7-Zip the free and open source file archiver

I noticed that a lot of people have WinZip and/or WinRAR installed in their computer, and most of them remain unregistered. Both of them are famous file archiver utility applications, and they are shareware, meaning you can try them out for free for a limited period of time. After that, if you are satisfied and want to continue to use them, you have the obligation to pay for the software.

What if you are not willing to pay for your file archiver utilities? Then you should uninstall them from your computer. However, you also have the option of using open source file archiver utility, which you don't need to pay for it and you can freely use it, copy it, redistribute it, even bundle it with your own application. 7-Zip is the one you are looking for.

7-Zip is licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). It is a file archiver with high compression ratio and comes with its own 7z compression format which can compress files even better than ZIP and RAR format. It is available in both GUI version and command line version, and its source code is available in Source Forge repository.

Here are the features of 7-Zip:

• Works in Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista.
• Has ported version for Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, DOS, etc.
• Localizations for 69 languages.
• High compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression.
• Supported archive formats:
  - Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR.
  - Unpacking only: RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, MSI, WIM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS.
• For ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip.
• Strong AES-256 encryption in 7z and ZIP formats.
• Self-extracting capability for 7z format.
• Integration with Windows Shell.
• Powerful File Manager.
• Powerful command line version.
• Plugin for FAR Manager.
  

To download 7-Zip, click here.

Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office

The ISO standard OpenDocument format (ODF) is a free and open file format for electronic office documents, such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents. It is a De facto standard used by OpenOffice.org.

Sun Microsystems has developed this ODF Plugin to enable MS Office to read and write ODF documents. It works seamlessly with MS Office 2007 (SP1 or higher), MS Office 2003, MS Office XP and MS Office 2000.

This ODF Plugin is provided by Sun Microsystems for free, and it integrates with the "Load" and "Save As" dialog and the "Save (Ctrl+S)" shortcut of MS Office Word. It simplifies the import and export of ODF documents with a new toolbar in MS Office Excel and PowerPoint.

With this plugin, you can now switch from native MS document format to world recognised ISO/IEC 26300 OpenDocument Format developed by the OASIS industry consortium, and most importantly, you can use and exchange without hassle the document files with OpenOffice.org, StarOffice, NeoOffice, KOffice, IBM Lotus Symphony and many more office application suites.

Click here to go to the download page for Sun ODF Plugin for MS Office.

Beijing to host OpenOffice.org Conference 2008

Redflag2000 of China has won the majority votes and awarded to host for the OpenOffice.org Annual International Conference 2008 (OOoCon 2008) in Beijing by 10-17 October this year. This international open source conference will be held in the 5-star Beijing Asia Hotel.

This is an annual premier event for anyone interested in or working with OpenOffice.org. It is where representatives of all the community projects meet to celebrate and learn from the achievements of the past twelve months, and discuss how to meet the challenges of the next twelve.

During the conference, top open source technical staff and backbones throughout the world will gather together and share outcomes in open source technology among others, advocate progress in effective application of open source technology, improve world software technology level and try to break technology monopoly through forums, lectures and other interactive manners.

Click here for more information and latest updates about the Beijing OOoCon 2008.