Re: [tdf-discuss] Explanation . . . ?

On 10/01/2010 11:31 AM, Bernhard Dippold wrote:
> Kürti László schrieb:


> > I had some short chat with Oracle representatives they are stating official
> > ly:
> > ""Oracle is investing substantial resources in OpenOffice.org.  With more
> > than one hundred million users, we believe OpenOffice.org is the most
> > advanced, most feature rich open source implementation and will strongly
> > encourage the Open Office community to continue to contribute through
> > www.openoffice.org.  However, the beauty of open source is that it can
> > be forked by anyone who chooses, as was done today.  Our sincerest goal
> > for Open Office is that it become more widely used so if this new
> > foundation will help advance Open Office and the Open Document Format we
> > wish them the best.""

This reaction from Oracle is also reported at:
http://www.crn.com/news/applications-os/227500950/openoffice-developers-split-from-oracle-create-own-organization.htm

> > In my opinion it means (at this very moment) that there will be OpenOffice.
> > org and LibreOffice as well.
>
> Not necessarily:
>
> They state:
>
> "Oracle is investing substantials resources in OpenOffice.org"
>
> I don't know if they mean the product (developers) or the community 
> (infrastructure) in this point

Their statement its pretty clear.  They are investing in OpenOffice.org,
they will continue to do so, and they invite developers to continue
contributing to OpenOffice.org (i.e., not to the fork called LibreOffice).

> I am not part of the "Open Office Community", but of the "OpenOffice.org 
> Community".
>
> Even if I still hope for the trademark to be given back to us, this 
> message is at least a sign in a dedicated direction. :-(

The statement from Oracle implies they are keeping the trademark, so I
think we are beyond hope on that point -- they are wishing us farewell
and good luck on our fork, not rejoining us.

There is one helpful thing about their comment, which is that it came
quickly and we can now all settle on LibreOffice as the longterm name --
it will be an actual fork, not a temporary name that may revert back to
OpenOffice.org.

> > I don't think it is a problem, why not, if Oracle wants keep OO.o both coul
> > d developed. We will see if there is real contribution or not.

Yes, it's a problem.  It's a big problem, because LibreOffice needs to
start from scratch in building name recognition and overcoming
confusion.  We can no longer claim "XXX million downloads," and since
Oracle will still be developing OpenOffice.org, there will be an
additional burden of explaining the difference between OOo and LO to users.

     ----Jon
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