Live data from Hacker News

LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

h-online.com

21–30 of 57 posts

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#21
post #13

Google is sponsoring a free competitor to one of their proprietary solutions. I wonder why.

Probably something to do with the whole "don't be evil" thing. Google has always done a pretty good job of that. Sometimes doing the right thing isn't the same as doing the thing that's best for business. In fact, REALLY OFTEN doing the right thing isn't the same as best for business.

Also the vast majority of Google employees are probably open source users and fans themselves.

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#22

FreeOffice wasn't an option? Open Source Office? Anything-other-than-LibreOffice? OpenOffice is something that I can explain to my mother when I install it for her instead of MS Office, Mom, it's just like Office but it is open source. In fact she didn't notice for a long time. Libre Office? She'll question that for sure, and then what am I going to do, explain the GNU manifesto to her? Come on. I like the use of the…

Its just a name, will she really makes a fuss out of it?

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#23
post #16

FreeOffice wasn't an option? Open Source Office? Anything-other-than-LibreOffice? OpenOffice is something that I can explain to my mother when I install it for her instead of MS Office, Mom, it's just like Office but it is open source. In fact she didn't notice for a long time. Libre Office? She'll question that for sure, and then what am I going to do, explain the GNU manifesto to her? Come on. I like the use of the…

Did you explain to her what source code is and explain OSI's definition of open source (you know, DFSG rebranded)?

And after that he can explain how the freedom is really for the source code and not for her!

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#24

FreeOffice wasn't an option? Open Source Office? Anything-other-than-LibreOffice? OpenOffice is something that I can explain to my mother when I install it for her instead of MS Office, Mom, it's just like Office but it is open source. In fact she didn't notice for a long time. Libre Office? She'll question that for sure, and then what am I going to do, explain the GNU manifesto to her? Come on. I like the use of the…

"Libre" is probably better understood in Europe to mean "free" in its intended "free as in speech" sense.

That is probably true in Europe, but it definitely fails in the US. What I don't see is why the name has to be so damn literal.

Firefox was never named "Libre Interent Browser"

Google was never "Better Search Engine That Doesn't Totally Suck"

OpenOffice at least wasn't that clunky and got the point across.

This is a name by hackers for hackers. Why is that a good idea for a project with the mainstream reach of Firefox? This is a cross platform office suite, it could be used by literally EVERY PERSON WHO USES A COMPUTER, the name is extremely important. It doesn't have to mention a damn thing about open source, free software, or anything in its name. Most people don't care about Firefox's development model - they just like using it. OpenOffice should be the same way.

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#25

FreeOffice wasn't an option? Open Source Office? Anything-other-than-LibreOffice? OpenOffice is something that I can explain to my mother when I install it for her instead of MS Office, Mom, it's just like Office but it is open source. In fact she didn't notice for a long time. Libre Office? She'll question that for sure, and then what am I going to do, explain the GNU manifesto to her? Come on. I like the use of the…

"Libre" also sounds exactly the same as "Libra". Maybe they should call it StarOffice :)

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#26
post #13

Google is sponsoring a free competitor to one of their proprietary solutions. I wonder why.

It's not direct competition ... I'm using Google's docs to keep my documents online / and for collaborative editing.

I haven't tried any plugins yet for OpenOffice, but it would be awesome if there was a plugin for syncing back and forth to Google Docs.

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#27
post #19

In general I'm in favor of moving things out of Oracle's control, since they have acted as an untrustworthy partner in many places, but why not use the existing fork? The article dismisses Go-oo as not having enough support.. Why not give them more, rather than splitting the community further?

I believe one of the first actions of the new organisation was to apply all the changes from Go-oo, so it's not like they're completely splitting...

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#28
post #23
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you explain to her what source code is and explain OSI's definition of open source (you know, DFSG rebranded)?

And after that he can explain how the freedom is really for the source code and not for her!

Not really. If it's GPL, it's freedom for her from the developer.

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#29
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new name sucks, but so did "OpenOffice.org" (at least going by the Ubuntu package names, they insisted on the .org being part of the name).

At least OpenOffice was something you could pronounce.

For most of the world almost every piece of software has name in foreign language. It's all just sounds, with no meaning other than "the program with icon looking like ...". For people in Poland Windows and Word means computer programs, their real meanings are second thoughts, even if they even know what that words means.

I'll agree - Libre Office sounds strange, but it is adventage - it makes brand stronger. And people will get used to it, if it will be good.

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Libre" is probably better understood in Europe to mean "free" in its intended "free as in speech" sense.

That is probably true in Europe, but it definitely fails in the US. What I don't see is why the name has to be so damn literal. Firefox was never named "Libre Interent Browser" Google was never "Better Search Engine That Doesn't Totally Suck" OpenOffice at least wasn't that clunky and got the point across. This is a name by hackers for hackers. Why is that a good idea for a project with the mainstream reach of Firefo…

Yes, and who wants to use a game console that sounds like a man's genitals or a tablet computer that sounds like a menstruation guard. Names do not matter when you already have a product people want and need.
Post reply on HN