Open Source Saturday
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Hope everyone had a great summer, we are back in the new and improved saddle again! A new beginning (in the new building) is a beginning after all so back to some basics...
Quickly:
Syed will lord his Android SmartWatch over us all. Get so ready.
LibreOffice (http://www.libreoffice.org/) 4.3 Demo
MS Office has been the big dog on the block, beating down (literally) competitors it couldn't buy out. Well with continual attention paid to budgets and open formats (see below) these office suites are growing faster than ever.
They are saving budgets and empowering people around the world... and a new LibreOffice 4.3 was released on Wed!
The French city of Toulouse saved 1 million euro by migrating all its desktops from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice. (http://yro-beta.slashdot.org/story/14/07/25/1958257/switching-from-microsoft-office-to-libreoffice-saves-toulouse-1-million-euros)
ODF Marches On!
UK makes ODF its official documents format standard (http://www.zdnet.com/uk-makes-odf-its-official-documents-format-standard-7000031884/). That's correct! Microsoft's failure to respond to "requirement to view/print word documents for 30-100 years", has finally pushed the largest government yet to switch. This is expected to save their economy almost $2B USD!
What the UK Government’s adoption of ODF really means (http://standardsandfreedom.net/index.php/2014/07/24/uk-odf/)
OOXML not suitable for Norwegian government, says study (http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/article/335505/ooxml_suitable_norwegian_government_says_study/)
Denmark to Adopt ODF and PDF/A (http://www.zdnet.com/denmark-adopts-odf-and-pdfa-3040016263/)
Australian Feds propose Open Document Format support (http://www.itnews.com.au/News/344829,feds-propose-open-document-format-support.aspx)
Old but relevant News!
A brief history of Microsoft's war on ODF (http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/index.php?topic=20071125145019553) <- good & longish read!!
Britain keeps pushing Microsoft's buttons by suggesting that vendor lock-in might not be in citizen consumer's interest. They push back.
https://www.gov.uk/design-principles (These rock!)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/22/microsoft_uk_odf_response/
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For lunch the UN-usual... Since we will just have to figure this out.
Cya here, then there!
---- Caution: Generic Meetup description follows ---
We are a group of some serious, and some not-so-serious, geeks that want to see the Open Source Ethos spread and help as many people as will let it. During the meetings, which are pretty much an excuse to get together and have fun, we catch up on topical and industry news, projects, code releases, recent technical problems and solutions...
There are sometimes presentations - anything open source but if it is software then running on more than 1 platform is preferred (Linux, Mac, Win, etc.). Mobile is an exception due to Apple's refusal to let FOSS code onto their IOS platform - so we talk about Android a lot more.
I you have an itch to scratch that can be solved by technology, bring it on in! You well always get an educated opinion and sometimes a useful answer too. The group is not homogeneous around one specific technology, or industry, or language or nationality. What we have in common is our desire to make our lives better, and the set of people in "our" is everyone, everywhere.
Join us afterwards for lunch! Hope you have a hunger for adventure. ;)
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John Fields
Open Source Saturday