Agreed, the IBM proprietary product would be a different beast from LO. But let's face it there are already many OOo variants out there. I don't thinkthat changes that much. I think Michael's point about which code contributions are effectively blocked to which developers is the more difficult one. Personally I know this is a mess but making it less of a mess through cooperation seems a better route than trying to achieve something unachievable.
Uhm, I can't speak for the developers and about how much collaboration there can be among the two projects, but can I say that, though Oracle's decision to license/donate code is perfectly legitimate, this specific proposal to join Apache OpenOffice appears like the attempt of a start-up corporation to do "shopping for employees with the right know-how" in another corporation that works in the same market?
I think it's difficult, now, to improve the situation, because the right thing to do for a reunification would have been to release the code under its normal and usually used *copyleft* license.
The license change is a pain in the neck for the users too, because they may lose several features they are used to and that are covered by copyleft licenses.
What a *community* product can you have in this way? Regards, Gianluca --Lettura gratuita o acquisto di libri e racconti di fantascienza, fantasy, horror, noir, narrativa fantastica e tradizionale: http://www.letturefantastiche.com/
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