+1 (!) Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all. 2011/12/23 Jürgen Schmidt <[email protected]>
> Hi all, > > before i will leave for a short Christmas break i would like to share some > thoughts with you about the last months, my private expectations, and my > wishes for the next year. > > Oracle's announcement to stop their investment in OpenOffice.org was a > shock for me. Well the reason is obvious, I was paid by Oracle and worked > on this project. The people who know me from the past know that i am a 100% > OpenOffice.org guy and I always appreciated to work on this project and > with our community. I always felt part of the overall community. I know the > reasons that were responsible for the LibreOffice fork and the split of the > community and i have to confess that i can understand it. But i didn't > liked how it was made. If Oracle would have done this step 6 month earlier > I am sure we wouldn't have this fork and this split of the community. We > would potentially still have the go-oo fork which was the foundation for > LibreOffice but that is something different. Anyway it is as it is at > moment and we will see how it moves forward in the future. > > The grant to Apache was at least the appropriate signal that > OpenOffice.org as a project will never die. The brand is to big and to > important, the opportunities around the product and the overall eco system > are great and I was very sure that the project will continue. > > But a lot of work was and still is in front of us. We had to deal with a > lot of things in parallel where other derivative projects didn't had to > deal with at least not in the public. We had to migrate the whole > OpenOffice.org infra structure to Apache and had to ensure that it work. I > think we were very successful here and have migrated nearly everything we > need from a technical perspective. > Our mission was to migrate as much as possible of the available stuff of > www.openoffice.org and at least save it for later use. I think we did it! > Thanks to all who made this possible. And we can concentrate in the future > on some structural and conceptual redesign of the main portal page > www.openoffice.org to provide the information to our users that they need > to find the product, to find more information like help, discussion forums, > to find the way in the community if they want to do more etc. > > We couldn't simply use the code as it was and could continue with the > development as in the past because of the different license. A huge > challenge that is still ongoing and where i had many problems with at the > beginning. It is not easy to explain why you remove something and replace > it with something new that provide the same functionality but is under a > more appropriate license. It's simply boring work and no developer really > like it. But is a prerequisite for Apache and in the end it is better for > our eco system because the Apache license is much friendlier for business > usage as any other open source license. As an individual developer I don't > care too much about all the different open source licenses, as along as the > work i do is good for the project and in the end for our users. But i > learned that the Apache license can be a door opener for more contributors > and more engagement of companies. And i think that is important and can > only help our project. > > And not everything is bad. With the IP cleanup we really cleaned up many > things and Armin's replacement for svg import/export is the best solution > we ever had for OpenOffice and with the biggest potential for further > improvements. All this is really motivating for the future! > > Well we had a lot of noise and communication problems on our mailing lists > and i think we missed to transport the message that OpenOffice.org has > found a new home under the Apache foundation and we have missed to > communicate the progress we have made in the pubic. We can do much better > in the future! And i am looking forward to work with all of you on this > communication part in the future. We don't have to be shy, we work on a > great project with a great product and we should have enough to communicate > and to share in the public (not only on our mailing list but on all the > modern and very useful medias like facebook, Google+, twitter, ...) > > For the next year I expect that we find a way to guide and control our > project a little bit better. I expect our first release early next year and > hopefully a second one later the year where we can show that we are able to > drive the project forward and that we are able to create and establish a > vibrant and living community. > > I wish that we can gain trust in the project and in the Apache way and > that it is a good move forward. Our users simply want the best free, open > source product and they don't care about the different licenses. Enterprise > users would like to see a huge and working community with the participation > of a lot of different companies or at least their employees working on the > project. We all know that such a huge and successful project can only work > if we have individual community members as well as fulltime community > members. Important is the WE and the TOGETHER that makes open source > projects successful. > > I heart voices and read emails where people said that Apache is not able > to manage such a huge end user oriented project with all the necessary > things. A strong statement, isn't it. At the beginning i have to confess > that i also had doubts and wasn't sure. But as i have mentioned in an > earlier email that i have seen and got the necessary signals over time that > Apache is willing to listen and is open for changes as well if they make > sense for the overall success of our project and if these changes are > aligned with the overall Apache principles. And i think that is fair enough > for all. > > The move to Apache is a big challenge for all of us. Apache had many very > successful projects but none of the these project has such a hue end-user > focus like OpenOffice. And it is no small project, no it is one of biggest > and most successful open source projects ever. And the migration was and is > not easy. But we the community can do it, we as individuals, everybody can > help and we together will do it! > > And the Apache way and the Apache license have proven in the past and with > many successful projects that it is a good way and a good license to > achieve this. > > Enough from me for now and i will take a break over the Christmas days to > relax a little bit with family and friends. I will read emails from time to > time but not too much ;-) > > I wish you all merry Christmas, enjoy the days, take your own break too, > load your batteries for our next challenge in 2012. > > Regards > > Juergen > > >
