On 20 Apr 2014, at 14:02, Hagar Delest <hagar.del...@laposte.net> wrote:
> IMHO, most users just take what's provided by default. Unless it is too buggy. > So I think that basically, we are back to the question: why AOO is still not > available in the standard packages? There are several ways of answering your question. I'll take the high road, and presume, for argument's sake, that the main Linux Distributors (the "distros") are acting in good faith and chose to align themselves with what they believed to be a sustainable community organization ca. 2011. These main distros that most in the West think of when they think of Linux, I'd guess, include Canonical's Ubuntu, Red Hat's Fedora Project, and KDE.* (I didn't check SuSE.) None includes Apache OpenOffice. (KDE's office apps, http://www.kde.org/applications/office/, differ from the seemingly more advanced—I don't know—Calligra Suite, http://www.calligra-suite.org/, which just released 2.8.2 16 April; there was a fork a few years ago.) Fedora Project office applications, https://fedoraproject.org/en/features/#office, include LibreOffice, as do Ubuntu's. Getting Apache OpenOffice and replacing the default suite is, to my mind, more difficult than it ought to be. (When i first started using Linux, it was KDE and I was excited that I could select the packages I wanted installed and that it was actually really easy to do so. About the only equivalent I can think of now that recaptures that sort of ease and also excitement, is the process for installing packages on jailbroken iOS devices.) Once upon a time—before the LibreOffice fork, all save KDE included OpenOffice.org axiomatically. Sun's, and then Oracle's missteps and the LO fork put in place a strategic realignment. It's main effect—Linux users are the losers, if only because "choice" and "free markets" have been deprecated--has probably not been the primary advocates' wished-for outcome. At least, I hope not. Getting the primary distros back to supporting choice and free markets for users would be nice. But I believe that, however loudly we hear the cry of community, what really determines things for Ubuntu and Fedora is what the sponsoring corporation wants and thinks is in its best interests, or at least those of its financial backers. FWIW, I maintained a program of reaching out to Linux distros around the world to include OO. These included (but were not limited to) the very big and popular ones in Russia, Turkey (Pardus), Africa, Japan and of course China. (I later also tried with South East Asian Linux efforts. What mattered hugely was having localized builds of OO; that made a telling difference in India, for instance, but also Brazil.) I have no idea what these regional distros are carrying now. However, a program that would *now* reach out to Linux distros—and also other open source centres and repositories—would be, I think, useful to would be users and also us. "Would-be" is not an immaterial consideration. It's been repeatedly estimated that in the next ten years billions more will start using computers. They'll be using versions of Linux, probably—Android. But they'll also be using versions of other free software for regular productivity, and that free productivity software could very well be a good enough ODF editor able to run on a variety of devices. Could even be us. cheers Louis * An interesting academic study would be to evaluate the effect Google has had in popularizing open standard formats, like ODF, which for unconscionably long it referred to as "openoffice" format, as well as in popularizing Linux, albeit sans any prominent community engagement (Android). My guess is that the effect has been: who cares, represented by, "I just want it to work!" which of course is what we all want, especially those of us really very interested in open standard formats. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org
