> On 03 Sep 15, at 15:05, Roberto Galoppini <roberto.galopp...@gmail.com> wrote: > > 2015-09-03 17:48 GMT+02:00 Dennis E. Hamilton <dennis.hamil...@acm.org>: > >> There are users who will find the political drama compelling. There is >> nothing to be done about that. It does not make the product better and it >> distracts those who want to find ways to serve the broad community no >> matter what code base is being worked on. >> >> The asymmetrical situation around licenses is a factor, although what >> matters more to users is how that shows up in what they have in their hands >> to use. >> >> I found the greatest value in the linked article to be about the fairly >> balanced view of the three productivity-suite options, assuming that the >> reader is on a platform where all are available. >> >> It seems to me that the greatest concern to this community is the >> practical experience users are and will have and how this project can serve >> those concerns, especially with regard to assured usability of present >> documents and also the skills that have been developed in working with them. >> >> - Dennis >> >> PS: On the interoperable-use challenge lurking in the article, >> >> The historical business was too long and not so meaningful to user needs >> compared to the -- important for us -- slow but steady divergence of the >> two OpenOffice.org descendants not so much in features and release cadence >> but core functions around format conversion/interchange. That divergence >> is eroding common support for the ODF format and OOXML interchange (i.e., >> functioning in a world where Microsoft Office documents cannot be >> ignored). Incompatibilities at that level impede interoperable >> multi-product and cross-platform use where that is important. >> > > I believe this is an issue that is underestimated at the moment. Few Public > Administrations - or more likely smart sales people pointing them in that > direction - are already taking advantage of that to justify their decisions > to go back to MSFT. > > The whole OOo ecosystem is at risk because of the present situation, and I > believe we should make an effort to figure out if someone from our > community could join the upcoming ODF Plugfest and talk to the people. If > we can't fix the overall asymmetry of ODF-Support we are at big risk. >
Roberto, I tend to agree with you, though I’m a little less concerned about the significance of ODF and more about the loss of a commitment to open formats capable of expressing current and future needs. But to the point Are you volunteering to attend? And when is the plugest? > Roberto > > > >> >> One of the greatest appeals of the OpenOffice.org family is the presence >> of consistent cross-platform support not available anywhere else (yet) in >> conjunction with the ODF format. This appeals to civil authorities and >> institutions not just for economy under actual user conditions (which may >> or may not be achievable as promised in a particular situation). >> >> The free ODF/OOXML-supporting products matter for durable preservation and >> interchange of documents, especially those employed in public services, >> without *requiring* use of commercial software as institutions move to >> delivery of services and coordination with the public by digital means. >> Substitutability has been promoted to those organizations as a safeguard >> for adoption of these products. >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Rich Bowen [mailto:rbo...@rcbowen.com] >> Sent: Thursday, September 3, 2015 06:54 >> To: dev@openoffice.apache.org >> Subject: Re: AOO -> LO or MS O >> >> >> >> On 09/03/2015 08:33 AM, Fernando Cassia wrote: >>> "After LibreOffice came out, Oracle released one version of Oracle Open >>> Office before deciding that the project wasn’t worth the effort >>> < >> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2011/04/oracle-gives-up-on-ooo-after-community-forks-the-project/ >>> . >>> It laid off the programmers and gave the code and trademarks to the >> Apache >>> Software Foundation, under Apache’s liberal open source license." >>> >>> That's one version of events. Another version of events is this. >>> http://pages.citebite.com/e7v0f3m9sder >>> >>> "Shuttleworth has a fairly serious disagreement with how the >>> OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice split came about. He said that Sun made a $100 >>> million "gift" to the community when it opened up the OpenOffice code. >> But >>> a "radical faction" made the lives of the OpenOffice developers "hell" by >>> refusing to contribute code under the Sun agreement. That eventually led >> to >>> the split, but furthermore led Oracle to finally decide to stop >> OpenOffice >>> development and lay off 100 employees." >>> >>> That's different from "deciding it was not worth the effort". >>> >>> Why the FUD on a dev list, anyway? >> >> It's not FUD. It's a link to an article. >> >> What would be awesome is if someone would write a counterpoint, which is >> non-confrontational, non-rageful, non-hateful, and non-reactionary, but >> just calmly presenting the reasons why someone might want to stay on >> OpenOffice. >> >> Refuting the article on this list, where we all already know the story, >> is a good start, but if you could turn it into an article that's less >> political, more practical (features, community, timelines, and so on), >> that would actually help our cause. The person asking the original >> question doesn't care about politics, hurt feelings, and "radical >> factions", I guarantee. They want to know which product is better for >> them, now, and in the long term. >> >> Thanks. >> >> -- >> Rich Bowen - rbo...@rcbowen.com - @rbowen >> http://apachecon.com/ - @apachecon >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org >> For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org >> >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org >> For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org
