DigitMemo.com

Today sp1 ships. hurray. It’s not up there yet but should be later today.

Looking down the list of fixes, here are some that caught my eye (read the whitepaper for the full list):

• Communicator won’t let you IM a distribution list any more for security reasons
• Icons for presence have been modified so that red/green colour blind people can tell the difference between available and busy by looking at the icon rather than the text next to it
• That Excel bug with 65,534 getting shown as 100,001 is fixed
• SharePoint works on Windows Server 2008
• ASP.net AJAX supported on SharePoint for web parts
• Outlook delays with opening large psts eliminated

Office Online Downloads (SP1 will be available here)

Why Sun choose a license they won’t accept themselves?

Kohei Yoshida wrote a long post on the history of Calc Solver, an optimization solver module for the Calc component of OpenOffice.org. After three years of jumping through Sun’s hoops on his own time, Sun says it will duplicate the work because Kohei doesn’t want to sign over ownership of the code.

Click for more on Sun Refuses LGPL for OpenOffice; Novell forks »

Microsoft’s move hopes to leverage the success of their Office client software to drive users to a new online collaboration site dubbed Office Live Workspace.

To that end, the company will give registered users 250 MB of storage space, which can be used to store documents “in the cloud” or even “host” them for comments by other users equipped with just a web browser. However, and this is important: you cannot create new Office documents with this feature nor can you edit documents beyond adding comments without having a copy of Microsoft Office installed locally.

Click for more on Office Live Workspace revealed: a free 250MB "SharePoint Lite" for everyone »

Microsoft itself is the surprise winner of the FFII’s Kayak Prize 2007, offered by the FFII in its call for rejection of Microsoft’s OOXML standards proposal.

The software monopolist is honored as “Best Campaigner against OOXML Standardization.” FFII president Pieter Hintjens explains, “We could never have done this by ourselves. By pushing so hard to get OOXML endorsed, even to the point of loading the standards boards in Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, and beyond, Microsoft showed to the world how poor their format is. Good standards just don’t need that kind of pressure.”

Click for more on MS Awarded "Best Campaigner Against OOXML" »

The company is readying a rival to Google’s Documents and Spreadsheets

The software maker is announcing Office Live Workspace, a free online tool for viewing, sharing and storing–but not editing–Office documents online. (It’s existing Office Live efforts will be rebranded as Office Live Small Business.) It’s not quite ready–starting Monday customers will be able to put in their name to be part of a beta testing program expected to begin later this year.

Click for more on Microsoft Office heads to the Web »

Vulnerabilities in OpenOffice.org could allow attackers to remotely execute code on Linux, Windows or Apple Mac-based computers.

OpenOffice version 2.0.4 and earlier versions are vulnerable to maliciously crafted TIFF files, which can be delivered in an e-mail attachment, published on a Web site or shared using peer-to-peer software.

Click for more on OpenOffice bug hits multiple operating systems »

Though spun out by Sun Microsystems Inc. in 2000, OpenOffice.org remains almost totally under the control of Sun employees working full-time on the project. Will IBM save the project from itself?

“What’s the biggest threat to the success of OpenOffice.org? Is it Microsoft Office? Is it the simple fact that Dell doesn’t offer it with computers? Not according to some participants in the ‘open’ source project itself, they say the biggest problem with OO.o is the fact that Sun codes, owns & makes all key decisions for the project when it should be more community oriented.

Click for more on The Uncertain Future of OpenOffice.org »

The user universe is divided into mousers and keyboarders, with the latter group stoutly insisting that it’s faster to keep your fingers on the keyboard than to stop and pick up the mouse to execute a command, and looks much cooler as well. If some of your users are in the keyboard camp, these basic shortcuts will be right up their alley.

Source: TechPublic