Re: [libreoffice-marketing] LO vs AOO : GPL/LGPL vs ASL licences

Hello Immanuel,

Le mardi 01 janvier 2013 à 10:15 -0500, Immanuel Giulea a écrit :
> The reason I asked the question about licences is that I'm not technical.
> I'm not a developer. So to me opensource is just better than proprietary
> because the code source is available. I get that. For others, its simply
> about pricing.
>
> When I switched from OOo to LO, I didn't notice any big differences.
>
> So, back to my original question and I'll try to rephrase it:
>
> If not for the differences in licences, why should end-users choose LO over
> AOO when migrating away from MSO? How is LO a "better product"?


You can answer them in two ways:
difference of features
difference of governance and community strength.

To be very clear, I don' think anyone asked for a comparision between
the LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice. You jumped in there yourself :-) 

In terms of features , the two suites tend still tend to be quite
similar, you won't have a shiny advantage from one over the other
(things will change with the 4.0 I guess). 

> From the community point of view , that's where differences are the most
important; read our PR and our published stats, you will find all the
litterature needed there. LibreOffice has the biggest and most diverse
community.

> In marketing, this is essential. Competitive advantage. AOO is the original
> project. LO the fork.

What? Where did you even read that? There was Openoffice.org. It was
sponsored by Sun Microsystems. Oracle bought it, actively sook to
undermine the project and the community, as a response, LibreOffice was
created by the community. One year later, Oracle dumped its trademark
over to Apache Software Foundation, open a project called "Apache
OpenOffice" under a new licence that was happily populated by IBM
employees.

Check the dates, check the press :-)

But back to the competitive advantage: we explained that while specific
product's features ought to be highlighted, we wanted to focus more on
LibreOffice as a community. Have you read our manifesto?

> LO will release version 4 in midfeb. AOO will release in April. MSO 2013
> sometime in the next three months will be available to consumers.
>
> Marketing strategies need to be targeted:
> For large organisations. For small business. For government. For consumers.
>
> LO already dominates Linux and this is great. So let's consider Windows and
> Mac OS.


No. Please read what was agreed on our Marketing Workshop and what was
repeated during the last marketing strategy call. This link might be
helpful:
http://standardsandfreedom.net/index.php/2012/10/21/marketing-workshop-2012/


Best wishes for the new year,

Charles.



> Sorry for the long post.
>
> Happy New Year.
>
> Immanuel
> On Jan 1, 2013 6:37 AM, "Tom Davies" <tomdavies04@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > Hi :)
> > +1
> >
> > Plus i personally tend to feel that winning users from OpenOffice is a
> > very short-term win.  It's very easy to switch between AOO and LO and back
> > again both as a product and as a member of a community.  Much the same with
> > any of the OpenSource products and even freeware.  Most of those have been
> > migrating to LO anyway just because it's a better product.  The real
> > longer-term wins are people that are still only using MS Office and so are
> > not used to being part of a community.  People that do take the 1st step in
> > migrating away from MSO by having LO (or other) alongside their existing
> > MSO will tend to drift comfortably towards using LO more and more.  Just my
> > own thoughts and i am not even a member of TDF or anything.
> >
> > Regards from
> > Tom :)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: Charles-H. Schulz <charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org>
> > > To: "marketing@global.libreoffice.org" <marketing@global.libreoffice.org
> > >
> > > Cc:
> > > Sent: Monday, 31 December 2012, 22:28
> > > Subject: Re: [libreoffice-marketing] LO vs AOO : GPL/LGPL vs ASL licences
> > >
> > > Folks
> > >
> > > I would really avoid to compare such a delicate matter as licences
> > unless you
> > > are a lawyer. And even then that's not marketing but rather legal advice.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Charles.
> > >
> > >
> > > Jay Lozier <jslozier@gmail.com> a écrit :
> > >
> > > > On 12/31/2012 02:40 PM, Immanuel Giulea wrote:
> > > > >  Hello all,
> > > > >
> > > > >  In the marketing materials that I am writing covering LO vs AOO, I
> > > > was
> > > > >  wondering if it would be relevant to go into an explanation about why
> > > > the
> > > > >  GPL/LGPL licence used by LO was superior to the ASL as a "true
> > > open
> > > > source".
> > > > >  I found this great document that explains the three "most
> > > common"
> > > > licences:
> > > > >  ASL, GPL and LGPL (MPL is not included) (1, 2)
> > > > >
> > > > >  Any thoughts on how relevant it would be to extract some of the
> > > > information
> > > > >  and apply it on the materials?
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >  Cheers and Happy New Year
> > > > >
> > > > >  Immanuel
> > > > >
> > > > >  (1)
> > http://www.openlogic.com/Portals/172122/docs/understanding-the-three-most-common-open-source-licenses.pdf
> > > > >  (2) http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/10518967
> > > > Reviewing the Openlogic information I think we should compare the
> > > > GPL/LGPL with the typical proprietary license not the ASL. The
> > > > differences between the ASL and GPL/LGPL while important are, IMHO,
> > > > more
> > > > a matter of degree than kind. Both are intended to be user friendly and
> > > >
> > > > allow user modifications and access to the source code that the typical
> > > >
> > > > proprietary license does not allow.
> > > >
> > > > Comparing GPL/LGPL to a proprietary license
> > > >
> > > > 1. GPL gives users complete access to the source code. This allows
> > > > users
> > > > to compile the code for another platform, modify the code, or extend
> > > > the
> > > > code as they see fit. Proprietary code does not allow any access to the
> > > >
> > > > source code.
> > > >
> > > > 2. GPL license implies the unrestricted installation of the program
> > > > without cost to the user. Proprietary licenses have varying
> > > > restrictions
> > > > on the number of allowed installations.
> > > >
> > > > 3. FOSS projects have free, unlimited user support from dedicated users
> > > >
> > > > with some form of question and answer interaction between the user and
> > > > responder(s). Some projects also have commercial support available.
> > > > Proprietary software often does not have free user forums or user lists
> > > >
> > > > where anyone can ask a question and get answers. Typically, proprietary
> > > >
> > > > software offers knowledge base articles and paid support.
> > > >
> > > > 4. Most GPL licensed projects promote contributions from all interested
> > > >
> > > > individuals. This community, often worldwide, brings a broader
> > > > perspective to the project even if the actual code development is done
> > > > by relatively few individuals. Proprietary projects can have problems
> > > > with gaining a sufficiently broad perspective because the developers
> > > > are
> > > > more isolated from the end users during development.
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Jay Lozier
> > > > jslozier@gmail.com
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > --
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-- 
Charles-H. Schulz
Co-Founder & Director, The Document Foundation,
Zimmerstr. 69, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Rechtsfähige Stiftung des bürgerlichen Rechts
Legal details: http://www.documentfoundation.org/imprint




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