The Australian Taxation Office is preparing to release a Linux port of its AUSkey authentication software with Ubuntu being the reference distribution for testing and development.

Users regularly cite lack of compatibility with Microsoft Office files as a reason for not using OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice.org does include Microsoft Office export filters, as well as a number of settings for increased compatibility, but these features provide only good, not complete, compatibility.

earthweb.com: The concept of an office suite, with word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software, is one that is well understood by users, which is also why it's often difficult to improve them. Users already expect their office suites to do certain things, making the job of office suite developers often one of fit and finish.
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One obstacle some organizations face when trying to migrate from Microsoft Exchange to a free groupware server has been Outlook users who, for whatever reason, are not yet willing to switch to another client. Bynari, Inc. in collaboration with a number of server developers, including the Citadel project [http://www.citadel.org] has developed a new Outlook connector that uses open standard data formats and protocols to store groupware data. Users of legacy environments (i.e. Windows + Outlook) will now be fully interoperable on the same server with users of free software. This could potentially spell the permanent end of Exchange lock-in.

What drives users to try Linux, only to fail to make it work for them in the long haul? Once you get past the fact that there is no concrete way of tracking desktop Linux usership and all indications based on existing trends indicate that there are potentially millions of us worldwide, it would seem that while some fail to stick with it, others are making it work.

Sometimes, I feel that Linux is so very close to making it on the desktop. Sometimes that I feel that there are only few barriers to populating the world with a massive amount of cheap, secure computers running Linux and other open source software. Though, the few barriers that are left are considerably challenging.

This tutorial shows how you can use GnuPG to secure and verify data on your Linux box but the first part is relevant for Windows users too.

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Over time, organizations replicate, migrate, or add complexity within database systems, often times losing control of the quality of their data.