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Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

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Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#171

Post by sangnoir »

mindcrime wrote: post #143

Well, my prediction[1] came true even faster than I anticipated. I don't understand why so many people seem so desperate to see AOO fail and go away. Hey look, if you prefer LO, fine. Some of us prefer AOO for our own reasons. There's no reason to take glee in seeing a project struggle. Anyway, none of this means the project is actually going to be retired. It's just a discussion around something that might happen. […

> I don't understand why so many people seem so desperate to see AOO fail and go away.

In my case, the reason is splash-damage from the inverse-goodwill I have for Oracle and how their stewardship of OO (or lack thereof). To start off Sun handled the OOO-patchset (proto-LibreOffice) poorly, they should have merged it to mainline. Then Oracle came along and shat on the community leading to an outright fork. This I guess is par for the course for Oracle (see Hudson/Jenkins for another Oracle-instigated implosion).

I think the Apache Software Foundation allowed themselves to be 'used' by allowing Oracle to dump a dying AOO into their hands. At the time, it was clear that LibreOffice had won the the war that started in the OOO-patchset days, I don't know what the ASF thought would happen, but I hope they learn something from it.

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#172

Post by greenshackle »

ohthehugemanate wrote: post #92
LoSboccacc wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

301 redirects are the herpes of the Internet. You make one mistake, and it's with you for the rest of eternity.

Oh shit, thanks, I had just set up a 301 redirect on my personal page this morning when I meant to use a 302, your post made me realize the mistake.

I was sure it was the other way around 301->temporary, 302->permanent.

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#173

Post by antoineMoPa »

the_duke wrote: post #153
okket wrote: post #89

Parallel universe: http://www.mail-archive.com/dev@openoffice.apache.org/msg282... If we look at LibreOffice and compare: LibreOffice, that is *good* (not more) software and *excellent* public relations. OpenOffice, that is *excellent* software and *pretty bad* public relations. Proof: http://www.mail-archive.com/dev@openoffice.apache.org/msg282... Secondly, as alluded to above, we should prepare ourselves for the FU…

How exactly is OO excellent and LO good ? What is that based on? Please back that up.

My experience would be the contrary. I felt Libre Office had better document compatibility and a better user experience, so I stopped using Open Office. Maybe it improved since then. I would also like to see something to back up the claim you are talking about.

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#174

Post by the_duke »

mindcrime wrote: post #160
the_duke wrote: post #157

See also this discussion on the mailing list, where I asked (recently, August 3rd) if it is a viable idea to somehow combine efforts with LibreOffice again: http://www.mail-archive.com/dev@openoffice.apache.org/msg277...

There's effectively a one-way merge already. LO can - and do - consume patches contributed to AOO. But, for a variety of reasons, that are mostly historical as far as I can tell, the LO developers have generally been unwilling to contribute code in the other direction. An outright "merger" of the two projects seems unlikely due to the licensing differences and the associated thinking. Some people prefer permissive li…

As I pointed out in the mailing list, there has been practically no development on OO this year though.

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#175

Post by fluidcruft »

JulianMorrison wrote: post #150
nl wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The terms are all on the mailing list.

"On the mailing list" is like "in China". It may be accurate but it hardly narrows the search.

It's also not offlist in some backroom fogged with cigar smoke and whiskey aromatics.

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#176

Post by nice__two »

johnhattan wrote: post #99
Aardwolf wrote: post #30

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

If LO gets the trademark, maybe make the name "OpenOffice" refer to "the stable channel of LibreOffice". Corporate IT and training would likely prefer an office suite that only gets feature-updates every 1-2 years. So make OpenOffice a very stable version that just gets bugfix updates, but then a big feature update every couple of years, ala MS Office. And LibreOffice could remain for the rest of us who don't mind ge…

That already exists: it's called Collabora Office (https://www.collaboraoffice.com/solutions/collabora-office/) and made by one of the largest contributing firms behind LO (Collabora).

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#177

Post by EdSharkey »

PeterisP wrote: post #108
EdSharkey wrote: post #106

Here's an idea. If OpenOffice has no contributors. How about all the libreoffice folks start committing to both code bases or mirror them, whatever? Maybe the only thing that differs between the code bases is some splash screen and text resource bundles, ultimately. Why not bury the hatchet, devs?

What's the point of that wasted effort? What you're asking is "if X has no contributors, why don't Y people become contributors and start contributing?" Currently there are differences between code bases. If the OpenOffice team wants to abandon OO codebase and distribute a version of LibreOffice with some splash screen and text resource changes, then they're free to do so, it's open source.

I was thinking more like a takeover of the Open Office codebase since its organization has collapsed. Take over the administration, steering committee, etc.

I can see that the codebases have diverged, but will a lot be lost if Open Office's codebase was clobbered with the LibreOffice sources?

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#178

Post by okket »

antoineMoPa wrote: post #173
the_duke wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How exactly is OO excellent and LO good ? What is that based on? Please back that up.

My experience would be the contrary. I felt Libre Office had better document compatibility and a better user experience, so I stopped using Open Office. Maybe it improved since then. I would also like to see something to back up the claim you are talking about.

Please ask the author on the OO-dev mailing list, I just quoted him

http://www.mail-archive.com/dev@openoffice.apache.org/msg282...

Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice

#180

Post by rectang »

okket wrote: post #15
yoodenvranx wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> libreoffice I hate that name. As a German I have no idea how to pronounce it and it's even harder for my non-techy friends. The name "Open office" has a very nice flow and everybody knows how to pronounce it, but "libre office"? They should have selected an easier name for that project.

It is just a name. Really problematic was that after Oracle did not wanted to continue the OpenOffice(.org) project, Apache accepted to take it over. That kept the website people knew up and help spread the false image that OpenOffice is an active project with serious people and development effort behind it.

When the OpenOffice project was accepted by Apache, there was a distinct community around it which was larger than it is today. Now that the community has shrunk, you are seeing the people in it wrestle with how best to go forward responsibly.
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