Florian Effenberger <flo...@documentfoundation.org> wrote on 06/02/2011 06:39:12 AM:
> This would not only be about reinventing the wheel, but also about > splitting the community, leading to disadvantages for end-users, > contributors, and enterprises. > I'd like to challenge your assertion here, about "splitting the community", a nonsensical meme I'm hearing repeated in several venues. First, would you disagree if I asserted, as a fact, that IBM is not a member of LibreOffice? And that neither is Oracle? And that no initial contributors currently on the wiki are TDF/LinbreOffice coders? I think it would hard for you, or anyone else, to dispute these facts. So we're not in fact splitting the community, since the proposers of this proposal, and the proposed initial committers of this project are not actually LibreOffice members. But at the same time, I think we would all freely acknowledge, that if this Apache project is approved, that some existing LibreOffice members might, of their own free will and according to their own personal preferences, make the **choice** to come and work at Apache. I don't think Apache can prevent this and still be Apache. If you want to refer to this as "splitting the community", then I'd say that an idiosyncratic use of the term. I'd like to think that LibreOffice has certain characteristics that make it a preferred option for some developers, e.g., for those who prefer a copyleft license, and prefer to be relatively independent of formal governance. For those for whom these qualities are a priority, they will clearly **have the choice** to remain, of their own free will and in accordance with their personal preference. I'd like to think that no one is working on LibreOffice merely because they have no choice, or that giving everyone a choice is seen as being antagonistic. If truly 100% of the LibreOffice members prefer TDF to Apache, then you have nothing to worry about, right? If some prefer Apache, then you have worries, if you choose to worry about such things, but I don't take it as a moral fault in Apache or in the authors of this proposal that we are offering an open source development choice that some developers might prefer over TDF. I think we can all point to many smaller such projects in this area that have thrived over the years based on community volunteers, with relatively little corporate backing, e.g., AbiWord, Gnumeric, etc. There is nothing wrong with this. They are fine projects and have many unique qualities. But at at the same time, it is perfectly reasonable for others to have more ambitious goals, the goal of bringing this code base to scale in the market, a goal that can best (IMHO) be reached with strong corporate backing, working side-by-side with independent developers, facilitated by a permissive license and an foundation of unimpeachable reputation and stability. It is entirely reasonable for us to decline to gamble on a fledging organization with relatively little evidence of stability. No one is forcing LibreOffice members to do anything. You are free to disagree with my goals, my priorities or even my methods and simply say, "No thanks" without suggesting that it is immoral for anyone else, including your own members, to say "Yes please". Let's not argue for freedom by denying it to others. Regards, -Rob --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org
