Slashdot Mirror
Lack Of Developers Delays OpenOffice.org
bonch writes "OpenOffice .org contributors spoke this week at a conference in Canberra. Among other things, one of the issues raised was the lack of developer contributions and a source tree that is 'just too big.' Version 2.0 was originally going to be released around this time but will now be delayed until at least June or July."
This is something that I agree that OO.o sorely needs. I imagine that many users find it particularly annoying that if they want to, say, create a new spreadsheet, they must launch OO.o, which puts them in Writer, then go to File->New Spreadsheet in order to get to Calc. Possibly it is different on other platforms - the OS X port is certainly messy in a lot of other ways - and possibly there is a way to create a set of executables that open different portions of OO.o, which is good. But it's the default behavior on my port, and it's nothing but asinine.
Normally I'm very dedicated to using OSS, and am willing to put up with a rough GUI and give a Free project some slack. But OO.o makes even Microsoft Office seem clean and intelligible, and that's frightening.
In a development culture where there is a very direct connection between loss of user base and loss of developer base, maybe the biggest thing that OO.o needs to do to attract developers is quit focusing so hard on creeping featurism and put some serious time into giving the interface a major overhaul.
What you *really* ought to thank me for is convincing my employer that OpenOffice.org was the answer, thus letting me work on it. Although, it has taken some dedication on my part or the project would have failed, so thanks :)
Also, I want to re-iterate that I'm hopeful things will improve after the 2.0 crunch. The Powers That Be are not unaware of what's going on, and some effort is being expended to improve things. But 2.0 is a monster that really needs to get out the door, and once that's done will be a good time to revisit some of this.