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OpenOffice.org Council members resign

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Re: OpenOffice.org Council members resign

#12

Post by mdda »

gaius wrote: post #4
markkat wrote: post #2

Can anyone give some background on this? I just switched from Windows to Ubuntu, and have just started to familiarize myself with OpenOffice.

1. Star Division wrote StarOffice 2. Sun bought Star Division and forked, StarOffice commercial and OpenOffice free 3. Oracle bought Sun 4. OpenOffice devs decide to fork OpenOffice again, to spite Oracle 5. Oracle says fine, but we're keeping the name 6. OpenOffice devs throw toys out of pram, Oracle asks them politely to go home 7. OpenOffice devs "resign"

If you're talking kids and toys :

Oracle is the new kid who is sitting in the corner writing his name in marker all over 'his toys'.

The Libre kids just want to share toys, and think the new kid is a bully.

Maybe one day they'll all play together. But it'll probably take the new kid realizing that the kids that share each get to play with shiny new toys.

Re: OpenOffice.org Council members resign

#14

Post by arkitaip »

jgrahamc wrote: post #13

Am I alone in thinking that the right solution to the OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice mess (by which I mean the software itself) is to start all over again?

Joel disagrees: rewriting stuff from scratch is often a very bad idea http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html

Re: OpenOffice.org Council members resign

#15

Post by esponapule »

markkat wrote: post #2

Can anyone give some background on this? I just switched from Windows to Ubuntu, and have just started to familiarize myself with OpenOffice.

OpenOffice was acquired by Oracle recently when they bought Sun Microsystesm and have not embraced the open source philosophy in the opinion of the greater open office community. So, since the code is open source, several in the non-Oracle community decided to "rescue" the project from the same fate as Opensolaris. Libre Office is based on OO code 3.3 and GO-OO.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20014478-264.html

Re: OpenOffice.org Council members resign

#16

Post by esponapule »

jgrahamc wrote: post #13

Am I alone in thinking that the right solution to the OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice mess (by which I mean the software itself) is to start all over again?

in theory yes, but in practice no. developing such a complex piece of software is very hard to do. the pieces are there, they just need refine it.

Re: OpenOffice.org Council members resign

#17

Post by gaius »

mdda wrote: post #12
gaius wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Star Division wrote StarOffice 2. Sun bought Star Division and forked, StarOffice commercial and OpenOffice free 3. Oracle bought Sun 4. OpenOffice devs decide to fork OpenOffice again, to spite Oracle 5. Oracle says fine, but we're keeping the name 6. OpenOffice devs throw toys out of pram, Oracle asks them politely to go home 7. OpenOffice devs "resign"

If you're talking kids and toys : Oracle is the new kid who is sitting in the corner writing his name in marker all over 'his toys'. The Libre kids just want to share toys, and think the new kid is a bully. Maybe one day they'll all play together. But it'll probably take the new kid realizing that the kids that share each get to play with shiny new toys.

Forking the code is absolutely fine. Wanting the name too to pretend that the shareholders who underwrote all this development aren't part of it is just plain rude.

Re: OpenOffice.org Council members resign

#18

Post by gaius »

esponapule wrote: post #16
jgrahamc wrote: post #13

Am I alone in thinking that the right solution to the OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice mess (by which I mean the software itself) is to start all over again?

in theory yes, but in practice no. developing such a complex piece of software is very hard to do. the pieces are there, they just need refine it.

Indeed. Which is why the lion's share was done by corporations Star Division and then Sun, not by "the community".

Re: OpenOffice.org Council members resign

#19

Post by esponapule »

viraptor wrote: post #5
roadnottaken wrote: post #3

Does anyone know what this means to the future of the project?

Some of the people already joined LibreOffice as far as I understand, so it means that OOo is basically dead. LibreOffice can be thought of as a natural continuation if they do the development (so far it's been only an organisation, without code releases, but those should come soon).

OO will serve as a test bed for Oracle Office but it will not be innovative and free, OO will just be free.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Office

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