Hi all and that includes Jürgen :-) Yes, this be a blog. :-) Perhaps others, too, can chime in?
Briefly: I am delighted with the new founding of Apache OpenOffice and with the interest it has garnered. What better way to end the developer year? :-) I'd like to thank the Apache Mentors. People: you've been good. And for those of you in the warmer hemisphere: My envy. But enjoy the holiday on the beach, anyway. Cheers, Louis <-shivering in snowless Toronto. On 2011-12-23, at 07:35 , Jürgen Schmidt wrote: > 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 > >
