Posts Tagged 'linux'

CRN: The 10 Coolest Open Source Products of 2008

CRN are continuing with their ‘Top 10‘ series to wrap up 2008 with this list of ‘The 10 Coolest Open Source Products of 2008‘. This time the focus is at the open source community, that has much more to offer than (just) Linux OS. Open source products will grow bigger in market share in 2009, as companies and individuals alike are looking for ways to cut down costs. Obviously, IBM’s own Lotus Symphony, which is based on OpenOffice.org, is included in this list, coming in at #3, just after Linux OS and OpenOffice 3.0. Here’s what CRN had to say about Symphony:

IBM has taken great pains to position itself as more of a middleware company than a desktop productivity software company, but diverged from that path a bit in 2008. By launching and upgrading its IBM Lotus Symphony suite of productivity apps based on OpenOffice.org, IBM is once again using the Lotus brand to take aim against Microsoft on the desktop.

Link:
CRN – The 10 Coolest Open Source Products of 2008

IBM offers a ‘Microsoft-free’ desktop

Slightly delayed (had a busy Wed-Thu last week), but here’s another article covering IBM’s initiative to offer Linux-based software package, that runs on a back-end server and is accessible to customers on thin clients, pricing $59-$289 (depending on level of software and service).

Customers would also save on labor costs, because moving to a server-side system would cut maintenance needs, said Inna Kuznetsova, director of Linux strategy at IBM. The server-based setup could also reduce hardware costs by extending the life spans of desktop PCs.

Link: ComputerWorld – IBM, Canonical release ‘Microsoft-free’ virtual Linux desktop bundle

IBM opens a virtual tour of China’s ‘The Forbidden City’

Following the opening of The Hermitage Museum and Eternal Egypt, IBM unveiled the virtual version of China’s ‘The Forbidden City’, a 3 year long project, with The Palace Museum.

Links:
The Forbidden City – beyondspaceandtime.org
IBM press release (June 2006)
FT.com – IBM unlocks the gates to Beijing’s ‘The Forbidden City’
Calcalist – IBM presents a tour at ‘The Forbidden City’ (Hebrew)
The Palace Museum

The Hermitage Museum (Russia)
Eternal Egypt

Free your desktop

IBM’s participation at LinuxWorld last week marked its 10th appearance, and we certainly made an impression, with some major announcements, including this one, which ZDnet dubbed ‘IBM, Ubuntu, Novell and Red Hat Gang Up on Vista‘.

The slow adoption of Vista among businesses and budget-conscious CIOs, coupled with the proven success of a new type of Microsoft-free PC in every region, provides an extraordinary window of opportunity for Linux. We’ll work to unlock the desktop to save our customers money and give freedom of choice by offering this industry-leading solution [Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president for IBM’s Lotus Software].

In plain English (and Hebrew to our customers), IBM will offer Windows-free PCs, coupled with Linux as the OS and Lotus Notes and Lotus Symphony as the pre-installed messaging and office productivity suite platforms. Nice 🙂

As Larry Dignan is saying at ZDnet, Microsoft market share won’t decrease significantly, but the move itself, and the ‘teaming’ with open source vendors (Red Hat, Ubuntu and Novell), will be interesting to follow.

Couple of videos for you to watch:
Lotus Notes 8.0 on Linux
Review by Ron Sebastian – IBM Lotus Symphony
Tired of feeding the machine?
Clean your desktop

Links:
ZDnet.com – IBM, Ubuntu, Red Hat and Novell gang up on Vista
Cnet.com – IBM, open source and the ‘Microsoft-free’ desktop
InformationWeek.com – Lenovo is talks to join IBM’s ‘Microsoft-free’ program

First impressions from Lotus Symphony

It’s been 3 days now since my resolution to drop Microsoft Office, and start working with Lotus Symphony entirely. Thought I’ll share some of my early impressions with you.

  • The work area is slightly different, since one of the toolbars is now a sidebar – takes some getting used to, but at the end, it’s more convenient to work. The relevant functions are right there, and you can control the appearance.
  • I’m using the Hebrew user interface, so all my new documents are set right to left (Bi-Directional, or Bidi hereafter) by default. The Bidi support is excellent so far, both in the user interface and in the document itself. However, when I created a new English document, I couldn’t find that tiny Left to Right paragraph icon. It’s available, but must be enabled from the File, Preferences screen (see screenshot). Maybe the next version will put it in the toolbar by default.
  • The sidebar can be open, float or closed. Very useful, depending what task you’re doing: open for editing/creating, float for minor adjustments or close for previewing.
  • Loading time. Both Lotus Symphony and Lotus Notes (and Lotus Sametime for that matter) are running over Eclipse, which slows things down a bit. Enabling Lotus Symphony on system startup (again, under Preferences) will open the first file faster. Once the client is up and running, things go smoother.
  • PDF export. One of my favorite features so far. I’ve been using the CutePDF writer software until now, which ‘Print’ your document into PDF. Now, with the export command, it’s much more easier, and you can even determine the quality of the PDF, optimizing for screen, print or press.
  • JPG export. This is super cool ! No more ‘Print screen’ and then edit in Photoshop or something. You can export your document to PDF, current page or all pages, and even decide if you want it in color of greyscale. Nice.
  • Install plugins. Part of the Lotus Symphony download package is the multilingual support. It comes as a .zip file, which can be added to Lotus Symphony, thanks to the Eclipse platform (screenshot). Any idea how I can switch between the interface languages? Update – figured out how to switch between languages (UI) – it depends on your Regional and Language Settings, under Start, Setting, Control Panel. Also explained here.

Lotus Symphony is turning out to be more than a suitable replacement for Office, and with almost 500,000 downloads, its getting some attention. Datamation Magazine even crowned Lotus Symphony as Office Productivity Software Product of the Year 2008, beating Microsoft Office.

In a totally different subject, thought I point you to a very interesting initiative, or experiment,
by my good friend Luis Suarez, who’s taken a step I know most of us would love to take – giving up on emails! Follow the link and read the rationale on his blog. This recent interview of Luis with IBM’s Peter Andrews on Effective Blogging, reveals Luis’s intentions. Worth the download.

Next Page »




Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
Website
About

Archives

Disclaimer

This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.