Open standards for office documents

November 21st, 2005 - Microsoft Corporation has admitted for the first time that the public demand for open standards in office documents file format is huge. They also announced that they are going to submit their Office 12 XML file format for adoption as a standard. The news is great in the sense that they finally admit the public's need for continuous future access to the documents they create. But:

Why create a new standard when there is already an existing one ?
The existing file format is named OpenDocument and it has already been addopted as an Open Standard for Office Documents by OASIS, it has been continuously developed in the last 5 years, it is mature, stable, free to use and implement, it is vendor independent and it has been already submitted to the International Standards Organization for ratification as an ISO standard since September 30th. Click here for a technical comparison between the two formats.

At its origins, the OpenDocument format has been developed from the file format that the OpenOffice.org office suite is using and it is now being supported by other office suites. Rather than creating a new standard, many think that Microsoft should include OpenDocument support in its office suite (today's results: 8414 individuals representing 227471). You too can sign a petition to Microsoft here. They declared that they will support OpenDocument if there is public demand for it.

SYNERGY - or - How to control two computers with a single keyboard and mouse

Since 1992 when I got my first home PC I dreamed of expanding my desktop on several monitors and also of controlling more than one computer from the same keyboard and mouse. Of course there are many solutions in this direction that have been created over the years, one better than another.

In this article I want to share my experience with one particular Open Source solution I discovered today and which seems extremely easy to install and use on multiple operating systems:
Synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/)

I work under Linux but from time to time I have to create tutorials with screenshots for various programs that work under Windows. Having two computers on the same desk with two pairs of mouse & keyboard is definitely counter-productive when you want speed. Changing chairs and desks just to do another snapshot is again annoying. Same with having a dual-boot computer.

Quoting from the Synergy Project website (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/):
"synergy: [noun] a mutually advantageous conjunction of distinct elements.
Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all."

What I wanted to tell about it is that from the first time I tried it, it did exactly what it says. What I had to do was only to download and install the program on both computers:

• I downloaded both the .RPM for Linux and the .exe Setup files for Windows and installed them;
• Configured as server the computer on which I want to stay and work (using the configuration tutorial);
• Configured the other (MS-Windows) computer as client and made it connect to my server computer at startup;
• Started the server and it worked instantly !!
  

I now can stay in front of my favourite computer, work with it and when I want to do something on the other one I simply move the mouse to the right side of the screen. The mouse passes on to the other computer's desktop and I can control it both from keyboard and mouse.
I even created the screenshots under Windows, copied in the clipboard and moving the mouse back to my desktop I pasted the images directly in GIMP image editor. As simple as easy.

What is remarcable is the fact that you can link multiple computers this way, no matter the operating systems (Linux/Unix/MS-Windows/MAC OS X). All you need is that they are connected through a TCP/IP network.
Definitely a "must-try-it-now" software which is free to use by anybody, no costs at all. Of course, if you can help out the team who creates it, you are welcome.

Synergy is open source and released under the GNU Public License (GPL).

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