Ubuntu Selects LibreOffice to Replace OpenOffice
Ubuntu Selects LibreOffice to Replace OpenOffice
Posted 01/26/2011 at 6:53am
| by Paul Lilly
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Going forward, Ubuntu's developers decided it is in the best interest of the open source OS to ship with LibreOffice for its productivity suite, replacing the Oracle-owned OpenOffice that previously came pre-installed. That includes Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal), which will be available April 28, 2011, ZDNet confirmed.
LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice, which came into being after contributors for the latter became fed up with how Oracle was handling (or not handling) things, and thus LibreOffice was born.
"Oracle needs to see where we're going, and the momentum, and what they can provide," LibreOffice developer Michael Meeks told THINQ last year. "It takes a long time for people steeped in ten to fifteen years of proprietary development to understand free software, and if you look at how that community was structured inside OpenOffice, there were many obvious weaknesses and it's a shame that their experience has been that free software does not provide compelling value [to Oracle]."
The decision by Ubuntu makes it the first major Linux distro to ship with LibreOffice, assuming the due date doesn't get pushed back. Fedora 15, due out on May 10th, will also ship with LibreOffice.
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ShyLinuxGuy
January 26, 2011 at 7:06am
I like how Oracle is taking everything Sun is about--from the workstations to Java to the OpenOffice project--and plastering THEIR name all over it instead of keeping Sun's name. I also like how Oracle is being extremely uncooperative with the OpenOffice project. Oracle was just about databases, it should of stayed that way. /sarcasm
Sun Microsystems shouldn't have integrated into Oracle; it should be similar to the relationship between the old Daimler (Benz) and Chrysler merger, for example. Two totally different companies, had occasional collaboration between the two yet still remained separate.
Anyhow, I'm looking forward to the new LibreOffice. OpenOffice is quite sufficient, being that sans the fancy WordArt, animations and little gizmos here and there, it costs $300 less than Microsoft Office--nothing.
praetor_alpha
January 26, 2011 at 10:47am
I absolutely adore how Oracle killed OpenOffice. They were doing the same to Java, but a lawsuit or 2 later, nothing's happened. They really should open up the Java compliance tests, but Oracle seems to be asserting that Java is all for itself, and no one else, except that's not the way open source works.
I wonder how much time VirtualBox has.
big_montana
January 26, 2011 at 7:21am
If Oracle does to Sun Whar Benz did to Chrysler, than Sun will cease to exist, as Benz "purchased" Chrysler for it's $7 billion dollar cash surplus, which they used to mdernoze Benz facilities. When the the coffers at Chrysler ran dry, then they dumped them. The same will happen to Sun, and is happening, as you see the support for open source products is being shut down.
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