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Is Apache OpenOffice Finally On the Way Out? (apache.org)
Reader JImbob0i0 writes: After almost another year without a release and another major CVE leaving users vulnerable for that year the Chairman of the Project Management Committee has started public discussions on what it will entail to retire the project, following the Apache Board showing concern at the poor showing.
It's been a long battle which would have been avoided if Oracle had not been so petty. Did this behaviour actually help get momentum in the community underway though? What ifs are always hard to properly answer. Hopefully this long drawn out death rattle will finally come to a close and the wounds with LibreOffice can heal with the last few contributors to AOO joining the rest of the community.
It's been a long battle which would have been avoided if Oracle had not been so petty. Did this behaviour actually help get momentum in the community underway though? What ifs are always hard to properly answer. Hopefully this long drawn out death rattle will finally come to a close and the wounds with LibreOffice can heal with the last few contributors to AOO joining the rest of the community.
There are multiple large companies that straight out ban LibreOffice on their premises because of the risk that macros and document data will have to be released as GPL.
Then they deserve to have higher costs for retaining idiotic lawyers. I hope they keep it up, it'll make my company more competitive.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Oracle's antics caused me to switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice, not from any "GPL Purity" reasons (which I care little about) but from a reasonable suspicion that Oracle, being Evil, would soon do something I did not like.
When it was given to Apache, I'd basically consider it a toss-up between the two, but I was already on LibreOffice, and didn't have any particular reason to go back. Since then, Libre seems to be a more active project than Open, so I prefer it on that basis.
I suspect that's a lot of the issue -- People left "because Oracle" (makes Signs against Evil) they're very close to the same software, one is getting more work done on it than the other, no particular reason to prefer OpenOffice.
Completely agree. If the management there is so under-educated and stupid to think that everything done in LibreOffice must be GPL released then they absolutely deserve it.
It utterly amazes me how people that pass themselves off as leaders and higher educated are typically some of the stupidest people out there.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
What business exactly gives a damn about the licensing the product is under? Unless it's a development shop looking at making and distributing modifications, and wants to be able to control whether it has to make those changes available, no business just using the software gives a rat's ass whether it's an Apache license, GPL, BSD License, or proprietary closed license. They just want the software to work and be supported.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I didn't make it up. I was told that by my Microsoft rep, and so I listened to him. Have you heard of the company, ArseKicks Software? I bet you haven't. They had to release all of their macros and document data to the public as GPL, and now they are no longer around because of it. In fact, if you Google it, ever trace of them has been wiped off of history, due to the GPL viral license.
What if a chick suggested it?
Stupid names are how open-source gains street-cred. It's why we have Gimp, PostreSql, Mozilla, and Ogg Vorbis. The more un-corporate it sounds, the better.
It's gotta sound alien, commie, and/or like medical symptoms. Extra kudo points if you cover all three.
Table-ized A.I.
There are multiple large companies that straight out ban LibreOffice on their premises because of the risk that macros and document data will have to be released as GPL.
Then they deserve to have higher costs for retaining idiotic lawyers. I hope they keep it up, it'll make my company more competitive.
I interviewed for a SysAdmin position at a government contractor way back in 1998 and asked about flexible working hours. The manager said their lawyers said it wasn't allowed. I said my current company, also a contractor at the same facility, had flexible hours. The manager said, "I don't know how they can do that." and I replied, "Perhaps we have better lawyers." They offered me a job, but I (obviously) didn't accept. Besides that stupidity, they only had 1 computer with Internet access, on a desk in a common area.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
OpenOffice died the moment Oracle took it over, which caused the LibreOffice fork. It's another datapoint in the eventual death of things Oracle touches.
They changed their name to "Whoooosh, Inc" soon after that incident.
Oracle (for whatever reason) has no community trust. MariaDB and other forks are getting common use and will likely see the same shift.
Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
Well, LibreOffice was able to incorporate BROffice and other forks of OpenOffice.org. Even when Sun was around, OOo did not want to accept certain compatibility patches, so a bunch of forks came about. When Oracle bought Sun and the LibreOffice suite was created, they accepted most of the patches, causing everyone to converge on LibreOffice. A lot of the new features were licensed under GPL, which Sun, and then Oracle, did not want to accept.
As of right now, LibreOffice is more compatible with MS Office documents than OpenOffice.org and has a lot more features, too.
"They have to revamp the UI regularly or users won't buy into the idea that the new version is any better than the old version, and therefore be willing to pay for the new version."
Google (Android) and Mozilla (Firefox) have the same philosophy it seems.
That would be akin to saying that every web page served from a server using GPLv2 licensed Linux kernel would automatically be licensed under the same license.
Yeah screw that. I'm not sharing the source code of my website with anyone!