Microsoft Fear-Uncertainty-Doubt (FUD) video attacks on OpenOffice.org

To tell you the truth, I’m kind of agree with some points in this video even before it was published.

There are stories of organizations, school computer labs or home users that switch back to Microsoft Office after they have use OpenOffice.org. There is even a local (Malaysian) joke that poke fun at the amount of training and costs required to educate staffs to use OpenOffice.org which eventually exceeds the cost Microsoft Office Suite.

We have used a lot of open source software, libraries and components in our daily lives without realizing, In case of OpenOffice.org, I think the problem is just the process and familiarity with application. Microsoft has spend a lot of money to ensure every schools, university, computer labs used its products to educate our younger and future generations that eventually would be accustom to Microsoft branded products. It is a great business strategy, but the question is, who would benefit the most from this scheme?

How to convert *.docx files (Microsoft Office 2007) online for free

Sometimes you might have no choice except to open Microsoft Office 2007 (*.docx) files that you’ve just received in your email. The problem is, you do not have any other application that support Office 2007 format.

Here’s an easy way to (kinda) solve that problem, you can convert Microsoft Office 2007 files online, using Google Docs.

Google Docs Logo

The steps are easy, you need to login into your Google Docs account, then upload the Office 2007 files. After that, you can choose the “Download file as” option to convert the file to your favorite document format (typically OpenDocument or older *.doc Microsoft Office word document).

Bear in mind that the conversion is not 100% perfect and there will be parts of document that won’t look exactly as the original ones.

How to convert OpenXML docx files to OpenDocument odf in Windows and vice versa

This guide might be a little different from the others because I write this for the Windows users. Here’s how to convert Microsoft OpenXML docx files to odf OpenDocument files (and vice versa) in Windows using only commandline :

  • First, make sure you downloaded odf-converter tool and copy it to appropriate folder.
  • Convert the files(s) using this command line :
    odfconverter /I filename.pptx
    and the tool will perform the conversion effortlessly.
  • You can use this command to convert multiple files :
    odfconverter /BATCH-DOCX /I c:\newfiles\

    replace /BATCH-DOCX with /BATCH-PPTX, /BATCH-XLSX, /BATCH-ODF, /BATCH-ODP if necessary.

Odfconverter also supports converting Open Document files (ODF, ODP, ODT) to OpenXML files (PPTX,DOCX,XLSX) making it a handy tool to use.

Why odfconverter?
Odfconverter is a (relatively) small and compact standalone tool for converting Office 2007 files to their OpenDocument counterpart. The convenient batch mode conversion makes it attractive tool to use when converting multiple files between the two formats.

The only downside with this converter is that it does not convert mathematical formula pretty well compared to other features.

[Source OOOninja]

Wubi – Easiest way to install Ubuntu in Windows partition

Wubi is an application which simplifies Ubuntu Linux installation on Windows partition. To Windows users, Wubi eliminates the hassle of having to repartition hard disk which carry the risk of loosing precious data.

Wubi does this by using a loopback device, creating a large file on a Windows partition and installing Ubuntu inside it. The best thing about Wubi is, it does not use virtual machine or any type of emulation. Thanks to Wubi, Ubuntu can be booted natively using Microsoft Windows boot loader.

When you are done experimenting with Ubuntu (who does?), or need to reclaim the hard disk space back, you can choose the uninstall button from the Windows Start Menu and everything will be removed, just as simple as that.

Wubi is one of the few application that made me wish that I have a Windows machine because I’m dying to try it out!

Wubi will be included with the upcoming Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) release, due in late April 2008.

Credits to fenris the 1337 pencacai for his original research on Wubi.

Visit Wubi official website here : http://wubi-installer.org/

Upcoming OpenOffice.org 3.0 supports Microsoft OpenXML (docx) out of the box

The popular Free and Open Source Office application, OpenOffice.org is going to have OpenXML (*.docx, *.xlsx, *.pptx) support by default. Scheduled to be release on September 2008, OpenOffice.org 3.0 packs a lot of features you might find interesting :

openoffice 3.0 development release
  • Import PDF files support. PDF documents can be edited in Writer
  • Official Mac OS support, now includes native “Aqua” interface
  • Multiple page view in Writer
  • Error bars in OpenOffice.org charts
  • Supports OpenDocument 1.2 specification

The BETA is scheduled to be released on April 30th, 2008. For the time being, OpenOffice.org 2.x users can open Microsoft OpenXML files (*.docx, *.xlsx) using odf import filters

Thanks to Andrew Ziem for the original article, OpenOffice.org 3.0 new features, an early look