PR: OpenOffice.org 2.0 Is Here

[ Thanks to Louis
Suárez-Potts for this release. ]

OpenOffice.org 2.0 is the productivity suite that individuals,
governments, and corporations around the world have been expecting
for the last two years. Easy to use and fluidly interoperable with
every major office suite, OpenOffice.org 2.0 realises the potential
of open source. Besides a powerful new database module and advanced
XML capabilities, OpenOffice.org natively supports the
internationally standardised OpenDocument format, which several
countries, as well as the U.S. state of Massachusetts, have
established as the default for office documents. More than any
other suite, OpenOffice.org 2.0 gives users around the globe the
tools to be engaged and productive members of their society.

Available in 36 languages, with more on the way, and able to run
natively on Windows, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X (X11) and several
other platforms, OpenOffice.org banishes software segregation and
isolation and dramatically levels the playing field. And, with its
support for the OASIS standard OpenDocument format, OpenOffice.org
eliminates the fear of vendor lock in or format obsolescence. The
OpenDocument format can be used by any office application, ensuring
that documents can be viewed, edited and printed for generations to
come. OpenOffice.org 2.0 is a breath of hope for small economies
that can now have a local language office suite well adapted to
their needs and to their economical possibilities, reducing their
dependency on the interests of proprietary software vendors.

“OpenOffice.org is on a path toward being the most popular
office suite the world has ever seen and is providing users with
safety, choice, and an opportunity to participate in one of the
broadest community efforts the Internet has ever seen. As a member
of that community, I’d like to offer my heartiest congratulations,”
stated Jonathan Schwartz, President and CEO of Sun
Microsystems.

Built by a community including Sun Microsystems, its primary
sponsor and contributor, Novell, Red Hat, Debian, Propylon, Intel,
as well as independent programmers, translators, writers, and
marketers; OpenOffice.org 2.0 demonstrates the success, dedication
and proficiency of the open source software community.

That community now includes the City of Vienna, which recently
started deploying OpenOffice.org throughout. “We are very happy
about the functionality and quality of the OpenOffice.org software.
We are confident that OpenOffice.org will be made available to all
of our 18,000 workstation users,” said Brigitte Lutz of the City of
Vienna.

Louis Suárez-Potts, OpenOffice.org Community Manager,
commented that “OpenOffice.org 2.0 is the culmination of a
collaborative process involving thousands working in dozens of
languages everywhere in the world. It shows that open source can
produce software of the highest quality and assure the robustness,
usability and security that users expect in their office
suite.”

In addition to the OpenDocument format, the redesigned user
interface and a new database module, OpenOffice.org 2.0 also adds
improved PDF support, a superior spreadsheet module, enhanced
desktop integration and several other features that take advantage
of its advanced XML capabilities, such as the ability to easily
create, edit and use XForms.