OpenOffice.org has long been the leading free and open source alternative to Microsoft’s widely used Office package. The software has set download records on new releases, and estimates suggest it now accounts for about 10 percent of the overall office suite market.
When Oracle bought Sun, the open-source projects such as OpenOffice.org and the free database application MySQL that were managed by Sun Microsystems became a concern to the open-source community. The concern was heightenened by Oracle’s decision to drop OpenSolaris.
As a result, a group of programmers decided to fork OpenOffice.org. Now known as The Document Foundation, the newly independent OpenOffice.org community aims to fulfill the promise of independence written in the original charter for the project.
They will distribute a version of the open-source office productivity suite under the name “LibreOffice.” Although the group invited Oracle to offer its OpenOffice trademark, they made it clear they’re willing to proceed without the company.
“We believe that the foundation is a key step for the evolution of the free office suite, as it liberates the development of the code and the evolution of the project from the constraints represented by the commercial interests of a single company,” explained Sophie Gautier, a veteran community member.
While OpenOffice, aka LibreOffice, appears to have a bright future, what will happen with the open-source Java and MySQL projects remains somewhat unclear at this time.
