Update: More contributors leave OpenOffice.org for LibreOffice

[Gilles Gravier]

Hi!

On 03/11/2010 09:45, Jan Claeys wrote:
> Michael Haney schreef op di 02-11-2010 om 22:54 [-0400]:
>> On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 10:44 PM, Basil Chupin <blchupin at iinet.net.au> wrote:
>>> Thirty-three contributors to the OpenOffice.org project are leaving,
>>> unhappy with what they say is Oracle's attitude toward the project's
>>> organization and management.
>>>
>>> The contributors, who are mostly from the German-speaking OpenOffice.org
>>> community, comprise translators, others in marketing and quality
>>> assurance and at least one developer. They will join others who are
>>> backing The Document Foundation, which was founded in September to
>>> continue the project outside OpenOffice.org, now under the purview of
>>> Oracle.
>>>
>>> http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source/more-contributors-leave-openofficeorg-libreoffice-974
>> This brings an image to my mind of rats jumping from a sinking ship. 
> AFAIK Oracle still pays more OOo developers than all other companies
> combined...
>
> OTOH, many volunteer/occasional developers moved to LibreOffice, and a
> lot of non-programmer volunteers did so too (but I have no idea how
> large a part of the total OOo community that represents)

1) The more ODF implementations, the better for ODF. This is a good thing.
2) Forks are natural in the open source world. They are good for choice.
There are many OOo forks (Lotus Symphony, Neo Office, to name just 2).
3) The more people leave the OOo community... the less control the
community has on what Oracle makes of OOo... and that's bad for the
community. But not necessarily bad for OOo if Oracle decides to put
enough resources behind OOo to make it even better. In fact, that's what
Oracle is doing just now... So the community is shooting itself in the foot.

Gilles