This OS is so simple to use (maybe too much...I missed the hard SCIM configuration for input japanese in some distros...;-)) and it's generally fast. It's fast to boot, fast to shutdown and fast to open dedicated intel applications.The graphic is good and clear, there are a lot of colours, wonderful icons and nice widgets (but a full customization of Compiz-Fusion is SO superior;-)). The terminal is often useless, but eventually give you the power to manage some hardcore situations.

As an addicted Linux user one of my fears was about the lack of osx freeware software for my work but after some hours I found (near) everything I need without using Vmware software or Bootcamp. Here some examples:

Fugu is a nice ftp-sftp-ssh frontend which also includes a console.A must; I also discovered macports, an intersting way to use open-source X11 or Aqua based software and in the list I saw...Putty!My old friend, please follow me even in the Mac universe:-)

Ooooooh.....Microsoft did it??A native osx remote desktop client for connecting to windows machines??

Simpyburns does the hard job of burning cd/dvd for free. Very light and useful. For audio cd you can obiouvsly use ITunes, that works good even if it's a little "heavy" software.

Free office application. Neooffice is sincerely not fast as the last Open Office, but it's full of osx native stuffs since its born and for example I've no problem input japanese and other languages in this software. 

More to comes....As graphic editor the right choice coud be Gimp for osx, that works good with after the X11 install as you can read in the help section of the community.

9èmes rencontres mondiales du logiciel libre à Mont-de-Marsan du 1er au 5 juillet 2008

Les RMLL (Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre) sont l'occasion pour tous les publics de se rencontrer autour des logiciels libres. Pendant 5 jours, des conférences et des ateliers sont ouverts à tous. Cet évènement est organisé chaque année et pour la 9ème édition, c'est la ville de Mont de Marsan qui accueillera la manifestation du 1er au 5 juillet 2008.

Although I had worked in the past with PowerPC boxes and even older Macs (that was in grad school), this would have been my first "new generation" mac product. Sporting Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, albeit the Greek version (you can go ahead and say "it's all greek to you", that's ok), the Macbook (black on the outside) is a very lightweight laptop, has an impressive life battery (that is probably one of my major concerns); it is durable, I can work with both native and X11 apps. Talking about apps, my main work applications include:

1. Openoffice (I have downloaded the NeoOffice version),
2. R available at my nearest CRAN site,
3. Emacs,
4. TeX/LaTeX,
5. plus the regular combo of firefox, thunderbird, gpg.

BTW, the Mozilla folks are organizing a download day (that would be the day when they ask everyone to download a copy of firefox so they can be go into the Guinness book of records).

Going back to the Macbook. Yesterday, I aslo downloaded the latest updates from Apple. The process was painless and lasted less than twenty minutes. I was pleasantly surprised when the OS asked me to plug the power cord for the macbook just in case I ran out of juice :)

In all a very positive experience, so positive, that I have even changed my ubuntu desktop look to look like a macbook (shame on me, I know!!!).

I.

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Aggiornare!

Fra le nuove features, il supporto ai video Quicktime e l'importazione di immagini da scanner o fotocamere

Avevo già parlato di NeoOffice in questo post.

Tra le nuove features ricordiamo il supporto per i video QuickTime nei documenti, la possibilità di importare immagini da scanner e fotocamere, la possibilità di aprire e modificare documenti creati con Office 2008.

Altre informazioni le trovate qui.

Potete scarica il programma da qui. Sono disponibili i download sia per Mac Intel che per mac PowerPC.

Features:

• No X11 software required
• Native Aqua menus
• Integrated with Finder and Mail
• Uses Mac OS X fonts
• Handles international keyboards
• Native printing support
• Native copy and paste support
• Native drag-and-drop support

Latest version: 2.2.3 ^updated

Links:
Homepage
Download

"NeoOffice is a full-featured set of office applications (including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database programs) for Mac OS X. Based on the OpenOffice.org office suite, NeoOffice has integrated dozens of native Mac features and can import, edit, and exchange files with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office.

Released as free, open source software under the GNU General Public License (GPL), NeoOffice is fully functional and stable enough for everyday use. The software is actively developed, so improvements and small updates are made available on a regular basis."

Για να καλύψουμε λοιπόν τις ανάγκες μας κατεβάσαμε το NeoOffice (OpenOffice για το Mac) και αρχίσαμε να το χρησιμοποιούμε. Η αλήθεια είναι πως το Office δεν μου λείπει καθόλου. Ούτε στο Mac Mini του σπιτιού ούτε στο Mac Mini της δουλειάς το έχω εγκαταστήσει. Το NeoOffice μου καλύπτει όλες τις ανάγκες και είναι και δωρεάν.

Αν επιτέλους μπορώ και βάλω τα χέρια μου πάνω στο Office 2008 θα το εγκαταστήσω στην δουλειά για να το «μάθω» (για να βοηθώ τους πελάτες) αλλά προσωπικά μεταξύ του NeoOffice, του Mail.app και του iWork (για το keynote) είμαι άκρος ευχαριστημένος με τον υπολογιστή μου χωρίς Office.

Don't have the money to purchase the new Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac or even Office 2004. Fear not! There is another alternative which is free and open source. It is none other than NeoOffice! Ported over to Mac from the famous office suite, OpenOffice, NeoOffice features word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database programs.Download: www.neooffice.org OpenOffice also offers a version for Mac, known as the OpenOffice Aqua. However it is still in beta stage and the current build is more suitable for testers and developers. You can still download it at the link below.Download: http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/index.html

Da poco ho scoperto l'esistenza del progetto NeoOffice, un porting di OpenOffice.org che utilizza strumenti software native come Carbon, Cocoa e Java.

NeoOffice ha la completezza di OpenOffice.org ed è perfettamente integrato nel sistema. L'unica pecca è il fatto che è implementato quasi totalmente in Java, il che lo rende particolarmente avido di risorse.

Nonostante questo, vi consiglio di scaricarlo

• Les suites bureautiques concurrentes de MS Office : le choix me semble assez simple ; NeoOffice permet de se passer de X11, est francisé, mis à jour très régulièrement. OpenOffice, qui est financé par Sun Microsystem (Editeur de StarOffice dont OpenOffice est la version "open-source") tourne sur trois plate-formes (Mac, Windows et Linux) mais requiert actuellement X11 pour tourner sur Mac ; une version Aqua est en cours de développement.
• Les applications "autonomes" : AbiWord (Projet Open Source) : simple, francisé, rapide, complet. Bean (Licence Gnu GPL) : très propre, léger, clair, francisé (l'aide, très bien faite, est aussi en français) ; on est beaucoup plus dans l'interface Mac qu'avec les autres.

Curieusement, j'ai l'impression qu'il y a peu de nouveautés, la "mode" étant plutôt aux logiciels pour produire des textes longs, gérer des données, prendre des notes ou tenir un journal de bord.

This revelation came to me at work. It's not that I think I'm better because I use a Macbook and OSX, it's just that I now understand **WHY** people make “the switch”.

Ever since I bought my Macbook, I haven't been on my Windows machine. It's a bit out of date, which would lead me to snubbing it, and it's also in the office, and the benefit of the Macbook is the ability to bring it anywhere. It goes beyond that, though.

One of the best features that OSX offers is Expose. It's a feature in OSX that allows you to separate all of your windows. (See below)

The benefit of Expose lies in the way it quickly displays all relevant information so you can quickly get to and from any program you like without resorting to Command+Tab (or Control+Tab in Windows). Windows XP, the more stable, albeit long in the tooth version of Windows, does not offer anything remotely resembling this. I'm not as studied on Vista, so I can't comment, but the way OSX does this has been a godsend.

At any given time, I have between 4 to 6 programs open, those being my web browser, email, NeoOffice, Adium, and sometimes Flickr Uploadr or some other. Command+Tab is a mess, though OSX displays exceptionally clear, beautiful icons when you use this method. Expose eliminates that, quickly bringing all of your windows up so you can look through them. Hover your mouse over them to see exactly what a window is.

This goes one step further when you use Spaces. (See below)

Spaces allows you to quickly create separate desktops so you can place items there. I'm currently writing this in desktop 2 while my email, chat program, Finder windows, and other assorted goodies are in desktop 1.

In conjunction, Expose can be used to move program windows from one desktop to another in Spaces. This requires only 2 button presses.

A final thing about Expose that has changed the way I organized and interact with my desktop is the “Clear the Desktop” mode. (See Below)

Under the Expose Preferences in your System Preferences, you can set up Expose to regulate specific duties to the four corners or keys that are pressed. I have “Desktop” selected for my lower left corner. When I roll my mouse into this corner, all of the programs move out of the way and I can immediately see and interact with my desktop, which includes allowing me to grab icons. At this point, I roll my mouse back over the corner. If the program I want to drop the Icon into isn't in focus, I press my Expose key, highlight the program, press it again, and drop it. It's that simple.

We use Windows XP at work and, while I have been a Windows user all of my life, the little things about XP that were a tinge of annoyance before have begun to feel like someone stabbing me in the eye, particularly in the way it handles program availability. Because I'm so accustomed to Expose and Spaces in the few short days I have been an OSX user, I find myself struggling with the XP interface and it's lack of finesse. This becomes particularly annoying given the fact that I have far more windows open at work than I ever do at home.

Today, while working, it dawned on me that I hate Windows XP. I hate it with a passion. It feels like a complete step backwards. Working with the OS makes me think of the days I was working in DOS, trying to get things to run while maintaining some sense of sanity as the command-line interface spat out error messages that were nigh incomprehensible except by the most studied of MS-DOS users. OSX is just a cleaner, more usable interface.

I will be a snob. I can't help it. I'm rebuilding our Windows machine, which is mainly used so my fiancee can do graphic work on a bigger monitor. I don't see that happening too often, however. Unfortunately, I see us hooking our 19” flat screen to the Macbook and just using the Macbook for all our graphic needs while the Windows PC sits lonely in the office until it is eventually replaced with a beautiful 24” iMac. That is the way of the world... Apple has ruined me... and I think it has ruined me for the better. Lord help me, I'm turning into the people I used to hate... and I think I like it.

Das Darstellen dürfte eigentlich kein Problem sein, da alle wichtigen Programme mittlerweile UTF-8 zur Sprachencodierung verwenden. Standardmäßig bringen alle Betriebssysteme - sei es Mac, Windows oder Linux - alle erforderlichen Ausstattungsstücke mit: Fonts, Recht-nach-Links-Schreibrichtungswechsel usw.

Leichte Unterschiede gibt es nur beim Handling unbekannter Zeichen: während z.B. Microsoft-Programme ein Kästchen darstellen, versuchen Firefox und OpenOffice die Buchstaben aus einem Font herzuholen.

Mittlerweile verfügen die Standardschriftarten (Times, Arial, Courier, Helvetica) über Minimal-Ausstattungen von Zeichen zu den wichigen Sprachen wie Latein (mit Umlauten), Kyrillisch, Griechisch, Arabisch, Kanji, Chinesisch.

Die vollständigsten Fonts sind:

• Arial Unicode MS von Microsoft - nicht frei erhältlich, aber bei Mac OS X dabei; Windows-Benutzer müssen von ihrer Office-CD (Office!!! nicht Windows-CD!!!) die "Universale Schriftart" nachinstallieren.
• Thryomanes - ähnlich Garamond
• Gentium - auch ähnlich Garamond

Zum Eingeben habe ich ja hier schon mal was geschrieben. Einfach mal ausprobieren, ein Dokument in NeoOffice öffnen und wild auf der Tastatur rumdrücken. Dann hat sich die Frage nach dem Darstellen wohl schon erledigt.

Dokumentene som produseres av Microsoft Office 2007 går angivelig under betegnelsen MSOOXML. Dette er uansett ikke poenget med artikkelen. Poenget er å sjekke om dette dokumentformatet lar seg åpne i noen av Apple-produktene.

Kanskje er det bevisst taktikk at han nettopp velger NeoOffice, et produkt som selv mener at deres støtte av Open XML er eksperimentell. Det hadde ikke vært en artikkel fra hans side hvis han hadde benyttet Microsoft Office 2007 - for Open XML docx-fil laget av Microsoft Office 2007 leses riktig av Apple Finder, iWork(Pages) og iPhone.

Vel - faktum er at han valgte nå engang NeoOffice i sin test og det fungerte ikke. Han konkluderer med:

Jeg kan derfor ikke se at påstandene om at (MS)OOXML er implementert i noen av Apple-produktene er riktige.

Kanskje skyldes det manglende kompetanse innen området, men uansett så sier ikke Bekkelund hva han tror kan være årsaken til at Open XML-dokumentet fra NeoOffice ikke fungerer på Apple. Jeg har derfor valgt å se litt nærmere på Open XML-filen som blir laget av NeoOffice.

Jeg er ikke daglig Apple Mac bruker og vet ikke hvordan dette systemet arbeider med filer. Ting som jeg har kommet frem til om Apple Mac er resonnementer fra min side. Jeg har også benyttet samme fil som Bekkelund i min test på Apple.

Word Translator CommandLine 1.1
Til forskjell fra Bekkelund har jeg tatt utgangspunkt i en Open XML-fil laget av Microsoft Office 2007. Dette fordi denne filen fungerer utmerket på Apple Mac. NeoOffice sin Open XML støtte tar utgangspunkt i ODF <-> Open XML konverteren til OpenOffice.org. Jeg lastet ned Word Translator CommandLine 1.1 og konverte en Open XML-fil til ODF og så tilbake til Open XML. Dette for å se hvordan pakkestrukturen endrer seg.

Open XML-pakken i originalfilen:

ODF pakken som ble generert etter konvertering fra .docx til .odt.
Kommando som ble brukt: odfconverter.exe /i "Hello World Office 2007.docx" /o "Hello World Office 2007.odt" /level 1

Pakkestrukturen er selvfølgelig forskjelling fra en docx-fil. Ettersom konverteringen gikk uten feilmeldinger så tar jeg for gitt at all nødvendig informasjon er med fra docx-originalfilen.

Jeg ønsker nå å konvertere denne odt-filen tilbake til docx. Jeg forventer at Open XML-pakken skal være tilsvarende originalpakken.
Kommando som ble brukt:  odfconverter.exe /i "Hello World Office 2007.odt" /o "Hello World Office 2007 from odt.docx" /level 1

Som man ser så er det noen flere XML-filer i pakken som kommer fra odt-filen. Det er dog én fil som mangler og det er theme1.xml. Denne filen skal vise seg å være sentral for Apple Finder og forhåndsvisning av filer på Apple.

Pakkestrukturen laget av odfconverter.exe er identisk med pakkestrukturen som lages av NeoOffice.

theme1.xml
Theme er en viktig del av et dokument, den inneholder informasjon om farge-, font-, og formatinformasjon. Open XML-dokumenter fra NeoOffice inneholder ikke Themes. NeoOffice velger å lagre denne informasjonen andre steder. Problemet er bare at Apple Finder bruker informasjonen fra Theme til å bestemme filtype og vise riktig ikon (første siden av dokumentet i ikonen) samt en forhåndsvisning av et dokument.

Man kan selvsagt legge inn Theme manuellt. For å gjøre dette riktig og lage nødvendige koblinger i Open XML-pakken editeres man:
[Content_Types].xml - inneholder informasjon om typen innhold i Open XML-pakken
document.xml.rels - inneholder relasjonene om dokumentet i Open XML-pakken
theme1.xml - inneholder informasjon om fonter, farge og formatering av dokumentet

core.xml
Jeg legger også merke til Open XML-filen fra NeoOffice har Namespaces på elementnivå i core.xml filen. Selv om dette er gyldig i henholdt til XML 1.1 spesifikasjonen reagerer Apple Pages på dette.

original core.xml fil fra NeoOffice:

Jeg velger å endre scope på definerte namespaces og legger dem på root.
core.xml etter endring:

Det er samme namespaces, men bare løftet opp et nivå.

NeoOffice filen på Apple Mac
Etter å lagt inn theme1.xml med koblinger og endret scope på namespaces så ble xml-filene pakket til .docx. Denne ble da kjørt opp på Apple Mac og nedenfor ser man resultatet.

Apple Finder

Filen til venstre er endret namespace-scope og lagt til theme. Som man ser så kommer den med riktig ikon i Finder og forhåndsvisning fungerer. Filen til høyre er det kun endret namespace-scope. Den kommer ikke riktig opp i Finder men fungerer i Pages.

Pages


iPhone

Konklusjon
Som man ser så er det noe av formateringen som ikke blir helt riktig. Dette kan selvsagt skyldes min redigering av theme1.xml. Open XML-filen fra NeoOffice vises uten problemer i Microsoft Office 2007. Jeg snappet ut theme1.xml fra denne visningen og embedded den inn i den originale NeoOffice filen.

En ting er jeg ganske sikker på. Noe rart skjer når det gjelder themes i NeoOffice og at Finder ikke klarer å velge riktig ikon og få til forhåndsvisning av dokumentet er forståelig. På den andre siden at Pages ikke klarer å håndtere namespaces på elementnivå må være en bug. Her burde Apple og NeoOffice gjengen snakke litt mer sammen.

Dette viser at Apple ikke støtter den eksperimentelle implementasjon av Open XML i NeoOffice out-of-the-box. Derimot er Microsofts implementering av Open XML støttet av Apple. Jeg kan ikke med sikkerhet si hvem som gjør feil - Apple eller NeoOffice. Uansett så ligger ansvaret hos implementeringspart og ikke på Open XML som en dokumentstandard.

Når det gjelder dette tema om interoperabilitet så vil også anbefale Fredrik E. Nilsens blogg. Han har testet litt på ODF-interoperabilitet mellom Lotus Sympony og OpenOffice.
  
Oppdaget at Wordpress.com ikke støtter opplasting av .docx filer :-)
Filene er lastet opp som .doc filer og dere må endre endelsen til .docx
Originalfilen til Bekkelund NeoOffice Open XML-format (rename fra *.doc til *.docx)
NeoOffice Open XML-format endret namespace (rename fra *.doc til *.docx)
NeoOffice Open XML-format endret namespace og theme (rename fra *.doc til *.docx)

Aller først vil jeg påpeke at dokumentformatet som produseres av Microsoft Office 2007 ikke er OOXML (Ecma 376). Office 2007-dokumenter inneholder, ifølge kildene jeg har tilgang til, mange elementer som ikke er med i Ecma 376, blant annet binær kode, makroer, OLE-objekter, ActiveX, rettighetsstyring og metadata knyttet til Sharepoint. Heller ikke papirhåndteringen er i samsvar med det Ecma oppgir. Dokumentene som produseres av Microsoft Office 2007 går angivelig under betegnelsen MSOOXML. Dette er uansett ikke poenget med artikkelen. Poenget er å sjekke om dette dokumentformatet lar seg åpne i noen av Apple-produktene.

Allerede i startet snubler han i sine egne ord og betegnelser. Først slår han fast at dokumentformatet som produseres av Microsoft Office 2007 ikke er ECMA Office Open XML (ECMA 376). Og denne påstanden er han ikke interessert i å diskutere i sin blogg-artikkel. Deretter så mener han at dokumenter produsert av Microsoft Office 2007 går angivelig under betegnelsen MSOOXML.

Hvilket dokumentformat og hva er det han ønsker å sjekke. Han mener jo at det er 2 ulike formater.
1) Det han kaller for MSOOXML - om det lar seg åpne i noen av Apple-produktene?
2) eller om ECMA 376 lar seg åpne i noen av Apple-produktene?

Videre i sin blogg-artikkelen bruker han betegnelsen MSOOXML så jeg tar for gitt at det dreier seg om det han kaller for Microsoft versjonen av ECMA 376. Bekkelund er lite metodisk og transparent i sin test. Han informerer kun om de deler som gagner hans sak og øvelsen er lavnivå.

Nedenfor er noen punkter som jeg mener han burde ha tatt hensyn til i sin test:

• Han omtaler støtte for OOXML i Apple-produkter som "påstander". Hvorfor nevnes ikke med ett ord hva Apple selv sier.
• Sier han ønsker å prøve ut "påstandene" - men hvorfor da ta utgangspunkt i et produkt hvor produsentene selv sier at støtten for OOXML er eksperimentell?
• Han ønsker å teste om dokumentformatet (Microsoft Office 2007) lar seg åpne i noen av Apple produktene. Hvem hadde vært bedre til å produsere en Microsoft Office 2007 docx-fil enn Microsoft. Hvorfor ikke da bruke Microsoft Office 2007 som "produsent" av docx-filen.
• Metodisk er dette ubrukelig i forhold til hva som skal undersøkes. Det eneste som kan konkluderes er at NeoOffice, med sin eksperimentelle støtte for (MS)OOXML, er i stand til å produsere et dokument som ikke gjenkjennes av Finder og ikke lar seg åpne i Pages eller på en iPhone.
• Uten å blunke trekker han konklusjonen: " Jeg kan derfor ikke se at påstandene om at (MS)OOXML er implementert i noen av Apple-produktene er riktige" uten overhode å trekke inn det grunnleggende premisset for "undersøkelsen".
• Den mest kritiske komponenten her er jo nettopp programmet som brukes for å produsere den ene testfilen han bruker. Han nevner ikke selv at dette er NeoOffice før han får et direkte spørsmål. I artikkel sier han bare "Dokumentet lagrer jeg i formatet «Microsoft Word 2007 Document (.docx)». Sier heller ikke selv noe om at støtten i NeoOffice er eksperimentell.
• Hva er verdien av denne testen dersom dette skyldes et problem i NeoOffice sin "eksperimentelle" støtte? Eller er dette fullstendig utenkelig?
• Har Bekkelund, til tross for sitt ønske om å undersøke, aldri forsøkt å åpne på sin Mac en .docx-fil laget med Microsoft Office 2007? Hvis han har det, hvorfor nevnes ikke det med ett eneste ord i denne sammenhengen?

Bekkelund bruker en blogg-artikkel skrevet av Stéphane Rodriguez som referanse. Digi.no hadde en sak på dette for en stund tilbake.
- Mener ingen bruker Open XML i praksis.
- Motstanderne kan for lite om Open XML
- Excel forholder seg korrekt til Open XML 

Bene, riprendiamo il filo del discorso: dopo aver utilizzato per anni il Windows ed averne soppesato i pro ed i contro, passo al Mac. La decisione è immediata? Assolutamente no! Anzi, è stata meditata molto a lungo ed è maturata a piccoli passi. Uno di questi è stata la conoscenza con il mondo dell'Open Source.

La conoscenza del mondo Open Source

Direbbe Di Pietro: "Che c'azzecca l'open source con il Mac?" Niente ovviamente, oppure tutto, dipende dal punto di vista. Ho un amico, Fabio C., appassionato di Linux (direi quasi invasato), che fondamentalmente e cordialmente detesta Microsoft e mi ha sempre detto di provare Firefox, che va meglio di Explorer, è più bello, più sicuro, ecc. ecc. "Ma perché devo usare Firefox? Ho Explorer, mi trovo bene, non ho tempo per provare un altro browser": questi erano i miei pensieri su Firefox e su altri programmi. Quindici anni fa avrei subito smanettato per provare, pacioccare, tentare di capire: oggi, preso dal lavoro e dalla famiglia, il tempo e l'interesse per "giocare" con il computer è fortemente ridotto; purtroppo solamente con l'esperienza diretta è possibile valutare bene un software e se non si fanno delle prove, non si può conoscere un prodotto. Questa è anche la forza della Microsoft: perché cercare altro se è già compreso nel Windows? L'idea di "infilare" nel sistema operativo più programmi (Explorer per navigare, Media Player per musica e video, il tutto ovviamente preinstallato su tutti i pc in vendita nel mondo) tende a stroncare la concorrenza che su questi singoli programmi ci vive (un esempio per tutti Netscape): questo ed altri atteggiamenti monopolistici hanno portato alla vertenza legale dell'Unione Europea vs Microsoft.

Ad ogni modo un bel giorno, aggiornando automaticamente Windows, scopro che l'ultima versione dell'Explorer (non ricordo quale) è cambiata: grafica diversa, assenza dei miei abitudinari menu "File" "Modifica" "Visualizza" ecc. sulla barra in alto, smarrimento operativo. Smanettando nelle opzioni non riesco a far ritornare la "mia" barra visibile: cosa faccio? Decido di prendere la palla al balzo e, cambiare per cambiare, lo faccio radicalmente installando Firefox. Scopro così un "mondo nuovo", il mondo dei programmi non solo gratuiti, ma a "codice aperto", ovvero sia modificabili (per chi ne è capace) nel codice di programmazione; scopro che gli utenti, anche i meno dotati tecnicamente, possono collaborare allo sviluppo del progetto partecipando al forum, diffondendo la conoscenza del software, sostenendolo economicamente acquistando gadget od effettuando versamenti. Una comunità di persone che lavorano insieme ad un progetto comune, gratuito, aperto a tutti: quasi un'utopia!

Invece il software è reale e funziona anche abbastanza bene: Firefox importa in automatico i miei "bookmarks" ("segnalibri") da Explorer, io imparo ad usare le schede di navigazione (la visualizzazione di più siti) all'interno di un'unica finestra e finalmente inizio ad usare i feed per tenermi aggiornato sui nuovi post usciti sui blog che, da qualche mese, comincio a seguire. Calcolando poi tutte le utili personalizzazioni di Firefox possibili tramite i componenti aggiuntivi (dizionari, previsioni meteo, sistemi di sicurezza, ecc.) decido di utilizzare il browser di Mozilla. Ovviamente anche Firefox ha qualche difettuccio: utilizza parecchia ram e ogni tanto si blocca costringendomi a chiuderlo ed a farlo ripartire, mentre Explorer era un pochino più stabile. Ma c'è un dato molto importante che mi ha interessato: Firefox può essere installato su Windows, Mac, Linux. "Bello" ho pensato "casomai cambiassi sistema...".

Provare l'opensource è stato un po' come assaggiare una ciliegia: siccome una tira l'altra, dopo Firefox ho provato il programma di posta elettronica Thunderbird: molto simile ad Outlook Express, personalizzabile con componenti esterni, permette la gestione delle email anche tramite colori diversi che identificano caratteristiche per noi importanti; inoltre, una volta installato, Thunderbird chiede se si intende importare in automatico la posta, le sottocartelle e la rubrica da Outlook/Outlook Express, senza alcuna difficoltà per l'utente che intenda provarlo. Ovviamente anche Thunderbird può essere installato su Windows, Mac, Linux, importando TUTTE le proprie email, sottocartelle, rubriche ed impostazioni da un sistema ad un altro. Come fare? Facilissimo:
sotto Windows occorre copiare la cartella C:\Documents and Settings\ [NomeUtente]\Dati applicazioni\Thunderbird e qui possiamo trovare tutta la posta, le estensioni, i temi, la rubrica e gli account usati, ovvero il necessario per passare da Windows a Mac, per esempio. Il profilo, non necessario per il ripristino della posta, ma comodo per un trasferimento da Windows ad un altro Windows (non serve per Mac), è presente nella directory: C:\Documents and Settings\[NomeUtente]\Impostazioni locali\Dati applicazioni\Thunderbird.
su Mac è ancora più facile: basta solo copiare la cartella Thunderbird situata sotto “NomeUtente” - “libreria”: molto comodo per effettuare backup, totale e veloce, o per trasferire il tutto tra due Mac.
sotto Linux (grazie Andrea!) le impostazioni dei programmi vengono salvate sotto:
/home/nomeutente/.nomeprogramma/ (è una directory nascosta, ha il punto davanti, per visualizzarla occorre visualizzare i file nascosti sul file manager - su Gnome è CTRL+H)
brevemente:
~/.nomeprogramma/
(è molto simile al mac)
Thunderbird dovrebbe salvare le sue impostazioni sotto
~/.thunderbird/
Siccome Thunderbird è molto stabile e mi ha risolto il problema di un backup facile e veloce, ho deciso di adottarlo abbandonando definitivamente Outlook Express. Ho pensato: "casomai cambiassi sistema...".

Terza ciliegia: OpenOffice, una suite office che non fa assolutamente rimpiangere Microsoft Office, pur con dei distinguo da fare. Lo installo, lo utilizzo e vedo che il programma legge, modifica e salva i files .doc e .xls di Word ed Excel senza problemi: per i documenti creati ex-novo OpenOffice salva in formato .odt e .ods, formati aperti che, a mio parere, dovrebbero diventare lo standard di mercato mettendo in condizione tutti gli utenti di poterli gestire indipendentemente dal programma utilizzato. Siccome però nel mondo lo standard de-facto è quello chiuso e proprietario di Microsoft, imposto OpenOffice perché salvi sempre i documenti nel formato Word, Excel, Powerpoint, in maniera da potermi garantire la compatibilità con i miei clienti ed i miei colleghi. Ignoro se OpenOffice legga anche i files in Access (io non lo uso): sicuramente non legge i files di Publisher, un programma di desktop publishing abbastanza datato (personalmente in sostituzione mi basta usare il word processor di OpenOffice, eventualmente si può utilizzare un altro software opensource, Scribus). Anche OpenOffice è multipiattaforma: gira sotto Windows, Linux, Solaris e, per quanto riguarda il Mac, c'è suo fratello NeoOffice, specificatamente strutturato per OSX. Onestamente non sostituisco immediatamente Microsoft Office con OpenOffice: l'abitudine alle scorciatoie imparate in anni di M.O. e alcuni comandi situati in posizioni diverse (ah, la pigrizia!) fanno sì che continui ad utilizzare il primo. Ma nel momento in cui decido di cambiare pc (senza ancora pensare seriamente al Mac) scopro che sono costretto ad acquistare una nuova licenza di Microsoft Office, perché quella presente sul mio notebook è dell'azienda dalla quale proviene il pc . A questo punto, avendo un programma che fa le stesse identiche cose e per di più è gratuito, perché spendere centinaia di euro da dare al sig. Steve Balmer? Detto fatto, abbandono M.O. e passo ad OpenOffice, anche pensando: "casomai cambiassi sistema..."

Scusatemi per la lunghezza del post, spero sia stato comunque interessante e/o utile: alla prossima settimana per la terza parte.

Saluti migratori dal Vs. BigFab.

Working with NeoOffice (an OS-X version of OpenOffice) typing the meeting minutes for the Mancorad W9DK Radio Club meeting last Wednesday sharp eyes (thank you Dan N9NCU) spotted some run-together words in the exported pdf that did not appear in the editable swx file.

Reporting the finding at the NeoOffice Bugzilla website I had hoped to learn it was some sort of operating error on my part, but the developers found they could duplicate the error at will, and could not make it go away, so I am now the originator of NeoOffice Bugzilla Bug #2813 "Kerning Issues when Exporting to pdf."

Never found a for real bug before!

Expect it will be something that becomes included in the next NeoOffice 2.2.2 patch (currently patch level is Patch-4).

73

Steve
K9ZW

Enough small talk! Let me get to that list for you.

Adium - I've been chatting online since way back with my first PC (a Gateway 2000 386DX/33 Mhz, for the curious). It was a blast with IRC and got even better with CompuServe and the GUI it offered. But that was some time ago. Like a lot of folks, I've gone through the gamut of chat and now IM clients from AOL, to MSN, Yahoo, iChat, and Google Talk. And I still use them all. That being the case, I was pleased as could be when I was tipped off about Adium. Adium allows me to sign in to all of the IM chat servers I mentioned above simultaneously. As far as I'm concerned, it's pretty much the mother of all IM clients. It's a free (that's a nice word!), open-source, and user-friendly IM client packed with plenty of goodies, and can be tailored to your liking in many ways. If you haven't checked it out yet you probably should take five minutes to give it a peek.

VLC Media Player - As with the chat clients, I've used a couple of media players in my day as well. Real Player, WinAmp, Windows Media Player... You name it, I've, more than likely, given it a shot. And I've also experienced the occasional headache of double-clicking on a file only to find a particular media player won't play the format of that file. Not fun. VLC was the aspirin of the media player world I was looking for. I have yet to come across a media format this cross platform player can't handle. I used it back in my Windows days, so I was more than happy to see a Mac OS X version waiting for me when I made the switch. I'm glad to tell you VLC is also free. :)

Skype - By now, if you don't know what Skype is, you're one of a very few people. Especially in the western world. How does one describe Skype..? Wow. It's not easy folks. I use it for chatting, sending SMS messages to mobile phones, for video conferencing, for making and receiving regular phone calls (national and international), as well as voice mail. Skype also allows me to have a phone number in the U.S. that forwards calls to my mobile phone number here in Sweden. This, as you can imagine, saves my family and friends in the U.S. a dime or two when they call. ;) Skype costs nothing to install, just as the phone calls and video conferencing to other Skype users cost nothing. I like that a lot!

Chmox CHM Viewer - During your transition to Mac, you may come across a moment when you to need to read a help file that's written in CHM (Compiled HTML). Chmox will come in handy then. As with everything else I've written about so far, Chmox is free.

Firefox Web Browser - Yeah. I know about Safari, and I think it's an okay web browswer. However, the way it stands now, Firefox is the choice of web browser for my Mac. I say this after coming off of a self-inflicted, two weeks, Safari-only diet so I that I could write this with a clear conscience to not lose any sleep. As I said, Safari is okay. However, I want my web browser to be more than okay. I want boatloads of themes to choose from, and add-ons as far as the eye can see. When I log on to my Mac and fire up my browser I want it to scream, "Harlem's here!" Aaaaaaand, I've noticed Safari can be just a teeny bit buggy when I use Gmail. As a hardcore Gmail user, that's a no-can-do. And, of course, it' free.

NeoOffice - Okay. Continuing with our theme of free, NeoOffice is just that, and that's not too shabby for an office suite. What's more, it's a very good office suite. If you're not ready to shell out $400 for MS Office for Mac, or $79 for iWork '08 this is the office suite for you. Every time I fire it up, I'm rather amazed it's free. Try it out and judge for yourself. After all, it doesn't cost you a things.

Cyberduck FTP Client - Yep. This is my last free one. Cyberduck is an easy to use FTP client that is FTP, FTP/TLS (FTP over secured over SSL/TLS), and SFTP (SSH Secure File Transfer) capable, allows bookmarking, and a whole slew of other options that should more than handle your file transferring needs. Okay. I also thought the duck was cute as well.

Here is where we leave the land of free and journey to the land of not-that-expensive-at-all. That's something I'd like to point about switching to Mac: software is pretty darn inexpensive! So inexpensive you often find yourself spending more than you planned just because you want to see what else your Mac can do. Anyway, let me get to the point and show you what I mean:

O2M - If you're an Outlook user in need moving your info to Apple Mail, here's a pretty good solution. In my experience, O2M was definitely worth the $10. And when it was time for my wife to move her info from Outlook to her MacBook, there was nothing to think about. This handy-dandy little app turned it into a 5 minute job.

Little Snitch - Here's where I remind you all of realities of the net. Granted, making the leap from the Windows environment to the definitely-more-secure world of Mac OS X improved your security situation quite a bit. Nevertheless, there's no need to go around thinking your absolutely bullet-proof. I know Mac OS X has a great firewall that should definitely help you keep things from coming in, but how do you check and make sure your valuable information isn't going out when you don't want it to? Little Snitch is your answer. For the reasonable cost of $24.95, Little Snitch will let you know when a program is attempting to access the internet and prevent that connection if you didn't want to grant it. This semi-paranoid person definitely appreciates that capability.

That's all for now.

(Next up, Part 3-Recommended web sites to keep an eye on)

No prentendo convencer a nadie de uso ni mucho menos, pero sí que tengo que decir que viendo el desarrollo de documentos utilizando Microsoft Office, creo que me he ahorrado un montón de dolores de cabeza.

En este punto habrá gente que se pregunte y ¿por qué en el encabezado pone NeoOffice? Desde hace tiempo soy un switcher y me he pasado a mac (aunque eso ya lo comentaré más adelante) y la versión de OpenOffice para mac utilizando la interfaz Aqua se denomina NeoOffice. La única diferencia entre el uno y el otro radica en la interfaz gráfica, pero los menús y funcionalidades son iguales.

Personalización de atajos de teclado:

Supongo que la mayoría de gente que utiliza de forma rutinaria el ordenador conoce algunos atajos de teclado básicos como ctrl+c, ctrl+v para copiar y pegar (cmd+c, cmd+v en mac) y otros muchos, pero quizá lo que se desconozca es que se pueden personalizar los atajos de teclado para facilitar la realización de tareas repetitivas.

Estilos de encabezado:

Normalmente, el camino habitual para especificar que un texto es de un encabezado es básicamente pulsar el botón de estilos (teniendo el cursor en el texto), buscar el encabezado que queremos y hacer doble click. Para personalizarlo, una posible solución es asignar cada nivel de encabezado a una combinación de teclas. En particular, yo tengo asignado Heading 1 a cmd+1, Heading 2 a cmd+2, Heading 3 a cmd+3 y Heading 4 a cmd+4 ¿fácil no :) ?

Para realizar esta asignación hay que ir a: Tools -> Customize -> Keyboard y se llega a la siguiente pantalla:

El primer paso es pulsar la tecla que queramos asignar, en nuestro caso cmd+1 por ejemplo, y la lista se deslizará hasta que veamos esa tecla señalada.

Despues vamos a la parte de categorías y buscamos Styles -> ParagraphStyles y pulsamos el botón Modify

Continuar numeración:

Para poder seguir la numeración que habitualmente se utiliza para numerar capítulos, también es posible asignar una combinación de teclas para que salga el siguiente número de la serie de forma automática. Los pasos:

Abrir la pantalla de antes y seleccionar una tecla, en mi caso F3. Luego ir a Styles -> NumberingStyles y seleccionar la lista que utilicemos habitualmente para llevar esta serie, en mi caso Numbering 1

Después pulsamos Ok y los cambios quedarán guardados. Al principio puede parecer que la diferencia entre 3 clicks y una pulsación de teclas no es mucha. Pero si sobre todo hay diálogos intermedios al final se tiende a perder la concentración.

PS: Los diálogos están en inglés porque yo tengo así la instalación, pero existe versión en casi cualquier idioma inimaginable con diálogos equivalentes.

PS 2: Cualquier duda a los comentarios sin ningún tipo de problema :)

We are using three Apple Notebooks, all G4 PPC pre-Intel: one PowerBook 12" and two iBooks 12". We got them to have less trouble and support issues and so far we are quite happy. Recently on two of the machines we have serious performance issues. My guess is age, the need to clean up the systems and some apps which really slow the Tiger on G4 down...

The age: there seems to be a natural law, whereby hardware seriously degrades after the third year with the first small "incidents" starting in the second year. And let's not mention the battery issues.

OS maintenance. We hoped to avoid all those Windows hassles when opting for OS X. Do we need to get into expert level of OS X tuning? After ages of Windoze performance tweaking I hoped never to use those words again. I thought only Windows installations age and need reinstallation - is that true for OS X as well?

I love OpenOffice (NeoOffice) and Firefox (and the sibling Camino and off-spring Flock). Unfortunately they seem to seriously slow our G4 Tigers down. MS Office is not an option and Safari is despite all the hype , well, not so great in my humble opinion. Is it because we have G4s? Are the new MacBooks so much better and faster?

I really like Ubuntu and have used it on a couple of machines (incl servers) for quite some time. I hate buying a normal Intel or AMD Labtop and pay for the bloody Vista Licence. Why does Dell not sell the Ubuntu machines over here in Europe? And why do the Thinkpads and Dells of this world look so decisively not sexy. And don't get me started on Vaios, they look like cheap fashion items, not design statements like the Apples. And have you ever tried to get some support info and drivers for Vaios older than 6 months? Not an option. So please offer some really sexy and innovative Linux notebooks with some very nice must-have features. That can't be so hard, can it?

How about Nokia? They seem to "get" Linux and are building the desirable N800 handheld. Please Nokia, design some notebooks, show them.

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Tags: AppleG4, iBook, performance issues, NeoOffice, Firefox, Camino, Flock, OSX, vaio, Thinkpads