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LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

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Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#41

Post by rbanffy »

gaius wrote: post #36
rbanffy wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Assuming she has both the skill and the time to understand and patch the codebase herself. Otherwise she will be just as beholden to said developer as she is to Microsoft. More in fact; at least MS has some incentive to add features its users want rather than those that are merely interesting to code...

> Otherwise she will be just as beholden to said developer as she is to Microsoft.

She can buy a book and learn how to bend the program to her will. It may be a daunting task, but it's possible because she has the source code. In the Microsoft product case, she can't because she doesn't have the source.

Actually, she can, but she will have to learn how to program, apply for a job opening at Microsoft for the desired group, get hired and then convince the product manglers the change she wants deserves to be included in the product.

Reading the book doesn't seem that daunting now.

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#42

Post by gaius »

rbanffy wrote: post #41
gaius wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming she has both the skill and the time to understand and patch the codebase herself. Otherwise she will be just as beholden to said developer as she is to Microsoft. More in fact; at least MS has some incentive to add features its users want rather than those that are merely interesting to code...

> Otherwise she will be just as beholden to said developer as she is to Microsoft. She can buy a book and learn how to bend the program to her will. It may be a daunting task, but it's possible because she has the source code. In the Microsoft product case, she can't because she doesn't have the source. Actually, she can, but she will have to learn how to program, apply for a job opening at Microsoft for the desired…

Oh please! How many months, or years perhaps, working at it every day, would it take a normal, not-particularly technical end-user to get their C++ to a level they could add meaningful features to a full blown office suite? Or at a typical hourly rate, how much would it cost to hire a C++ programmer who's never seen this code before to do it, and how long would it take? Weeks probably.

You might as well say, there are books in the library, go build a rocket and fly to the moon.

But users, collectively, can decide what feature any commercial organization implements next, by indicating what they are willing to pay for.

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#44

Post by krakensden »

thristian wrote: post #27
e1ven wrote: 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...

Michael Meeks and other Go-oo developers are on the board, as well.

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#45

Post by devmonk »

devmonk wrote: post #10

Is LibreOffice the first sign of Oraclepocalypse?

To whomever downvoted this, you realize of course that Oracle's overly-litigiousness:

http://www.google.com/search?q=oracle+lawsuit

and poor conferences for Java:

http://www.google.com/search?q=javaone+oracle+sucked#sclient...

are what I'm referring to, right?

Oracle has seriously been screwing up lately. I think that the kids are taking their ball and going home with LibreOffice, leaving Oracle behind because of its anti-open-source attitude.

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#46

Post by patrickaljord »

krschultz wrote: post #15

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…

> 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 what way is open source easy to explain? Are you going to tell your mom that software is made up of source code that needs to be compiled and OpenOffice gives access to that source? It's much simpler to say Libre as in Freedom because you can do whatever you want with the software, modify, redistribute, resell etc

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#47

Post by patrickaljord »

gaius wrote: post #42
rbanffy wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Otherwise she will be just as beholden to said developer as she is to Microsoft. She can buy a book and learn how to bend the program to her will. It may be a daunting task, but it's possible because she has the source code. In the Microsoft product case, she can't because she doesn't have the source. Actually, she can, but she will have to learn how to program, apply for a job opening at Microsoft for the desired…

Oh please! How many months, or years perhaps, working at it every day, would it take a normal, not-particularly technical end-user to get their C++ to a level they could add meaningful features to a full blown office suite? Or at a typical hourly rate, how much would it cost to hire a C++ programmer who's never seen this code before to do it, and how long would it take? Weeks probably. You might as well say, there ar…

She could just pay someone to hack on the code for her, not something she could do with MS Office.

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#48

Post by gaius »

patrickaljord wrote: post #47
gaius wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh please! How many months, or years perhaps, working at it every day, would it take a normal, not-particularly technical end-user to get their C++ to a level they could add meaningful features to a full blown office suite? Or at a typical hourly rate, how much would it cost to hire a C++ programmer who's never seen this code before to do it, and how long would it take? Weeks probably. You might as well say, there ar…

She could just pay someone to hack on the code for her, not something she could do with MS Office.

At the hourly rate of a decent C++ hacker, that will cost more than Microsoft's entire product range at retail...

There is an entire industry of VB and VBA programmers who customize MS Office for organizations. I gather even OpenOffice.org has some of that capability. But to do something to OOo that you can't do in VBA with MS Office is a substantial amount of work.

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#49

Post by rbanffy »

gaius wrote: post #42
rbanffy wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Otherwise she will be just as beholden to said developer as she is to Microsoft. She can buy a book and learn how to bend the program to her will. It may be a daunting task, but it's possible because she has the source code. In the Microsoft product case, she can't because she doesn't have the source. Actually, she can, but she will have to learn how to program, apply for a job opening at Microsoft for the desired…

Oh please! How many months, or years perhaps, working at it every day, would it take a normal, not-particularly technical end-user to get their C++ to a level they could add meaningful features to a full blown office suite? Or at a typical hourly rate, how much would it cost to hire a C++ programmer who's never seen this code before to do it, and how long would it take? Weeks probably. You might as well say, there ar…

> Oh please! How many months, or years perhaps, working at it every day, would it take a normal, not-particularly technical end-user to get their C++ to a level they could add meaningful features to a full blown office suite?

OOo plug-ins don't need to be developed in C++

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Extensions_developm...

And it also depends on what you call meaningful. And then, you are completely ignoring every other person who shares the same problem and that can cooperate in solving it - or hiring someone for that.

Re: LibreOffice - A fresh page for OpenOffice

#50

Post by jrockway »

I don't get why people are against the name. Yeah, it's not "mom-friendly", but neither is any software. Everyone uses Word at home because it's what they use at work. They don't think of software packages as being discrete elements, they think of "a computer" and "that place where I type memos". Microsoft wins by default.

OO.org and LibreOffice should target two demographics: industries where everyone needs to be trained anyway, and for enthusiasts. If you work for megacorp-with-Word and you got Word for free with your computer, and you don't enjoy using computers, then LibreOffice's advantages are minimal. No need to cater to that demographic, because they simply don't care.

(Incidentally, I wrote a book in OO.org a few years ago. HORRIBLE. NEVER AGAIN. But I wouldn't use Word, either.)

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