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Don't Expect an OpenOffice/LibreOffice Merger
Since Oracle has decided to give OpenOffice back to the community, a lot of people wondered if there would be some sort of re-unification with the ex-Oracle and the Document Foundation run by a lot of the original involved folks. The latter has released a statement saying, "the development of TDF community and LibreOffice is going forward as planned, and we are always willing to include new members and partners. We will provide as many information as we can with the progress of the situation. We are currently making every possible effort to offer a smooth transition to the project."
Been using Libre Office since the first release (sorta buggy, but from second on, it's much more solid than Open Office ever was). Without the drag from the corporate offices, releases seem Really Fast (compared to the Open Office process) and easier to install, probably because of the shorter lag between underlying package releases and Office releases. I think the smaller group seems to have it together, and I sorta like it being fully independent (like Linux is). So in conclusion, let's just keep it the way it is....
-- Ancient (IBM 1620 and Atari 400) Programmer
Around the time of the split, I decided to give IBM Lotus Symphony a try. It's based on Open Office and so far I'm really happy with it. No real interest in going back to Open Office, and no need to try LibreOffice at this point.
Funny choice, because frankly unless there only goal is to make it popular in France ShitOffice would probably be a better name than leber-office (which is how I've heard everyone pronounce it so far, followed by WTF or WTH? )
Seriously is there like a bylaw or something that says every damned FOSS app has to have a shitty/stupid/smartass name? Would you drink Fungus coffee? How about a Goatse choc bar? Maybe wash your hair with moneyshot shampoo? No? Then WTF!
Would have really been so God damned hard, would it have REALLY put you out, to simply name it something like Freedom Office? Or Sharing Office? Names matter folks and the pretentious bullshit names really don't help your cause. At least open office (which FYI NOBODY called it OO.o) gave it a nice friendly sounding name. its open, like open house. Simple, easy, smart.
So PLEASE for the love of all that is good and decent pick another damned name, or just bundle the damned thing with the Gimp and label under "shit nobody uses cause it just sounds nasty". I'd love to see FOSS guys name a soft drink, they'd probably be trying to sell ballsack cola or some shit, where the initials came out to something smug. Give me a break.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Exactly right.
Further more, everybody who mattered in the developer base already bailed out of Oracle, and is working for LibreOffice. There is very little that Oracle has left to merge.
Oracle has thrown in the towel, (but you can rest assured there will be a few poison pills in anything they release that is not already in LibreOffice) and at best the open-sourcing of this project is their way of telling the remaining developers on their payroll, "here's your hat, what's your hurry". Those that didn't leave probably didn't because they needed the pay check.
Point, Set, and Match to LibreOffice. This is probably one of the most significant watershed events in Open Source development. Even more so than when XFree86 was forked and Xorg totally took over X servers on every distribution, leaving XFree86 into obscurity.
That being said, the article title does NOT square with the source, which makes no blanket statements about NO possible merger. I read it completely the opposite way, they will accept new members, and they may well cherry pick the released code.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
I pretty much went with Libre the day after it came out, because seeing the Oracle logo on the OpenOffice splash screen gave me a full-body shiver every time I opened it.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Actually, LibreOffice has several features that the newest OpenOffice.org lacks. Sun/Oracle dragged their feet on accepting contributions from outsiders. Part of this was due to the fact that Sun/Oracle wanted to charge money for certain features, part was simple Not Invented Here syndrome. Either way, when LibreOffice split off from OpenOffice.org it was already the better fork.
Now that LibreOffice has shown that it can organize a community, set up the needed infrastructure, and make a release that is better than Oracle's release Oracle is starting to get concerned about what this says about Oracle's ability to lead in other Free Software communities. Larry Ellison paid a lot of money for Sun's various Free Software businesses, and he does *not* want people getting the idea that these communities would be better off if they were forked away from Oracle.
I like LibreOffice better than OpenOffice, but you're right. It's still a bad name.
Personally I think "Document Foundation" sounds impressive. They should go with that.
"Document Foundation Suite" sounds pretty good.
"Lame" - Galaxar
Why does the name have to reflect the fact that it's free? Those types of names always sound pretentious, and "Freedom Office" is much worse than LibreOffice ever could be (which is impressive). I shouldn't have to feel like a hippy just because of my choice of office suite. (Then again, maybe some people want that.)
If you can't convince them, convict them.