Schaller: An Open Letter to Apache Foundation and Apache OpenOffice team

> Incendiary comments like this 7 years after the original posting doesn't help matters.

They do send a pretty strong signal (for lack of any other signal from Apache whatsoever) that *this* is the only type of person the project attracts, and *this* is how ridiculously misinformed they are.

They couldn't really do much better to bury OpenOffice if IBM were to hire another full time reputation assassin to do it.

There is a reason why the Apache Foundation is against something that puts restrictions on larger works. Probably because people like you and them disagrees over how your codebase can be used for. All you people were doing is... comparing OpenOffice to LibreOffice, NOT to every other Apache project, no wonder you guys never deal even a minor blow and Jim Jagelski won't give in. A bit of reason the Apache Foundation decides to keep the existence of Apache OpenOffice is because the current OpenOffice code base is unique in its way: this code base is open in The Apache Way. You must see the reality is that when you contribute to today's OpenOffice, your contribution will always be automatically transferred to LibreOffice *and*NeoOffice, but doing so to LibreOffice is making it just impossible to make it open to Apache OpenOffice. The only sensible argument you could have to move even the Apache Foundation board directors is that the world's open source Office suite developers prefer copyleft licenses like MPL and LGPL, and refused to contribute to OpenOffice just because of the Apache License-only and No Category X dual-licensing allowed mandates. And what will you guys do? Demand Apache OpenOffice to step down? Or demand the Foundation to stop keeping OpenOffice to be limited to Apache License? I keep wondering why not LibreOffice to step down first then recreate it? So, Apache OpenOffice is effectively incompetent compared to LibreOffice - although is rated second in number of historical commiters if compared to other 349+ projects. Everybody is saying like Apache OpenOffice is dying, must step down. This yet sounded nonsensible, irrational, dumb and narrowed. What reason is it? Sometimes I thought some of you guys and even TDF doesn't know or understand the ASF even that basic. And I haven't ever expected for my life somebody is dumb enough to proclaim that he would install LibreOffice just because it has more features, more developers, etc... - it's like proclaiming that he cannot even communicate or contribute to two open communities, instead of calling for Apache and TDF to start any talk or a terms of coexistence for everyone to accept. In short, you guys are backward for nearly ten years. You can't act as if all the competing problems are more important than the issue of disagreements over choosing license for one's code contribution. You can add as many dots of new versions to the image of StarOffice derivatives as you want, but in the end, OpenOffice was now Apache's and it was all the same policies restricting OpenOffice and its contribution that covered the other, and we must think about them as well. Apache License is open to other works licensing in even Category X or worse licenses, meaning the HTTP Server, Flex, Cordova, Tomcat... are already bound to let a larger project to not contribute back and leave them die, are you against that too? 'Yes, just stop using OpenOffice, just tell OpenOffice to cease because LibreOffice is far more featured, active because the contributors prefer LGPL but they did made such activeness possible.' Just let them develop their office suite using an Apache Foundation's codebase if they want. Some people will just keep developing OpenOffice under a permissive license unless they wanted to give up and give in to the pro-copyleft side. What will the final outcome be like? Here's another of my: just try to focus on communicating with the board directors and see if they would like LibreOffice to donate to them too, or LibreOffice will stay the same and OpenOffice has no choice but to remain this "incompetent". Sometimes I think about communicating with the Foundation, maybe and other Apache communities, not just AOO PMC. How did Oracle even communicate so then the ASF board directors respond this in 2012? I got many solutions and ideas for both sides, so, well I don't know what to say. A typical thing I thought to say: Compared to other Apache projects, OpenOffice would be one of the biggest and most complex if to be incubated. Apache is good in many ways, but not in something like Microsoft Office. It's like asking a hospital so no wonder Apache once almost broke up with OpenOffice. Do you think that the world's office suite fans and developers oppose licensing in something like Apache License, or donating to ASF? Well anything to talk about AOO PMC if you want?