[vox] OpenOffice.org for CCN

[Bill Kendrick]

Okay, I've put together a short article about OpenOffice.org for CCN.
Apparently, if I get it to them soon, it could make the January issue. :^)

  http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/bill/ooo-ccn/

In both OOo Writer (SXW) and PDF format.


Don't laugh too hard. :^P


I start out by explaining that Open Source is more than just Linux, and
name a few of the bigger projects that work on other platforms
(first dispensing with the geek stuff like Perl and Apache, and moving
on to the 'user' stuff like Mozilla and Gimp).

I go off on a short tangent, that I'm not sure is very well written,
that explains Open Source as best I could in such a short space.

I end it with a "no, that's not just 'Shareware'" paragraph with the
good ol' "free as in beer" analogy, and top it off with a
"I never said you couldn't make money, by the way" jab. ;^) ;^)


I take a sec to explain the history of OpenOffice.org... it's birth from
StarOffice.



I'm tired, otherwise I probably would have had a TON of stuff about the
various parts of the OpenOffice.org suite.  For the time being (draft1),
I only explain what parts there ARE, and the fact that they support
a lot of different file formats, including PDF and SWF (Flash).

What do you folks think?  Should I/we spend time trying to explain all
of the features of the various OOo components?  I mean, an office suite
is an office suite, these days.  It's really the _openness_ (and cost) and
_compatibility_ that are the killer attributes of OpenOffice...


Finally, I explain where to get OpenOffice.org (from OpenOffice.org, DUH!...
or via CDROM from countless distributors).  I entitled this section
"16 million users can't be wrong", so that I wouldn't have to gloat
(on behalf of OpenOffice.org and Sun) within the body. ;^)



So - comments?  Corrections?  Suggestions?  I'm going to talk to Craig
at CCN to see what he thinks... whether I should put all sorts of feature
facts in there, or leave it at a mostly Open Source article, that happens
to point out OOo...


Enjoy!

-bill!