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Re: A Tale of Two Suites: Do We Still Need OpenOffice.org?
Posted by: Katherine Noyes 2012-05-17 05:16:42
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Would a rose by any other name still smell as sweet? Or would it, perhaps, end up sweeter?
That, essentially, is the question at the heart of the forking process, which in turn is at the heart of a key situation today. Namely: Now that we have LibreOffice, do we still need OpenOffice as well? In the wake of Apache OpenOffice's new update, that's been the question du jour down at the Linux blogosphere's Punchy Penguin Cafe. "LibreOffice has demonstrated that it's the right way to do IT/office suites," offered blogger Robert Pogson.
Guess what? IBM has already joined up by announcing that all future versions of lotus will be based on....drumroll...Apache Open Office!
You can try to spin it all you want but when RMS put in the "TiVoization" clause he might as well have renamed GPL V3 as "We hate corporations! yes You! Go Away!" Because any corp with a brain will not want to be the target of GPL V4, which FYI I'm betting it will be "Androidization" considering how much RMS hates Android.
If all he wanted to do was "close the loophole' he could have just made AGPL into GPL V3 but by naming a company and then attacking them in the license frankly any corp would be smart not to want to touch GPL V3 if they can help it, and in the case of office suites they can!
You can try to spin it all you want but when RMS put in the "TiVoization" clause he might as well have renamed GPL V3 as "We hate corporations! yes You! Go Away!" Because any corp with a brain will not want to be the target of GPL V4, which FYI I'm betting it will be "Androidization" considering how much RMS hates Android.
If all he wanted to do was "close the loophole' he could have just made AGPL into GPL V3 but by naming a company and then attacking them in the license frankly any corp would be smart not to want to touch GPL V3 if they can help it, and in the case of office suites they can!
hairyfeet's common knowledge
Posted by: daboochmeister 2012-05-18 02:27:20 In reply to: Katherine Noyes
I try to be tolerant, but ... that's just ridiculous, asserting that businesses avoid GPL in cases like this. The businesses I've worked (Fortune 50) are smart enough to recognize that if you're not linking things against GPL, there's really no issue.
Re: hairyfeet's common knowledge
Posted by: hairyfeet 2012-05-18 16:34:38 In reply to: daboochmeister
Sorry but you only got about half a paragraph so you really only got half of my thought on the subject.
What I was talking about was the APPSTORE ECOSYSTEM which does NOT allow any GPL V3 apps, period. GPL V3 simply isn't compatible with the appstore design because ALL appstores have a measure of control about them and GPL V3 thanks to the "TiVo Clause' would force them to open their DRM and that simply isn't gonna happen.
So I hope that clears that up. if you are simply talking about a fortune 500 company using LO internally? Then frankly the GPL doesn't even come into it since they are not modifying anything or distributing anything, they are simply downloading it just as any end user would so the GPL does not apply to them.
But in the APPSTORE ECOSYSTEM you have a completely different ball of wax. look at how a single dev in VLC managed to completely kill VLC for iPhone because he demanded GPL compliance which will NEVER happen for GPL V3, EVER. But with an Apache license there is NO reason why one couldn't offer Open office in an appstore because it doesn't have the TiVo clause.
So I hope that clears things up. I was not talking about general use where GPL frankly doesn't apply but to appstores where GPL most certainly DOES apply.
What I was talking about was the APPSTORE ECOSYSTEM which does NOT allow any GPL V3 apps, period. GPL V3 simply isn't compatible with the appstore design because ALL appstores have a measure of control about them and GPL V3 thanks to the "TiVo Clause' would force them to open their DRM and that simply isn't gonna happen.
So I hope that clears that up. if you are simply talking about a fortune 500 company using LO internally? Then frankly the GPL doesn't even come into it since they are not modifying anything or distributing anything, they are simply downloading it just as any end user would so the GPL does not apply to them.
But in the APPSTORE ECOSYSTEM you have a completely different ball of wax. look at how a single dev in VLC managed to completely kill VLC for iPhone because he demanded GPL compliance which will NEVER happen for GPL V3, EVER. But with an Apache license there is NO reason why one couldn't offer Open office in an appstore because it doesn't have the TiVo clause.
So I hope that clears things up. I was not talking about general use where GPL frankly doesn't apply but to appstores where GPL most certainly DOES apply.
