Hi Cor, 2010/8/26 Cor Nouws <oo...@nouenoff.nl>
> Hi Mirek, > > Mirek M. wrote (26-08-10 16:47) > >> 2010/8/26 Cor Nouws<oo...@nouenoff.nl> >> >>> Mirek M. wrote (26-08-10 11:41) >>> >>> 2010/8/25 Varun Mittal<varunmitta...@gmail.com> >>>> >>> > Oracle anywayz filed a suit only against Google. >>>>> >>>> > it's attacking one of the most successful fruits of open-source because of >>>> a ridiculous patent suit concerning, surprisingly, its open-source Java. >>>> And that really makes me move away from Oracle... >>>> >>> >>> I do not know details - those are not yet known public, let alone that >>> they >>> are judged. So to me it sounds a bit premature to say that the patent >>> suit >>> is ridiculous. >>> >> >> Actually, these details are known. Have a look at, for example, >> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20100813112425821, >> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/13/oracle_google_java_prosecution/, >> or >> http://techdirt.com/articles/20100817/00061910645.shtml >> And besides, many people, including me, believe that software patents are >> counterproductive and "ridiculous". >> > > Me too are an opponent of software patents. > That does not automatically imply, for me anyway, that in current > circumstances the patent suit is ridiculous. (Still, I did not read much of > the linked articles.) > > > Anyway, I really hope OOo is branched by some other company that will >>>> really dedicate time and (donated or ad-gained) money to the suite, >>>> really make it the best possible office suite ever, take over >>>> its massive user base. >>>> >>> >>> Did you ever think about time and money that Sun Microsystems did and now >>> Oracle does invest in OpenOffice.org, that you can just download for >>> free, >>> several new versions a year, as much as you want? >>> >> >> Yes, I never said it didn't. What I meant was that another company should >> take OOo and fix it up (kind of like what Go-oo does), make it even >> better, >> take over the userbase. One thing that always bothered me was how messily >> structured the OOo's community participation was, and how long it took to >> actually get things done. >> > > This critique is justified I think, though I am not sure if go-oo, which > you mention - 'cures all our diseases'. > It doesn't. It's basically just OOo with a few extensions and patches by default. The rest is the same old OOo. But it's a good starting point for a new branch. > (You may notice that I criticised quite some issues in mails, council logs, > ...) > However, we are not sure what another sponsor or additional sponsors will > bring for improvement here. > How much we may criticise things, fact is that Sun did a really lot for > OpenOffice.org. > As far as I know, there are about roughly a hundred people working at the > Hamburg office. That means more than 10 mlns salary every year. Apparently > they managed (eventually) to get that done... > (This all are common sense estimates: I do not know any business data from > Hamburg. And if I did know, obviously I would not write about it.) I liked Sun. It did a lot for OpenOffice.org and for open-source in general. > We do not know if Oracle will put extra business goals on the team - apart > from say; 'a bit better than break even'. > Maybe they do. Maybe they will see OpenOffice.org as a special case, > because of technology, spin-offs, or better market possibilities in other > areas... > I think they'll see OpenOffice.org as a business opportunity. After all, they renamed StarOffice to Oracle Open Office, so that it's easier to capitalize on the brand name of OpenOffice.org. But I don't think Oracle will be quite as open-source friendly as Sun was. > It is not at all said that another main sponsor would do just as good as > Hamburg does now, or do better. > What I do hope, that we find a way to better organize the mutual interest > of more big players within the OpenOffice.org-area. Say IBM, Novell, > RedOffice, Canonical, ... > That'd be nice. There's definitely opportunity there: OOo seems to be the second most used office suite and the success of Linux distributions can be attributed in a large part to OOo (Linux without a usable and compatible office suite would discourage a lot of people; not to say that KOffice or GNOME Office have not influenced anything either). > Currently, the field of Hamburg and the 'volunteer' community is more or > less organised. However, possibilities to really profit from the mutual > interest from more big companies, look utilized very poorly, IMO. > In an open source project, there must be changes for a larger multiplier > effect, than we currently have. > I hope that we find ways to realise that. To me, that has much more > potential than 'just another' main sponsor. With better changes for Hamburg > too. > > (Take the new colorless OOo icons, which a large >> part of the OOo userbase wants color-coded again. It shouldn't be hard to >> just replace the new icon files with the old icon files, or to put some >> color into the new icons...) >> > > Technical wise it would not, of course. Interesting example ;-) > > > Regards, > Cor > > -- > >> Your office 2010 software: the new OpenOffice.org << > > Cor Nouws > - ideas/remarks for the community council? > - http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Community_Council > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@marketing.openoffice.org > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@marketing.openoffice.org > > -- -------------------------------------------- Q: Why is this email five sentences or less? A: http://five.sentenc.es
