A2 Hosting has some pretty awesome hosting plans. For less than $8/month (if you pay 3 years in advance), you can get unmetered storage and bandwidth. They do not mean unlimited. No using your account for offsite backup, for example. But still, pretty good. No worries if you get hit by BoingBoing, for example.

But a word to the wise: when buying things online, if a “coupon code” line pops up, always Google for coupons. As it turns out, you can get 20% off at A2 Hosting with the following coupon code:

20percentoff

Self-explanatory, eh? Happy hosting.

KOffice was originally developed for Linux, but one of the primary goals for KOffice 2.0 is for it to run on all three major operating systems: Windows, Apple OSX, and Linux.

Like OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office, KOffice is a full office suite. KOffice is free software and offers a full suite of applications, including for word processing, spreadsheets, databases, image editing, slideshows, and more. Like OOo, KOffice uses the Open Document Format.

KOffice 2.0 is in alpha now, and TechWorld recently took a look at KOffice for Windows. As an alpha, this release is primarily for developers for debugging, but it is also a first look at the features of KOffice 2.0 and what it has in store for Windows users.

First look: KOffice 2.0 Alpha 8 | TechWorld (via /.)

Website and e-mail hosting are services for which you can pay a little or a lot with little difference in service. And sometimes you actually get more when you pay less.

For example, I pay $10/month for hosting for my firm website, three blogs (this blog, Caveat Emptor, and Lawyerist), and unlimited e-mail accounts. I get 2 GB of storage—more than I need at the moment—and plenty of bandwidth.

You can find cheaper hosting or more storage for less money, but I like my hosting provider and do not see any reason to move.

On the other end of the spectrum, I know of attorneys who pay $250 per month for hosting from “specialized” hosting providers like LexisNexis/Martindale-Hubbell and Findlaw. These services supposedly offer more traffic, but I am dubious. Basically, they offer a directory listing and a few web site templates, but little else that I can discover.

For about $1,000-2,000, or four to eight months of Martindale hosting, you could instead hire a professional website developer to build a beautiful, dynamic, search-engine optimized, and easy-to-update website, probably with some new stationery to match your new look, as well.

From time to time, take a good, hard look at what you are paying for, and make sure you are getting your money’s worth.

Mozilla is looking to set a world record for one-day software downloads with the release of Firefox 3, which should be released sometime today is available now at getfirefox.com.

I have been using Firefox 3 for a little over a month now, and it really is a better browser. Better than Internet Explorer by a long shot, and better than Firefox 2, as well. It is quick, lighter-weight, and really nice to use. My favorite feature, though, is the easy extensibility of Firefox with the use of third-party add-ons like Foxmarks bookmark synchronizer and del.icio.us buttons.

“Free” has two meanings: (1) gratis, and (2) libertas. When I say free software, I mean libertas, although much free software is gratis, as well.

Choice

There are two parts to choice: (1) different software that does the same thing, and (2) the ability to modify software to do what you want.

Don’t like the way Word handles bulleted lists? Try OpenOffice.org. Or AbiWord. Or KOffice. Or . . .

There are many brilliant programmers developing free software, and you might like one better than what you are using now. For text documents, there are a ton of options, and most of them will open and edit your .doc files just like Word.

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Mike Kavis switched to Linux to prove that people can be productive at work without using Microsoft products. One year later, he has proved the point.

I have been Microsoft free* for a couple of months now, as well, using Ubuntu GNU/Linux as my primary operating system, with OpenOffice.org as my office suite. I have not used Microsoft Office in almost a year.

Why do I prefer Ubuntu? Primarily, because it is lighter and faster, more reliable, and more configurable. It has encouraged me to focus on open standards and programs that work equally well on Windows and Mac OSX, so that I can move my data freely between all platforms. It also saves me money, especially on upgrades, although I do believe in contributing to the software projects from which I benefit.

I actually like Windows XP just fine, and always have. But my laptop has a 60GB hard drive, so Vista’s 20+GB install size was a dealbreaker for me. I think Microsoft really went the wrong direction with Vista, but I will not rule out a return to Windows if version 7 turns out to be lighter and faster, instead of bigger and slower.

*I do run Windows XP using VirtualBox (kind of like Parallels or VMWare Fusion for a Mac) so that I can use Adobe Acrobat, since there is still not a good Linux alternative. I also prefer the Windows-only scanner utility for my Fujitsu ScanSnap, since Fujitsu still refuses to support Linux.

Boyd Johnson has an ingenious way of tracking his time throughout the day. Just open Windows Notepad and, when starting a task, hit F5, which stamps the time into your text file. Make a note to help you flesh out the task on your billing sheet later, and off you go. Whenever you switch tasks, hit F5 in Notepad again.

I use three text editors in Linux: Gedit, Scribes, and Bluefish, but none of them have this handy feature, unfortunately. gtimelog does the same thing in a nice package, however.

Capturing More Time…And Keeping Your Clients Happy While Doing It [ABA Law Practice Today]

According to InformationWeek, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency is advocating for removing Microsoft Office from the classroom in favor of open-standards compliant office suites like OpenOffice.org.

It is good to see this kind of pressure on Microsoft. If they would either open up their OOXML standard or else support the Open Document Format like nearly every other office suite, it would benefit everyone. Microsoft is already starting to lose money as agencies like BECTA start opting for free software like OOo instead of the costly Microsoft bundle, so it seems like opening up its platform would be in its best interests.

If only the legal system would follow BECTA’s lead.

Version 8.04 of my favorite Linux operating system, Ubuntu, is a big deal. It is a collection of small changes that add up to a big improvement. It is also a long-term service edition, meaning Canonical will support version 8.04 for twice as long as its regular releases.

7.10 was a big leap. 8.04 is a small one, but a ton of small improvements have really come together to make 8.04 well worth downloading. If you want to try it, download a LiveCD and try Ubuntu without installing it. If you like it, it is easy to set up a dual-boot with Windows, although, like me, you will soon start thinking about wiping Windows off your computer entirely.

I am still using 7.10 on my laptop—my main work computer—until the early kinks are worked out. But I am using 8.04 on another computer (and have since the beta came out), and I do not expect too many kinks. Everything seems to Just Work.

As most readers of this blog know, I am in a constant search to find the “best” way to manage my practice. As everyone knows, there is no “best” way to manage a law practice, but there is always improvement. So here are the bits of technology and old-school hardware I am using to manage my practice.

As you may also know, I use Linux for my operating system more than half the time. But since I still use Windows at the office, all the software I use is available for both Linux and Windows. There are two exceptions: Outlook, which I don’t really use any longer, and Acrobat.

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