It is the "OpenOffice.org Novell Edition", that is a kind of half fork of the official OpenOffice.org. Novell is pulling the strings to get the Gnome project to adopt its version as the official Gnome OpenOffice. This fork is using the last version of the OOo and adding/changing features to it to create a different product: the "Novell Edition".
The main difference between the OpenOffice.org Novell Edition and the official version of the project is that the Novell Edition is encouraged to provide import and export to OOXML. Additionally it includes some add-ons that they didn't want to integrate in the official version of OpenOffice.org (indeed they chosed an incompatible license to prevent any kind of integration of their code in the official project). These add-ons can be seen here: http://www.go-oo.org
All this strategy of to divide the "instrumental" OOo project probably is under the umbrella of the Microsoft-Novell agreement.
Comments
Jim Powers
2007-11-29 03:36:55
I have been following the unfolding GNOME/OOXML/Jeff Waugh saga and I'm playing catchup on my reading trying to formulate an educated opinion about what is going on.
Comments Jeff?
eet
2007-11-29 08:46:09
Concerning 'add-ons that use a different license', well this add-on is Kohei Yoshida's Cal Solver and it uses the GPL. Instead of Sun's own license. The GPL is not good enough for Sun.
Don't be a censoring asshole, research your stuff, Rita.
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Irrelevant
2007-11-29 10:05:27
Roy Schestowitz
2007-11-29 10:39:52
We've looked at this earlier (many posts about the 'fork' question). I remain unconvinced and I trust Mr. Phipps (still) more than I can trust a team so heavily influenced by Mr. de Icaza.
Ian
2007-11-29 13:35:27
Jim Powers
2007-11-29 13:37:11
If the issue was simply the recent blow-up over of the OO development process then why all the license encumbrances now introduced by Novell?
Seems pretty apparent to me: it's another shaft up the rectum of FLOSS carried out by Novell controlled by the puppeteer that is Microsoft.
As I am making my way through the backlog of reading associated with the whole Jeff Waugh/Gnome/Novell "Thing", I'm getting more and more distressed.
Now, it may be simply that Novell alone is poisoning Gnome, and the "independent" portions of Gnome are, in fact, on the up-and-up as Jeff claims. Perhaps checkins to Gnome should be stopped for Novell employees.
On the whole the Gnome participation in the OOXML thing is becoming more and more baffling. The writeup on the Gnome site provides some history, but there are simply too many question lingering, the most important is:
Why, what's the point?
This question is asked the context of the fact that OOXML is a sham. It is a token standard to MS to be able to say that they have a standard, but they will not adhere to it. When they start to diverge from OOXML we'll be right back in the camp of reverse-engineering their document formats again, just like what was done for .doc and .xls formats. It really, really, really, seems like a waste if time for talented individuals to be engaged in.
How's about this: keep up the pressure for MS to put and ODF reader/writer in office? Seems a lot more interesting.
Really, look at the track record: CSS support in IE7 (which only came about due to FF!) - incomplete, they've publicly stated that it will never be complete. Hell, their support of HTML in general is temporary and transient, they are trying very hard to co-opt the "Web" parts of the internet as well (re: BBC iPlayer, NetFlix on demand player, Silverlight, etc., and all that Wonderful Mono ticking-time-bomb stuff that will come out of this. When will de Icaza learn that is was Google and Gmail+Google maps [as well as many others] that showed that we can can have a rich internet WITHOUT the Armageddon that WAS XAML)
There is already NOW a document format approved by the OSI, it's called ODF, want to show that you play well with standards? Support it.
Victor Soliz
2007-11-29 13:37:47
Novell is the one pushing OOXML into OpenOffice, and the one trying to make a windows only OpenOffice and for no reason giving it advantages over the Linux one (I actually thought Novell dudes were Linux vendors...)
If Sun was at fault and Novell didn't want to fork openoffice, then... Novell wouldn't have forked it...
eet
2007-11-29 14:29:38
A Windows-only OpenOffice? You ridiculous little man! How sad are you? You haven't even checked out the download page?
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Roy Schestowitz
2007-11-29 16:03:43
As I remember it, the limitation was imposed by Microsoft. Ron Hovsepian spoke about it roughly 7 months ago. The issue is:
Regarding point (2) and to answer Ian's question, as I remember it, when Ted Haeger introduced that 'OOo on Steroids' (for Windows only), this seems to have had something to do with Miguel de Icaza. I remember that quite clearly. He was also the one defending the move. I can go back to refresh y memory of this.
eet
2007-11-29 17:40:50
Do you yourself believe what shit is coming out of your mouth here?
Don't you have any pride? (As you censor out all my comments, you cannot answer, frustrating, isn't it? Be a man and stop the censoring. Otherwise I can have some fun with rude language, Rita.)
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