I can see the conversation now:

Open Source Advocate 1: 'So, dude, we really should do something about this Godawful UI. I mean we tried our best to imitate Microsoft but it just... isn't working out.'

OS Advocate 2: 'There must be some other way... some way we can avoid paying any kind of skilled user-interface master to actually develop a sweet-ass interface.'

OS Advocate 1: 'I know! I KNOW! WE'LL MAKE A MOUSE! A homebrew mouse with enough buttons to map EVERY function to it! We'll simply do away with the usual interface! GENIUS!'

OS Advocate 2: 'Er... OK. Stop waving your Perl manual around like that. You're starting to scare me.'
...

Slashdot are reporting that OpenOffice.org has a new mouse -- the succinctly-named OpenOfficeMouse. Manufactured by WarMouse (the awesome naming never ceases), this behemoth has 18 buttons, a scroll wheel and, get this, an analogue joystick. You couldn't make this stuff up. It has macro support, storage for up to 63 profiles... 63!

I know what you're thinking: OpenOffice can't possibly fully-utilise this beautiful piece of (patented) technological mastery. This thing is for gamers.

The open source movement isn't just for grown-ups: Open Office 4 Kids is a slimmed-down version of the open source Microsoft Office alternative OpenOffice.org.

The target age group for Open Office 4 Kids is 7-12, but after trying it out, I think there are a lot of adults who would prefer it over MS Office or the full version of OpenOffice. It's available on whichever OS you've set your kid up with: Mac, Windows and (of course) Linux.

Less UI clutter helps make OO4K super-fast. Load times for the app and for creating a new document blew away Office 2008 on my Mac, and I didn't experience any of the annoying lag in loading font menus that I sometimes get in Office.

OO4Kids also has large, very obvious buttons for all of the most common functions of each Office app. The "4Kids" branding is almost a shame, because this could also be Open Office 4 Your Mom Who Always Asks You How To Do Stuff in Office.

On the other hand, I'm glad that any 7-to-12-year-olds who use this app will grow up understanding that Microsoft Word isn't the only way to write a paper.

[via Ghacks]

With some students already in school, and some preparing to enter yet another journey into a new semester, let DLS make your studies that much more organized with a few free desktop and web applications that will make your school life that much more enjoyable.

From free document creation applications, online to-do's and organization applications, users are faced with a decision, go for the costly desktop versions and upgrade every few years, or stay ahead of the curve with free web based applications that are constantly updating with new growing feature sets. The choice has never been easier.

This DLS special feature lists out current tools that are floating around the web as highly competitive alternatives for both students and professionals.

OpenOffice.org has had an interesting journey on Mac OS X. For roughly half a decade, anyone who wanted to use it has had to also download the not-quite-user-friendly X11 environment which OpenOffice had to run in. Long story short: this cumbersome and resource-intensive setup knocked OpenOffice off the lists of almost all but the most resilient and passionate Mac OS X users.

Today, this unfortunate open source tragedy is no more - as long as you don't mind running alpha software.

Slashdot is reporting that the OpenOffice.org project has unleashed an alpha build of a true, native version that will run on PowerPC and Intel Macs using Mac OS X, and only Mac OS X (X11-be-gone!). Users must chose the correct version for their processor (i.e. - it isn't a Universal Binary for some odd reason), and the downloads are being distributed via BitTorrent. Users are also warned, however - in bold red lettering on the OpenOffice.org download page, no less - that this is definitely an alpha. In fact, a full list of known issues with this version is linked from the announcement post, with a few of the big hitters stated to help wary users make the decision to wait for a more robust version at a later date. These issues include:

• You cannot print
• PDF export does not properly work as thetext won't show on the page right
• Starting OpenOffice.org from a shared folder does not work
• Copy and paste does not fully work
• OpenOffice.org will crash after quitting
• Some text is not drawn in places like Impress
• Impress will not recognise multiple monitors

Still, this is a massive step forward to bringing a true version of OpenOffice.org to Mac OS X, and we tip our hats to the project for getting this far. Head over to the announcement post for more details on whether this early build is right for you.

As long as we're talking about word processors that have come a long way since we last talked about them: Mac users should sit up and take note: NeoOffice 2.1 arrives on March 27th.

NeoOffice is a OS X port of OppenOffice.org by a group of developers who have thought from the beginning that the Main OO.o team was taking the wrong tack in offering X-11 support on the Mac. Early NeoOffice releases were all-Java wrappers for OO.o (and were known as NeoOffice/J); recent releases have been Aqua native and, as of version 2.0, included both Intel and PPC binaries. NeoOffice 2.1 will include all the features of OpenOffice.org 2.1, including support for Office 2007 XML documents and Virtual Basic (VBA) macros. And, of course, possibly the coolest icon of any app on any platform.

NeoOffice also includes NeoLight, a plugin that allows Spotlight to index both content and metadata of OpenOffice and OpenDocument files. Users of main openOffice.org distribution can download NeoLight as a stand-alone application.

NeoOffice releases are named for the OpenOffice releases they're based on. Since this isn't an official OpenOffice.org release but a project based on OO.o, NeoOffice releases tend to lag a little behind their official brethren, so NeoOffice 2.1 will correspond to OpenOffice.org 2.1, which has been out for a while. While that sometimes means not being on the cutting edge, the NeoOffice release cycle does have a couple of advantages for uses. The most important, of course, is that NeoOffice is a native app. A less obvious benefit is that by the time a Neooffice release is rolled out, it contains the first several rounds of bugfixes to the OO.o codebase.

For those of you who just can't wait, there is still a NeoOffice 2.0 version available for download, and an Early Release version of NeoOffice 2.1 is available to people willing to support the project with a donation of $25 or more.

I can't believe we haven't talked seriously about AbiWord here since version 2.0 more than 18 months ago. Shame on us. The 2.4.x releases (they're currently on 2.4.6) have seen major upgrades to nearly all the subsystems, and a host of new features including Open Document support, image handling enhancements, grammar checking, and equation editing, to name a few.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, AbiWord is a powerful, full-featured, cross-platform, open source word processor. It includes plug-in support for most document formats including Word, Open Document, Open Office Writer, Word Perfect, and even Claris Works, as well as an optional equation editor and LaTeX and DocBook support.

If this sounds a lot like OpenOffice.org Writer to you, you might be forgiven. But AbiWord's motto is "Word Processing for Everyone," and they mean it. Although plans for a full Office suite are in the offing, AbiWord is currently just a word processor and all their energy goes into getting that right. For those of you with older hardware or who are just concerned about performance, AbiWord offers efficient code and a small footprint: a complete XP install including the optional plugins takes up less than 30MB on disk and uses a correspondingly small chunk of RAM. And for you Mac users out there, AbiWord offers a native Aqua interface, so no more X-11 nonsense just to get your word processor running.

Edit: Thanks to C.K. for pointing out that AbiWord on OS x isn't a universal binary yet. It's fast and stable enough, though, that you peobably won't notice it's running in Rosetta. I didn't.

In addition to the sweeping changes in Dell's upper management ranks to help right its slide in sales, Dell is reaching out to consumers for input on products and services at a website called Idea Storm.

So far, the suggestion getting the most votes is the one that offers one of the 3 top free Linux versions pre-installed on all Dell PCs.

The second vote getter is having Open Office, an open source alternative to Microsoft Office pre-installed on your machine. My favorite idea on the list, though, was saying no to foreign tech support! What do our readers think of the people's choice so far?

Remember when Conan O'Brien used to do that "what if they made it" segment? (Maybe he still does it... I haven't watched the show in years. I'm so out of touch.) Well, here's one possible outcome of YouTube and Powerpoint hooking up: SlideShare.

SlideShare is a service that lets you upload Powerpoint or OpenOffice presentations and have them be playable on the web, via a handy navigation toolbar. (If you're using unsupported presentation software, such as Keynote, simply export the file to PPT format before uploading to SlideShare.) This way, the presentations have a permanent URL for easy sharing; no more toting around a USB key drive and hoping it works at the client's office, for example.

Why is SlideShare better than using web-based services such as S5, you might ask? Well, for one thing, it placates recalcitrant office workers who refuse to use anything other than Powerpoint. But there are other benefits as well. I already mentioned the permalinks, but here are a few more perks:

• Files can be tagged.
• Comments can be left by viewers.
• Each slide has its own permanent URL for reference.
• SlideShare is simpler and more specialized than WebEx competitors such as DimDim and TeamSlide.

What about the drawbacks and as-of-yet unimplemented features? (Surprise, SlideShare is in beta!) Here are a few:

• Files cannot be larger than 20 MB.
• No sharing or privacy options.
• The original presentation file cannot be downloaded.

SlideShare says it will add support for these features in the future, however.

All in all, SlideShare looks promising. And I didn't mean to take a cheap shot at Powerpoint users, really. Let's face it, no web-based system currently has an interface that compares to Powerpoint in familiarity and ease of use.

[Via TechCrunch]