Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, here it looks like Apache OpenOffice made a couple of releases.
Barely.
There was substantial development energy for a while. Notably, there was a large donation from IBM of code that had been in Symfony.
Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice
241–250 of 327 posts
Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice
#242It is really depressing reading the thread to see that how some members just can't let it go. I'm totally pro-diversity and support different projects and forks with different priorities but AOO's track record and sitting on top of a valuable brand has been a net loss for the open source in office area. I wouldn't mind it at all had they continue to develop their own thing named SolidOffice or whatnot, but I know companies which still use Openoffice on Windows, because that is what they have had always used, nevermind it doesn't even get prompt security updates.
Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, LibreOffice is not "copyleft" licensed. It is distributed under a joint of licenses: GNU Lesser GPL v3+ and Mozilla Public License v2. The latter is not "copyleft".
I could be wrong, but from what I remember, the MPL has generally been considered a "weak copyleft" license.
As far as the Wikipedia definition of it goes, yes it is a "weak copyleft", but that basically means that the license on code and patents is liberal, while license on trademarks is not. That is to prevent bottom feeders to take for example Firefox and LibreOffice, rebuild them with adware and malware and redistribute new installers as "Super Firefox", "LibreOffice Improved" or other misleading trademarks.
Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
It also makes shortcuts discoverable! Just hit the alt-key and virtually every thing pops up with it hot key. Hitting alt in a standard windows app only tells me what menus are available, not which actions are available.
Ok, maybe shortcuts are discoverable, but actual actions no longer are. Not everyone finds the ribbon an improvement; I feel the need to point that out since so many comments appeared praising the awfully opaque ribbon.
How so? Why are actions hidden in nested menus easier to find than in the ribbon?
Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice
#245Could they drop openoffice, then rename libreoffice to openoffice? That would be fantastic
Good idea. It's like or at least similar to Node.js vs. IO.js. Finally they agreed to use IO.js branch but go with the Node.js name. So it would be great of LibreOffice would be rebranded to OpenOffice. And it needs an web initiative to compete with GoogleDocs and Office365 - I know there is already some kind of prototype, but make it a high priority project.
The cloud initiative seems a lot more important; bring LO/OO into this decade.
Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ... clunky, unreliable clone of older Microsoft Office products. It was still better than a kick in the teeth though. That's exactly why i am using Open/Libre office; at some point Microsoft Office got such a complicate UI (ever since they pushed the ribbon bar - that's when they kicked me in the teeth) that i am unable to use it - the alternative uses a much less complicated UI so i am with it. Does the MS Office…
Am I alone here in actually liking the ribbon? I almost never use any MS Office product (Latex for serious writing, R for statistics, ...) but when I have to because of a client or whatever, I find the Ribbon to be convenient for a non-power user.
When the ribbon works, which is most of the time, it's pretty good.
When not, it can be a complete PITA. A few years ago I tried to change the scaling of an axis of a chart in Excel from linear to log, and it was so convoluted that I had to look up in the help each time I did it.
Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe that's the naming solution then. StarOffice* * The Open and Libre Office Suite Everyone could write it as *Office to save typing. Then users would simply say the full name. "AsteriskOffice" Nevermind....
And maybe rewrite it in C# and call it OctothorpOffice...
Coctothorp is how I pronounce C# :) That or C++++ because # looks like 4 overlapping +'s which I've always assumed is what they were hinting at.
Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think its a bad idea to even use the word "Office" because it sounds like a lame rip-off you'd download from CNet. In fact, Im suprised MS doesnt have a legal issue with it. Thats always bugged me about a lot of OSS projects and vegan dishes, they pick a name based on their competitor instead of something original that doesn't constantly remind the user they're not quite getting the "real thing".
OpenOffice uses name 'office' for 30 years, 5 longer than MS does. Wiki: > OpenOffice.org originated as StarOffice, a proprietary office suite developed by German company StarDivision from 1985 on. > MS office 1.0 released : November 19, 1990[1] Office 1.0
Well then I was totally wrong in this case :) But there are still a lot of instances of software names like that. All things GNU being the worst example, an entire ecosystem tainted with the label "Not Unix".
Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice
#249Parallel 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…
I'd hesitate to claim that OpenOffice is "excellent software", if the security issues aren't being addressed in a timely manner.
There's a distinction between the software itself being excellent and the team being fast-moving.
Re: Contemplating the possible retirement of Apache OpenOffice
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Apache Foundation could simply have accepted the OpenOffice.org codebase+trademarks from Oracle, then donate to LibreOffice. But they did not do so. The Apache Foundation does not have experience with software that end-users use. They have experience with server software. That was their undoing.
At the time of the donation, The Document Foundation had an (understandably) antagonistic relationship with Oracle and legal foundations which were firming up but not yet solid. The assets were not going to TDF from Oracle directly. In accepting the proposal for a new Apache OpenOffice project, the ASF accepted not only the assets from Oracle but also a community, distinct from the LibreOffice community, that wanted…
What community? The only community around OpenOffice.org were the Sun/Oracle devs + the Go-OO devs getting it to work on Linux.
The Go-OO devs forked it into LibreOffice and then Oracle shuttered their own work and reassigned their devs to other projects. Only a tiny handful of devs not part of Go-OO remained, and they had not been instrumental in actually maintaining the codebase as these other two groups had.
There was no community around Apache OpenOffice.