On 5 June 2011 10:04, e-letter <inp...@gmail.com> wrote: > DF programmers should join the Apache OO committee merely to be aware > of activities in this product. LO should remain separate as a full GPL > product. Presumably, if DF members become aware of feature X becoming > imminent in apache OO, they can make a proposal for a similar feature > to be copied/improved in LO. The analogy is opera introducing tabbed > web pages in a browser and firefox later introducing the same > function. > > More separately developed ODF compliant products in the market is a > good result, just like there are numerous gnu/linux distributions for > users to choose. The proliferation of many ODF products gives powerful > confidence to users that if apache OO (any other ODF compliant > product( disappears, the user can switch to using LO. It should be > remembered that this cannot occur with m$o and this is the single most > dominant benefit of numerous ODF programs to the user. It is the > "killer reason" to use LO. > > In summary, please do not merge apache OO (or any non-(L)GPL) code with LO.
I can see the logic in this argument but also think of the cost. It means that there is going to be masses of duplication of effort in a scenario where development resources are at a premium. For me a better practical outcome would be for the main development effort for core code to be done on OOo at ASF. It might be that there is never a product released, simply develop components useful and save all the "release and distribution" resource, putting it into development. LO and other projects build their products on those components with as many extensions, improvements etc as they want under their chosen license. So whether or not this is achievable with eg LO will depend on whether the LO steering committee do or do not agree to re-use OOo code. If they don't there will be at least two diverging forks. Both might flourish, one or both might die. Only time will tell. My perception is that there is less risk to the goal of having a free and open document format through cooperation and sharing and to me that goal is more important than any of the particular license flavours of OOo. If it was a perfect world I would favour the GPL for all but it isn't a perfect world. -- > Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to discuss+h...@documentfoundation.org > Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette > List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ > All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be > deleted > -- Ian Ofqual Accredited IT Qualifications The Schools ITQ www.theINGOTs.org +44 (0)1827 305940 You have received this email from the following company: The Learning Machine Limited, Reg Office, 36 Ashby Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 8AQ. Reg No: 05560797, Registered in England and Wales. -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to discuss+h...@documentfoundation.org Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
