KG01 - See comments inline. On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 5:16 PM, Jürgen Schmidt <jogischm...@googlemail.com>wrote:
> On 6/13/12 11:03 AM, Guy Waterval wrote: > > Hi Rob, > > Hi all, > > > > 2012/6/12 Rob Weir <robw...@apache.org> > > > >> > >> Our challenge is to find the best way to bring these two code bases > >> together, to make the best product. > >> > >> I think there are two main approaches to this problem: > >> > >> I. Merge code, from Symphony, feature by feature, into AOO, in a > >> prioritized order. This is the "slow" approach, since it would take > >> (by the estimates I've seen) a couple of years to bring all of the > >> Symphony enhancements and bug fixes over to AOO. > >> > >> II. Use Symphony as the the new base, and merge (over time) AOO (and > >> OOo) enhancements and bug fixes into the new trunk. This approach > >> quickly gives a new UI, something we could fairly call Apache > >> OpenOffice 4.0. > > > > > > It's not an easy choice. From my end user point of view : > > Solution I is better for maintaining the existing population of OO.org > > users. > > Solution II is better for getting new users, I think. A MS Office teacher > > said me recently that he thought that the principal issue for the growing > > of the number of OO users was not a quality issue of the software, but > > simply the fact that it looks too much like a new MS Office 2003 version > > ... but free. So, it appears too much as an old maintained software. > > Both options will bring UI changes and I hope that we can focus in the > future on finding our own identity and can provide an office application > that solves daily problems and that makes the work on common and > frequently tasks as easy as possible for our users. > KG01 - This is an important point. Beyond technical bits, we need to be mindful to design and develop products that help people capture their thoughts, and share their ideas. KG01 - AOO 4.0 will some flavour of code merge/migration effort, but should also have, as Jurgen so eloquently put it, a unique "identity". Our release themes should include such items. > > Juergen > >
