Why volunteer?

Posted Sep 8, 2016 14:22 UTC (Thu) by david.a.wheeler (subscriber, #72896)
In reply to: What's next for Apache OpenOffice by xtifr
Parent article: What's next for Apache OpenOffice

as an outsider, I have to ask, what would the appeal be in volunteering my time and efforts to help AOO? I'm not a license fantatic; both permissive and share-alike licenses are just fine in my book.

That is the fundamental problem for AOO. The only reason developer would support AOO, besides its OO trademark, is that AOO uses the Apache license (a permissive license). Very few people seem to think that having a permissive license is important for traditional office suites; even IBM has stopped caring. The Apache Software Foundation does not accept share-alike licenses, but all the development effort and backing for an OSS office suite is behind the copylefted version (LibreOffice).

If AOO won't be maintained, I think the Apache Software Foundation should just let the LibreOffice developers acquire the OOo trademarks and domain name, with the clear caveat that LibreOffice can't call it "Apache". Trademark (and company) acquisitions happen all the time in industry. Maybe sell it for a few bucks; if ASF gets some money, that might mollify some.

Why volunteer?

Posted Sep 8, 2016 15:48 UTC (Thu) by moltonel (guest, #45207) [Link] (2 responses)

I doubt that potential contibutors wondering between LO and AOO will care much about the trademark. Most newcomers are here to scratch their own itch (fix a bug, implement a feature, etc) and will already have tried both AOO and LO. Even an hypothetical AOO-using company wanting to contribute will have to weigh a migration to LO against hiring somebody to fix AOO (and consider that LO bugfixes likely costs less than AOO bugfixes). Same dilema for the altruistic contributor who wants to improve the lives of "OpenOffice" users out there: maybe his energy would be better spent convincing/helping people to migrate to LO.

The trademark issue remains a big one, but trademark alone was not enough to retain/attract developers to AOO. However, trademark alone is the main reason why some LO contributors and some outside observers have strong negative feelings towards Apache/AOO. If openoffice.org simply redirected to LO, the hardships faced by AOO would hardly be newsworthy. But it'd make it clear that AOO has "lost" and is a very hard pill to swallow. If openoffice.org pointed to both LO and AOO, it could mend a lot of bridges and maybe ressurect cross-polination between the projects. Making oppenoffice.org a shared home would greatly reduce the flak received by AOO from various angles, and make Apache look like an enabler of the wider OpenOffice community rather than a failing member of it.

Why volunteer?

Posted Sep 8, 2016 16:31 UTC (Thu) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582) [Link] (1 responses)

+1. Is there a single good argument on the AOO side to not point openoffice.org to both LO and AOO? That they don't do so already suggests that, in their minds, they and not LO are the "legitimate" inheritors of OOo.

Why volunteer?

Posted Sep 9, 2016 0:21 UTC (Fri) by simosx (guest, #24338) [Link]

> Is there a single good argument on the AOO side to not point openoffice.org to both LO and AOO? That they don't do so already suggests that, in their minds, they and not LO are the "legitimate" inheritors of OOo.

I have been on the AOO dev mailing list.
I brought this issue up in a few ways. They sidestepped/ignored my request.

There is extreme hatred among the AOO list members that they do not want to even mention LibreOffice on the openoffice.org.

Really sad attitude. In fact, what keeps the contributors of AOO from giving up, is their hatred for LibreOffice!

Why volunteer?

Posted Sep 8, 2016 21:07 UTC (Thu) by jimjag (guest, #84477) [Link] (2 responses)

>Maybe sell it for a few bucks; if ASF gets some money, that might mollify some.

We would never do something so crass.

Why volunteer?

Posted Sep 9, 2016 8:53 UTC (Fri) by branden (guest, #7029) [Link] (1 responses)

Pecunia non olet, nicht war?

Why volunteer?

Posted Sep 15, 2016 7:27 UTC (Thu) by HelloWorld (guest, #56129) [Link]

It's spelled “nicht wahr”

Why volunteer?

Posted Sep 19, 2016 11:03 UTC (Mon) by thestinger (guest, #91827) [Link] (1 responses)

Note that they don't have a trademark for "OpenOffice".

Why volunteer?

Posted Sep 19, 2016 15:43 UTC (Mon) by orcmid (guest, #74478) [Link]

FYI,

Apache, Apache OpenOffice, OpenOffice, and the gull-wing
logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of
the Apache Software Foundation <http://apache.org> in
the United States and/or other countries.

When there are requests to make use of those marks in various ways, and written permission is provided, a statement such as the above is required for inclusion where permissions are stated in conjunction with the permitted use. Please note that registration is not a requirement although there are values to it in regimes where there are such arrangements. Sometimes registrations are legally transferred but that may not show up until such time as the registration comes up for renewal.

There are such requests for use and there are cases where the producer of a confusing use that would causes confusion is requested to stop and that is usually accomplished, sometimes quickly.