of OpenOffice, Symphony, KOffice, rst and python

Have you tried Calendrier for Open Office? It is a macro to make calendars in OOo.:

http://www.ooomacros.org/user.php#217442

Quite slick

rcriii- Thanks for the link. Surprised I didn't run across that in my searching. It sure takes the tedium out of manual input of dates. Not the most straightforward to run though. I got errors a couple of times, and the "docs" are very sparse. Here's how I run it (after installing). Tools->Run Macro...->my macros->Calendrier->interface->Main

> which I've come to believe is a futile fight

Hold tight, it is not futile, for three reasons:

1) It is hard to see the wood from the trees - there are no reliable and broadly accepted Linux usage statistics anywhere, so people are just going on gut instincts. The problem is that there are several things happening at once (growth in free/open source community, growth in the web, growth in computing as a whole, growth in human population as a whole).

If in the last 18 months, as some have suggested, the Linux desktop has gone from 0.75% of the world's desktops to 2% of the world's desktops, then that is not the easiest thing to notice. If however, the total number of computer users has doubled in that same time, we have actually increased our total headcount by four times rather than two.

Compare that in the same period, the majority of new Windows users are actually using unauthorised copies. These new developing world users, when subjected to law and order, will not have the same commitment to Windows as Western users for whom the price of Windows is not too much of a problem.

So it is very hard to see exactly what all the rodent mammals are doing when the dinosaurs are stomping around. It is especially hard when we are the rodents on the floor-level scurrying about with our own cheese. However, the rodents still win and the dinosaurs lose, evolution wins eventually.

2) We have hardly even started yet.

It is still very early days for computing, as with other technological changes it takes time. People went down many dead ends before making the perfect ax, the perfect ranged weapon, the perfect printing press or the perfect train. Windows is the workhorse of the technological age (it does the job but shits everywhere), however eventually the stables and bridleways give way to the cars and buses.

The majority of the people will not use Linux until it is given to them in the high-street computing shop pre-installed. We are seeing the first signs of that with a couple of hardware manufacturers putting their toes in but that is still three or four years before it becomes really common.

Hardware manufacturers have to be conservative but I'm sure that many are desperate for desktop Linux to take off. It is in the best interest of manufacturers and retailers to not pay the Windows OEM licence and use a free Linux, margins are razor tight these days and they want to grab more of the sticker price for themselves, they quietly stand behind Microsoft now, but as soon as the chance comes, they will happily stick the knife in.

I think the interesting thing to watch is the Taiwanese and Chinese ODMs, they really want to step out of the shadows and take more of the value, look at ASUS for one example, it is trying out several different Linux designs, from the ultra-light EEEPC to putting Linux on Flash ROMs - who knows what it is testing in the lab. Another example is FIC's sponsoring of the OpenMoko.

This is only the beginning of this trend, many more of these big manufacturing companies in Asia that have grown up through the Western brands outsourcing, most of which we have never heard of, will want to move into the space previously held by the branded Windows PCs.

3) It is hard work

The size of the currently installed Windows base does not matter, only 1/6 people in the world have access to a computer - so 5/6 are still to play for. Even the ones that already have computers could be just one or two hardware purchases away from getting some kind of pre-installed/embedded Linux desktop.

Going from 0.25% to 0.5%, then from 0.5% to 1%, then from 1% to 2%. This has all been very hard work. Going from 2% to 4% will be even harder. However, if we can keep the thing doubling, then it won't take very long before most of humanity will have access to a free desktop. Maybe not as fast as you would like, but if we increase the size of the free software/open source world by double every year to 18 months, then we win.

Zeth- Thanks for your comments. I should clarify my adoption of linux on the desktop policy. I'm very pro linux on the desktop, having run it since 1999. (I loaded linux on my laptop before even booting into windows, and blowing away the windows partition in the process). I have no use for windows, though I understand that others do.

My point was not that a transition to linux on the desktop is futile, but that making programs (that are inherently cross platform using QT4) available only on Linux, is good for no one. People are uptight about allowing windows users to have koffice2, which I think is silly. Porting to Mac/Windows will find other bugs. Increase user base which will increase potential developer base. Keeping things so they only run on *nixs is not a good carrot for most of the population.

Take two of the most successful (in terms of adoption) open source programs, firefox and OOo. If they were solely available on *nix, you wouldn't have all the plugins, and people would still be using proprietary solutions.

In the end I guess it depends on the goals of the actual koffice devs. If their goal is to drive people to use Linux, perhaps they should still port to the other platforms. If their goal is to have people use (and be grateful for) their software (which I imagine is their goal), then they should do what's possible to make their software available to all (within reason).