[CW] OT But free

Fri Dec 24 21:37:13 EST 2010

Gene,

This is getting WAY off topic.

When I looked last week at LibreOffice it said this is alpha software and
not recommended for production machines.  My comments about LibreOffice
going to be free and open source means that when it is released it isn't
going to be.  A week ago - the page I looked at on their web site had no
release candidate.  I would have said so if it did.  I didn't mean that it
wasn't open source and then was going to change - it hasn't been released
yet.

I just wanted people to grab a free version of a decent office package
before things change.

Just watch and see what happens - I think there will be a court case on
this.

I agree with you Gene, but it seems that Oracle doesn't agree with us.

I'll be glad to talk to you off the list, but this wasn't supposed to be a
discussion of something it was meant to be a "grab a copy for free" because
it might be that Open Office is going away.

As it turns out, that maybe true, but it looks like LibreOffice is about set
to release its first version.

Enough on this now.

DR

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On Fri, Dec 24, 2010 at 5:36 PM, Gene Buckle <geneb at deltasoft.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 24 Dec 2010, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. wrote:
>
> > Gene,
> >
> > As I said before that download will soon stop being free.  Oracle owns
> the
> > intellectual property contained in OpenOffice.
> >
> I've seen nothing that leads me to think that Oracle is going to close up
> OpenOffice.  Keep in mind that due to the licensing, I can grab the
> installer and put it online for anyone to download and there isn't a damn
> thing Oracle can do to stop me.  It's perfectly legal according to the
> license.  Of course, they could take a snapshot of OpenOffice, change the
> license and put the installer behind a paywall.  It would be monumentally
> stupid, but it's certainly possible.
>
> With respect to what Oracle "owns" in OpenOffice... well they own the
> trademark to "OpenOffice" and _some_ Copyrights to the code, but no "IP".
> Keep in mind, because the OpenOffice source code is licensed under the
> LGPL, _anyone_ can rename it and do whatever they like with it as long as
> they provide the source code for the "new" version to anyone that asks.  I
> could download the sources & docs, change every instance of OpenOffice to
> GeneOffice and create a new installer that I charge $500 for.  As long as
> I've got a link to the source code that's _outside_ that paywall, I'm
> fully compliant with the license.
>
> > However there is a fork called LibreOffice which I found out is going to
> be
> > open source and free to use.
> >
> LibreOffice isn't "going to be", it already IS open source.  LibreOffice
> is essentially OpenOffice with some feature patches applied.  It carries
> the same license as OO does.
>
> > Their web site says their version is not stable and recommended for use
> on
> > production machines.
> >
> It says "This version of LibreOffice is a "release candidate". This means
> that it is largely finalized, but there are still some issues that we are
> currently addressing. Please remember that a "release candidate" is not
> intended for use in situations in which an unexpected problem would cause
> you serious inconvenience (it is not yet "production-ready"). For
> "mission-critical production use", please wait for the final version."
>
> It does in no way imply that it's "unstable" and I'm very curious to
> understand why you would think that it is.
>
> g.
>
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