[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hi Curtis,
Curtis Clauson zei:
Pavel Jan�k wrote:
From: Curtis Clauson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 03:49:04 -0800
> > Can OOo for windows be built with GNU compilers in Cygwin instead of > > using MS Visual Studio? It seems like it should, but all of the build > > docs only talk about MSVS. > > Anyone got an answer for this?
See http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=24588
Fascinating! - and disturbing. I had no idea open source OOo had components that depended on a commercial distribution.
Why disturbing? After all, even to *run* OOo for Windows you need closed-source commercial software (i.e. Windows).
The ability to build and run OOo using all-free software under Linux demonstrates that OOo is not dependent on a commercial distribution.
Vriendelijke groet,
Simon Brouwer --> nl.openoffice.org <--
Open Source multi-platform projects have always striven to at least build with non-commercial components on any platform, commercial or not. It is not part of the technical definition of Open Source, but has always been a primary goal.
I've some - umpf about 15 years - experience with OpenSource and no, this was certainly not a primary goal all the time. It's nice when it's possible but the primary goal was mostly to get the stuff build with the major tool chain on that platform, be it commercial or not. Cygwin and mingw are quite recent additions to the gcc platforms. The StarOffice/OpenOffice code base was around for years before cygwin/mingw became a viable alternative to the Visual Studio (and if you ask the OOo developers the majority of them will assert that at least the Visual Studio debugger is still far superior than gdb)
This allows users of a commercial OS to build the project without any other product purchase. Many institutions, like schools and NPOs, can only use whatever OS was donated to them or is useful in their vocational training. They must rely on GNU tools for their builds.
Remember it's 'free' as in speech not 'free' as in beer. If these instutions can't afford a commercial compiler they shouldn't use a commercial platform like Windows. Linux is better suited if they are cash strapped. BTW, this is a bogus argument because as far as I can see pratically no one in shools or NGO's will ever build OpenOffice for themselves. It's a daunting experience and only very few people are able and and willing to do the build on Windows, and I bet almost all of them are reading this list :-) Volker and some others have worked very hard to make the build experience a bit more pleasant but it remains a huge pile of unwieldy source code and no amount of work will change that.
Heiner
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