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FRIDAY: OSS Installation Workshop
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FRIDAY: OSS Installation Workshop
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04
Chrystie has put together some steps for installing two of the most popular OSS applications available, and we invite anyone who hasn't already tried Mozilla or OpenOffice to give them a try. They are excellent demonstrations of the power of Open Source software and don't require you to change your operating system or desktop configuration. Yesterday's discussion ended with some dialogue on "ease of installation" and the need for OSS tools that are simple to install and manage. One of the applications that this discussion was linked with was a CIPA filter. I will try to post a prototype of a filter that runs on the desktop today, and if it looks like the approach could work, I will package it up with an installer application.

So now, over to Chrystie's steps, please post any questions/comments/reactions on these applications here, or anything else related to OSS. Thanks to Chrystie, Joe, and everyone else for such an enjoyable and thought-provoking week!

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1. [url http://www.mozilla.org ]Mozilla[/url]

<A HREF="http://www.mozilla.org/">http://www.mozilla.org/</A>

Click on Download

Click on Mozilla 1.5

Read information about the browser, to see if you want to download. Do you have the correct system requirements?

Click on the Download Now link on the left side bar

Choose the platform that you're working from (Windows, Linux, Mac, etc...)

Follow easy instructions from there!

2. [url http://www.openoffice.org ]OpenOffice[/url]

[url http://www.openoffice.org/ ]http://www.openoffice.org/[/url]

Click on Product Description on the right side bar

Read information about the office suite, to see if you want to download.

Click on System Requirements at the top of your screen. Do you have the correct system requirements?

Click on Downloads on the left side bar

Click on Latest Build (at the top of the page, which will scroll you down to later on the page)

Click on Latest Build (again)

Read the instructions and documentation

Click on Download Sites for your platform (Windows, Mac, etc..)

Click on ibiblio.org (to begin the download)

Click on setup.exe in the zipped folder.

UPDATE: you have to unzip the folder to a new folder first (I used "installation files" in my "program files" folder on c://)

Follow easy instructions from there!
RE: RE: RE: Here I go with a learning curve
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04 as a reply to Art Rhyno.
Thanks Ed. I figured you'd have a solution for me. Will do!
RE: FRIDAY: OSS Installation Workshop
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04 as a reply to Art Rhyno.
Alright, I downloaded Mozilla and it's super easy. When you open the browser, it's default home page is "Getting Involved with Mozilla," with a brief explanation of how you can get involved (varying degrees) in the Mozilla community. The first two items don't require knowledge of programming: reporting bugs, and doing quality testing. They claim to have a strong community - and it looks relatively easy to become a part of this club. emoticon

On to OpenOffice, which appears to be a bit more complicated...
RE: RE: FRIDAY: OSS Installation Workshop
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04 as a reply to Art Rhyno.
This is great. I successfully downloaded and installed Mozilla, or rather the program's installation wizard did it automatically for me. I was surprised and pleased to find under 'Bookmarks' that it also automatically imported all my 'favorites' from Internet Explorer.

I have wanted to do this for over a year, but felt intimidated that I would get in over my head. There is a high-techie aura around Open Source, especially when the acronymic density starts to read like a foreign language, that makes many of us cringe. The ease of the Mozilla installation is reassuring, but there is still a lot of information here that is opaque to me. I think this is a good place to just plunge in and latch onto the bits that are comprehensible. I have found that tech knowledge builds slowly but surely by putting in place one block at a time until you start to form a coherent structure.

I want to thank Chrystie for her part in this week's conversation. I think she has been a strong voice for many of us less-than-high-techie librarians who want to know more, but are afraid to ask ignorant questions.
RE: RE: FRIDAY: OSS Installation Workshop
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04 as a reply to Art Rhyno.
I want to draw everyone's attention to a feature of Mozilla that does not exist in Internet Explorer: tabs. If you need to multitask between two or more websites, tabs are a much better way of maneuvering around than opening a new IE window for each new site. And if you have three mouse buttons (or a weel-button) you can use the middle one to open a link in a new tab. And this is just one way in which Mozilla is a much better browser?try it out for yourself.
RE: RE: RE: FRIDAY: OSS Installation Workshop
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04 as a reply to Art Rhyno.
Here's another advantage of Mozilla, called XUL (XML-based User-interface Language), take a look at the [url http://www.cfmentor.com/~faser/mab/ ]Mozilla Amazon Browser[/url]. Mozilla can offer a richer web interface, a feature that is being worked into [url http://webvoy.uwindsor.ca:8087/artblog/librarycog/1068133465/index_html ]Internet Explorer[/url].
RE: No CIPA today
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04 as a reply to Art Rhyno.
Well, my idea of posting a sample CIPA filter has run aground. My original idea was to update the program from 1999, but the current version of [url http://www.nombas.com ]ScriptEase[/url] is missing the required pieces. I have messaged the company to find out about getting them, but it's probably not going to happen today. ScriptEase also provides versions of its scripting environment for Linux, Macintosh, and several versions of unix. The same approach could be used in WinBatch (which I also downloaded but you need to buy the compiler version to produce an application, so I deferred this option for now). Other options include any of the tools used to produce windows software, particularly Visual Basic, and also Java with a [url ?http: ]commercial add-on[/url]. You could also layer on a filter with XUL (mentioned above). Maybe this is a project for another event? Back to Mozilla and OpenOffice?
RE: RE: No CIPA today
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04 as a reply to Art Rhyno.
Hey Art,

Thanks for your incredible offer - too bad it didn't work out for today, but let's keep the discussion going here. I think your idea of another scheduled event is a good one. It sounds like we've identified at least one of those "to work on further" items. I'm glad for it!

I've downloaded OpenOffice now, which was took a little longer than Mozilla (love the tabs, by the way) and am about to install. Be back soon...
RE: thanks for the thanks
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04 as a reply to Art Rhyno.
Betha, thanks for your post. I'm glad to know that you're diving in here too, and it's good to see you venturing beyond F&D and out into other forums. Note: fundraisers and aspiring librarians can jump into OSS too!

I just revised the instructions above - made a mistake about starting setup from within the zipped folder (doh!).

Other than that, it went pretty smoothly. But here are a few notes:

1. I didn't have a Java Runtime Environment on my computer. I'm not sure how this will change the performance of OpenOffice, or if I should go out and find one somewhere, or what it's for.

2. It was a little bit scary to say that I now wanted OpenOffice to be the application to open Word, Excel, and PPT documents. I took the plunge, and heard all of you applaud.

Am about to open a Word doc and see what happens.
RE: Here I go with a learning curve
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04 as a reply to Art Rhyno.
I successfully opened my first .doc with OpenOffice. 'twas easy and it looks very similar to MS Word.

When I opened the document, I was directed to a survey asking me a bunch of OpenOffice questions, and encouraging me to participate, even if I'm "not a programmer or a techie." That was welcome! emoticon

I sat for a few minutes with it, trying to get the thesaurus enabled, as this is one of my favorite features of MS Word, and I use it all the time (Shift F7). The key stroke is the same, I can see it listed under Tools/Thesaurus, but it's not enabled somehow. I tried to use help, but still couldn't figure out how to enable it. If someone here doesn't know the answer, I may try their emails that they posted in the survey I was directed to.

I'm excited to learn that I don't *have to* buy MS Office when the next version comes out; I am not excited about having to learn about how to get OO to work the way I am used to working with my current applications.

That said, all in all, I am very on board with the whole idea of Open Source. When I used this program today, I felt like I was a part of something really cool and that I wanted to support. I generally don't feel that way about Microsoft, but don't get me wrong - I'm not a big "down with MSFT" either - if people are happy with it, then I think it's fine.

I may tinker around with it for a few weeks or so, to see if I can work with it easily enough, and then decide whether or not to keep going forward with it.

I may decide to slowly learn with these applications, and then when my current Office Suite is outdated - move to OO altogether.
RE: RE: Here I go with a learning curve
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04 as a reply to Art Rhyno.
CRH

Try this...

[url http://lingucomponent.openoffice.org/download_dictionary.html#thesaurus ]http://lingucomponent.openoffice.org/download_dictionary.html#thesaurus[/url]
Showing 11 results.