[OT] Migrating from non-free programs to LibreOffice

[Ben Finney]

Michael Torrie <torriem at gmail.com> writes:

> On 01/05/2014 04:30 PM, Ben Finney wrote:
> > In short: Everything that was good about OpenOffice is now called
> > LibreOffice, which had to change its name only because the owners of
> > that name refused to let it go.
>
> Your information is a year or two out of date. […]

I'm aware of the facts you listed, and they don't change what I stated
above.

>  They really need to merge back into one project again, but I suspect
> they won't either for ideological or legal reasons. The former is very
> sad and not a good commentary on the viability of open source
> software.

On the contrary: It's a sad commentary on what happens to any software
project under a centralised party that loses interest in it and just
sits on it for years.

The fact that we have the vibrant free-software office suites we now
have is a testament to the strength of free software — the developers
were able to rescue the project from the grip of a corporation that
would never have freed it otherwise.


Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> writes:

> Sad. This is yet another of those politically-charged distinctions
> that, quite frankly, I have no interest in.

I raised the point because you're giving advice to others on which
software to use. If you have no interest in the distinctions, perhaps
you should cultivate such an interest to know what software you're
referring to when advising others.

-- 
 \        “With Lisp or Forth, a master programmer has unlimited power |
  `\     and expressiveness. With Python, even a regular guy can reach |
_o__)                               for the stars.” —Raymond Hettinger |
Ben Finney