Microsoft to support ODF, PDF in Office next year.
Microsoft is finally adding support for ODF (OpenDocument Format for Office Applications) and Adobe PDF to its Office productivity suite, the company announced on Wednesday. Support for ODF and PDF will be included in the software through Microsoft Office Service Pack 2, expected to be out in the first half of 2009, according to Microsoft. more... and Microsoft Office 2007 to Support ODF - and not OOXML and more...

Final Firefox 3 expected in June.
Firefox fans looking for a major update to the open-source Web browser probably will get a final version of it next month. "We're looking for final ship sometime in June," said Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's vice president of engineering more... and Mozilla striving for an awesome Web browser and Firefox 3 RC 1 full review and Two Hidden Features New in Firefox 3.

Why Linux isn't yet ready for synchronized release cycles.
Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has again called for the developers of major open-source software programs and Linux distributions to synchronize their development and release cycles. more... and Ubuntu's Pipe Dream : True Free Software Syncronicity.

Open source project: OpenJDK.
At the 2006 JavaOne conference, Sun announced plans to open source Java. This wasn’t exactly a surprise to those of us working on Java at Red Hat, given that there had been rumblings before. But this was a real announcement. We were immediately interested in learning exactly which license Sun would choose. Even if it was a legitimate open source license, it still might not allow us to combine our code with Sun’s. more...

Rawstudio turns 1.0.
The free software RAW photo converter Rawstudio released version 1.0 in April, marking the culmination of two years of work. This release carries on the Rawstudio tradition of providing a lightweight, dependable tool for photographers. more...

New group advocates for FOSS in libraries.
A new advocacy group, the Public Software Foundation (PSF), is working to make free and open source software available to local libraries so it can be checked out and used just like a book or video. The premise is simple: hand out one CD and maybe you've taught one person; make it available in a library and perhaps you'll reach hundreds or thousands. more...

Applications.
potrace: Transform bitmap images into vector graphics.

Misc.
Open Source BIND Alternative Launches.
KDE 4.1 Beta1: OpenStreetMap Support in KDE via Marble.
Vyatta: Growing up quickly.
Sun Wiki Publisher extension for OpenOffice.org shines.
Sorting your data with msort.

Tutorials.
How To Gimp Manual.
How To OpenOffice Tutorials.
How To Freemind Tutorial.
How To Audacity Manual.

How To Tips.

See you next Thursday 7 P.M. at 420 Cafe, 420 Washington Ave, Eau Claire, WI.

EC_LUG