It's true that those looking inward who refer to themselves as "we all" might have moved elsewhere. Me, I've still got all my users on OpenOffice. I'm willing to bet I made the right decision... (I already bet my reputation at work on it)
Only time will tell whether or not Apache Open Office will thrive. The one thing Open Office has going for it is brand recognition by the average user. It's much easier to just give them Open Office than to explain that LibreOffice is a derivative and the reason it forked.
I actively work to help the people around me use Open Source software when they can. And if they start using it, I also start giving them small lessons on the culture behind it.
I think understanding how a disagreement like this plays out is actually important for understanding why Open Source software is so fantastic for users. A lot of things like this would've resulted in a proprietary software product somehow becoming much less useful over time. One company buys another and thinks the software the bought company made is redundant with their other 'competitive' offerings and so kills it. One company goes out of business and the users of the software are left hanging. etc...
Seeing how this plays out in the Open Source world is instructive, and I think empowering.
who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)
we all moved to LibreOffice
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
It's true that those looking inward who refer to themselves as "we all" might have moved elsewhere. Me, I've still got all my users on OpenOffice. I'm willing to bet I made the right decision... (I already bet my reputation at work on it)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
It's much easier to just give them Open Office than to explain that LibreOffice is a derivative and the reason it forked.
Who would ever try to explain it like that?
Me: "LibreOffice is the new version of OpenOffice."
Co-worker: "Oh, ok."
Re:who cares? (Score:2)
I actually enjoy explaining the history.
I actively work to help the people around me use Open Source software when they can. And if they start using it, I also start giving them small lessons on the culture behind it.
I think understanding how a disagreement like this plays out is actually important for understanding why Open Source software is so fantastic for users. A lot of things like this would've resulted in a proprietary software product somehow becoming much less useful over time. One company buys another and thinks the software the bought company made is redundant with their other 'competitive' offerings and so kills it. One company goes out of business and the users of the software are left hanging. etc...
Seeing how this plays out in the Open Source world is instructive, and I think empowering.