Martin Bochnig wrote: > The biggest hindrance to OpenOffice dominance is Sun itself > Written by Steve Lake > 10.22.2007 at 08:19am > > One of the things that bothers me profusely about OpenOffice is Sun’s > maniacal infatuation with controlling every square inch of OpenOffice, > including all the copyrights to the code within it. That in turn has > left some contributors a bit on the perturbed side, if not downright > screaming mad. Yet Sun is dead set on owning the copyright to every > ounce of code contributed to OpenOffice, even going so far as to rewrite > contributions to the project just so they can control the copyright of > everything that goes into it. Now I can see where they might want to do > this to protect themselves from legal entanglements caused by copied code. > > But sadly, the methods they’re using actually would, and likely will, > blow right up in their face. And we all know a certain somebody that > would love to see that happen, if not actually help it to occur. > Besides, OpenOffice is an Open Source project. What’s the point of > saying its free and Open Source if they’re going to act like a bunch of > Nazis and confiscate the copyright on everything that’s submitted to > them. That’s not software freedom. That’s flat out extortion and theft > of free labor from gullible programmers working on a faux Open Source > project. >
It has happened the same way with what I have delivered for FOX: Every single tiny patch or Makefile contains a huge Sun-header. I also had been promised a job opportunity _before_ I had released the code (kind regards to a leading figure at X11 g. [not my friends Alan or Jay]). Nothing has survived: I have been fooled by that manager. It is a circus here. And while most here live on 50K/60K/70K or more, I have to survive on less than 006K per year. The same can be seen all over the place here (this reminds me of some popular shell, some csw software and so forth!). I will get me what I deserve: Elsewhere. I give up after all those years of trying to get some small job at Sun. Or only just a response to unwanted questions (such as why Indiana needs to be a re-invention of the wheel, wasting *tons* of resources and money, rather than building on what Blastwave or Nextenda have already achieved in *decades* of "free labour" enineering man-power, in and by TRUE COMMUNITIES). Leading figures (those in charge) simply continue to silently ignore questions like that, whether I repeat them, or not. This is a clear indicator for a lack of respect. I had accepted that for the last years, now it is over. I'm going to create a family and forget that stuff here. I myself could survive with those circumstances, my girl-friend is more reasonable. Input != Output Thanks and kind regards to all friends and loyal supporters of mine :-) Take care Martin Bochnig > In doing so, they make themselves no better than Microsoft or any other > self interested, greedy, dictatorial, corporate regime, and have no part > in the philosophies of the Open Source community. In fact, the way > they’re acting, if they were to suddenly rescind the Open Source license > that OpenOffice is released under tomorrow, it’d be nearly impossible to > tell the difference between them and Microsoft. The only real difference > will be that Microsoft pays its help, and Sun gets most of theirs for > free. If Sun truly wants OpenOffice to succeed, they need to take their > hands off it, truly give it to the Open Source community with zero > strings attached, and let the project manage itself. Otherwise, > OpenOffice will never truly succeed and we’ll simply go from one > benevolent dictator with a well designed office suite, to another. > > And forking OpenOffice is not an option. Sun’s made sure that such an > effort would end faster than it got started. So if there’s no real way > around this problem with the existing OpenOffice suite, then I say that > we need to look at other alternatives like Gnome Office Tools or > Koffice. Sun needs to be willing to let go and let OpenOffice manage > itself. Otherwise it will continue to be nothing more than a brightly > glowing bulb that will soon burn out and go dark. So I’m calling on Sun > to do the right thing here. They need to take their hands off of > OpenOffice and give it wholly and completely to the community with no > strings attached, so that it can live and grow like any other Open > Source project. > > Sun, stop pretending that Open Office is Open Source. The way you’ve got > it setup, it’s not. It’s just a sweat shop for free labor designed for > your own selfish purposes and not the good of the community as a whole. > Do the right thing and totally, and completely, set Open Office free. > The best way to do that is simply to let the Open Office foundation have > all the copyrights to Open Office you currently control and then let go > completely. Stop being the benevolent dictator. It’s not helping any. In > fact, it’s making things worse. > > And finally, to all the developers out there in the Open Source > community working on Open Office. Consider turning your attention away > >from Open Office and towards one of the other rivals such as Gnome > Office Tools or Koffice for the time being. If Sun is going to be so > contradictive to the principles of Open Source in their supposedly Open > Source office suite, then it’s best not to waste your time there and to > move on to better things. If Sun changes their ways and does the right > thing, I invite you to return, but for now, it’s best to leave them high > and dry until they do. > Discuss this! ( 6 comments ) > > > > _______________________________________________ > trademark-policy-dev mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/trademark-policy-dev > > _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
