content/white_papers/OOo_project/introduction.html - openoffice-org - Git at Google

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 <h2>The OpenOffice.org Project
 </h2> <br>
   <br>
 <p><b>Introduction</b>

 <br>
 The OpenOffice.org project is an historic development for the open systems world
 and the open source movement. In a networked age, the rules by which software is
 created, defined, and distributed are being redefined. Software, in essence a
 powerful form of expressing human knowledge and logic, is entering the realm of
 other free and open forms for the expression of human ideas. The pervasiveness of
 the network has been central in driving this redefinition of the qualities of software.
 The need for certain forms of software to be available in an equitable form becomes
 very apparent, especially when related to the creation, exchange, and communication
 of information. It is important to note that in recent times, some of the most
 significant forces that have influenced change in our information-centric world have
 resulted from the use of tools and formats for mechanisms such as e-mail, Web
 servers and Web browser, IRC, and even the very recent Instant Messenger service.
 All of these software-based infrastructures have shifted to be foundational in nature,
 based upon technology standards and formats available to all innovators, without
 restriction.<br><br>
 The OpenOffice.org project establishes these same freedoms for the software
 technology used for information collection commonly called office documents. As a
 result of these office document formats and the implementation of their accompanying
 software application utilities becoming foundational technologies — freely
 available to all through the OpenOffice.org project — office documents have made
 the important transition from the proprietary world to become universal,
 incorporated into the foundational network information standards. The
 OpenOffice.org project marks the beginning of an era of universality for office
 productivity documents as well as their arrival as network standard formats and
 services.
 <br><br><br>
 <a NAME=what_is><b>What is Open Office.org?</b></a>
 <br>
 OpenOffice.org is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is
 releasing the technology that powers the globally popular StarOffice&#153; productivity
 suite. The OpenOffice.org project establishes the necessary facilities to make this
 open source technology available to the developer communities worldwide. Source
 code technology will be made publicly available via the Internet in both tar-ball and
 CVS formats. The project site will provide forums for direct communications and
 discussions among developers. Plus, the project site is constructed to provide a
 center for full and comprehensive information regarding all aspects of the project
 and its technology. This includes details on the technology and how it can be used as
 a basis for further innovation, for example, from API and architectural
 documentation through to planning, news, and promotional information.<br><br>
 The OpenOffice.org network hosted community can be found at <a HREF="/">
 /.</a>
 <br><br><br>
 <a NAME=why_is><b>Why is Sun Microsystems doing this?</b></a>
 <br><br>
 <a NAME=strategic><b>Strategic Background</b></a><br>Sun Microsystems was founded in 1982 upon three principles. First, that open
 systems' strategies for technology will ultimately expand the markets for
 information technology products more successfully than those derived from a
 proprietary basis. Second, that the network was to become the foundation upon
 which all computing platforms would be constructed in such an open systems
 world, expressed by Sun's visionary slogan "The Network is the Computer&#153;". And third, the law of innovation commonly described by Bill Joy, (co-founder of Sun
 Microsystems and original leader of the seminal open source BSD project) as
 "Innovation will occur" and its corollary, "that it will occur elsewhere" requires that
 strategies must be sought to embrace the concepts of the innovators who will be
 "elsewhere" by definition.<br><br>
 Sun recognizes that all the successful software and network technologies it uses and
 develops must have these foundational principles at their core. A brief review of
 Sun's statements and actions from its beginning will show a consistency in
 developing the means to build itself upon these same principles.
 <br><br>
 <a NAME=office_prod><b>Office Productivity for a Networked Age</b></a><br>Because future computing is being designed and built with the network as its
 foundation, Sun Microsystems has been committed to the development, adoption,
 and deployment of the network-based Open Information Architecture. From the core
 of TCP/IP to e-mail, NFS&#153;, XML, and Java&#153; technologies establishing the standards
 for this Open Information Architecture has always been a primary goal for
 contributing towards open systems and enabling a viable and compelling
 information computing future.<br><br>
 By 1998, it became clear that the office suite formats and utilities would need to
 become standardized and fully open definitions of the Open Information
 Architecture. The knowledge that the diverse forms of devices by which people
 would access and use the network and its computing resources would expand far
 beyond today's PC-class device meant that this would become a critical requirement.
 In August 1999, Sun acquired Star Division, Inc., the developer of a comprehensive,
 multi-platform, office productivity suite technology that was gaining momentum on
 open systems platforms. The Star Division technology offered the ideal technology
 basis and engineering talent to deliver on Sun's strategic objectives for an open
 definition of these formats and utilities. The component-based language and
 platform-neutral architecture of the StarOffice utilities were ideally suited to form
 the basis for an open office productivity suite. Prior to the acquisition, work towards
 XML-based office document file formats had also been progressing.<br><br>
 Since then, a focussed effort has been placed upon development of both the
 technologies and the details of the strategy necessary to introduce this next critical
 piece of the network-based Open Information Architecture. The launch of the
 OpenOffice.org project introduces this initiative.
 <br><br>
 <a NAME=future_prod><b>Future StarOffice Productivity Suite from Sun Microsystems</b></a><br>Sun Microsystems' engineering efforts that will deliver future versions of the
 StarOffice productivity suite will be derived directly from the OpenOffice.org
 technology base. Sun will use the single OpenOffice.org master CVS source base as
 its own engineering master source base. Thus, developers from all communities will
 be able to see Sun's development contributions on a daily basis and be able to
 become directly involved in the development of the OpenOffice.org technology as
 well as the branded StarOffice productivity suite.<br><br>
 For more detail regarding OpenOffice.org technology, a complementary white paper
 will be available that provides an in-depth overview of the component features,
 component system, XML formats, APIs, and environment enabling.

 <p ALIGN=right VALIGN=bottom><a HREF="preface.html">back</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a HREF="strategy.html">next</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
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	<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
	<html>
	<head>
	<title>The OpenOffice.org Project</title>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
	</head>
	<body>


	<h2>The OpenOffice.org Project
	</h2> <br>
	<br>
	<p><b>Introduction</b>

	<br>
	The OpenOffice.org project is an historic development for the open systems world
	and the open source movement. In a networked age, the rules by which software is
	created, defined, and distributed are being redefined. Software, in essence a
	powerful form of expressing human knowledge and logic, is entering the realm of
	other free and open forms for the expression of human ideas. The pervasiveness of
	the network has been central in driving this redefinition of the qualities of software.
	The need for certain forms of software to be available in an equitable form becomes
	very apparent, especially when related to the creation, exchange, and communication
	of information. It is important to note that in recent times, some of the most
	significant forces that have influenced change in our information-centric world have
	resulted from the use of tools and formats for mechanisms such as e-mail, Web
	servers and Web browser, IRC, and even the very recent Instant Messenger service.
	All of these software-based infrastructures have shifted to be foundational in nature,
	based upon technology standards and formats available to all innovators, without
	restriction.<br><br>
	The OpenOffice.org project establishes these same freedoms for the software
	technology used for information collection commonly called office documents. As a
	result of these office document formats and the implementation of their accompanying
	software application utilities becoming foundational technologies — freely
	available to all through the OpenOffice.org project — office documents have made
	the important transition from the proprietary world to become universal,
	incorporated into the foundational network information standards. The
	OpenOffice.org project marks the beginning of an era of universality for office
	productivity documents as well as their arrival as network standard formats and
	services.
	<br><br><br>
	<a NAME=what_is><b>What is Open Office.org?</b></a>
	<br>
	OpenOffice.org is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is
	releasing the technology that powers the globally popular StarOffice productivity
	suite. The OpenOffice.org project establishes the necessary facilities to make this
	open source technology available to the developer communities worldwide. Source
	code technology will be made publicly available via the Internet in both tar-ball and
	CVS formats. The project site will provide forums for direct communications and
	discussions among developers. Plus, the project site is constructed to provide a
	center for full and comprehensive information regarding all aspects of the project
	and its technology. This includes details on the technology and how it can be used as
	a basis for further innovation, for example, from API and architectural
	documentation through to planning, news, and promotional information.<br><br>
	The OpenOffice.org network hosted community can be found at <a HREF="/">
	/.</a>
	<br><br><br>
	<a NAME=why_is><b>Why is Sun Microsystems doing this?</b></a>
	<br><br>
	<a NAME=strategic><b>Strategic Background</b></a><br>Sun Microsystems was founded in 1982 upon three principles. First, that open
	systems' strategies for technology will ultimately expand the markets for
	information technology products more successfully than those derived from a
	proprietary basis. Second, that the network was to become the foundation upon
	which all computing platforms would be constructed in such an open systems
	world, expressed by Sun's visionary slogan "The Network is the Computer". And third, the law of innovation commonly described by Bill Joy, (co-founder of Sun
	Microsystems and original leader of the seminal open source BSD project) as
	"Innovation will occur" and its corollary, "that it will occur elsewhere" requires that
	strategies must be sought to embrace the concepts of the innovators who will be
	"elsewhere" by definition.<br><br>
	Sun recognizes that all the successful software and network technologies it uses and
	develops must have these foundational principles at their core. A brief review of
	Sun's statements and actions from its beginning will show a consistency in
	developing the means to build itself upon these same principles.
	<br><br>
	<a NAME=office_prod><b>Office Productivity for a Networked Age</b></a><br>Because future computing is being designed and built with the network as its
	foundation, Sun Microsystems has been committed to the development, adoption,
	and deployment of the network-based Open Information Architecture. From the core
	of TCP/IP to e-mail, NFS, XML, and Java technologies establishing the standards
	for this Open Information Architecture has always been a primary goal for
	contributing towards open systems and enabling a viable and compelling
	information computing future.<br><br>
	By 1998, it became clear that the office suite formats and utilities would need to
	become standardized and fully open definitions of the Open Information
	Architecture. The knowledge that the diverse forms of devices by which people
	would access and use the network and its computing resources would expand far
	beyond today's PC-class device meant that this would become a critical requirement.
	In August 1999, Sun acquired Star Division, Inc., the developer of a comprehensive,
	multi-platform, office productivity suite technology that was gaining momentum on
	open systems platforms. The Star Division technology offered the ideal technology
	basis and engineering talent to deliver on Sun's strategic objectives for an open
	definition of these formats and utilities. The component-based language and
	platform-neutral architecture of the StarOffice utilities were ideally suited to form
	the basis for an open office productivity suite. Prior to the acquisition, work towards
	XML-based office document file formats had also been progressing.<br><br>
	Since then, a focussed effort has been placed upon development of both the
	technologies and the details of the strategy necessary to introduce this next critical
	piece of the network-based Open Information Architecture. The launch of the
	OpenOffice.org project introduces this initiative.
	<br><br>
	<a NAME=future_prod><b>Future StarOffice Productivity Suite from Sun Microsystems</b></a><br>Sun Microsystems' engineering efforts that will deliver future versions of the
	StarOffice productivity suite will be derived directly from the OpenOffice.org
	technology base. Sun will use the single OpenOffice.org master CVS source base as
	its own engineering master source base. Thus, developers from all communities will
	be able to see Sun's development contributions on a daily basis and be able to
	become directly involved in the development of the OpenOffice.org technology as
	well as the branded StarOffice productivity suite.<br><br>
	For more detail regarding OpenOffice.org technology, a complementary white paper
	will be available that provides an in-depth overview of the component features,
	component system, XML formats, APIs, and environment enabling.

	<p ALIGN=right VALIGN=bottom><a HREF="preface.html">back</a>     <a HREF="strategy.html">next</a>     </p>
	</body>
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