Progressive Wednesday

How to “Office” Progressively

Problem:

Not that you need us to tell you this, but here goes anyway: Microsoft has got us by the specials. 95% of computer users use Microsoft Office and its components for the basic professional purposes of a computer.

Granted, Bill Gates the citizen has become philanthrope numero uno. If you’re unfamiliar, you can read all about it here and here and even here. But Bill the businessman is a bit of an assassin. Microsoft is a cutthroat pseudo-monopoly holding users all-but hostage to their software, charging ridiculous sums of cashola thanks to our collective addiction to their fairly basic, banal, limited and low-security software. (Can you tell that we've got an opinion on this one?)

So here’s the problem: we need a word processing program, and a spreadsheet program, and a presentation program, and…. You get the picture. WordPerfect Office costs 270 smackers. AppleWorks has to be purchased, and Apple’s iWork is functionally incomplete as compared to the former. No worries: there’s hope.

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Make Progress:

Check out OpenOffice.org, Microsoft's nightmare come-to-life and our dreamscape of unicorns and singing bunny rabbits and rainbows made of chocolate. OpenOffice.org is a downloadable, open source, Office-style suite which will literally replace your reliance on Word, Excel, Power Point, Access, CorelDRAW, and Equation Editor. All together, this free (free of any and all license fees) software can save you $780[1].[2]

In addition to kicking Microsoft where it counts and saving cash money (as if you needed another reason), you get to help yourself. With OpenOffice.org, you get more freedom and choices, because OOo, as it’s called, allows users to design extensions and contribute to the project. This gives users a chance to test their skills, improve their resumes, and help a good cause.

How is this a good cause? E-technology is a place where we, as a culture, could level the playing field more between the rich and the poor. A free Office-like suite, one that can save files as Microsoft-friendly documents, in essence can help fight poverty (and the massive student loans of college students) by empowering folks who might not otherwise be able to own the higher end business software.

So get on board — save money, stick it to Microsoft, and maybe help those with a bit less moolah than you.

Editor’s note: While we frequently use OpenOffice.org, we’ve notice some slight alterations need to be made to the text files when opening them in Word. Considering how we feel about Microsoft, we’re cool with that.

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[1] This is based on the prices of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Access, and CorelDRAW on Amazon.com.

[2] Progress, of course, tends to be friendly to your bank account.

“It’s alright to be frightened when there’s light.”

I’ve made no bones about it: Wilco is my favorite band. I ain’t ashamed of this, and I kind of wear it on my short sleeves. When folks foolishly bash the band or tell me I’m a little “into” the sextet, I get protective as a parent.

This is a band contantly morphing its music and line-up, and over the years they’ve had nine different members and five very different studio albums.

Their debut album, AM, is a great example of poppy alt-country. Being There, their sophmore double album, adds classic rock and loads of distortion. Their third album, Summerteeth, is like listening to a nihilistic version of the Beach Boys, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is an album praised high and low for its complexities and trust in its listeners. A Ghost is Born won the band a Grammy for best alternative album of the year. A new CD, Sky Blue Sky, is forthcoming on May 15, 2007.

There’s a tune I prayed, with my fingers crossed as I blew out the candles and wished upon Polaris, would appear on the album. It’s called “What Light.” It’s kinda fantastic. You can legally download the tune by clicking this sentence. And tomorrow (March 11) you can listen to the entire album from 10am to 10pm EST by heading over to their homepage.

Below, you’ll find two versions of “What Light” performed live. Rock.

@ Alderney Landing.

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@ Lollapalooza 2006.