Comments on: Novell and OpenOffice.org — Harming, Helping, or Just Exploiting?

By: Roy Schestowitz

Roy Schestowitz — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:14:12 +0000

Thanks, Balzac. Keep an eye on iTWire. Sam will post an analytical article about Mono. It’s time to share some answers.

By: Balzac

Balzac — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:45:02 +0000

Roy, I appreciate that you’re watching Novell closely because their problem is not one of divided loyalties, they know who they work for.

This loyalty to Microsoft share holders will manifest its self in myriad ways, and one of those ways is unhelpful and even subversive methods of engagement to the major component projects that make up the GNU/Linux software ecosystem.

Their participation in Open Office development is particularly interesting because of Microsoft’s enormous revenue from sales of MS Office licenses. Their development of support for OOXML is not something I want to see pushed up-stream into core OOo functionality. I hope OOXML and Mono wither on the vine because Microsoft is deliberately obstructing innovation and computer user’s freedom.

By: David Gerard

David Gerard — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:17:23 +0000

The important thing to remember is that the Novell ooo-build has existed since the Ximian days, not just because of their copyright assignment rules but because it was such a pain in the backside to get anything into the Sun build. Sun wanted the advantages of a bazaar but very much ran OOo as a cathedral.

(I don’t think highly of Sun’s requirement of copyright assignment for OOo contributions, but then I’m not impressed by Novell requiring the same for Mono contributions.)

By: aeshna23

aeshna23 — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:02:05 +0000

Ian, I don’t view the relative bugginess of OOo as the major point of this article. It’s understandable why Roy went off on that particular tangent. There is a human tendency to get wound up in one’s own advocacy and without it I don’t know that Roy would put in the excellent work he does here. Without having any experience of OOo on Novell myself, I think Roy should have left out the word “much” before “buggier”. Defensive rhetoric like defensive driving is a good idea.

By: Roy Schestowitz

Roy Schestowitz — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:33:28 +0000

A short example, not very scientific, but empiric of this: the ooo-build is used for every GNU/Linux distribution out there by default (now you can go to the OOo web site and download the “vanilla builds”. Run those two versions, and perhaps easier, test out your original OOo on Linux and the one on Windows (vanilla build again). You’ll see for yourself.

By: Ian

Ian — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:24:56 +0000

“OpenOffice.org versions that are produced by the Novell build system are typically much buggier than the ‘vanillas’.”

You should probably support this with evidence, unless I missed it.