OpenOffice forks away from Oracle, now called LibreOffice

[Emil]

The OpenOffice.org project is separating itself from database giant Oracle. OpenOffice.org is now called The Document Foundation, the future of which will be determined by a committee of developers and project managers, taking the responsibility for OpenOffice away from a single company. Furthermore, the actual OpenOffice.org suite of programs is getting a temporary name: LibreOffice. Add all that to the fact that OpenOffice was once called OpenSolaris, and we have a serious problem of brand recognition on our hands.

LibreOffice will keep its name until Oracle decides whether it wants to donate the OpenOffice.org brand to the foundation, which in the meantime has invited Oracle to rejoin their new community by applying for membership. Initial supporters already include the Free Software Foundation, Open Source Initiative, Canonical, Red Hat, Novell, the GNOME foundation, and Google.

We can only assume that the forking is happening because OpenOffice's community is not sure how dedicated Oracle will be to the suite's continued development. The Document Foundation also hopes that LibreOffice's independence from Oracle will attract more contributors and lead to an even better product. Oracle became OpenOffice's principal contributor when it acquired Sun Microsystems earlier this year.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/40438-openoffice-forks-away-from-oracle-now-called-libreoffice.html

 

[TorturedChaos]

Whatever happens I just hope they keep OpenOffice/LibreOffice running. I use it a lot at home and work. In fact I have found that it will load M$ Office documents better than the M$ Office software in many cases.

 

[Timonius]

TorturedChaos said:
In fact I have found that it will load M$ Office documents better than the M$ Office software in many cases.

Lol! I find OpenOffice far more compatible friendly even though 'everyone' is more comfortable with the Microcrap Office suite. Opening complex microsoft powerpoints in OpenOffice take quite a while (but I think that is more hardware dependant anyway), but they work just as good.

 

[Guest]

Even a simple docx with a table is not rendered correctly in openoffice, forget complex documents... and the interface resembles the outdated word type.

 

[Guest]

OpenSolaris is the Spin off from the SUN Solaris Operating System. http://openindiana.org continues that stream.

OpenOffice is a Spin off of StarDivisons Staroffice 5.1 and more lately SUN's StarOffice 5.2 released initially by SUN as Freeware and then sold by them. OpenOffice came out of that Tree minus a very good Calender, minus Email, minus UseNet Newsgroups, minus a Desktop and minus Intergrated Web.

You could live with Opera.com with a upgraded standardised contact system and Intergrated Calender, Along side OpenOffice 3.20 or LibreOffice. http://www.documentfoundation.org/

Unfortunately at least one of Oracle's OpenOffice download versions came with a additional package of software that is still a mystery and may be just undocumented middleware.

Sadly Oracle Marketing department decided to call there marketed version "Oracle Open Office" instead of "Oracle Office". Leaving no surprises on the confusion front, and as yet, no clear intentions from Oracle to my knowledge.

It is no surprise the LibreOffice and Novel's lighter branch Go-oo are now on the move.

Many have un-installed OpenOffice 3.21+ (Oracle) and installed OpenOffice 3.20 (SUN) pending full statements of intent and direction from Oracle and/or the first stable release of LibreOffice.

Regards

Neville A. Daniels

 

[Guest]

Glad to see the change. Was wondering what was going on. Not surprised with what happened and I don't expect Oracle to join in. Long live LibreOffice! OLE!