[Libreoffice] FYI: Latest Oracle move wrt to OpenOffice.org

Wed Jun 1 13:11:58 PDT 2011

I think this is about licenses.

Under the Apache 2.0 license, I expect we will see contributions from IBM and others for whom reciprocal licenses are toxic.  

I recently noticed that the ODF Toolkit Java bits are Apache licensed already, so that is also helpful.

With regard to community, documentation efforts, and other activities, The Document Foundation is a better fit because of its focused approach.  I don't think of Apache as so oriented to desktop software end-user support, QA, etc.  We'll find out.  With regard to experience in OO.o development, I don't know what Oracle's OO.o team, especially those in Germany, will be doing now.  The surfacing of IBM contributors will be helpful though.

There is no reason Apache fixes and contributions can't be merged into LibreOffice the same way that the OO.o changes can come to LibreOffice.  It is not so smooth, and if there is a serious fork that will be problematic.  

My concern is that this could be a one-way street.  there is no way LGPL LibreOffice updates can go into the Apache code (unless the MPL avenue works or we choose to dual license with the Apache license as well).

At the moment, I feel a bit conflicted, caught straddling between preference for user discussions and bug submissions here, and my established desire to  develop and contribute code that is acceptable  to Apache-licensed projects.   And hey, Subversion works for me.

- Dennis

PS: I notice that the proposal to create an Apache Incubator omits the risk of their being a fork and divided developer community.  There is this presumption: "Both Oracle and ASF agree that the OpenOffice.org development community, previously fragmented, would re-unite under ASF to ensure a stable and long term future for OpenOffice.org.  ASF would enable corporate, non-profit, and volunteer stakeholders to contribute code in a collaborative fashion."  I agree with what ASF would enable, but I don't think it is in the power of ASF and Oracle to ensure re-uniting of the development community.  

-----Original Message-----
From: libreoffice-bounces+dennis.hamilton=acm.org at lists.freedesktop.org [mailto:libreoffice-bounces+dennis.hamilton=acm.org at lists.freedesktop.org] On Behalf Of Tibby Lickle
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 11:03
To: libreoffice at lists.freedesktop.org
Subject: Re: [Libreoffice] FYI: Latest Oracle move wrt to OpenOffice.org

It's like throwing out the baby with the bath water - they're just throwing away so much experience. I certainly wouldn't want to be facing something the size of LO/OOo without a team who've had to deal with it before :)

I'm fairly new to LibreOffice and contributing to FOSS but the community have been highly supportive of my questions and cluelessness. I am fairly shy online and not very confident in my coding skills but there is so much infrastructure geared toward getting newbies to contribute that it has been pretty much painless to just get straight into it despite the terrifying size of the project.

I think that in part it's the people and in part it's the way things are being done. It seems a shame to waste an opportunity to integrate with a community with these advantages.

Eilidh

On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 6:01 PM, Norbert Thiebaud <nthiebaud at gmail.com> wrote:
<http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice/2011-June/013126.html>
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