OStatic

Digg, Dug, Buried: How Linux news disappears. Stories can be buried on sites such as Digg by abusive users with an axe to grind.

Will Novell, Dell turn to open-source M&A to grow? Novell has expressed interest in acquisitions, and Dell may have its eyes on the open source storage market.

Is the world now an open source society? Do open source and the Internet values on which it is based have a political dimension?

Getting the most out of OpenOffice.org Writer. It is, without a doubt, the most frequently used application in the OpenOffice.org suite.

There are times when all we need to do is write. Really crank out the text. (For me, that's most of the day.) We don't need distractions and we don't need a bloated, expensive word processor with way too many features and way too slow a load time (I'm looking at you, Microsoft Word).

What we need is a minimalist, distraction-free word processor - and being the cheapskates that we are, we want it free.

Was it you? Someone out there was the one hundred millionth person to download the popular open source word processing suite OpenOffice.org 3.0 yesterday, just in time for a celebration at the community's annual conference in Orvieto, Italy next week.

The milestone took just over one year to achieve once OpenOffice.org 3.0 was released October 13, 2008. The project followed up with three subsequent point releases and version 3.2 is scheduled to appear in December.

OpenOffice.org is a terrific suite of office applications in its own right, but it's out of this world when paired with extensions that add extra functionality. There are plenty of extensions to choose from, but let's take a look at a few that will really make your productivity soar.

Writer's Tools - You don't have to be a professional writer to appreciate this extension packed with loads of handy utilities. In fact, there are too many to mention, but here's a glimpse: Remote Backup lets you quickly shoot a backup copy of a working document to an FTP server, Quick Converter helps you perform metric-to-imperial system conversions on the fly, and the Lookup Tool checks word definitions from multiple online sources all at once.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that IBM is currently in talks to purchase Sun Microsystems. The acquisition is not a foregone conclusion, due in part to the very different corporate cultures in the companies. Some believe this tension will ultimately help both companies succeed, if they can just get through the talks.

The acquisition could take place as early as this week, and it is speculated that IBM could pay over $6.5 billion for Sun. Sun's recent financials have been more than a little disappointing, and this purchase would take a toll on IBM's profits in the short term. Business isn't solely about the short term, however, and I can't help but agree with the WSJ, CNet's Matt Asay, and at least a few of those involved in the talks that this acquisition would be a positive one for IBM, Sun, and open source in general.

OpenOffice.org is in an unenviable place. Office suites -- word processors, spreadsheets, presentations and the ilk -- are utilitarian, complex bundles of software. They are a necessity of modern life, used daily by individuals and businesses all over the world.

It isn't that people take them for granted. People don't consider them much at all. It has been a long time since I've had any feelings whatsoever about an office suite. There have been developments in office software that have been innovative, such as online document creation. And though useful, I still can't honestly say that I've been enthusiastic about (or, since Clippy, repulsed by) any office application.

We often talk about how useful the productivity suite OpenOffice.org is for anyone who needs word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet software, but doesn't want to plunk down a bunch of money to get it. While you may have heard of OpenOffice.org, there are some lesser-known forks and some handy tools that you might not know about. Let's take a look.