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Michael Meeks Says OO.o Project is "Profoundly Sick"
unassimilatible writes "Michael Meeks, who works full time developing OpenOffice, writes in his blog that the project is 'profoundly sick.' 'In a healthy project we would expect to see a large number of volunteer developers involved, in addition — we would expect to see a large number of peer companies contributing to the common code pool; we do not see this in OpenOffice.org. Indeed, quite the opposite we appear to have the lowest number of active developers on OO.o since records began: 24, this contrasts negatively with Linux's recent low of 160+. Even spun in the most positive way, OO.o is at best stagnating from a development perspective.'"
WOOP DE WOOP NIGGA WHAAAT
... the reason is simply that it's in Java.
What's wrong with Java?
(a) It's restrictive. The language tries to enforce "good coding practices" by the utilization of restrictions in the language itself. Everything is forced into a rigid framework, and everything must operate within that framework. Many people might find that to be desirable, in much the same way that many people are comfortable working in 1 out of 100 identical cubicles in 1 out of 100 of the corporation's identical offices scattered throughout the country: if you need the structure and discipline, you might be happy. If you don't, you will be miserable.
(b) It's slow. Even compiled to bytecode, large Java applications tend to be slow. There have been improvements, but...
(c) It is not universal. One of the main ideas behind Java was that it was going to be a "universal, cross-platform" language. While it came much closer to that goal than probably any other commonly-used language, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread it did not achieve 100% success. It must be acknowledged that part of this problem is due to the packages that were included/omitted in certain Linux distros; nevertheless it is a problem. (Note to the complainer above: if my Linux distro did not include the necessary prerequisites for compiling Open Office, or at least make them easily available and documented, then I would start questioning the wisdom of those who put together that distribution. Yes, even Gentoo.)
(d) It is compiled. Some may see this as an absolute prerequisite for a desktop application. Nevertheless, dynamic languages (Ruby, for example) offer far more programming flexibility than Java could ever dream of. This is part of the reason for Java's relative inflexibility. Certain scripted languages have far surpassed it in terms of what can be accomplished at runtime.
Java is a good language. My cellphone runs Java. And I love Open Office. But I am not inclined to volunteer for the project, because I have moved on to "better", freer and more flexible languages. Going back to Java would feel like being in prison.
I don't use OO.o, but here's my story:
I dropped a brown rope this morning the size of a small black child. At one point, I wasn't sure if I was taking a shit, or it the shit was taking me. And while I'm on that point, what's the deal with taking a shit? Shouldn't it be leaving a shit? I'm certainly not taking anything with me when I'm done.
But back on topic, OO.o sucks ass