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Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

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Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#61
post #52
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so, neither? Edit to reflect parent: I do think that's probably easier to pronounce for English-speaking people than both French and Spanish

? Libre is a french word in the first place. How is that hard to pronounce ?

IMO it's unintuitive how to pronounce it to most non-French-speaking people.

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#62
post #38

Could they drop openoffice, then rename libreoffice to openoffice? That would be fantastic

This. Name natters. IME 90% of people I know who want to quickly look through a PowerPoint on Linux will install OpenOffice. Even when they hear that libre is the better version 80% of them would stay with oo as it is the "real" oo.

I agree in the case of the Windows/OS X environment, where brand awareness of LibreOffice is low, but in the Linux world... my distribution (Debian) doesn't even package OpenOffice, and I don't know any Linux user who uses OOo.

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#63

Simplest instant solution: 301 every page about openoffice to a page about libreoffice.

aaaaauuuurrrrgh that's sound in principle but placing 301 on a domain like that is really, really bad.

Why is that? What if you want to change your domain name?

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#64
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so, neither? Edit to reflect parent: I do think that's probably easier to pronounce for English-speaking people than both French and Spanish

But libre mean "free" in French whereas there is no such word in English. Why would it not be more easier for us French speaking peoples?

That's not what I meant. What I meant is that it is harder to guess how to pronounce it to people that do not know French!

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#65
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in an American business context, "Libre" sounds stupid. Having it in the name hurts their popularity more than they know.

What connotation does "Libre" have in American English? (I'm French, to my ears it sounds perfectly reasonnable, if a bit "legalese")

I think it would register no recognition to the majority of American English speakers. It is a French loan word used essentially only in open source contexts because we don't have an equivilent ("free" is way more ambiguous is meaning).

The only negative connotation I know of is the association with some overzealous nerdy kids who find out the difference between libre and gratis and loudly bring it up all the time.

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#66
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in an American business context, "Libre" sounds stupid. Having it in the name hurts their popularity more than they know.

What connotation does "Libre" have in American English? (I'm French, to my ears it sounds perfectly reasonnable, if a bit "legalese")

I speak en-AU - I'm not sure what connotations "libre" has to most English speakers who haven't learned a Romance language or been involved in the Free Software world. "Libre" is not a common English word - I imagine to many English speakers you'd probably have to explain the shared etymology with "liberty" for people to get it. The French pronunciation is non-obvious to an English speaker.

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think so? It's not clear that they could have known this would not be sustainable at the time, and I don't see how the hot potato staying with Oracle would have been a better option.

It was immediately obvious at the time, I remember it as such. The devs jumped ship to LibreOffice. All Oracle was left with was a brand and a moribund codebase, and for some reason Apache accepted it. Why didn't Oracle give it to LibreOffice? Because they were sore at being bypassed, it looked like. The correct thing for Apache to do would have been to say, nope mate, we don't want to be part of your childish feud,…

It's not impossible that the terms Apache got it under prohibited them divesting themselves of it for some length of time.

I don't recall thinking at the time this landed that it was so cut-and-dry who would end up the superior solution.

In the worst case, though, would it be better for Apache to have refused holding the OOo branding, given that there was no chance it would have otherwise made it out into someone like TDF or otherwise's hands?

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#68
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In French too.

But not the same way! I've never known whether the Spanish or French version is the canonical pronunciation for LibreOffice.

I always use the Spanish pronunciation. Though this may be influenced by the fact that I'm a USAmerican and Spanish is my second language.

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#69
post #60

Could they drop openoffice, then rename libreoffice to openoffice? That would be fantastic

I think OpenOffice is a better name than LibreOffice. It rolls of the tongue more smoothly, and it is easier to explain to people. On the other hand LibreOffice has the lion's share of the developers (and probably of the users by now). So a "takeover" of OpenOffice by the LibreOffice project would probably be the best solution at this point (at least as far as I can tell).

>> "it is easier to explain to people"

Which is why "Office for Free" (OfficeFree, oFree, O4F) would be a better non-Linux name. Average user doesn't care if something is "open" they care if it's free.

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#70
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody is using LibreOffice, except a poor few that get misguided by search services to the Apache OpenOffice website. IMHO there is no sane reason why Apache OpenOffice still exists. Edit: Looks like there are a lot more OpenOffice users out there than I thought, sorry. I really thought the world would have moved on, at least since 2013/14, see https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/St...

This is horrifyingly incorrect. AOO still gets a shitload of downloads. It wasn't until last year that LO overtook AOO alone's download total. You would be amazed. Ordinary people know MSO sucks and want a free alternative. "OpenOffice" is the name they've heard as their exit. The project is entirely trading on the goodwill that FLOSS activists built up for the name "OpenOffice" from 2002-2010. That brand is still po…

The best way to update your acquaintances would be to tell them "The program has been upgraded and renamed to LibreOffice. OpenOffice is now the old, unmaintained version."

It's all true - from a certain point of view, and it transfers the trust on the software from the old brand to the new, without having to delve too much in the conflict that motivated the fork.

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