On 12/14/05, Adam Moore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> On 12/14/05, Louis Suarez-Potts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > 2. I did not say that unfunded people can't attend. I said that I
> > think it's a mistake for OOo to fund people to attend.
>
> <Quote Louis>
> I think it would be a mistake for OOo to attend
> this year's.
> </Quote>
>
> I see you have difficulty with words too, but I'll give you the
> benefit of the doubt that you didn't type what you meant.


No, I think he meant what he typed.  "Unfunded people" would *not* be
OpenOffice.org.  If, least say I, If *I* Chad Smith wanted to go to the DLS,
so be it.  If I wanted to talk about OOo, ODF, or the best kind of cheese
for steak - so be it.  But I would be doing so in an unofficial,
Chad-Smith's-Opinion (tm), kind of way.  If I were to show up, and set up a
booth with the name and logo of OOo all over it - even if I paid for it
myself - that would be a Bad Thing (tm), since I did not actually represent
the community (in whatever capacity you wish to measure that term) in my
visit.

So, if an individual or individuals wanted to go, that's fine - that's not
the same as "OOo" attending the conference.


> As to the OpenDocument fellowship/OOo: they are quite different and
> > do have differing interests, though obviously there is some overlap.
> > But: OOo is about open source; OpenDocument Fellowship is not.
>
> Really I thought OOo is about a community of people that wanted to
> develop a good office suite.


A good *open source* office suite - not just an office suite.


  OD Fellowship is about open source, a
> freely implementable and changeable format;


That's not open source - that's an open format.


and open community, open
> to discussions and ideas where the majority gets heard.


LOL!  Do you think that what open source is?  Have you ever *read* an open
source forum or mailing list?  Open Source is definitely *not* about the
majority.  If it were, there would not be the level of hostility toward the
"monopolies" of the world.  The majority of people want OOo to have an email
and PIM and browser.  The majority of people use Windows.  The majority of
Firefox users use Windows - the majority of OOo users use Windows - the
majority of most cross-platform apps use Windows.  The "voice of the
majority" is all but silenced in the open source community by the
self-proclaimed true-believers and programmers.  Open source, it has been
said, is a meritocracy, not a democracy.  I sometimes feel its a
shoutacracy.  But in no case is it a democracy.


  Because we
> encourage proprietary vendors to use the format doesn't mean that we
> don't hold the ideals of open source.


Ideals are a tricky thing.  The Ideals of open source would say, yes, you do
betray those Ideals by working with propriety vendors.  Ideals held by the
FSF, which are against Java, since it is not truly "FREE".  Open source,
like all religions, has its fundamentalist extremists, and they would say
that having anything to do with the evil empires of the world make you a
traitor.

Would I, personally, say you are a traitor, no.  No even close, but when you
claim to uphold the ideals of open source - that is a bold claim.


  In the same way that StarOffice
> and OpenOffice have a relationshiop.  I'll even venture to say that we
> implement these ideals better than OOo does.  If you want to learn
> what the OD Fellowship is about you can go here:
> http://opendocumentfellowship.org/Fellowship/AboutUs
>

Open Formats and Open Source are different.  Much of the debate about ODF in
Massachusetts has been because of confusion on that point.  In fact, ODF
supporters are the ones trying to make that distinction the most clear.

--
- Chad Smith
http://www.gimpshop.net/
Because everyone loves free software!

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