[PLUG] openoffice.org

[Will Andrews]

On Fri, Oct 13, 2000 at 11:33:50PM -0500, Christopher N. Deckard wrote:
> based file format, though I don't know of that for sure.  OpenOffice
> will hopefully be a step in the right direction in creating a
> standardized file format.

Yeah, it's nice.

> I don't really have much more to say about standards etc and why we
> need office suites.  I use them, I think they are great.  I have never
> had a problem with commercial, closed-source software for Linux.  Now
> that we are on the verge of having an open-source, full featured
> office suite, I think that the open-source community is going to
> benefit greatly.

> I realize I'm not much of one for strong arguments, but some of what
> I've said is valid.  :-)  
> 
> Comments?  Questions?  Flames? 

You asked for it.. :P

1) OpenOffice uses lousy autoconf code that hardcodes operating system
   support and generally makes porting to other OS's a real pain in
   the ass.  These guys need to get autoconf clue, and not assume that
   just 'cause an OS string doesn't match their pre-approved list of
   OS's, it can't possibly support openoffice.  There are plenty of
   UNIXish systems with ANSI-C/POSIX support.
2) Their organization is nonexistent and the source is absolutely huge:
[will@vanadium ~/ofc/oo_605_src]$ du -skhc . | grep total ; find . -type d | wc -l
393M    total
    4295
3) Their abuse^Wuse of CVS modules is stupid.  Possibly this problem is
   is related to #2 above...  :-)
4) I still think Sun is a bunch of gobbledygook monkeys flying around
   with some sharp object through their heads.  ;-)

I should now go flame them on the openoffice.org lists for being
single-minded (Oh oh, the ONLY real OS's out there are WinNT, Linux, and
MacOS X!!!) and full of stupid assumptions.

</rant>

-- 
Will Andrews <will@physics.purdue.edu> - Physics Computer Network wench
The Universal Answer to All Problems - "It has something to do with physics."
	-- Comic on door of Room 240, Physics Building, Purdue University
	   http://puck.firepipe.net/will/rm240.jpg