[plug] OpenOffice.org for MAC OS X

[Jacqueline McNally]

More exciting OSS news for some of you. Unfortunately, I don't have a MAC, 
so I cannot say that I have downloaded it to have a look see. Only to say, 
that some of the feedback from the OpenOffice.org 1.0 launch, was what 
about the MAC.

There is a OpenOffice.org presence at the current Apple Worldwide Developer 
Conference and we are looking for additional developers for ongoing 
development of the MAC OS X port of OpenOffice.org.

All the best
Jacqueline

***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Jacqueline McNally
+61 8 9474 3021 (GMT +0800)
tsukusenai at openoffice.org

DEVELOPER RELEASE OF THE OPENOFFICE.ORG OFFICE SUITE FOR MAC OS X NOW 
AVAILABLE

Community Development Reaches Milestone of the Mac OS X Port of 
OpenOffice.org Office Suite

May 7, 2002 - The Openoffice.org community (http://www.openoffice.org/) 
today announced the availability of the first milestone build of the Mac OS 
X port of the OpenOffice productivity suite. This build uses the X11 
Windowing System from XFree86.org to run on either Mac OS X or Darwin, and 
is available today for developers interested in helping finish the port.

“I have been astonished at the speed and quality of the work the community 
has done. We have been working together in a tight, efficient ensemble, and 
have now something we can use,” said Ed Peterlin, Community developer, 
OpenOffice.org. “This is exciting for me as a Mac user -- it's been 
incredibly fun to get this far -- and I know that we will be able to finish 
this with just a little more help.”

“Apple encourages Open Source development and supports the open source 
community through the Darwin Project,” said Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice 
president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “Apple is delighted that a Mac 
OS X port of the major open source office suite, OpenOffice.org 1.0, has 
progressed so far so quickly.”

Earlier this month, the OpenOffice.org community announced OpenOffice.org 
1.0, the open source office suite, developed over a period of 18 months 
through the global, collaborative effort of many thousands of volunteers. 
The OpenOffice.org 1.0 office suite features key desktop applications -- 
including word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and drawing programs 
-- in more than 25 languages.

The code for the Mac OS X port of OpenOffice.org has been in development by 
the community since April 2001, when the code base was released by Sun 
Microsystems, Inc. The current release, a pre-alpha release is targeted to 
developers familiar with developing for the Mac OS X platform.

“The developer release of OpenOffice for Mac OS X is a great demonstration 
of the power of Open Source software and its ability to support multiple 
platforms.” said Zaheda Bhorat, Community Manager, OpenOffice.org, Sun 
Microsystems, Inc. “Combining the enthusiasm and expertise of the 
OpenOffice.org community and the UNIX-based, open standards nature of Mac 
OS X -- such as its support for popular Open Source software like X11 and 
gcc -- enabled us to add exciting new platforms like Mac OS X to our large 
and growing list of platforms.”

The OpenOffice.org 1.0 software runs stably and natively on multiple 
platforms, including Linux, PPC Linux, Solaris, Windows and other flavours 
of Unix. The Mac OS X developer release uses a ZeroG installer 
(http://www.ZeroG.com/). The OpenOffice.org community wishes to thank ZeroG 
in this key contribution to delivering this port.

The Max OS X build is currently available as an alpha release in English 
only, although the OpenOffice.org 1.0 is currently available in more than 
25 languages. It is only a matter of time, once this port is completed, 
that the OpenOffice.org community will implement the localizations.

Developers interested in contributing to making this exciting port a part 
of the standard OpenOffice.org suite offering can find the tools and 
resources on the OpenOffice.org site. The next step, now that the port has 
advanced to this stage, is to create a beta release using the Aqua 
interface for end users to help finalize. And the OpenOffice.org community 
is willing to make it happen.

About OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org is the home of the open source project and its community of 
developers, users and marketers responsible for the on-going development of 
the OpenOffice.org 1.0 product. The mission of OpenOffice.org is to create, 
as a community, the leading international office suite that will run on all 
major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through 
open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format. Additional ports, 
such as FreeBSD, IRIX and Mac OS X are in various stages of completion by 
developers and end-users in the OpenOffice.org community. OpenOffice.org 
1.0 is written in C++ and has documented API's licensed under the GNU 
Lesser General Public License (LGPL) and Sun Industry Standards Source 
License (SISSL) open source licenses.

OpenOffice.org is the largest open source project with over 7.5 million 
lines of code. To date, more than 4.5 million downloads of earlier versions 
of OpenOffice.org 1.0 have taken place. With the release of the 1.0 
version, the OpenOffice.org community expects that number to grow 
significantly as businesses and individuals around the world explore the 
free alternative to proprietary office suites.

Copyright © 2002 The OpenOffice.org community (http://www.openoffice.org/)

*********************************************************************
You have received this Press Release because you are a listed contact for 
an online or print news source. If this is in error, or if you simply do 
not wish to receive e-mails from OpenOffice.org, please contact 
tsukusenai at openoffice.org and we will promptly remove you from our 
distribution list.
*********************************************************************