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Subject: Re: [DISCUSS] What Would OpenOffice Retirement Involve? (long)
To: OOo Apache <dev@openoffice.apache.org>
References: <1d87639e-3196-c0ef-48a8-1a1950cd874d@apache.org>
From: Pedro Giffuni <pfg@apache.org>
Message-ID: <8dc7ac90-cdd4-b42f-759b-41160422b084@apache.org>
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2016 11:07:23 -0500
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Jim Jagielski wrote:

> Yes, I would assume that many existing people would leave.
>

Not only end-users you would likely lose existing the active
developers as well. In fact the project would be so different
that if you manage to get enough new people I think you would
have to rename it and go through the incubator again.


> But, as I mentioned, I would assume (hope) that many people
> would join, and many of those would be from others in the
> entire OO eco-system.
>

No, LibreOffice developers are happy with what they have and have
repeatedly stated they don't need anything from ASF (despite taking
our patches).

I am also tired of getting spam from their list claiming I am a
"contributor" to LibreOffice.

> Your reply seems to suggest that with the current status of AOO,
> maintaining an end-user focus is possible. Current evidence,
> unfortunately, makes that somewhat questionable.
>

The thing is none of us are paid developers and can only dedicate
to this project some spare time. I thought that was how opensource
projects are generally meant to be.

Linux users seem to want a faster release cycle and since most of the
distributions moved to libreoffice they seem to blame us for that.

Windows users are not complaining, AFAICT.

If end-user focus is not possible then AOO has no purpose. I develop
AOO for my own use, others may have other reasons but I have no idea
what may push such level of masochism.

This said, projects die, it just happens, and if we die that's it.
People will still look for the last OpenOffice release and they are
not expecting to be redirected to a different project. Just like
Dennis pointed out retiring OpenOffice is a not simple task.

Just like Andrea pointed out it is still easier to push out a
new release than it is to retire OpenOffice. On the other hand
if you start bullying our release manager and the existing
developers we can just shut down abruptly and leave AOO to
the shareware marketers.

> The current status-quo is untenable and unacceptable. Change
> needs to happen. I suggested one route, nothing more, nothing
> less.

Exactly what needs to happen? Is there a rule within the ASF that we 
have to do releases every X number of months or N number of commits
per week? We have material for a new release but there are technical
issues that have to be solved other equally active but less publicly
recognized projects have the same issues.

Of course I would prefer to spend time on coding than having to explain 
this altogether.

Pedro.

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