Some time ago, I fretted about the future of OpenOffice, an open source office suite, and my software of choice for writing, spreadsheets and presentations. The problem, put simply, was the lack of interest in OpenOffice from Oracle, it’s new owner. Well, it looks like my worries are over. Meet the Document Foundation, a new… Continue reading Liberation
Tag: linux
Meitheal
Ubuntu, the Linux distribution from Canonical and marketed as ‘Linux for human beings’, manages to both annoy and please me with every release. On the one hand, it sure does look pretty, and gets prettier with every new release. The latest version, Lucid Lynx, now in beta, introduces the ‘Light’ theme – see the screenshot… Continue reading Meitheal
Connecting
Last week, I wrote about connectivity problems when using the vodafone-provided ‘mobile broadband‘ dongle with my shiny new Karmic Koala distro from Ubuntu. Fair’s fair, so it’s only right that I should report the fix which resolved the problem for me. I can’t guarantee this will work with every netbook/notebook configuration (in my case, E620… Continue reading Connecting
Just Connect
In case you’ve been living under a rock, windows 7 (or Microsoft 7, as one headline writer labelled it) debuted last week. Since I don’t use Windows software, I’ve been paying attention to a different operating system launch. Karmic Koala, the latest linux distro from Ubuntu, hits the servers tomorrow. Normally, I’d look forward to… Continue reading Just Connect
Unbundling Internet Explorer: Living In a World Of Choices?
A decade after it insisted that it couldn’t be done in front of a US federal judge, Microsoft has decided to unbundle Internet Explorer from its operating system. From October, when Windows 7 hits the shelves, customers in Europe can install the browser of their choice. At least, that’s the hype. The EU commissioners are… Continue reading Unbundling Internet Explorer: Living In a World Of Choices?
…As Long As It’s Black
Day two of my mission to find a Windows free laptop in Ireland fared no better than day one. This time, wary of wasting more time crawling through often poorly designed websites, I took a direct approach. I phoned around. I got through a list of most computer suppliers in the Pale within an hour… Continue reading …As Long As It’s Black
Any Colour You Want…
I’m in the market for a new computer. Maybe. It depends on whether my laptop can be repaired economically. I’ve spent the last few days shopping around, and it’s been an education. My requirements are relatively modest, a midrange laptop, big enough to handle my everyday workload, small enough to lug around on the road.… Continue reading Any Colour You Want…
I’m A Linux
I’m a Linux. It started as a curiosity, just to see what all the fuss was about. I’m not sure what year it was, but I was still using Windows 95 at the time, and the only Linux GUI available at the time was X Windows, so that will give you an idea. It looked… Continue reading I’m A Linux
New Toys
Intrepid Ibex. It sounds like a cartoon character from CBBC, but it’s the codename for the latest Ubuntu distribution, released today. This afternoon, I installed it on two computers, although I must admit that the news that it came packed with the older version of OpenOffice did give me pause for thought. Despite that, I… Continue reading New Toys