OpenOffice: Future Uncertain
Florian Effenberger is co-lead of the international OpenOffice.org marketing project. Our sister publication Linux-Community asked him how the deal between Sun and Oracle would affect OpenOffice.
LinuxCommunity: Will the paid OpenOffice developers become unemployed because of the takeover of Sun by Oracle?
Florian Effenberger: Very few details about the takeover are known at this time. Many analysts are of course speculating, but right now I have no information regarding developers' jobs in OpenOffice. Personally, I don't foresee any serious danger for the further development of OO.o. Firstly, and Oracle for sure is aware of this, OpenOffice has an important place in the world of free software. Secondly, there are very many free developers and companies actively involved in the project.
LC: Will the current developments influence the next release of OpenOffice 3.1?
FE: No. The current delay is because of technical reasons and has nothing to do with the takeover. The second release candidate is due to be published in a few days and shortly after that version 3.1 will be officially released.
LC: Do you personally believe in Oracle's intended financial engagement in OpenOffice or StarOffice?
FE: I think that Oracle knows how important OpenOffice is. If further development takes place under the roof of Oracle or somewhere else, however, is difficult to say at this moment.
LC: Which chances/dangers do you see for OpenOffice from the deal?
FE: OpenOffice is a free, open source software. Voluntary members will only be indirectly affected by the takeover because OpenOffice is independent and belongs to no one exclusively. Looking at things positively, the discussions about a possible takeover of Sun are finished and things have calmed down. Of course the takeover can be seen as a great chance to further the development of OpenOffice. I'm sure that all involved are aware of this and I'm looking forward to the joint future we all can share.
Florian Effenberger has been an open source evangelist for many years. He is co-lead of the international OpenOffice.org marketing project as well as a member of the management board of the non-profit OpenOffice.org Deutschland e.V. He is also a frequent contributor to a variety of professional magazines worldwide.
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Oracle's interest in Sun
Legalities and Shoulda Couldas
Future of OpenOffice.org
Considering Larry Ellison's anti-MS comments in the media over the years (all of which were true, and which I applaud; i.e. "MS has never invented anything", I have a very strong feeling that Oracle will use Sun's products and expertise in order to put together a strong alternative to the MS world. The vast majority of the parts they need are there. However, they have to take a serious look at Linux and decide whether it stands a better chance than Solaris in competing with Microsoft. There are far more drivers available, and with an army of programmers around the world contributing to Linux, it makes development much, much easier. I'm sure Solaris has it's merits, however I don't believe it would be the right decision to use it as a competing product against Windoze. Linux is the holy grail. Oracle would also be wise to get together with Novell, Red Hat, Canonical, and others who play a vital part in the development of Linux, and figure some way to create certain standardizations that could exist across many distributions. That would give 3rd party developers and hardware manufacturers more incentive to create software and drivers for Linux. Nobody wants to modify their software and drivers 3 or 4 times over just so they can be easily installed on different distros using different package and driver managers. The big argument that comes up all the time is that it's easier to download and install software and drivers for Windoze, due to the ease of use of the installers. That's absolutely true, and what we need is a Linux environment that makes the install process just as simple. Create one standard and you've overcome one of the biggest hurdles.
OpenOffice vs. OpenOffice.org
Worried abt open office
Have been reading here for some updates:
http://www.techunits.com/content/list/linux
Dear OpenOffice.getalife
Novell is also putting a fair amount into OO
Openoffice.org and SPI
If oracle was smart
But we will see the true reasons come out sooner or later. I hope they actually get innovative and actually do something with what they bought and not just kill projects to protect their proprietary and other companies proprietary products.
OpenOffice.org