On Thursday 28 April 2005 07:28, M. Fioretti wrote: > Interview by C. Einfeldt to Sun Microsystems evangelist Simon > Phipps:
Thanks for noticing this article, Marco! I included a link to the article about Java in OOo by Bruce Byfield, because I thought that his analysis was superb, even though I disagreed with his conclusion. There is also a link in the article back to Marco Fioretti's 2005/3/28 thread about Bruce's article on Java in OOo. I think that tensions around the proprietary nature of Java are unfortunate, for several reasons. One is that I'm sure that Mono or GCJ will soon be a drop in replacement for Java for those who want it. Second, it seems that Java gives OOo a wider install base, provided that OOo can work without Java for most purposes, so that OOo will also be available for Sun skeptics. Third, Simon believes that Java just makes OOo development and deployment perform better, and I'm inclined to believe him. Fourth, I am not that bothered by Sun's desire to leverage OOo, if that is the case, by using OOo to be the leading edge of the wedge to crack the Microsoft Office monopoly. If Sun senior management can't be convinced that supporting OOo pencil out, why would they continue to support OOo? Fifth, I really don't believe that there is any lock-in with Java in OOo. Open source routes around lock-in, and I can't imagine that Sun wants to be another monopoly. I also think that Sun genuinely wants to support coopetition in an open plains, as opposed to a corral, as Simon said in the interview. GCJ and Mono probably will eventually provide Sun with competition for the Java functionality in OOo, and that competition will increase the performance and flexibility of OOo. Sixth, I think that we need the diversity that Sun brings to the table to compete with IBM, HP, and Novell, and of course Microsoft. Seventh, I don't see anything wrong with OOo expressing some gratitude for Sun's financing of OOo. We are independent of Sun, but our development would not be where it is today without Sun, let alone the fact that OOo would not exist if Sun hadn't open sourced it. Open source projects should learn to work with corporations to incent them into deploying and financing FLOSS projects, IMHO. I also think that dissent is a good thing, and because we are independent, we can have members of our community who don't like Java and can be openly critical of Sun. I think that a healthy bit of skepticism is good for a vital community. I think that the fact that Simon Phipps took a risk and agreed to an interview is a sign that Sun can cope and in fact prosper in an environment of candid, open scrutiny. Anyone who thinks that OOo is just a tool of Sun hasn't spent much time on this list. So thanks for the interview, Simon! Christian Einfeldt 415-351-1300 > > http://madpenguin.org/cms/html/62/4023.html > > Ciao, > Marco F. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
