Apache OpenOffice Proposed For Retirement, Still Being Debated

[k1l_]

Let it Rest in peace. OpenOffice did a good job back then but since Oracle screwed it there is no way back.
The last few people working in OpenOffice now are just burning manpower and Motivation.this could be used in libreoffice or other projects.

[ua=42]

Let it die... and redirect everyone to LibreOffice. (Maybe push an update notification to the Open Office people to the LibreOffice page?)

[Deavir]

Just yesterday someone told me they needed to download openoffice to open a spreadsheet. I pointed them to libreoffice but people are still very much confused. I understand why they wouldn't want to give up the name but given the goal they should at least have a statement on their page redirecting to libreoffice for best experience.

[Duve]

Retire Apache OpenOffice and rename LibreOffice to OpenOffice. Everyone is happy.

At this point The Document Foundation has build too much of a brand around LibreOffice to really go back and reclaim the OpenOffice name. It would just be better for Apache to retire the project and hold the claim to the name while redirecting users to LibreOffice.

Let it Rest in peace. OpenOffice did a good job back then but since Oracle screwed it there is no way back.

What forced the LO fork had little to do with Oracle (aside from buying Sun Mircosystems) since many of the issues were with how Sun seems to want to hold OO.org development back. Once the buyout was announced, and seeing what happened to OpenSolaris, developers in OO.org were quick to make plans for life after OO.org. The Document Foundation and LibreOffice was that plan... by the time that Oracle donated OO to Apache, it was to late. Most of the developers were long gone.

[Mateus Felipe]

LibreOffice has taken a very nice path. The only thing that still bothers me is Java background.

[Mystro256]

At this point The Document Foundation has build too much of a brand around LibreOffice to really go back and reclaim the OpenOffice name. It would just be better for Apache to retire the project and hold the claim to the name while redirecting users to LibreOffice.


What forced the LO fork had little to do with Oracle (aside from buying Sun Mircosystems) since many of the issues were with how Sun seems to want to hold OO.org development back. Once the buyout was announced, and seeing what happened to OpenSolaris, developers in OO.org were quick to make plans for life after OO.org. The Document Foundation and LibreOffice was that plan... by the time that Oracle donated OO to Apache, it was to late. Most of the developers were long gone.

Indeed, apache should either give up the domain name, so LO can redirect it to libreoffice.org, or colaborate with LO and have a notice that development will continue on libreoffice.org.

Perhaps if there's a windows updater, it can be patched to grab updates from https://www.libreoffice.org/ instead.

[omer666]

LibreOffice has taken a very nice path. The only thing that still bothers me is Java background.

...and that's why they've been cleaning the code from Java for many years now, there was just so much of it that it's not finished yet.

Really, let those 12 volunteers that are still working on OpenOffice join LibreOffice and shut that OO.org site down.

Oracle: 0
FOSS community: 1

[Slartifartblast]

OpenSolaris

Such promise yet only to be shafted by Ming The Merciless (AKA Larry)

[Duve]

Indeed, apache should either give up the name, so LO can redirect it, or colaborate with LO and have a notice that development will continue on libreoffice.org.

I don't see that happening, and the reason is this... OO has been dormant for a while now as a brand, as much as there is some value to be gained changing the LO name, I feel that ultimately The Document Foundation as much more leverage considering that it's code-base is a lot more active. LO has much to lose going back and calling itself OO (despite being in a much better place code-wise), and not a whole lot to gain. I don't see the point in attempting to reclaim the OO name now.

Such promise yet only to be shafted by Ming The Merciless (AKA Larry)

Not really, it was very clear from the get-go that an open OS was a business that Larry didn't want in on. It was mostly a lucky shot that most of Solaris was mostly out of his reach, but an OS distribution that he couldn't leverage? That was going to go... one way or another.
He wanted Java (ironically, JDK would open-source itself about year prior to that, using the GPL to boot), if Solaris was going to burn for it. It was.

[Mystro256]

I don't see that happening, and the reason is this... OO has been dormant for a while now as a brand, as much as there is some value to be gained changing the LO name, I feel that ultimately The Document Foundation as much more leverage considering that it's code-base is a lot more active. LO has much to lose going back and calling itself OO (despite being in a much better place code-wise), and not a whole lot to gain. I don't see the point in attempting to reclaim the OO name now.

I had a typo in my message (fixed now). I meant to say "domain name"... i.e. so LO can redirect it to libreoffice.org