Google, Star Office, and Mac
I caught the new Google Maps feature, which is that you can drag the route to change it. Now it's possible to create your own tour. Let's say you want to go to the Yellowstone National Park. It is now possible for you to designate stops at other famous places along the way.
I noticed that Google Pack (for PC) now offers an option to download a free copy of Star Office 8. Aside from the fruitfulness of this alliance, the promotion of Star Office is also the promotion of the OpenDocument format, accepted as a United Nations standard, ISO/IEC 26300 to permit flow of information regardless of which software is used.
Similarly with the metric system (known as ISO 31, from which the Imperial inch is defined as 2.54 cm) and paper size (known as ISO 216, from which you see A4 paper option in many printers), both of which are adopted around the world, the OpenDocument format will join them in precisely not being well-adopted in the United States.
Microsoft Office and its .doc format is too rooted here to be easily changed. If you receive an OpenDocument file and do not have Star or Open Office, you can download the Sun ODF Plugin. Currently it only supports ODT, for text document, but Calc (like Excel) and Impress (like PowerPoint) are being developed. You are encouraged, however, to install OpenOffice.org. It is superbly stable, and similar enough to Microsoft Word. This may be more ubiquitous if Google's plans for world domination succeed.
Alas, there is no Google Pack for the Apple Mac.
If you want to run OpenOffice on the Mac, you will need to have X11 installed. X11 is known as a "windowing system" like Mac Aqua and Vista Aero, that allows programmers to build the GUI, placing windows and menus just so for people to use. It has been ported to Windows but not the Mac. The Macintosh system is getting popular as people start getting seduced by the iPhone and the iPod, they are beginning to see the power of the Unix-like, BSD-derived Mac OS X. The OS X is the operating system that runs on the iPhone, and is rumored to run on a future generation of iPod. Due to the increasing popularity of the Mac, a version of OpenOffice for the Aqua interface is being developed. It is currently at the alpha stage, meaning that it runs, but is unstable and is not be used except for testing.
I noticed that Google Pack (for PC) now offers an option to download a free copy of Star Office 8. Aside from the fruitfulness of this alliance, the promotion of Star Office is also the promotion of the OpenDocument format, accepted as a United Nations standard, ISO/IEC 26300 to permit flow of information regardless of which software is used.
Similarly with the metric system (known as ISO 31, from which the Imperial inch is defined as 2.54 cm) and paper size (known as ISO 216, from which you see A4 paper option in many printers), both of which are adopted around the world, the OpenDocument format will join them in precisely not being well-adopted in the United States.
Microsoft Office and its .doc format is too rooted here to be easily changed. If you receive an OpenDocument file and do not have Star or Open Office, you can download the Sun ODF Plugin. Currently it only supports ODT, for text document, but Calc (like Excel) and Impress (like PowerPoint) are being developed. You are encouraged, however, to install OpenOffice.org. It is superbly stable, and similar enough to Microsoft Word. This may be more ubiquitous if Google's plans for world domination succeed.
Alas, there is no Google Pack for the Apple Mac.
If you want to run OpenOffice on the Mac, you will need to have X11 installed. X11 is known as a "windowing system" like Mac Aqua and Vista Aero, that allows programmers to build the GUI, placing windows and menus just so for people to use. It has been ported to Windows but not the Mac. The Macintosh system is getting popular as people start getting seduced by the iPhone and the iPod, they are beginning to see the power of the Unix-like, BSD-derived Mac OS X. The OS X is the operating system that runs on the iPhone, and is rumored to run on a future generation of iPod. Due to the increasing popularity of the Mac, a version of OpenOffice for the Aqua interface is being developed. It is currently at the alpha stage, meaning that it runs, but is unstable and is not be used except for testing.
Labels: mac, software, technology
posted by Alan at August 24, 2007
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