[libreoffice-users] new article - with quote from TDF steering committee member Italo Vignoli

Here is a new article about OOo and LibreOffice.

I do not remember hearing this statement before:
      "after Oracle booted out the LibreOffice fork developers from 
OpenOffice"
Where did that come from?
-------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/what-the-heck-is-happening-with-openoffice-update/9025?alertspromo=&tag=nl.rSINGLE 
<http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/what-the-heck-is-happening-with-openoffice-update/9025?alertspromo=&tag=nl.rSINGLE>

<quote>
What the heck is happening with OpenOffice? (UPDATE)
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols | May 31, 2011, 10:42am PDT


This weekend was filled with rumors about the fate of OpenOffice. Oracle 
essentially abandoned OpenOffice, after The Document Foundation's 
LibreOffice fork but rumor has it that IBM wants the project to 
continue. The big question, which is still unresolved as I write this, 
is, "How?"

At the moment, almost all of what I have are comments from people close 
to the matter who are unable to go on the record. That said, here's my 
current understanding of what's going on with OpenOffice.

First, after Oracle booted out the LibreOffice fork developers from 
OpenOffice, Oracle still didn't want to invest anymore in OpenOffice. As 
Edward Screven, Oracle's Chief Corporate Architect, said in April, 
"Given the breadth of interest in free personal productivity 
applications and the rapid evolution of personal computing technologies, 
we believe the OpenOffice.org project would be best managed by an 
organization focused on serving that broad constituency on a 
non-commercial basis. We intend to begin working immediately with 
community members to further the continued success of Open Office. 
Oracle will continue to strongly support the adoption of open 
standards-based document formats, such as the Open Document Format (ODF)."

If that sounds like a contradiction in terms: OpenOffice is doing so 
well that Oracle doesn't want to manage-read pay for it-you're not the 
only one to see it that way. As Louis Suárez-Potts' OpenOffice's 
Community Manager and former Oracle staffer, told my buddy Brian 
Proffitt that no one's really sure what Oracle plans for OpenOffice, or 
what's more important, what it means for the ODF.

"People like the ODF simply because of its enormously successful 
flexibility," Suárez-Potts told Proffitt. OpenOffice, LibreOffice, IBM's 
Symphony and Google Docs all use ODF. But, with Oracle taking a hands 
off approach to OpenOffice and ODF, what does that mean for the format?

Suárez-Potts saw four possible futures for OpenOffice. Neglect, which is 
where we're at now, was the worst choice by far. The others were to spin 
OpenOffice to a new foundation with broad industry support; join it with 
an already existing open-source foundation with broad corporate support 
such as the Apache Software Foundation or The Eclipse Foundation; or to 
join up with the Document Foundation's LibreOffice fork.

It now seems that IBM, which has invested millions in OpenOffice over 
the years, and uses it as the basis for its Symphony office suite, 
preferred the option of OpenOffice being spun off to The Apache 
Foundation. Oracle, which I'm told has contractual obligations to IBM to 
see that OpenOffice continued to be developed, was fine with this. 
Unfortunately for IBM and Oracle, my sources tell me that Apache was not 
so enamored of the idea and has turned it down.

I can see why Apache would want to steer clear of the deal. Apache has 
not been on good terms with Oracle for several months now after fighting 
with the company over how Oracle had been managing the Java Community 
Process. In addition, Apache had also had problems with IBM and Oracle 
over their support for the open-source Java Standard Edition (SE) 
OpenJDK over Apache's open-source Java SE Project Harmony. In addition, 
much of OpenOffice's GPL code isn't compatible with the Apache 
Foundations' Apache license.

The Document Foundation thinks Oracle should donate OpenOffice's code 
and intellectual property (IP) to them. Italo Vignoli, a member of the 
Document Foundation's steering committee, told me, that if Oracle does 
spin these materials off to another body, "Oracle is missing the 
opportunity to re-unite the OOo community governance. The Document 
Foundation remains open to every company and individual that wishes to 
participate in co-development. There has never been a better time to get 
involved and advance the state of the art in free-software office suites."

But what will really happen? I don't know.

I do know, based on all the bits and pieces I've been hearing that 
Oracle, at least, doesn't want to give the OpenOffice to LibreOffice. 
IBM feels more neutral about it. In the end, I see OpenOffice going to 
another organization. My best guess at this point is that it will be The 
Eclipse Foundation. One way or the other, it appears that OpenOffice 
will continue on.

UPDATE: Sources tell me that Apache has decided to take on OpenOffice. I 
expect to see the official word come out this week. It may be as early 
as tomorrow. sjvn--3:42 PM Eastern, May 31, 2011.
<unquote>


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