Is Open Office dying?

[PeterCH]

"Michael Meeks, who works full time developing OpenOffice, writes in his blog that the project is 'profoundly sick.' 'In a healthy project we would expect to see a large number of volunteer developers involved, in addition — we would expect to see a large number of peer companies contributing to the common code pool; we do not see this in OpenOffice.org. Indeed, quite the opposite we appear to have the lowest number of active developers on O since records began: 24, this contrasts negatively with Linux's recent low of 160+. Even spun in the most positive way, O is at best stagnating from a development perspective.'"

http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/28/0124230

So it's IBM Symphony then or pay up for M$ Office?

 

[vespax]

Or use iWork which is still cheaper than M$ Office.

I used Open Office when I had a PC. I liked some of the features but others just did not work well enough to use for everything. I seemed to have formatting troubles all the time with O

To get people excited about developing it, they need to move it into a 'cooler' development arena. Pass it into the Mozilla camp or something where people are excited about working on Open Source stuff. Currently it seems like corporate software for Sun Microsystems or something. And who wants to give their own time and talent to build something for a corporation?

my 0.02

 

[slayerza]

Agreed that maybe some more exposure could be ideal. The ideals of O is good and given enough resources it could be a good application. Maybe never as good as MS Office but definitely suitable for the average user only wanting a spreadsheet and not some macro running scientific / accounting tool

 

[PeterCH]

Agreed that maybe some more exposure could be ideal. The ideals of O is good and given enough resources it could be a good application. Maybe never as good as MS Office but definitely suitable for the average user only wanting a spreadsheet and not some macro running scientific / accounting tool

Agree.

On a similar not can anything hope to be as Good as MS Office?

iWork perhaps.
Also there is IBM Symphony. Any1 use that? It's free.

 

[krycor]

Google docs is pretty good for basic stuff.. only issue i always have is where a page ends

 

[PeterCH]

Google docs is pretty good for basic stuff.. only issue i always have is where a page ends

You need to be online for it to work or not?

 

[kilps]

You need to be online for it to work or not?

If you've got Google Gears installed then most features work offline...

 

[PeterCH]

If you've got Google Gears installed then most features work offline...

This reminds me, guys Metal Gear Solid, great game!

What about IBM (Lotus) Symphony?

 

[vespax]

What about IBM (Lotus) Symphony?

f it is anything like Lotus Notes email than I would never touch it. I cringe every time I open my email at work. I feel like I step back in time 10 years...

 

[RVFmal]

f it is anything like Lotus Notes email than I would never touch it. I cringe every time I open my email at work. I feel like I step back in time 10 years...

Couldn't agree more......... I absolutely despise Lotus Notes.

 

[RVFmal]

http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/28/0124230

So it's IBM Symphony then or pay up for M$ Office?

Isn't IBM Symphony based on Open Office?

 

[PeterCH]

Isn't IBM Symphony based on Open Office?

Not based on Ami Pro then?

 

[Abe]

Not based on Ami Pro then?

It's based on OpenOffice. A bit of a strange decision.

 

[RVFmal]

Not based on Ami Pro then?

Apparently not. It is a bit of a strange decision.

 

[stoke]

Does open office need more development?

 

[2CentsWorth]

I think a lot of this is thanks to Google's office system. I did a server installation at a busy architecture firm the other day, and was astonished to see everyone using Google's online office suite. After enquiring about this I was told its company policy!

 

[2CentsWorth]

Does open office need more development?

If it wants to compete, yes.

 

[alloytoo]

OO 3 was only recently releashed, wouldn't surprize me if a lot of the developers are taking a bit of breather

 

[Bernie]

I buy the home/student edition of MS-office. I get three licenses. Its only about R800 if I recall. For me its cheap enough to not want to bother with OO.