[HLUG] OOo to Apache

[Steve Horsfield]

Copied fro the Open source Schools list, but I cannot imagine the Apache
author did not anticipate circulation.

Ross Gardler rgardler at apache.org


















hide details 11:10 (7 minutes ago)

I would encourage people not to speculate.

This is a proposal nothing more. The whining from the TDF and LO communities
that they were not consulted is based on an incomplete knowledge of the
situation. Only a handful of people knew about the intention to make this
*proposal* until yesterday.

The TDF and LibreOffice steering committees were informed/engaged in April
(I don't know what happened in that meeting, I was not there). They chose
not to mention it to the broader community for obvious press relations
reasons. They knew that the real community discussion starts once the
proposal is official.

They issued a statement at the same time as Oracle, IBM and Apache.

The ASF community (outside those involved with the initial idea) knew
nothing of this until the proposal was made yesterday. In other words, the
ASF community, like the LO and TDF co knows the AFommunities, have not yet
spoken.

This is a *proposal* for incubation at the ASF. The real discussion about
the proposal started yesterday on public mailing lists, just like any other
Incubation proposal at the ASF.

Statements like "Oracle and IBM making a bi-lateral decision with ASF" are
way off the mark. The only decision that has been made is the decision to
propose it for incubation. The shape of that proposal is under discussion
right now on *public* lists.

If anyone on this list cares then the best thing to do is participate in the
discussion, or at the very least read along (search http://markmail.org for
"list:incubator openoffice").

However, as someone who knows the ASF better than many I would like to make
one observation (in this matter I do not speak for the foundation, these are
my own opinions):

worst case: OOo is licenced under a permissive licence with explicit patent
licence that is compatible (one way) with the GPL3. The code rots in the ASF
but other communities can take it an use it without fear of legal action.
That is, the worst case means TDF are in a safer place than they were with
the code rotting in Oracles vaults.

best case: OOo becomes a set of permissive licenced libraries with explicit
patent license that can be reused in any environment and safely collaborated
on in the neutral space that is the ASF. This is the stated intention of IBM
representatives on the incubation proposal. It'll be hard to achieve, but
IBM know the ASF is neutral and has, in the past, been on the recieving end
of Board intervention to ensure Apache projects are neutral. IBM chose not
to join TDF and LibreOffice. My understanding is that, at least in part,
this is because it's governance structure is not neutral.

Both the worst case and best case scenarios (and everything in between) are
a step forward from the limbo land OOo is currently in.

Some may prefer a different licence, I'm not interested in that argument. No
solution to a complex social situation is entirely satisfactory. Lets not
debate what could have/should have/would have been. Instead lets put our
energies into benefiting from what *is* happening.

You never know it might turn out that TDF and LO give sufficiently strong
arguments that the ASF incubator votes no (I doubt it given the cautious
welcome the proposal has received so far from official releases).

Ross



Ross


Steve Horsfield