The International Open Source Network, a United Nations-funded organization has produced a Linux desktop manual for novice PC users as part of an effort to encourage developing countries to use open-source software.
The manual is downloadable in discrete pdf and/or OpenOffice formatted files, each file corresponding to an individual chapter of the manual and there are accompanying presentation slides for trainers in OpenOffice Format.
There are mirror sites with the chapters available and I would strongly recommend using the mirror sites as the IOSN site is frequently overwhelmed - victims of their own success! The ability to download the entire manual in a single download would be an added benefit.
The International Open Source Network (IOSN) is a Center of Excellence for Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) in the Asia-Pacific Region. The IOSN is tasked specifically to facilitate and network FOSS advocates and human resources in the region. The vision is that developing countries in the Asia-Pacific Region can achieve rapid and sustained economic and social development by using affordable yet effective FOSS ICT solutions to bridge the digital divide.
UPDATE (28/08/04):
The entire manual is now available for download as a single pdf or OpenOffice file.
Sunbird is a standalone calendaring application from Mozilla. New builds for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X were released on Aug 17th.
Screenshots are available of the application - which is still very much in Beta mode. It uses the same format (rfc 2445) as and appears very similar to Apple’s iCal application.
Seems like an app to watch out for - esp. if you have access to a WebDAV server and want to publish your calendar. This seems like a more direct approach to calendaring than the RSS Calendar option discussed previously.
Wanadoo, a subsidiary of France Telecom, is one of the larger ISPs in the UK. Wanadoo, formerly known as Freeserve, are announcing today a new broadband internet access offering - a 1mb connection for £17.99 per month.
The offer does have some strings attached as users of this service will be limited to a 2gb download cap per month. However, when you compare this to the price for 1mb broadband in Ireland (175 Euro per month!), it is extremely good value.
Hopefully they’ll move to Ireland soon.
Microsoft is to launch a cheaper version of its Windows XP operating system in the emerging markets of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in an effort to halt the rise of low-cost Linux software.
Microsoft’s new software - dubbed “XP Lite” - will feature lower resolution graphics and limited options for networking computers together.
It will also limit users to running three programs concurrently - a far cry from the full version of XP, where the only practical limit comes from the speed of the computer and the size of its memory.
It will be available initially in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and two other as yet unspecified Asian countries.
Microsoft said it hoped the new software would also help deter consumers from buying pirated versions of its XP system, widely available in many Asian countries.
Why Microsoft think anyone would go for a hobbled version of Windows XP allowing them only run 3 applications simultaneously when they could have a fully functioning version of Linux for free is beyond me!
You know the kind of site I’m talking about - the one with all the funny IT support stories? Like the one about the user who thought the mouse was a foot pedal, or the other one who thought the cd tray was a coffee cup holder? - well, I came across a site like this recently on the microsoft.com domain!
The site itself has 10 support stories all appearing to be genuine and one or two of them are even humourous!
Go on, check it out, you won’t regret it.
Exchange is Microsoft’s highly successful groupware application. Its main competitor in the Windows world would be Lotus Notes.
In the Linux arena, one Exchange’s main competitors is Novell’s OpenExchange. OpenExchange uses the OpenExchange engine developed by Netline Internet Services. Netline Internet Services announced that they are giving away the OpenExchange engine under the GPL Open Source licencing scheme giving customers and partners the ability to download the code for free as well as to contribute to the project.
The open source version of OPEN-XCHANGE‚Ñ¢ will be available free by download at (www.open-xchange.org and www.openexchange.com) by the end of August and will feature most of the award-winning attributes of the commercial product - running on the major Linux operating systems (Novell’s SUSE LINUX, Red Hat, Red Flag, Debian) — but without support and maintenance, third-party applications and connectors.
It will be interesting to see how this will affect Novell’s pricing for OpenExchange and even more interesting to see how it affects Microsoft Exchange and OpenGroupware - currently the only serious Open Source Groupware application.
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