Oracle re-commits to ODF after OpenOffice divorce Oracle is spinning its participation in a forthcoming Open Document Format (ODF) event as proof of its continued commitment to the OpenOffice.org community. On the eve of the ODF Plugfest in Brussels, Belgium, the database giant has announced that it will participate in the two-day event, which starts on Thursday. The …
I would definitely not put Microsoft Office at the top of the list of those software products supporting ODF. Come on, let's face it! ODF is the pebble in Microsoft's running shoes. Even spelling the three characters will give Microsoft an unbearable nausea.
As for Oracle's take on this, I'm confident (at least for now) they will wholeheartedly support ODF
ODF is good because no one should be forced to purchase a specific OS and application just to be able to view/modify the information in a file. I stand by this declaration because as opposed to the software which I am entitled to use the way the vendor license permits me, the information I put in those files belongs solely to me, forever. I'm paying the software vendor for the permission to use its product not for him taking over my data.
OpenOffice is actually 'StarOffice' under a new name. Sun bought StarOffice, therefore they owned StarOffice. OpenOffice was the 'free' version of StarOffice, but Sun had the majority stakehold on it because they owned it. The real problem is that Oracle isn't as nice as Sun, and now the open source community is pissed. :(
That is what open source is all about. It is not liable to the whims of a single corporation or individual. If someone who appears to have nominal control an open source project does something that other don't agree with then the whole project can be copied to a new version and work can carry on as before. No fuss, no re-writing, no law suits. User are free to choose the version that best suits their needs.
Compare and contrast with recent unpopular changes to Word (ribbons, docx etc).
Hmmmm... From what I've read I don't think people are so much "pissed" at Oracle as they are fearful. Unpredictable hostile actions against the community make using products under their control akin to working with a psychopath. The GPL allows the community to remove the problem.
I still don't know how Oracle may try to justify that their practices have driven off some real brainpower behind Java, right around the time of the acquisition. Until they may resolve that, I will continue to hold any further decisions by Oracle in only a doubtful perspective - on the downside of genuine skepticism.
So that's why they stopped offering the ODF plugin for Office for free and started charging $50 a time for it? (Or $90 with a minimum order of 100 licenses for the 'Enterprise' edition).
Great support for interoperability there, guys.
http://technofriends.in/2010/04/21/odf-plugin-for-microsoft-office-is-no-more-free-priced-at-90/
Love Open Office.
I try and get as many people using it as I can to show them that they can do the same thing with OO instead of shelling out money to MS every few years.
MS has an advantage with getting it into the schools so kids would know only their products. OO really should push harder on that front, people go with what they know.
I was talking with the Director at of my clients, who has OpenOffice heavily deployed, about the split. When I got to the LibreOffice name, she made a face and told me to stay with OpenOffice until there was a compelling reason to change.
Maybe someone will offer a distro of LibreOffice that just re-skins it in a better name. OpenDoc Office anyone??
David 141, good to know next time I have a dump of numerical data from an air pressure censor I don't need to whack it in a spreadsheet (Excel or OOo Calc) and then plot a nice graph.
Instead I will post it to facebook and maybe write a blog entry.
I am sure comments from my facebook friends like "whoa dude, too much information LOL ;)" will more than make up for the lack of a performance graph for engineers to use in their design calculations.
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