Linuxfr.org Connect Go-OO, an alternative to OpenOffice Latest Comments Labels (TAGS) Popular Sites Friends About Linuxfr.org

By fashionlifeshopping 16/10/2022 788 Views

The OpenOffice office suite.Org is one of the standard of the world of free software.This suite is very complete since it brings together many modules (word processor, spreadsheet, database, drawing, presentation, etc..)) and that it works on several platforms (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and other UNIX)).Its data format is open and standardized and its cost is zero.So many advantages which make it a formidable competitor for the Office suite of Microsoft since many companies and administrations are gradually migrating to OpenOffice and that more and more individuals use the free suite on their computer.Yet everything is not rosy in the world of OpenOffice and criticisms have never spared the software: too long launch time, Pachydermal memory occupation, different interface of the rest of the environment, integration of unnecessary functions, compulsory assignmentfrom copyright to sun.The correction of these faults seems far too slow for some since Michael Meeks, Desktop Architect at NOVELL and in charge of OpenOffice, has just declared to the daily der Standard that the exasperation was at its height and that it wanted the modified version Go-Oo replaces OpenOffice.NdM : Novell est à la fois connue pour son implication dans les projets libres (SUSE, OpenExchange, Ximian, Eclipse, etc.)) and for its relations with Microsoft (2006 agreement, implementation of the OpenXML office automation format, see the list of improvements offered in Ooo, etc..)).Novell would have always wanted to include various new features in OpenOffice but certain circumstances would make these code additions difficult to add.First of all, the copyright of the code which is contributed must be given to the Sun company and this poses a problem for many people. Cette assignation de copyright est une chose qui existe pour d'autres projets (par exemple la FSF souhaite une assignation de copyright pour les gros patchs de GCC)) mais le fait de devoir faire confiance à la multinationale Sun n'est pas la même chose que de devoir faire confiance à une fondation à but non lucratif et dédiée au logiciel libre.According to Michael Meeks, Sun was asked to open the door to other free players but it did not work: "They tried to invent a compromise and they created this very laborious process, the constitution ofAdvisory council.And then they met and they met and they talked and they talked and ultimately, they developed a means of integrating their source code into the OpenOffice standard.org.So, you can put your code in their CVS, but it is necessary to fulfill a list of conditions which are probably almost impossible to satisfy.Offering this dreadfully bad system as their ultimate offer to try to obtain contributors is pathetic.It's derisory ".Michael Meeks also criticizes the fact that Sun tries to artificially increase the attendance of his sites by offering certain essential functions only through plugins instead of including them from the start. Ainsi le gestionnaire de rapports (report builder)) du module de base de données doit être téléchargé alors que c'est une partie cruciale de ce module.Novell therefore decided to solve these various problems by offering its users a specific version of OpenOffice called Go-Oo including many new functions.Faced with the lack of good will of Sun, which has so far been only a version with additional patches which was present in the suse distribution is on the way to becoming a real fork.Sun, still in a precarious financial state, reduces his investment in OpenOffice and this worries Michael Meeks: "One of the most sad things is that we see that Sun gradually loses his interest in investing in OpenOffice.We see Sun reducing the number of developers and at the same time they require the property of all the code, which blocks the desire to invest in other developers ”.Ce blocage politique serait d'autant plus rageant que tout le monde reconnaît qu'OpenOffice a besoin de grandes modifications : « L'interface actuelle est une boite à outils de composants graphiques (widget toolkit)) nommée VCL.This is really something that dates from the 90s, a real disaster, and it has not improved since ".These vast changes are, according to Michael Meeks, made impossible by Sun's immobility and he therefore calls for the use of go-oo instead: "I think reason is just frustration.We want to provide good experience to the user, we want our code to be available and we want it to be included in the product.If Sun does not want to include it we have to do it ourselves.So we now offer our own versions for Windows as well as generic versions for Linux and we encourage people to use these versions.We would really like to have a unified version but, so far, this has not been possible with Sun ”.The Go-Oo project does not require the summons of copyright and prefers a more open model.The home page of the site proclaims: "We believe that the summons of Copyright to a single commercial entity opens the door to abuses to the interests of the developer community.We prefer a collective property (see. Mozilla, GNOME, KDE, Linux)) ou une fondation indépendante et méritocratique (cf. Eclipse, Apache)) pour détenir les droits".Go-oo improvements compared to OpenOffice are: we can therefore see that the improvements are substantial and that it is a shame that the lack of opening of Sun blocks the inclusion of these new functions.Novell therefore tries, with the improved go-oo version, to put pressure on Sun in order to force it to let go of ballast and to sell the exclusive property of the free suite.By offering additional functions, by working on performance and not requiring copyright allocation, NOVELL begins to build a credible alternative and hopes to join a critical mass of contributors.If Sun does not react and if users and OpenOffice contributors turn away from their software to prefer the more open version of NOVELL, then we could attend the start of the end for OpenOffice.org.