content/editorial/ec12Apr.html - openoffice-org - Git at Google

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 <h2>Community
   Articles: Opinions, Interviews, Analyses</h2>
 <p><a href="//lspintro.html" target="_blank">-Louis Su&aacute;rez-Potts</a></p>
 <p>12 April 2001</p>
 <p>&nbsp;</p>
 <h4>What Must Be Done: The Mac OS X Port </h4>
 <p>It's no exaggeration to say that the Mac community has been eagerly awaiting
   the release of the OpenOffice.org port to Mac OS X. And I have to count myself
   among them.&nbsp; Thus, when I learned of <a href="//www-announce/msg00045.html" target="_blank">Sun's
   decision</a> to hand over further development of the port to the Open Source
   community, specifically OpenOffice.org, my feelings were mixed.</p>

 <p>On the one hand, I confess to being a little disappointed. I was looking forward
   to using StarOffice this month on my brand-new, utterly beautiful Mac, and grumble
   now that I'll have to wait until the port is completed by the Open Source community.
 </p>
 <p>But this news--that the Open Source community is now responsible for the port--is
   hardly disappointing. In fact, from my perspective as an Open Source advocate
   and Mac aficionado, the news is rather exciting. For what Sun has done is take
   the Open Source community at its word and offer it what is in effect the chance
   to prove itself.</p>
 <p>Specifically the <i>Mac</i> Open Source community, which now must finish the
   work that Sun has begun--and Sun has gone a long way already. In this sense,
   then, it is indeed a radical transfer of responsibility and management: from
   a corporate structure, largely opaque to outside eyes, in which engineers craft
   the software as a finished commodity for consumers, to an Open Source community,
   where there is a strong, structural, and active link between the maker of the
   product and the user of the product.</p>
 <p>I'm not sure that theorists of Open Source play up that angle enough, and it's
   important. So I'll emphasize it here. The link between the maker and the user
   is, in Open Source, a <i>working</i> link that is ultimately pragmatic in a
   way typical commodity relations never can be. That's because the Open Source
   work addresses the real needs the consumer (no: user!) has and at a cost (often
   close to free: as in beer) that is compelling both for the large U.S. corporation
   tired and no longer so economically able to divert thousands upon thousands
   of dollars for incessant, meaningless upgrades (&quot;upgrades&quot; that deal
   merely with prior problems), and for businesses overseas that must deal with
   a wholly different economic environment and a language far removed from the
   default English in which the software has, without a doubt, been written for.
 </p>

 <p>In contrast, Open Source software resolves the needs of a company both by being
   responsive to user demand--developers constantly work on a project, and no project
   is ever deemed finished, for users constantly raise new points--and by being,
   very likely, actually affordable by the users who need to use the software in
   the first place. But all this propaganda for Open Source is old hat, at least
   for the OpenOffice.org community: we've heard it before. Yet, not only is it
   good to hear again, but I recite these truths to situate the real value of having
   the Mac OS X port to OpenOffice.org code available now for development.</p>

 <p>And it needs development for that value to be realized. More accurately, the
   port needs the developmental efforts of the vaunted Mac community--<i>now</i>.&nbsp;
   Individuals can certainly build the port--the instructions are clear enough
   and the engineers did a beautiful job. But to shape the code into something
   that will provide what users need--that will require more than a team effort;
   it will require a concerted <i>community</i> effort. </p>

 <p>So I call on the Mac developers in the OpenOffice.org community and even outside
   our community to start the race. Of course, this means that we will have to
   reach out to Mac developers who might otherwise not venture to this community.
   Let us, then. We can email developers in OS X communities, post messages and
   notices, and emphasize what the stakes are and what the rewards are. Both are
   high: a superior office suite designed to run natively in Mac OS X (Apple's
   soon-to-be default OS), designed for real users, and supported by the Open Source
   community. </p>

 <p>And we must start now.</p>
 <p>&nbsp;</p><h4>Mac OS X Porting Information</h4>

 <p>For OpenOffice.org information on the port, see <a href="http://porting.openoffice.org/mac" target="_blank">Mac
   OS X: Porting Information</a>: <a
 href="http://porting.openoffice.org/mac">http://porting.openoffice.org/mac</a>.
 </p>
   <p>For links to Mac OS X developers, see, as a start: </p>

 <p><span style='color:black'><a href="http://www.opensource.apple.com/projects/mail.html" target="_blank">Apple
   Open Source Mailing Lists</a>: </span><span style='color:blue'><u>http://www.opensource.apple.com/projects/mail.html</u></span></p>

 <p><a href="http://osx.macnn.com/" target="_blank">MacNN OS X</a>: <span style='color:blue'><u>http://osx.macnn.com/</u></span></p>

 <p><a href="http://forums.macnn.com/" target="_blank">MacNN Reader Forums</a>,
   <a href="http://forums.macnn.com/">http://forums.macnn.com/</a>, and scroll
   down to the forum on Mac OS X for a list of topics.</p>
 <p>&nbsp;</p>
 <h4><a href="editors.html">Previous Articles
   </a></h4>
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	<h2>Community
	Articles: Opinions, Interviews, Analyses</h2>
	<p><a href="//lspintro.html" target="_blank">-Louis Suárez-Potts</a></p>
	<p>12 April 2001</p>
	<p> </p>
	<h4>What Must Be Done: The Mac OS X Port </h4>
	<p>It's no exaggeration to say that the Mac community has been eagerly awaiting
	the release of the OpenOffice.org port to Mac OS X. And I have to count myself
	among them.  Thus, when I learned of <a href="//www-announce/msg00045.html" target="_blank">Sun's
	decision</a> to hand over further development of the port to the Open Source
	community, specifically OpenOffice.org, my feelings were mixed.</p>

	<p>On the one hand, I confess to being a little disappointed. I was looking forward
	to using StarOffice this month on my brand-new, utterly beautiful Mac, and grumble
	now that I'll have to wait until the port is completed by the Open Source community.
	</p>
	<p>But this news--that the Open Source community is now responsible for the port--is
	hardly disappointing. In fact, from my perspective as an Open Source advocate
	and Mac aficionado, the news is rather exciting. For what Sun has done is take
	the Open Source community at its word and offer it what is in effect the chance
	to prove itself.</p>
	<p>Specifically the <i>Mac</i> Open Source community, which now must finish the
	work that Sun has begun--and Sun has gone a long way already. In this sense,
	then, it is indeed a radical transfer of responsibility and management: from
	a corporate structure, largely opaque to outside eyes, in which engineers craft
	the software as a finished commodity for consumers, to an Open Source community,
	where there is a strong, structural, and active link between the maker of the
	product and the user of the product.</p>
	<p>I'm not sure that theorists of Open Source play up that angle enough, and it's
	important. So I'll emphasize it here. The link between the maker and the user
	is, in Open Source, a <i>working</i> link that is ultimately pragmatic in a
	way typical commodity relations never can be. That's because the Open Source
	work addresses the real needs the consumer (no: user!) has and at a cost (often
	close to free: as in beer) that is compelling both for the large U.S. corporation
	tired and no longer so economically able to divert thousands upon thousands
	of dollars for incessant, meaningless upgrades ("upgrades" that deal
	merely with prior problems), and for businesses overseas that must deal with
	a wholly different economic environment and a language far removed from the
	default English in which the software has, without a doubt, been written for.
	</p>

	<p>In contrast, Open Source software resolves the needs of a company both by being
	responsive to user demand--developers constantly work on a project, and no project
	is ever deemed finished, for users constantly raise new points--and by being,
	very likely, actually affordable by the users who need to use the software in
	the first place. But all this propaganda for Open Source is old hat, at least
	for the OpenOffice.org community: we've heard it before. Yet, not only is it
	good to hear again, but I recite these truths to situate the real value of having
	the Mac OS X port to OpenOffice.org code available now for development.</p>

	<p>And it needs development for that value to be realized. More accurately, the
	port needs the developmental efforts of the vaunted Mac community--<i>now</i>.
	Individuals can certainly build the port--the instructions are clear enough
	and the engineers did a beautiful job. But to shape the code into something
	that will provide what users need--that will require more than a team effort;
	it will require a concerted <i>community</i> effort. </p>

	<p>So I call on the Mac developers in the OpenOffice.org community and even outside
	our community to start the race. Of course, this means that we will have to
	reach out to Mac developers who might otherwise not venture to this community.
	Let us, then. We can email developers in OS X communities, post messages and
	notices, and emphasize what the stakes are and what the rewards are. Both are
	high: a superior office suite designed to run natively in Mac OS X (Apple's
	soon-to-be default OS), designed for real users, and supported by the Open Source
	community. </p>

	<p>And we must start now.</p>
	<p> </p><h4>Mac OS X Porting Information</h4>

	<p>For OpenOffice.org information on the port, see <a href="http://porting.openoffice.org/mac" target="_blank">Mac
	OS X: Porting Information</a>: <a
	href="http://porting.openoffice.org/mac">http://porting.openoffice.org/mac</a>.
	</p>
	<p>For links to Mac OS X developers, see, as a start: </p>

	<p><span style='color:black'><a href="http://www.opensource.apple.com/projects/mail.html" target="_blank">Apple
	Open Source Mailing Lists</a>: </span><span style='color:blue'><u>http://www.opensource.apple.com/projects/mail.html</u></span></p>

	<p><a href="http://osx.macnn.com/" target="_blank">MacNN OS X</a>: <span style='color:blue'><u>http://osx.macnn.com/</u></span></p>

	<p><a href="http://forums.macnn.com/" target="_blank">MacNN Reader Forums</a>,
	<a href="http://forums.macnn.com/">http://forums.macnn.com/</a>, and scroll
	down to the forum on Mac OS X for a list of topics.</p>
	<p> </p>
	<h4><a href="editors.html">Previous Articles
	</a></h4>
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	</html>