wireless on this laptop, I have had few problems, but getting wireless up and running requires some patience, technical know-how, and willingness to research the web for answers. It is getting better, but not as easy as wireless with Windows…yet.

Database. I love working with desktop databases. My skills are unfortunately pretty weak with databases, but I recognize their power and possibility so I constantly dabble in them. I was sorely disappointed with OpenOffice’s database program. It was slow, couldn’t handle much data and hard to customize. This all surprised me since their word processing, spreadsheet and presentation manager program all work so well.

Summary

At the beginning of this article I summarized my Ubuntu two week trek as being satisfying. I was satisfied that Ubuntu handled almost everything I threw at it. I was satisfied that I think the interface is such that any computer user of any age or ability could quickly get up to speed with Ubuntu. I was satisfied to have found a robust operating system that doesn’t break the bank in terms of computer needs and actual costs. As a tech guy who helps other fix their computers, I was extremely satisfied to use an operating system that requires virtually no worries about computer Internet security.

Will I continue to use Ubuntu? Absolutely, as my primary laptop? Will I give up my Windows PC? Not until all the support that I give lies only in Linux, which unfortunately won’t be any time soon.