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The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

simonwillison.net

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Re: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I can't understand what you mean by that. Do you mean that it's good that companies can profit over people's mostly voluntary efforts for free, or Free Software is meant to be used for free and never supported in any way, or what? I'm at a loss here.

You are allowed (and encouraged) to do good things without being obligated to. I think it would be immensely cool if OpenAI donated some of that crapload of AI money to the people behind LibreOffice to help with development - and then having like a blog post about it or something would already improve the project's visibility a bit more (hey, every bit helps). What's peanuts to them could help with the sustainability…

> You are allowed (and encouraged) to do good things without being obligated to.

We're absolutely on the same page with you, and I try to do my best with what I can in that regard.

On the other hand, I see a perspective which thinks that companies are entitled to use everything for free and don't need to support the Free Software ecosystem because it's an externality that they don't have to care for, which bothers me a lot.

What I was trying to understand that whether this comment was supporting that perspective, or is there something I'm missing entirely.

Re: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you people are always mixing up the legal thing to do with the right thing to do

I agree that it would be the right thing to do. Which is why you have to make the best attempt to make it the legal thing, because people looking to make money will not care about what's right. So, it makes sense to point out the disconnect when people use and promote pro-corporate licenses and then get upset when corporates follow them to the letter and provide them nothing but demands in return. If you want a mutua…

> I agree that it would be the right thing to do. Which is why you have to make the best attempt to make it the legal thing

Do you believe that in an ideal world, any instance of not "doing the right thing" should be illegal?

Re: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

#183

The new app is an unbelievable mess. Settings are senselessly organized, too. The whole thing has this aesthetic slickness and then underneath it's like the people who make it have never even used it. It's not surprising that it's pulled in absolutely massive dependencies, although I'm not sure it's the wrong call on some operating systems. LibreOffice is pretty tried and true.

HOW DOES IT WORK FOR YOU PEOPLE?! Istg on windows, I can't get codex app, new chatgpt or chatgpt classic to work without hanging on even a moderately sized chat. I tried all of the different tricks people recommended but that shit just crawls. It was stable at some point, classic that is, but then it started being a laggy mess. I've uninstalled new chatgpt/codex app. I can't access phone chats on it, I can't use the…

Windows has never felt more archaic than now. I can't imagine trying to do work on a Windows machine in the age of LLMs.

If there is anything that LLMs are rock solid at these days, it's unix terminal usage.

Re: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good thing that "would be nice" doesn't entail that they have to.

Sorry, I can't understand what you mean by that. Do you mean that it's good that companies can profit over people's mostly voluntary efforts for free, or Free Software is meant to be used for free and never supported in any way, or what? I'm at a loss here.

They just imply them not having to doesn't dismiss the original comment, thread being more about morals than laws.

That being said, hoping for any financial support from AI companies would be really naive. Using others work without retribution is at the core of their model.

Re: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

#185

The new app is an unbelievable mess. Settings are senselessly organized, too. The whole thing has this aesthetic slickness and then underneath it's like the people who make it have never even used it. It's not surprising that it's pulled in absolutely massive dependencies, although I'm not sure it's the wrong call on some operating systems. LibreOffice is pretty tried and true.

Personally, I like the 3-pane organization (sidebar, chat, browser). I turned ChatGPT into my bookkeeper and social post writing/kanban space, and it works well for these script+browser workflows on desktop. However, all of this is confusing: - the ChatGPT/Codex split on desktop - Chat/Work split on mobile - how you remotely access each chat from your phone (some of my most valuable chats are buried in Remote) - whic…

> - the ChatGPT/Codex split on desktop

Do tell, cause I run the "ChatGPT" program on Windows to use both the normal Chat and Codex (side menu items). I think its a more recent change.

Re: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I can't understand what you mean by that. Do you mean that it's good that companies can profit over people's mostly voluntary efforts for free, or Free Software is meant to be used for free and never supported in any way, or what? I'm at a loss here.

They just imply them not having to doesn't dismiss the original comment, thread being more about morals than laws. That being said, hoping for any financial support from AI companies would be really naive. Using others work without retribution is at the core of their model.

> That being said, hoping for any financial support from AI companies would be really naive. Using others work without retribution is at the core of their model.

I have no such expectations. They believe that they own the world and owe nothing, as you said.

Re: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does donation does for open source? Surely it wont come close to pay talented developers who create it. For cloud cost, there are few companies already giving generous free tier for open source. The only thing that donation could pay for is marketing e.g. events and meetups.

That's not true at all. Donations are the biggest source of income for The Document Foundation, the non-profit behind LibreOffice, and have been used to pay developers who've joined the team in recent years: * Michael Weghorn (accessibility) * Jonathan Clark (language and scripting support) * Neil Roberts (scripting improvements) * Dan Williams (macOS support and general UI improvements)

How much do they pay them?

Re: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

#189

The new app is an unbelievable mess. Settings are senselessly organized, too. The whole thing has this aesthetic slickness and then underneath it's like the people who make it have never even used it. It's not surprising that it's pulled in absolutely massive dependencies, although I'm not sure it's the wrong call on some operating systems. LibreOffice is pretty tried and true.

They removed the global shortcut to show a portable chat overlay. That one entrypoint must've been the source of at least 80% of my chats, yet apparently it was considered too vestigial to keep.

Can it be reassigned under Settings / Keyboard shortcuts?

Re: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

#190

The new app is an unbelievable mess. Settings are senselessly organized, too. The whole thing has this aesthetic slickness and then underneath it's like the people who make it have never even used it. It's not surprising that it's pulled in absolutely massive dependencies, although I'm not sure it's the wrong call on some operating systems. LibreOffice is pretty tried and true.

> The new app is an unbelievable mess.

How so? On Windows, I like it (version 26.825.51511).

Works fast (like modern Claude Code desktop, their old versions were bad), has pretty okay UI (could have an option for wider main text display, like ZCode added), allows you to change the fonts and shells and some of the layout stuff.

I mean currently I have Paseo hooked up to OpenCode that runs the actual models and often that works a bit better for me, but as a standalone desktop offering, the ChatGPT app has been okay in my experience. I can kinda see why ZCode copied them a bunch (though ZCode also lets you run 3rd party models, which is actually preferable to me).

I do like the idea that Claude Code desktop had in the earlier versions, 3 tabs - chat, work, code, except they kinda went in the direction of merging chat and work which was very ehhhh. The ChatGPT app doesn't even have a proper split between chat and work/code.

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