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OpenOffice: A legal Trojan horse--but for whom? (ZDNet)
Here's a lengthy ZDNet article about the agreement between Sun and Microsoft which protects StarOffice users - but not OpenOffice users - against Microsoft patent suits. "It's a message from Microsoft and Sun to companies like Red Hat and IBM that they will allow and, in Sun's case, even promote the benefits of open source for the open-source community. But, they're not willing to be IP benefactors to competitors like Red Hat and IBM that would just as soon destroy them with their own IP. If you doubt this, allow me to remind you of what Steve Ballmer said on the day that Microsoft and Sun went public with their watershed agreement: 'It's an agreement that comes from two companies that believe in intellectual property, that develop intellectual property and that are respecting intellectual property.'"
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OpenOffice: A legal Trojan horse--but for whom? (ZDNet) Posted Sep 21, 2004 16:04 UTC (Tue) by clugstj (subscriber, #4020) [Link] What a lovely piece of FUD.
OpenOffice: A legal Trojan horse--but for whom? (ZDNet) Posted Sep 21, 2004 16:05 UTC (Tue) by petegn (guest, #847) [Link] there is only ONE suitable comment for people like that.....
Bunch of frigging wankers and that is bieng polite and yes by the way it is meant to be offensive to all concerned.
OpenOffice: A legal Trojan horse--but for whom? (ZDNet) Posted Sep 21, 2004 16:33 UTC (Tue) by QuisUtDeus (guest, #14854) [Link] What patents? Like formatting text? Maybe auto-numbering paragraphs or the use of tabs?
OpenOffice: A legal Trojan horse--but for whom? (ZDNet) Posted Sep 21, 2004 16:36 UTC (Tue) by colink (guest, #274) [Link] Like file formats
OpenOffice: A legal Trojan horse--but for whom? (ZDNet) Posted Sep 23, 2004 11:10 UTC (Thu) by Wol (guest, #4433) [Link] Or looking up words in a dictionary (that was used to destroy Corel and WordPerfect :-(
Cheers,
Curse upon your land Posted Sep 21, 2004 17:05 UTC (Tue) by ccyoung (guest, #16340) [Link] I had envisioned famines and plagues, but the ryder of the dark horse is Microsoft.
Sun wants people to pay for StarOffice Posted Sep 21, 2004 17:09 UTC (Tue) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link] ... but they also want the rest of the world's help for OpenOffice. So they'll imply, but not state clearly, that they have negotiated legal protection for StarOffice but not for OpenOffice.I'm not particularly worried about any potential patent issue related to file formats, by the way. The day Microsoft threatens a patent action based on one of its file formats is the day that every well-managed company comes up with a plan to move its valuable IP out of that file format.
Sun wants people to pay for StarOffice Posted Sep 21, 2004 18:23 UTC (Tue) by lolando (subscriber, #7139) [Link] > The day Microsoft threatens a patent action based on one of its file> formats is the day that every well-managed company comes up with a plan to > move its valuable IP out of that file format.
I think the problem is right there: "well-managed". If companies were "well-managed", they'd have switched years ago. People have been warning against proprietary data formats for years, they've been warning against proprietary (hence non-provably) (in)secure software, they've been warning against vendor lock-in and monopolistic abuse.
Either most companies aren't "well-managed", which I could agree with given the sample of one that is the entirety of my personal experience, or "well-managedness" has no influence (or bad influence) on decisions like these, which is what management tries to convince you of (by repeatedly avoiding the subject).
Sun wants people to pay for StarOffice Posted Sep 21, 2004 22:29 UTC (Tue) by pjhacnau (subscriber, #4223) [Link] But there's a big difference between "potential" risks and being sued. Look how fast Ernie Ball was able get all MS software out of the company after the BSA picked on them.
Yes they're a relatively small company but I think the example can translate to other companies.
Sun wants people to pay for StarOffice Posted Sep 22, 2004 11:42 UTC (Wed) by markhb (guest, #1003) [Link] I believe that, in most companies (especially the larger ones), "well-managed" is defined as "whatever makes the sales force happiest." ANYTHING proposed by the IT staff which gives them cause to complain is usually frowned upon by the top-level management (many of whom probably came from sales to start with). MS software is entrenched at such companies because a) it's compatible with what their clients are using (again, MS software) and b) the sales force already understands it. Give the sales force a choice between making IT fight the occasional virus fire, and losing the fancy bells-and-whistles provided by the Outlook / Exchange combo, they'll happily accept the viruses.
Remember too, that for publicly-held companies, "well-managed" is also defined as (in preference to the above) "has a rising stock price." Wall Street isn't going to punish companies for outbreaks of MS-related viruses, because the analysts and large purchasers have already accepted them as part of the accepted standard (i.e., "no one ever got fired for buying Microsoft") for doing business.
Sun wants people to pay for StarOffice Posted Sep 21, 2004 18:43 UTC (Tue) by NAR (subscriber, #1313) [Link] Given the amount of Outlook-specific viruses out there in corporate networks, I'd think there aren't too many "well managed" companies...
Sun wants people to pay for StarOffice Posted Sep 21, 2004 19:42 UTC (Tue) by dmaxwell (guest, #14010) [Link] Perhaps it is time for a fork. Hosted by OSDL perhaps. You have to assign copyrights to have contributions accepted into Openoffice which Sun can then use in Staroffice if they so desire. Since Sun is selling Openoffice down the river to MS, I don't think they need community copyright assignments anymore.
Incidentally since it is Sun that released under the GPL, it is Sun that has asserted they had the legal right to release everything in it. I don't think their little agreement with MS is going to save them if a defendant ever decides Sun could use some of the fun too.
Sun wants people to pay for StarOffice Posted Sep 21, 2004 22:46 UTC (Tue) by lakeland (subscriber, #1157) [Link] I don't think a fork is such a smart idea. For a start there are very few developers outside sun working on OO.o, so I would expect any such fork to struggle. However, I seem to recall reading (here?) about a project to convert OO to a more standard build system in the hopes of attacting external developers.
Personally I think OO.o is an ugly piece of software and best got rid of, but until KOffice is ready to take the stress it is extremely useful to have around. So my personal preference would be for it to struggle along for a couple more years before dying. However, I think that I'm in the minority on this view :-)
Sun wants people to pay for StarOffice Posted Sep 22, 2004 0:12 UTC (Wed) by eyal (subscriber, #949) [Link] And what makes you think that KOffice will be exempt from M$ patent lawyers?
M$ has been filing thousands of patents on just about everything. Most of them are probably invalid, but neither OpenOffice.org nor the KDE project have the money to prove it in a court.
Eyal.
OpenOffice: A legal Trojan horse--but for whom? (ZDNet) Posted Sep 21, 2004 20:00 UTC (Tue) by jtc (subscriber, #6246) [Link] If you doubt this, allow me to remind you of what Steve Ballmer said on the day that Microsoft and Sun went public with their watershed agreement: 'It's an agreement that comes from two companies that believe in intellectual property, that develop intellectual property and that are respecting intellectual property.'"
In other words: "We will bury you!"
"We will bury you" Posted Sep 22, 2004 1:42 UTC (Wed) by AnswerGuy (guest, #1256) [Link] We will bury you!? ... isn't that a quote infamously attributed to Khruschev?JimD
OpenOffice: A legal Trojan horse--but for whom? (ZDNet) Posted Sep 22, 2004 17:01 UTC (Wed) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link] WELL IT'S TIME TO FORK Ooo.
There are plans to switch the GUI, that in the orignal Oo just really sucks anyway. That will teach SUN that to be part of a community, you just cant sell to the enemy in name of business,... specialy when is that enemy that is preventing everybody from making decent business,... to the point that even StarOffice and SUN will suffer someday.
I belive that everybody in this community just always wanted to pass by of Microsoft... but if it happens to pass in front of Microsoft(or SUN), it will be because of merit, and merit only. I belive the community dont need enemys, dont need more anty-trust law suits,... but Microdoft always seemed to get "help" and enough 'DIRTY TRICKS' to stay an enemy of EVERYBODY. Its a pitty that SUN forgets so quickly about that, and is willing to follow the footsteps of SCO...
Remember what is happening to SCO ?, facing the grave ?,... that is what always has happened with whom has dealed with Microsoft in large scall, and when Microsoft as no longer need of that partner.
OpenOffice: A legal Trojan horse--but for whom? (ZDNet) Posted Sep 23, 2004 7:34 UTC (Thu) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link] Fork OOo?? What army of coders would do this? I'm afraid you seriously underestimate the size of this task. Browse around the source tree some time -- it's daunting. The itch probably is not big enough to warrant that much scratching.
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