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Java Fallout: OO.o 2.0 and the FOSS Community
Joe Barr writes "Bruce Byfield has an interesting look at the 'fallout' between OpenOffice.org and the free/open source software communities because of their reliance on Java in the latest release. As he says, "It seems a decision based largely on practical considerations -- and with a disregard for the consequences for both the rest of the free and open source software (FOSS) communities and the future of OpenOffice.org itself." This is an issue that is not going away."
1) It's not write once/ run anyware.
... and worse, there's
2) It's slow.
3) It's not on every machine.
4) It's dead as a web applet, replaced by DHTML and forms.
5) It's a pig.
6) It's not open source.
A noble effort, kudos for Sun for trying;
but it's just not cool
just no real advanntage to using it.
I hear that you can only run the software on non-open hardware platforms! It should require a GPLed CRT and CPU to run!
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Alright, assholes... who's going to rewrite the only major competitor to Microsoft Office because of some possible philosophical nonsense?
It's still open source, right? So fork it and rewrite it as an ncurses emac extension. I'm sure Joe User is really going to fall in love with that one. "Hey guys! We can type up our spreadsheets and text documents and save them in an MS Office compatible format, or learn emacs, lpr, and not work with anyone else because we're not sure if Java is going to be compatible with our philosophical ideals in the future."
You'd think someone around here had heard about the law of diminshing returns. I guess that's refuted with one word: Gentoo.
Why use java anyway?
Java is complete shit.
I despise Java and javascript with a passion.
If you want to drop a machine to it's knees, run some java..
Get rid of it..
Also, did OO take care of the printing problems?
They had made access to kprinter an absolute pain in the ass, I ended up going DOWN to OO 1.1 because of piss poor printing capabilities.
I have a myriad of network printers all of them serve different purposes and the more recent versions of OO (whatever shipped with Suse 9.2) wouldn't let me use kprinter without major pains.
I said to hell with it and loaded 1.1
Overall OO is a decent product but it needs some things seen to and they need to dump that damn java. I wish everyone would dump java..
It's attitude like this that's keeping Windows, MS and all non-free software alive and hindering the development of free software. Oh, and BTW, nice karma-whoring.
Sun's motivation for producing OO is becoming clear: they want to use it as a platform to push their proprietary Java crap.
/could/ (but isn't) create by accelerating this process would certainly put them in position to move a lot of hardware. But they don't get FOSS, and they keep trying to sell software. Stop it. Cut it out. It's a loser, big time. This latest move pisses off even more people. Scott just doesn't have the backbone to stare his software division down, and to make them toe the line. A single out-of-control division is driving the company, and driving it bankrupt.
Bad strategy. This is why Scott should be fired. He has a great company, great products, and a bunch of great divisions. But he's hung up some bullshit bingo "synergy" notion which foments inappropriate connections. Open Office is worthwhile without the Java crap. Open Office drives the ever increasing move to *nix on the desktop. People *want* to move away from Windows, and they will, and they will run GNU/Linux, but they need to fill in a few gaps on the application front. The goodwill that Sun