I've been wondering if there is a division of labor that works for the short term while community-spanning work continues:
1. I'm thinking that it is important to recognize that LibreOffice has some remarkable momentum. There is a great deal they are on top of or are getting on top of, including all of the localizations, the user documentation, user feedback and requests as well as bug reports, and a development community that is charging ahead. The rebranding is going to be completed before the Apache Incubator will barely have sleeves to roll up. I'm thinking it would be good to leave them to it, with any tighter coupling to be worked out as there is experience over matters of common interest. 2. I see something, already mentioned, that the Adobe Incubator can claim as its initial territory: production of a reference implementation of a native OpenDocument Format processor along with component libraries and tooling. The idea is to have, starting from the contributed OpenOffice.org code base, a running, narrated framework for customization and delivery of polished products such as LibreOffice. There are a number of areas, some of them rather large, that the Apache incubator could carve out, such as providing a reference implementation and test suites for the OpenFormula component of ODF 1.2. I'm sure many others will come to mind. I think LibreOffice would take a stake in such work, as would other producers of ODF-supporting products. The reference implementation could also provide some missing calibration on the extent to which ODF is supported and what the typical omissions and deviations are (and ways to be transparent about them). - Dennis PS: Personal side notes: I don't care if it is called OpenOffice.org or not. Maybe not is a better answer. I am also a fan of the vibrancy and vitality seen in the way that LibreOffice appeals to a wide variety of contributors, especially those with a focus on overcoming defects and limitations that users have observed personally and bring to LibreOffice for clarification or relief. I didn't sense that with OpenOffice.org. I may have simply been looking in the wrong place, but it is clear that is being provided for LibreOffice. I want to encourage that. I fancy the some-kind-of-green-color branding too. And installs that don't evangelize somebody else's browser or toolbar or virtual system run-time. I also worry a little that the pace of weekly beta and release-candidates risks serious regression failures and is not sustainable as a practical matter. I trust they'll adjust that in time as they rush toward whatever the vision for LibreOffice 4.0 happens to be. -----Original Message----- From: Jim Jagielski [mailto:j...@jagunet.com] Sent: Friday, June 03, 2011 12:36 To: general@incubator.apache.org Subject: Re: "opportunity to reunite the related communities" Re: OpenOffice.org Apache Incubator Proposal: Splitting the Community? On Jun 3, 2011, at 3:00 PM, Simon Phipps wrote: > I am not even thinking of suggesting it, any more than I would dream of > telling TDF they have to switch to another license. But I do believe there's > a need to focus *in the proposal* on exactly how to sustain the consumer > deliverable from Day One. Agreed. And that's why I suggested that that would be an excellent initial part of cooperation between the ASF and TDF, where they could provide the build/distribution. One main, significant difference between TDF and the ASF is that the ASF just releases source; TDF fills a *huge* and important part of the entire OOo end-user experience. I sincerely hope this is an easy to agree to. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org
