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Oracle To Give OpenOffice.org To Apache Incubator

Posted by samzenpus on from the final-destination dept.

Julie188 writes "Oracle has finally officially spilled the beans: It's proposing OpenOffice.org as an Apache Incubator project — and not handing it to The Document Foundation. Oracle had announced earlier this year that it would be passing the torch to the community, but failed to provide any specifics about the ultimate destination. The Document Foundation is the organization behind the OpenOffice fork, LibreOffice."

13 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Choices are good, but... by Bloodwine77 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wish OpenOffice and LibreOffice would un-fork and all the brain power stay behind one unified product.

    I know Oracle is sketchy so I understand the fork, but if Oracle is trying to offload OpenOffice back to the open source community it would be nice to put politics aside.

    Am I missing some underhanded scheme by Oracle that keeps their foot in the door on causing legal or support issues down the road?

    1. Re:Choices are good, but... by eln · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's too late for that. The egos in both organizations are entrenched now, merging would be very difficult.

    2. Re:Choices are good, but... by stating_the_obvious · · Score: 3, Informative

      If they do merge, it'll be Apache incubator giving up and joining TDF. TDF already announced that they were going forward regardless of Oracle's actions regarding giving OO back of the community. TDF welcomes all new members -- including Apache Incubator.

      At this point, TDF/LO is a stronger horse to back -- they've shown they can organize the community, and the software is (arguably) more willing to accept improvements that OO didn't (perhaps because Oracle was still working to find a way to monetize some aspect of OO)

    3. Re:Choices are good, but... by TemporalBeing · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, LO/TDF didn't instill much confidence at least in me that they were going to be better than what they cried fowl with per Oracle - the only difference being they didn't require copyright assignment. So I am quite pleased to see ASF receiving OOo, and hope it does very well there. I'm sure it will pick up steam and again become the de facto driver of OOo and its derivatives especially as this brings great clarity to what is going on with OOo - something that has been lacking since LO split, and probably the main driver behind the loss of momentum behind OOo itself.

      --
      Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
  2. ORACLE by sockman · · Score: 5, Funny

    One Rich Asshole Called Larry Ellison

    1. Re:ORACLE by RazzleFrog · · Score: 3, Informative

      There are very few companies who don't use some Oracle product - whether it is their database, their eBusiness Suite, Hyperion, or Java. People don't realize how much they are impacted by Oracle.

  3. Interesting move by MAXOMENOS · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What are the odds that the Document Foundation will voluntarily merge with the Apache Foundation? Is there a licensing issue that might prevent this?

    --
    Finding God in a Dog
    1. Re:Interesting move by Migala77 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The article has a reaction from The Document Foundation, and it looks like they are not interested in reuniting; they don't like the Apache license, but say they may change LibreOffice licensing to MPL or LGPL (now that they can thanks to the new Apache license).

    2. Re:Interesting move by dkleinsc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That suggests an even better solution:
      1. Apache takes OpenOffice off of Oracle's hands.
      2. Apache says, "Hey, Document Foundation, you want this? We'll even give you the name back."
      3. Document Foundation says "Great, we never really liked 'Libre' anyways," merges anything useful that was added pre-fork and switches back to OpenOffice branding.
      4. Users and developers are all happy, because they have all the LibreOffice features, but are back to an easily recognizable, pronounceable, and established name.

      There's no way for Oracle to win this round, that's for sure.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    3. Re:Interesting move by devent · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why is LibreOffice not recognizable or not pronounceable?
      I would rather see to take all the good parts out of OpenOffice into LibreOffice that could not have been done before and just end OpenOffice. Now that the main development will be coming from TDF anyway and all the distributions are going for LibreOffice, there will be more confusion if LO would end and OO would be resurrected.

      I see the turn more like a political one. The Apache Foundation criticized Oracle for Java and left the JCP EC, now Oracle is giving them something to come back maybe? And at the same time punish the TDO for forking OpenOffice by giving OO to Apache and as such not recognize TDF as a legit successor.

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  4. The solution by michelcolman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Someone should just start a new, independent fork to end the confusion once and for all.

  5. Re:Let it die by VortexCortex · · Score: 3, Informative

    I suspect rather that Oracle didn't have the ability, willingness, or the guts to revise the source code licensing/assignment restrictions put in place by Sun Microsystems. And maybe they would have liked to, but could not legally resolve the assignments with a change to a more open license.

    No. Contributors to OO.org had to assign their copyright to Sun/Oracle, EXPRESSLY SO THEY COULD EASILY change the source code license at will...

    LibreOffice does not require any copyright assignment, so if they want to switch licenses they better do it before it becomes infeasible to request permission from all the copyright holding contributors. FTFAQ:

    Q: What difference will The Document Foundation make to developers?

    A: The Document Foundation sets out deliberately to be as developer friendly as possible. We do not demand that contributors share their copyright with us. People will gain status in our community based on peer evaluation of their contributions - not by who their employer is.

    Source code can only flow one way, from OO.org to LibreOffice / Document foundation, not vise versa. OO.org has a disadvantage: Their competitor (LO) can gobble up their codebase, but OO.org can not -- Well, depending on if you can get the developer to assign copyright. (Haven't cared to read the new Apache license for OO.org, but if it still requires assignment, they're toast).

  6. Re:Good, now make two versions by powerlord · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Good, now make two versions, one International version and one US version.

    The international version should be the gold version, with the US version a crippled version which honors all the software patent follies going on in the US.

    The rest of the world should just ignore their sissy talk.

    Let us hope that Apache don't respect US software patents outside the US.

    OK as long as the US users can d/l the gold version.

    But ... but ... then your Web Browser would be a circumvention device!

    That could NEVER be allowed to happen!

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