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After one too many reboots due to Microsoft Office glitches, I downloaded OpenOffice.org. Then, my theme song became "Happy days are here again." That happened in 2001, which makes me a relatively early adopter of the OpenOffice.org office suite. But, I'm a relative latecomer when it comes to getting "hooked" on open source software (OSS), as the following three stories from fellow OSS converts shows.

Users of virtually all of today's Web-based applications are constrained to interacting with their a keyboard and screen. To break this paradigm, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the regent body for Web-based standards, working with industry, developed VoiceXML, a standard for interacting with Web-based systems through audio dialogs.

Analysts at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo are finally acknowledging that Linux and open source should be part of a company's plans in every IT area.

Volunteers organize world’s largest community marketing campaign for open source software; full-page ad will recognize, by name, thousands of contributors who support the upcoming Mozilla Firefox 1.0 product launch.

"It's becoming so confusing! All these licences - which one do I choose?" This is something I hear often when I talk to people in South Africa about Creative Commons. Many people think that Creative Commons is trying to replicate the Free Software Foundation's GNU General Public License (GPL), but there are distinct differences in the origin, application and use of the licences.

The sixth Australian Open Source Symposium will be held in Perth on October 28, a media release from the Australian UNIX and Open Systems User Group says.

Daniel Egger Voted 2004 "Agenda Setter" for Role in Advancing Open Source Momentum

GNUstep LiveCD is an implementation of NeXT Computer's OpenStep programming environment on a Morphix bootable CD base. The CD is currently at version 0.5, and its pre-release status shows. GNUstep LiveCD is buggy and ineffective as a development environment, and isn't yet ready for use in the real world.

Want to get a LAMP development environment fired up without the hassles of configuring everything from scratch? XAMPP makes it a breeze. XAMPP is a single packaged download from Apache Friends which provides all of the pieces of software needed, plus more you probably don't need, to make Apache installations with server-side scripting and a few database options ready to go in a testing or development environment.

Metrowerks, a provider of products for embedded developers, on Monday introduced Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), which will allow automotive companies to create navigation, hands-free phone and infotainment systems based on a customised version of the open-source operating system. The company made changes to the Linux kernel, drivers and boot sequence to enhance its real-time capabilities, reduce power consumption and speed up boot time.

Enterprise IT Solutions Provider Brings Global Experience to World's Premier Linux Advocacy Organization

The OpenPKG project releases version 2.2 of the unique cross-platform software packaging facility.

Expanding alternatives and broadening educational opportunities, the SNAP Development Center sponsors its first Linux installfest.

An integrated development environment (IDE) is a set of programming tools used to facilitate the creation of software. OpenOffice.org includes a very capable IDE with tools that run, edit, and find errors in your macros. It is worth the time to become familiar with its features. The central display area where macro code is listed is the editor window. Many of the features, such as Stop, Breakpoint, Single Step, and the Watch pane serve as a simple yet effective debugger for macro code.

There are a number of reasons someone might want to run a local DNS server/cache. Maybe your ISP's DNS servers are wonky, maybe your on dialup and just wanna get things a bit faster, or maybe something completely different.

It's an exciting era in the Berkeley Software Distribution world; indeed, things started off with a litigious bang over a decade ago, but now BSD solutions are more varied than ever before and offer the user heretofore unprecedented choice and power. So many are the options today that it's time for a roll call from the various distributions. Paul Webb submitted the following editorial to osOpinion/osViews which takes a look at what each BSD has to offer and also looks at where each is going.

Metrowerks Corporation, founded in 1985 as an independent subsidiary of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., has introduced ‘automotive-grade’ Linux technology specifically engineered to meet automotive industry requirements. It is claimed to make the Linux operating system viable for the telematics market, and responds to the performance requirements that automotive original equipment manufacturers demand.

The President of the Linux Professional Institute attended Linux World Expo in London to announce the launch of a quality assurance program for Linux training in the UK.

Three recent reports agree about one thing: Open source can save enterprises up to 30% over proprietary alternatives in areas such as office applications, servers, content management systems and databases. So open source saves the enterprise money, what else is new? Is the appeal of open source simply a matter of dollars and sense? Will this be enough to keep the momentum going strong? What else do open source applications have that will keep open source in the limelight?

Computer users generally enter data on electronic systems through a broker in the form of a keyboard, but this mechanism can be cumbersome or insufficient when compared to capturing data through the more natural process of handwriting. Many people can write more quickly and easily than they type. InkML is a specification developed by the W3C whose intent is to standardize the capture and representation of data written by electronics pens or styluses.