OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.

Ubuntu 8.10 has been released on october, 30th 2008. Too bad, its bundled with Openoffice.org 2.4, not Openoffice.org 3.0!.

Explanation from Ubuntu developer why they exlude OpenOffice.org 3.0 from Ubuntu 8.10 can be found here:
http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=3447

You can install Openoffice.org 3.0.0 in 2 ways. Do clean install by installing it from source, or upgrade your current installation by updating your package.

Install Openoffice from source

Here’s step by step to install Openoffice.org 3.0 from source.

1. Download OOO 3.0 source from Openoffice.org
   http://download.openoffice.org/index.html
   .
   for IIX User:
   ftp://kambing.ui.ac.id/openoffice/stable/
   .
2. Extract downloaded files, and go to created directory.
   $ tar zxvf OOo_3.0.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz
   $ cd OOO300_m9_native_packed-1_en-US.9358
   .
3. Make sure you have remove older Openoffice.org installation.
   $ sudo apt-get remove openoffice.org-core
   .
4. Go to “DEBS” directory, and install all files.
   $ cd DEBS
   $ sudo dpkg -i *.deb
   .
5. To make your Openoffice.org 3.0 shown in application menus, go to directory “desktop-integration” (DEBS/desktop-integration/), then install the files.
   $ cd desktop-integration
   $ sudo dpkg -i *.deb
   .
6. In some case, you’ll get error messages, saying that there’s conflict with other Openoffice package when installing openoffice.org3.0-debian-menus_3.0-9354_all.deb
   To resolve this, go to synaptic package manager, and remove all Openoffice.org installation from here. And restart from step 4.
   .

Google Gadgets for Linux provides a platform for running desktop gadgets under Linux, catering to the unique needs of Linux users. It’s compatible with the gadgets written for Google Desktop for Windows as well as the Universal Gadgets on iGoogle. Following Linux norms, this project is open-sourced under the Apache License.

Here’s 5 easy step for installing google-gadgets for linux from source.
note: I’m using google-gadgets version 0.10.3 on Ubuntu 8.10 Machine.

1. Download source package from google-gadget site:

http://code.google.com/p/google-gadgets-for-linux/

http://google-gadgets-for-linux.googlecode.com/files/google-gadgets-for-linux-0.10.3.tar.bz2

2. Install mandatory packages:
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential zip flex desktop-file-utils shared-mime-info zlib1g-dev libgtk2.0-dev libxml2-dev libdbus-1-dev librsvg2-dev libltdl3-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev xulrunner-1.9-dev network-manager-dev libqt4-dev libstartup-notification0-dev

3. Enter to your google-gadget download directory, and extract the file.
$ tar jxf google-gadgets-for-linux-0.10.3.tar.bz2
$ cd google-gadgets-for-linux-0.10.3

4. Create `build` dir, and configure
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ ../configure –prefix=/usr

Dear Windows:

I didn’t want to tell you this in person, because I thought it might be too complicated, and might take too long. After all, we’ve been together for a long time, almost five years and running now. I know, I know; I know you so well; your control panel, your installation procedures, even when you get mad and go all blue screen on me; what can I say, you kinda grew on me.

But to be honest, things have been going downhill for a long time now. What happened to that lean, fast OS that i first installed? You know, the one that ran Civ 4, Vice City, and even True Crimes without a problem? The one that burned DVD’s, CD’s, the one that shared music with my xbox without a problem? I don’t know; It seems like you’ve let go of yourself, to be honest. You take over 20 minutes to boot up, you run Civ4 slowly, heck, you even freeze up on me now when I try to watch video. What happened windows? Did you get so comfortable that you thought I’d just deal with it?

Well, I’ve been cheating. See, back in tenth grade, i messed around a bit with this chick, her name was Red Hat Linux. We met in school in my networking 5 class, and i got to know her pretty well. I was all up in her terminal, if you know what i mean . Well, I took her home, and we had a really rough one night stand. I decided she wasn’t for me, and i went back to you, because i knew what i was missing. Well, Red Hat has a south african cousin, and her name’s Ubuntu…she’s kinda hot, too. She’s got three cousins, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, and Kubuntu, too, and their all sexy.

Well, I guess this letter is to let you know that it’s over. I’m not going back, either. You can tempt me with your games, and all the software, but it’s alright. I can get to know ubuntu, I can learn to work her terminals. Her freeware. Her internet support. After all, what can I say…she’s sexy, fast, and free. Amd you’re expensive, bloated, and well, always sick with viruses. I’m done.

I know, i know. I freaked out and formatted you off my hard drive, and then I called you begging and pleading to take me back, and we briefly made up. But what was I thinking? I remembered all the bad times we had, and I called Ubuntu up and she understood me just fine. Before I knew it, we were hitting it off again. She installed really quickly, and didn’t even need any drivers or anything. Worked beautifully. And did I remind you she’s free?

So Windows Professional Service Pack 2, I’m leaving you for Ubuntu know. It’s over, we had a good run, but all expensive, virus laden, bloated software relationships must come to an end, right? I guess that’s just how it has to be.

Thanks for all the good times though! Nothing like a BSOD when i’m trying to watch a live debate on MSN or CNN, or crashing on me int he middle of civ4.

But i have to go now. It’s time to get down and dirty with ubuntu, and if I ever really miss you again, I’ll just drink it away with some WINE.

Sincerely,

Bruno

With Ubuntu, you can create ISO disk Images directly from CD/DVD and folder files. Then create MD5 Checksum files.
Assumed that the CD/DVD device is located at /dev/cdrom/

Turn a CD/DVD into an .iso
$ sudo umount /dev/cdrom
$ dd if=/dev/cdrom of=file.iso bs=1024

Turn a folder into an .iso
$ mkisofs -r -o file.iso /location_of_folder/

Generate an MD5 checksum file
$ md5sum file.iso > file.iso.md5

Check MD5 checksum of file
$ md5sum -c file.iso.md5

Yay, its arrived..! Linux Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) free CDs. Requested it from https://shipit.ubuntu.com/
Kinda late, because i already downloaded and installed it since the first time released. And like always, i have to go to the Post Office, and pay Rp.7000 for the tax.

The Package:

-

And the package content:

-

There’s some difference from edubuntu cd. its called “Education Edition Add-on CD”. Ubuntu Education Edition is an additional selection of free and open source software for education to be used with Ubuntu. This CD is does not offer LTSP installation directly. To get the same out-of-the-box-set-up as before, start from the Ubuntu alternate install CD, and select “Install an LTSP server” from the Modes menu.

The Ubuntu Promise

• Ubuntu will always be free of charge, including enterprise releases and security updates
• Ubuntu comes with full commercial support from Canonical and hundreds of companies around the world
• Ubuntu includes the very best translations and accessibility infrastructure that the free software community has to offer
• Ubuntu CDs contain only free software applications; we encourage you to use free and open source software, improve it and pass it on