A Sincere Question for Developers: Would You Be Attracted to an OpenOffice project under the GNU GPL?

This question is not meant to indicate whether or not Sun or OpenOffice.org are considering such a move. However, there is a present lack of visibility as to how developers view the opportunities (or difficulties) in contributing to making OpenOffice a better and better product.

We are aware of Novell's efforts to create a staging ground for faster and more direct contributions to OpenOffice -- led by Michael Meeks -- and we are aware of attractions and limitations in the current license structure.

OpenOffice.org, under its current structure and management of the project by Sun, lacks a certain bazaar style. We have often believed this was necessary due to the large and complex code base; however, it may be just unimaginative thinking.

We would like to hear comments from developers if they feel that a bazaar-style project, code licensed under the GPL, would achieve the desired result of a software product that improves faster with greater and more effective, free-flowing participation.

We would very much appreciate hearing comments also here from the Localization and Internationalization developers who are already engaged in important contributions.

It is further helpful to hear comment from the companies -- those with the greatest interest in a strong and Free office suite alternative and who would be compelled to support of an OpenOffice.org Foundation, if it should became beneficial to establish one. They know who they are, but it may be helpful to list at least the obvious: Sun, IBM, hp, Dell, Lonovo, MicroTel, Fujitsu Siemens, Sony, HCL Infosys, Novell, Red Hat, Xandros, Linspire, Mandriva, Canonical/Ubuntu and others.