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sardisson
Town Crier
Joined: Feb 01, 2004
Posts: 4588
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 Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:42 am Post subject: |
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Recently, Patrick and Ed have donated fixes back to either/both ooo-build and odf-converter under the JCA...again it's up to the OOo folks to integrate stuff.
And, depending on the definition of "anything", Neo contributes OpenDocument users, lots of bug reports to OOo, and community members to OOo fora like oooforum.org. (And Jake, but OOo seems not to want any of his work for user support, FAQs and launchers....)
The interesting bit in this whole argument is that the OOo folks/partisans on one hand say they want all of Neo's code (the VCL changes are really the meat of Neo's changes and Mac-ness); then, on the other hand, the OOo folks turn around and say Neo is not at all interesting because it's [Java|Cocoa] and that's not the right way forward.
In other words, they get to beat on us from both sides.
Smokey
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"[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki |
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jakeOSX
Ninja
Joined: Aug 12, 2003
Posts: 1373
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:41 am Post subject: |
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| sardisson wrote: | (And Jake, but OOo seems not to want any of his work for user support, FAQs and launchers....)
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as long as you want me smokey that's all that matters  |
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pluby
The Architect
Joined: Jun 16, 2003
Posts: 11949
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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| sardisson wrote: | | In other words, they get to beat on us from both sides. |
I just don't even listen to this noise anymore as it really misses the point. Sure, a bunch of OOo fans want us to donate our code to a Fortune 500 company and work for free for that company's processes. Just because have unrealistic demands doesn't mean that you have to pay attention to them.
Ed and I have yet to see any offer from Sun to purchase our code and/or compensate our work. Until such a day comes (and it likely never will), Sun is welcome to slap the OpenOffice.org name on our code and distribute it as long as it is GPL.
The reality is that Sun is likely very happy with the current situation. They get a native Mac OS X port without any of the cost or the political wars that would probably erupt between their Linux and Mac users from time to time.
The bottom line is that we build a very solid product and provide services that Sun does not provide through their OpenOffice.org infrastructure. Sun benefits and Mac OS X users benefit.
So why do some people complain? Simple: there are many small companies that have built a business model on OpenOffice.org and the, for whatever reason, having the Mac OS X version available only under GPL and not from Sun apparently causes them great worry. Why this is an issue for them is beyond me but, quite frankly, my worry is running NeoOffice, not subsizing these non-contributing little companies.
Patrick |
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OPENSTEP
The One
Joined: May 25, 2003
Posts: 4752
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:31 pm Post subject: |
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Of course we get beat on; this is to be expected when you're a market leader.
The reality is that attack marketing is used by minority players in a market segment as an attempt to increase their brand name and market share. Goes for politicans just like corporations.
And yes, I personally think the "I'm a Mac" ads as of late have become attack marketing at some of its most subtle...attacks wrapped in the sugar of humor. Those ads leave a bad taste in my mouth.
Regardless, Apple market share is growing (depending on whose figures you believe). Attack marketing works.
The only defense as a market leader is to shut up and put your product where your mouth is. Seeing as we have one that's rock solid I'm more than willing to eat my own dog food for the time being.
ed |
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OPENSTEP
The One
Joined: May 25, 2003
Posts: 4752
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:34 pm Post subject: |
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| jakeOSX wrote: | | sardisson wrote: | (And Jake, but OOo seems not to want any of his work for user support, FAQs and launchers....)
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as long as you want me smokey that's all that matters |
For a good time PM jake?
ed
/555-GOOD-LOVE |
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sardisson
Town Crier
Joined: Feb 01, 2004
Posts: 4588
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| Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 11:12 am Post subject: |
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I just meant they're running a pretty good racket on users/the general public, not that we have to (or even do) listen to them. 
| jakeOSX wrote: | | sardisson wrote: | | (And Jake, but OOo seems not to want any of his work for user support, FAQs and launchers....) |
as long as you want me smokey that's all that matters |
That sounds eerily like some French-speaking X11-running monster from a play I've read somewhere....
Smokey
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"[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki |
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KAMiKAZOW
Agent
Joined: Jan 01, 2005
Posts: 11
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| Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 1:13 pm Post subject: |
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| pluby wrote: | Sun is likely spending more than US$17 million each year (...)
This is a lot of money and I doubt StarOffice sales (...) are covering more than a small fraction of that cost. |
I think these costs are covered in the PR for Java budget. OO is Sun’s “trojan horse†for JRE installations. |
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Baggypants
Councilperson
Joined: Nov 27, 2005
Posts: 108
Location: Salford, UK
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| Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 3:42 pm Post subject: |
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| KAMiKAZOW wrote: | | pluby wrote: | Sun is likely spending more than US$17 million each year (...)
This is a lot of money and I doubt StarOffice sales (...) are covering more than a small fraction of that cost. |
I think these costs are covered in the PR for Java budget. OO is Sun’s “trojan horse†for JRE installations. |
I feel its worth noting Wikipedia which says Sun initially bought Staroffice as each of their staff had a Unix workstation and a Windows laptop, and it worked out cheaper for them. It probably is still and if I were Sun I'd keep that in mind and view the whole windows/linux/OS X/marketshare/ODF/free coders stuff as a bonus. As partisan as it may sound I get the feeling Sun always think of number 1. |
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OPENSTEP
The One
Joined: May 25, 2003
Posts: 4752
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
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| Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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Also, don't forget that it's also a great little extra their salespeople can throw in for deals and also the JDS subscriptions (though JDS seems to have been another Sun product that's been on the wane...). The logic is the same behind Google Apps. While I don't know the pricing specifics, I'd think that once you start hitting up into the tens of thousands of Office licenses there probably is a cost argument that can be made for going it alone. Still, I think the original Star acquisition was more during the McNealy "we're gonna get you Microsoft" days when they tried to do everything. Not to mention one of the biggest things in the acquisition news was StarPortal (the reimplementation of X11 with a thin Java client, basically). Boy did that ever not go anywhere.
ed |
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