Dotan Cohen wrote:
So if IBM buys Sun, can it then declare that OOo will no longer be free?
No. (Assuming you mean free qua libre,and not free qua gratis. Given
the license, even if they declared it non-gratis, _The Pirate Bay_,
amongst other sources, would be only too happy to make it available
for gratis.)
That is not even funny. Do not advocate the use of pirated software.
If IBM, or Sun for that matter, were to retract the GLP license from
OOo or to stop OOo development, then only future versions would be
affected. Projects such as NeoOffice and Go-OO would continue from the
existing codebase. Some even argue that would be good for OOo
development, even if the new suites could not use the OOo name, given
Sun's requirements for code contribution.
Actually, I'm one of them. I use and promote Go-OO, in fact, most
Linux distributions today package Go-OO as opposed to OOo.
Just adding my two cents;
The only thing about the future of OOo that would be a problem
is people learning a new name for the project, like
OpenOfficeFree.org or whatever. Sun's help with the code is
helpful, but like the other projects that uses OOo code base,
the people on OOo volunteer team(s) could take over and work
on continuing the work. It may take longer to get the next
version number, say version 3 to version 4, but so be it.
Will the users of OOo stop using it if IBM/Sun stop supporting
the code development, most likely no. Will there be people
volunteering their time to develop the code more, yes.
Will people be confused when/if IBM buys Sun, yes. But that
is not in our control. All we can do is try to give IBM our
view on keeping the StarOffice/OOo code base developing into
the future. IBM has bad feelings in the past against MS, so
if they want to do something that will one day hurt MS's
sales, Keep the OOo and related projects alive and maybe even
pump more resources into it. Get MS where it hurts, its
Office sales. Go free OOo, dump MS Office. Each new user
who drops MS Office is another bite in their bottom line.
MS has declared that they are not making as much as they once
did in their Office line of products, which I assume OOo had
a big hand in that, European Union did their best to help
that cause.
IBM/Sun should keep up the good work. It will be a PR nightmare
if they drop the work on the code base. Another company stopping
their products since the big bad MS wolf is too big and bad
to keep it going. That would be bad for their sales in all
areas, besides the Star Office line of products and support
contracts.
Yes, we can post ever possible What-If, but should we?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
