On 11/8/05, Andrew Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > One possible soluton would be to try to integrate OOo with gmail -- which > gives cross-platform email. Complete integration would require an immense > effort to beef up and improve OOo's displays of web pages, which is at > present abysmal. But partial integration -- just using Gmail as the > address > book, and the posting mechanism -- would probably be a whole lot easier. > Somone sould have put that up for Google's summer of code.
Andrew, Thanks for sticking up for me, I appreciate it. I also appreciate the points you make. I am trying to cut back on my emails, since people have been so offended by my observations. I know you feel uneasy about the role of the counterbalance to all the gung-ho half-blind FLOSS Roolz/MS Drulz cheerleading and back-patting on these lists. But I am grateful for your additions to that cause. You, Rod, Robin, and others are very level-headed about this, and see the areas that need work, as well as the areas that surpass MS and anything else out there. One must see both sides in order to improve. Anyway, more directly to this thread. I like what you have to say, but I doubt people would like tying OOo into Gmail. Some people are as paranoid about Google as they are about Microsoft. I think both forms of paranoia are beyond the pale and pointless, but I at least understand, to a certain degree, where the FUD against Microsoft comes from. Google has, from the beginning, stated their goal is to "Don't be evil." And to this point, they aren't. Regardless of that, even if Google was (and I think possibly is) the greatest company to ever touch a keyboard, limiting OpenOffice.org to one email provider is a step in the wrong direction. Providing links into Thunderbird would be different than, say, providing links into AOL's email. Now, I am by no means against providing links into Gmail (as I use Gmail, and would like to use OOo to email with), but I don't think that would solve the problem. It would for people, like me and you, who use Gmail - but not for people on AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Takethisjobandshoveit.com<http://Takethisjobandshoveit.com>, etc.. [I'm not sure that's a real place, but you get my point.] And for those who want to say that creating an integrated OOo email client would take away as much choice as a Gmail-only hook would, you're wrong. First, you can have more than one program that does the same thing on your computer. I have NeoOffice/J, AbiWord, TextEdit, Pages, AppleWorks, and MS Office 2004 all on this computer now. Second, even if all you have is an OOo-like Thunderbird or an OOo Email - you can still use AOL, MSN, or whatever email provider you wish. You have lost no choice by having the email client. The "It takes away choice" argument is pretty old with me. It was the same song and dance last year about the database feature. Now, those same people who were crying "I wanna use my MySQL!" are now boasting about the "New OpenOffice.org Base" and how great it is. You can still use MySQL, or PostSQL or whatever database you want with OOo, only now, you don't have to have anything extra to have a database (other than Java, I know - Java is evil too). Adding "hooks" into Thunderbird (which, to me, seems to be the easiest route) or creating an ODF based OOo email client with calendaring and address book, would only enhance OpenOffice.org, and not detract from it. -Chad Smith http://www.gimpshop.net - Because everyone loves free software
