RE: [tdf-discuss] Re: [Libreoffice] Proposal to join Apache OpenOffice

Allen Pulsifer wrote:
> If most or almost all of the LO contributors joined the Apache 
> OpenOffice project, if only to lend moral support and help heal the 
> rift, that would only be good for LO and the TdF.

> Thorsten Behrens wrote:
> Allen, how can you, with a straight face, ask people here to come over to
a different project,
> that likely noone here is really happy with, that was setup as a fait
acompli, marketed as the
> "natural upstream", removes rights from people's contributions, and is
effectively competing
> (by how the proposal reads)?

Hello Thorsten,

I do not agree with your conclusion that the Apache OpenOffice project is a
competing project.  You simply chose to view it that way.  There are others,
such as myself, who view it as a potential upstream project, where all of
the contributions at the upstream project can be used by LibreOffce.  In
that respect, it is similar to python, java, boost, hsqldb, libjpeg, curl,
lpsolve, or anyone of hundreds of other project.  Are those competing
projects?

Second, I can recommend that LibreOffice contributors join Apache OpenOffice
because I am firmly convinced that would be in the best interests of the
LibreOffice project.  Amazingly, your response does not even argue
otherwise.  Instead, your response focuses on the fact even if it were in
the best interests of the LibreOffice project, for personal reasons you
would never consider reconciling with it.  That to me is just astounding,
that you are open and brazen about putting your personal issues ahead of the
project.

Here's what could have been: The world could have woken up one morning to an
announcement by the TdF congratulating the Apache Foundation for joining the
OpenOffice community, and stating that it was looking forward to working
with Apache, IBM and all other interested parties to create the best
possible open document technologies, and that the TdF would be incorporating
those technologies into LibreOffice in order to make it the best end-user
office suite possible.  The world could have then read in the press and
trade magazines that virtually all of the LibreOffice developers had joined
the Apache OpenOffice project, that the community had been reunited and that
the future was bright.  The end users (remember the end users, the ones I
talked about in my last post that you seem intent on ignoring?), heartened
by the optimistic message and comforted by the reunification of the
community, would have come back off the sidelines looking to benefit from
the project, and many of them would have discovered LibreOffice.  The
LibreOffice project would when be boosted by thousands of new users, and
possibly could over time have developed a reputation as the best OpenOffice
package.

Instead, due to your personal issues, the world has heard a much different
story: that you were dissed or slighted; that there is possibly some problem
with the TdF or LibreOffice that people keep talking about, and no matter
how much it is denied, the nagging feeling persists that it might be true;
and that the LibreOffice community refuses to work with IBM or the Apache
Foundation for personal reasons.

It seems that your story about being dissed or slighted in one of your
favorite stories, and you are determined to keep telling it for a long time.
I'm quite certain that the end users (remember the end users, the ones I
talked about in my last post that you seem intent on ignoring?) aren't
interested in that story.

With just a few simple actions on your part, you could have accomplished in
a few minutes what would have taken you at least a year to accomplish with
just programming (if it can even be accomplished that way at all).  That's
right, in this world, marketing matters.  User perception matters.  The best
mouse trap does not always win.  A few positives stories in the press can
make or break a fledgling project.  You can spend years developing software,
and then sabotage it in a minute with a poor marketing decision.  Such is
that nature of business.

So my all means, continue forward with your decision that your personal
story is what really matters.  That is your prerogative.  Meanwhile, the
LibreOffice project will never be what it could have been.  The opportunity
that has been lost will never come back again.  That is the tragedy.

Best Regards,

Allen



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