AbiWord Community Outreach Project

Rumblings about me doing my coding task (as Win32 maintainer) have been heard in the AbiSphere… This ant has about 49 times his weight carried right now, but can add that extra little bit hopefully to bring some magic to Windows in the form of nightlies and alpha releases…

I might get a bit behind on the blogs, but it will get better… Now I have to make up for this summer’s posts while Martin and Marc were making some remarkable collaboration magic happen for Abi…

What sphere? Oh, just the blogo-sphere!

• http://markgrif.wordpress.com/2006/08/14/word-processor/ - A Mac user runs into our rendering bug. It’s a shame I have a pseudo-stock answer to blogs/messages about that that in my head… hopefully Hub can get some free time to dedicate to Abi and to fix it up for our Mac users (who rank second in direct downloads from AbiSource behind Windows, unknown ranking if linux distribution use is counted.).
• http://wayofthegeek.org/linux/2006/08/thousand-miles-day-three-settling-in.html - A switcher to Linux reports this on Day 3: “AbiWord is awesome. A wonderful light- to middleweight text editor.” (and more). I wonder how this user would feel if they knew that AbiWord also ran on Windows and Mac, and that import support has actually improved again in the unreleased version (since 2.4.6 will have LibWPD 0.8.6, the Bullet- and Sum1-proof version, at least on Windows). Rock on!
• http://www.thebambers.me.uk/wordpress/?p=207 - We got this user by the virtue of being a part of the Xubuntu default install. Xubuntu, for the uninitiated, is an Ubuntu distribution (official like Kubuntu) that uses XFCE and GTK+ as the desktop environment. AbiWord and Gnumeric replace OO.o in this distribution, targeted for lighter-weight systems with lower memory and processing capabilities. Another satisfied user!
• http://www.cyncsm.com/2006/08/15/open-source-and-the-mac/ - There are certainly quite a fair share of Mac OS X users of Abi in this sphere o’ blogs - here’s another recommendation for an MS Word replacement and OO.o “for those who just need a word processor”. There’s your UNIX Philosophy - do one thing and do it well.
• http://dueyfinster.blogspot.com/2006/12/nokia-770-internet-tablet.html - A platform we don’t often see in the Abi-related blog posts, but certainly an apt (yes, Debian geeks may chuckle) one, here’s a happy new Nokia 770 Internet Tablet user calling AbiWord a “must have” on the device. Mad props to Nokia (Dan dAndrada) for the start of that port and the OpenDocument import/export!
• http://disedlibrarian.edublogs.org/2006/04/07/portable-apps-suite/ - More promotion as part of the Portable Apps suite, I wonder if it’s been updated to the 2.4.5 version yet? I should remind this blogger that AbiWord also runs on Mac with the same file formats, that’s not just OO.o’s domain!

I ran across this post (and this one from the 2.0 or earlier era based on the splash screen…) which explains how to manually create a “portable” version of AbiWord (basically just doing a small install to a USB Key). It really shows the resourcefulness of AbiWord users, though in this case perhaps unnecessary. AbiWord is nice and flexible though, and leaves a minimum of things behind on a computer (usually just a folder in the user profile to save settings and custom dictionary, if created). That post (through a slightly-broken link) led me to this one, which also did a similar thing to their copy of AbiWord. I’d like to know what problems with styles and tables they were having in specific, since our support for those should be fairly complete and stabilized - Bugzilla is everyone’s friend! None of these posts, however, make reference to something that a lot of AbiWord users recently have found useful (and something I just tried the other day to save in my server folder) - AbiWord Portable by John Haller. He takes the standard version of AbiWord, does a small install, adds the OpenDocument plugin (which can be removed if you like, instructions are on that page if you’re cramped for space), then creates a “runner” script in NSIS that basically tells AbiWord to use a self-contained environment so it can be run entirely from a USB Key, CD-R (once you have run it once on a writable medium), or other storage device, without touching the host system any more than necessary (no files, no registry changes). (The first blog I linked did refer to OpenOffice Portable, though, which does exist as well at the same PortableApps site, but is significantly larger and so not as convenient for those who want to carry both their applications and documents on a single USB Key or other storage medium.)

I find it interesting that neither of those two posts appeared to be aware of AbiWord Portable, especially when it seems that proportionally, I (as editor of ACOP) and the developers seem to hear a lot about it. Ah well, maybe this bit of Google Juice will help that out. It would be great if we could collaborate closer with John on this program - I know that we’ve helped him out before with a command-line switch for AbiWord that already existed and did most of what his launcher was doing. It would be cool to have a simultaneous release of an installable and portable version of AbiWord.

Keep on marching, ants!

(and Slashdotters who aspire to find the source of blurb text…)

Yes indeed, I saw my daily visits soar from ~200 to ~1400. Fortunately my web host doesn’t seem to be minding at all. The article is about the CM1, the new name of the OLPC laptop. This project is linked as a reference on Erik’s work on the Sugar interface for AbiWord. Way to go Eric, and thanks, Ars Technica!

More quickies, in multimedia form this time. Enjoy!

• I have a hard time telling from this post whether or not this person knows that AbiWord runs on Windows, too… (and Mac OS X for that matter) http://www.malcolmr.com/?p=22
• This podcast take a while to get going (AbiWord segment starts 23:12 into it), but it does have some nice praise for AbiWord. http://www.linuxreality.com/podcast/episode-23-productivity-applications/ (from http://newsvac.newsforge.com/newsvac/06/07/19/1441253.shtml - I think I had to follow 3 links to find the original podcast the first time I ran across this…)
• This is our second mention on this blog - sounds like we have a happy user! I’m curious what makes TextEdit fit the same niche as AbiWord on Mac for this user, though… Glad all the Cocoa integration work was worthwhile, however! http://www.ruralsme.com/blog/2006/07/18/foss-for-macs/
• A compilation CD of free (but not necessarily Free as in speech) software, all in Spanish and/or Catala. I wonder why there is a separate 2.4.3 Catala version of AbiWord, in addition to 2.4.5 here - was some translation not sent upstream to us? http://www.cdlibre.org/consultar/catalogo/Ofimatica_Procesadores-de-texto.html (found through http://www.hispanew.org/html/?p=216 )
• I don’t understand anyone who would pirate MS Word, really, I don’t anymore. AbiWord is just that spiffy, and this blogger shares my (mildly biased) viewpoint. http://free-softwares-links.blogspot.com/2006/07/free-softwares.html
• Bloated is such an ugly word. I’m glad this person doesn’t think AbiWord is bloated. http://pauljcg.blogspot.com/2006/07/are-we-finally-seeing-shift-to-open.html
• AbiWord mentioned on a Myspace blog, now that’s kinda neat in a mass-marketing sort of way. I should make a profile for Abi the Ant. http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=92068870&blogID=147270585
• I think this is Portuguese - cute icon! This person likes the small size of the download. http://ideiasaovento.wordpress.com/2006/07/21/processador-de-texto-gratis/
• AbiWord and Gnumeric make a great office team - this user thinks that somebody should step up and make a PowerPoint replacement… I think it must be only us AbiWord geeks that make presentations in AbiWord… http://supermikenews.blogspot.com/2006/07/experiments-with-ubuntu-linux-adoption.html
• This person made the astute observations that first impressions can be deceiving. AbiWord doesn’t need to look complicated to be able to have complex abilities - usability is a big thing for us. http://www.lifewithubuntu.com/2006/07/openoffice-alternatives/ (Bonus - nice screenshot!)
• We got named “download of the day” here and they felt particularily happy about our slim size and low hardware demands. Not sure what the official word is, but I’ve certainly run (at least older) versions of AbiWord on less than 64 mb ram, though that’s probably a good amount to have as a minimum… http://www.byteswired.com/2006/07/27/download-of-the-day-abiword/

At this time I’d just like to draw the attention of the visitors to the right-hand sidebar… I have written some (IMHO) pretty spiffy pages, listed under “The Pages”, which have some nice information for new and existing visitors to these pages. Planet AbiSource can be a fun place to visit as well. I’ve also added a link to our Frappr map, please do add yourself! If you direct your gaze upward, you’ll see nice new links to “Show Only Community Outreach Posts” and “Show Only Build Results” so that you can have my web server do the skipping of those boring build logs or those boring articles (depending on your viewpoint) for you.

For those of you reading this through an RSS feed/planet, click the subject of the post or otherwise visit the web site to see these resources. If you’re reading this on a planet other than Planet AbiSource, I was magically syndicated! Drop me an email (visit the Editors page to find my address) and let me know where you see this!

Thanks for reading, ants!

Sorry about the hiatus - I was unlinked for a while. I’m back in the saddle now, though!

Got a few ego-booster quickies here for ya! (Not sure why the Google Blog Search feed likes dredging up old repeat entries - I will probably have to change strategies to keep getting these entries out…)

• http://freewaremac.net/2006/abiword-openofficeorg-and-neoofficej/ - Mentioned as a useful bit of freeware (actually Free-ware ) for the Mac, and preferred over OpenOffice.org Writer… Can’t complain about that!
• http://automatthias.wordpress.com/2006/04/29/tools-for-documentation-writing/ - We get some “props” for our DocBook support, and it looks like this person even posted before 2.4.5 and many DocBook import/export enhancements courtesy of Sum1… Did I mention how awesome several of our Summer of Code students are?
• http://copywriter.typepad.com/copywriter/2006/04/new_version_of_.html - AbiWord works as a “writer’s word processor” for this user, and she recommends it to other writers! Sounds good to me!
• http://portableapps.com/news/2006-08-10_-_abiword_portable_2.4.5 - Version 2.4.5 of AbiWord Portable has been released! For those of you who are just tuning in, AbiWord Portable (formerly Portable AbiWord) is a re-packaging of the AbiWord software for Windows that can be run without installation from a USB key or now a CD. It comes with a launcher that runs AbiWord and then cleans up afterward, so you can run AbiWord without touching the configuration of a computer. A commenter on this news item remarked on the “new” “elegant” icon, which I just had to check out for myself. It’s the same one that has been used since 2.4 was released, at least in the original packaging of AbiWord. Apparently this must be its debut in the Portable Apps version…

Till next time, keep marching ants!

Can anyone help this person on the freebsd list? The email address is munged beyond recognition, and so only a member of the list could reply/view archives. http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/FreeBSD/questions/2006-06/msg01991.html
Problems with plugins that may be an upstream issue, but they seem kind of severe for them to slip by someone (or Sum1) unnoticed - help would be appreciated! Suggesting Bugzilla is always a good idea.

[EDIT: URL fixed, and the email address was found and put in the comments. First one to get an email off then a reply or a bug in Bugzilla wins!]

No, Microsoft didn’t make a major strategic change. Rather, this is about a site named “Open Source Windows” that recommends open-source applications within specific categories. As is a pattern, we get the position of “leaner and quicker” than a competitor. Soon they’ll be able to add “more powerful” as 2.6 takes us to the next generation of document creation and management! There are some interesting apps on there if you are a Windows user, and some that I’m going to look and see if they have a Linux version too!

Underworld, that’s kind of like underground… Anyway, this post on USENET threatened to start an underground rumor (in the underworld?) that AbiWord was originally created to view WordPerfect documents… really long google groups link Humble ant Hub does his undercover duties of disenchanting frequenters of said underworld of their understanding.

(and yes, I did have entirely too much fun writing that Alliteration rocks…)

With this post, I will have to take a few days off due to another commitment. Another ant with edit privs might post some things, otherwise I have articles in progress which I will post when I return! Keep on marching, ants!