Apache OpenOffice Weekly News #3
Translations: (de)
Major Discussions
Juergen, our Release Manager, announced the release of Apache OpenOffice 4.1.
The winPenPack team updated their portable version, x-ApacheOpenOffice 4.1.
Marcello has updated the unofficial Debian repository for Apache OpenOffice. It now "provides the version 4.1 of Apache OpenOffice with all available languages."
OpenOffice in the News
"The Apache OpenOffice project announce the release of Apache OpenOffice 4.1" in the official Apache OpenOffice Blog.
"Improvements to graphics, charts, forms, text annotations and
accessibility feature in this 23rd release of the 14-year old
community-run open source project."
"Apache OpenOffice 4.1 improves support for visually impaired users" is the headline of an article by Nick Peers in PC & Tech Authority (Australia).
"Apache OpenOffice – Why 100 Million Downloads Matter" by Kramer Reeves in Social Biz User Group.
"Updated OpenOffice 'good news for administrations'" by Gijs Hellenius on the European Commission's JoinUp website.
"Apache OpenOffice for Mac" a new review (4 1/2 stars) on CNet Download.com by Ben Markton. "Bottom Line: Apache OpenOffice is a very good free, accessible alternative to expensive
office software. It is loaded with tools; downloads and installs
quickly; and handles all the basic functions you could need from an
office suite."
More from ApacheCon
"Apache OpenOffice by the Numbers" is a reprise of the Lightning Talk by Andrew Rist and Rob Weir at ApacheCon in Denver.
Use Cases, Questions and Answers
We
received another report on the users mailing list from someone who had
downloaded what he thought was OpenOffice, but instead got a bunch of
malware. That wasn't us, obviously. Apache OpenOffice does not bundle
any other programs in its package. Absolutely none. Our downloads are
carefully scanned for viruses and are accompanied by digital signatures
and cryptographic hashes to allow users to verify their integrity.
However,
there are third parties that sometimes take OpenOffice and bundle it
with objectionable and intrusive applications. In some cases they put
up fake websites, or purchase advertisements in search engine search
results, to lure people to their website.
It is unfortunate that
such sites often come top of the hit list on search engines;
inexperienced users download from them and their computers become
infected with adware/viruses/trojans. When we know the exact URL of any
such sites we do our best to have these removed or flagged, but it is an
uphill battle.
We recommend to download only from www.openoffice.org/download
which will redirect to SourceForge, whose secure content distribution
network we use. A download from there will usually start within five
seconds.
Typically an OpenOffice download is about 145 MB; we do
not use downloader applications, so any site offering a much smaller
download should immediately be suspect. If in any doubt about a download
it is best to check its integrity using MD5Sum; details are given at http://www.openoffice.org/download/checksums.html
OpenOffice is a complex and powerful software. If you have difficulties, our User Forums at https://forum.openoffice.org/ in several languages will do their best to help.
Community development
Three new translation teams have been established: Catalan, Valencian AVL, Valencian RACV. If you want to help with these, or any other translation, you can find more information on our website.
The
Project Management Committee (PMC) for Apache OpenOffice has asked Tal
Daniel to become a committer and we are pleased to announce that Tal has
accepted and taken the ID "tal".