the nay-sayer in me

Story: Oracle wants to hand OpenOffice.org over to Apache not The Document FoundationTotal Replies: 8
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gus3

Jun 01, 2011
3:00 PM EDT
There's just too much tangled-web in this "offer" for me to take it as a good-faith action.

First, there's the involvement of the Apache Foundation (AF) in the Dalvik/Java affair between Oracle and Google, in which some AF-distributed test code (for Ant?) supposedly "leaked" into Android.

Plus, the only common ground I see between AF and OOo is that both use XML heavily. The AF would probably lose more than it would gain, by taking on stewardship of OOo.

There's also the aspect that Oracle "just don't get it" about software communities. Their dealings with outside entities tend to be heavy-handed, at best.

Related to that, is the question of what happened behind Oracle's closed doors. The motivation for this "offer" could be using its rejection as justification for keeping OOo under Oracle's tight control, with the added bonus of slamming FOSS. "See? Those Free Software types talk big, but they don't want to do any real work on a project like this. And you want us to hand over the reins to them?"

Yes, I know this last bit is pure speculation. But so is any claim that Oracle is making a good-faith offer.
rexbinary

Jun 01, 2011
3:08 PM EDT
I'm unclear exactly what they are offering since all the developement has moved to LIbreOffice.
Steven_Rosenber

Jun 01, 2011
3:10 PM EDT
This puts the Apache Foundation in a bit of a pickle.
skelband

Jun 01, 2011
4:15 PM EDT
@rexbinary:

Presumably "good will" from existing OpenOffice brand customers and the name itself. I would think a lot of non-commercial customers have gone to LibreOffice by now anyway though.
alc

Jun 01, 2011
4:25 PM EDT
It seems that Apache is taking it. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/what-the-heck-is-happe...
JaseP

Jun 01, 2011
4:56 PM EDT
So is this going to mean actual development, or just parking it with Apache???
Fettoosh

Jun 01, 2011
4:57 PM EDT
After the fork, Openoffice became a burden on Oracle's shoulders. Didn't want to donate the OpenOffice trade mark, ownership of the code and may be some IP directly to TDF, and Apache became receptive to the idea, Oracle jumped on the opportunity.

If Apache doesn't want to trouble itself with managing OOo, it would be nice if it could eventually transfer the whole thing on to TDF to unite both OOO & LO to become => LOO.

skelband

Jun 01, 2011
5:19 PM EDT
Giving it to Apache (who apparently weren't all that keen on having it anyway) seems purely driven by spite as far as I'm concerned.
gus3

Jun 01, 2011
5:37 PM EDT
Hopefully there's nothing stopping Apache from turning around and handing it over to the ODF.

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