
OpenOffice.org is now officially part of the Apache family - Garbage
https://blogs.apache.org/foundation/entry/the_apache_software_foundation_statement
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tytso
The biggest problem for OpenOffice.org as an Apache project, especially given
the existence of a vibrant LibreOffice, is what companies are going to fund
OpenOffice.org development and why? IBM will because they have a commercial
product, sure, but who else? If there are no other companies funding
significant development efforts (which in practice means they have to have a
commercial product), then the rationale for a company to do all of their
development in the open (and possibly risk a competitor taking their code and
using it in a competing product with little or no effort contributed) tends to
destroy the value of the Apache project.

With Libreoffice taking away a large number of the community developers, it's
not clear there will be enough non-IBM corporately funded developers to make
OpenOffice.org successful.

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shareme
rumor has it that IBM is cancelling their commercial product..

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tytso
I'm not sure that rumor is correct. Look at this comment to Brian Proffitt's
article, "Has IBM kicked OpenOffice.org to the curb?". It's from an IBM'er
claiming that IBM is investing a huge amount into the OpenOffice project:

[http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrategy/212949/has-
ibm-...](http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrategy/212949/has-ibm-kicked-
openofficeorg-curb#comment-14222039)

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burgerbrain
_"We congratulate the LibreOffice community on their success over their
inaugural year and wish them luck in their future endeavors. We look forward
to opening up the dialogue between Open Document Format-oriented communities
to deepen understanding and cease the unwarranted spread of misinformation."_

Interesting. I wonder how exactly they see their relationship with libreoffice
going forward.

Regardless, this is great news. Apache cannot possibly mishandle the project
more than Sun/Oracle were.

~~~
joelhaasnoot
I would completely understand that the LibreOffice folks are bitter about the
whole Sun/Oracle situation, but you'd think it would be in the best interest
of everyone to reconcile and merge the two branches. Yes, Apache Foundation
would probably add bureaucracy, but that's not always bad.

~~~
bkor
I don't see the point really. LibreOffice already has working infrastructure,
did loads of cleanup and has a working community. I don't see the point of the
Apache Foundation, nor rewriting stuff just so it can have a different
license.

~~~
melling
Which community is bigger? Which app suite has a larger install base. The
problem is that neither app is quite comparable to Office, in my opinion;
neither has stolen market share from Office. A divided community will close
the gap even slower.

~~~
rplnt
LibreOffice is now default Office suite in OpenSUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu, and maybe
others. So I guess that that the LibreOffice will get a larger user base soon.

~~~
epo
That was done as a reaction to Oracle, if OpenOffice becomes viable again and
gains traction it can change back.

LibreOffice's staying power depends on how much of their effort was simply
"sticking it to Oracle", if they get bored and fade away then so will
LibreOffice.

Apart from nerds there is no loyalty to the product just to getting the job
done, if the word processor opens their documents then users simply don't
care. Similarly most users don't use Office because it is Office, they use it
because it is there.

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RexRollman
This whole thing was a fuck-you move by Oracle and I am surprised that Apache
would be a part of this. They should defer to Libre Office and donate
everything to them.

~~~
burgerbrain
Can you expand on this? How is releasing their code under the Apache license,
a less restrictive license than the libreoffice project uses, a "fuck-you
move" to anyone?

~~~
RexRollman
Because they could have simply donated everything to Libre Office itself,
instead of donating it to another organization under another license. There
was no reason to do that aside from being sore losers.

~~~
burgerbrain
... <http://www.apache.org/licenses/GPL-compatibility.html>

~~~
RexRollman
That doesn't solve the trademark issue.

~~~
burgerbrain
The trademark issue is the _only_ issue as far as I can tell, and I haven't
actually heard anyone say that they're really bothered by it.

OpenOffice _.org_ was a pretty shitty trademark to begin with.

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GameGamer43
Unfortunately this doesn't matter given how far Libre Office has come since
splitting off. I mean Libre Office already stated they have mobile version in
the works, not to mention the other improvements they've brought to the
project causing a lot of Linux distributions to switch to Libre Office as
there default word processing suite.

A little too late for Oracle and the Apache Foundation in my opinion.

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natrius
I was expecting a more explicit "let's get together and feel alright"
overture.

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starik36
Can someone give a coherent explanation as to why OpenOffice and LibreOffice
should not merge?

~~~
buff-a
Can you give a coherent explanation why the Republicans and Democrats should
not merge?

EDIT: Thank you, downvoters. I look forward to your excellent answers that do
not involve politics and ideology. I'm sure you just downvoted me while you
began working on your much better answers to the parent's question and I look
forward to reading them.

~~~
burgerbrain
_"I look forward to your excellent answers that do not involve politics and
ideology."_

I downvoted you for not adhering to your own standards.

~~~
bluedanieru
I think he's implying that LibreOffice and OpenOffice will not merge for
reasons of politics and ideology, rather than any technical reason.

Strangely, choosing Democrats and Republicans to illustrate that point was
probably a poor choice, considering.

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pronoiac
Text-only Google cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:C82PuK6...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:C82PuK6MZwoJ:https://blogs.apache.org/foundation/entry/the_apache_software_foundation_statement+https://blogs.apache.org/foundation/entry/the_apache_software_foundation_statement&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1)

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swah
What does that mean in practical terms?

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ashrust
I hope this gives rise to a web based platform for open office. I don't see it
having a bright future as desktop only.

~~~
bergie
There is some work related to that going on in <http://webodf.org/>

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adpaolucci
Another step to kill Microsoft Office, my emotions can no be expressed in
words of it actually were to kill it.

