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BeUnited & Sun Microsystems Agreement

 
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DaaT
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 08, 2002 7:56 pm   Post subject: BeUnited & Sun Microsystems Agreement Reply with quote   Next

BeUnited has announced they have been approved by Sun Microsystems, Inc as a
Quote:
copyright-approved organization for the porting of OpenOffice to BeOS


They go on to report that the project has just began and it's still an "infant", so they are asking the BeOS dev community for help in this effort.

If you want to contribute, and you know you do, head over to OpenOffice.org, and join through the BeOS port page.
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cj171
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 09, 2002 3:47 pm   Post subject: Reply with quote  Previous Next

Hopefully they can get it at least into beta by the time OBOS R1 is released...
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 10, 2002 8:11 am   Post subject: Hm. I don't know if I like this news! Reply with quote  Previous Next

First of all, I would like to see as much software as possible released for BeOS. But when it comes to OpenOffice, there are two things that make me against it.

1. I would like to see gobeProductive 3.0 published for BeOSS. I believe that the free OpenOffice, can make it harder for us to get Gobe to finish their office suit for us. From my point of view, we need commercial software houses more then we need OpenOffice.

2. OpenOffice would need a lot of developers, that could slow down speed on other projects, also OpenBeOS. For me,

If BeUnited wants to do organise development again, I think it would be a better thing if BeUnited started to focus on the Operating System it self, and developed parts that it's missing today: Wireless LAN, Bluetooth, drivers, full USB and FireWire support. BeOS is rapidly falling behind in features, at least when it comes to being a MediaOS. We should also be able to say, that we can use BeOS as a "Digital Hub"!

There is a lot of project that could be done, but not that many developers around. Sadly, but true...

Regards,

Frank Paul Silye
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Francis Parsons
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 11, 2002 6:37 pm   Post subject: Reply with quote  Previous Next

Quote:
I would like to see gobeProductive 3.0 published for BeOSS. I believe that the free OpenOffice, can make it harder for us to get Gobe to finish their office suit for us. From my point of view, we need commercial software houses more then we need OpenOffice.


Why they would be willing to port GP 3.0 if Be, Inc. is no more? If they don't have enough sucess with Windows & Linux, then it certainly would make sense to devout resources to getting 3.0 to BeOS. OpenBeOS is still a ways away, and I doubt the "promise" of it's completion would be incentive enough for them.

The document format translators for OpenOffice are supposed to be some of the best around (of course, not for anything really complex, but it sounds like they may do a better job than GP does - has anyone out there done a comparison?). Although it sounds like porting OpenOffice would be something of a nighmare, among the advantages of having it would be:

1) good file translators
2) OpenOffice exists for multiple platforms - and the native XML file format is supposed to be very open. I'm not sure if this means you could take OpenOffice documents created in Windows and Linux, and open them in BeOS/OpenBeOS (assuming you can read that file-system) - Does anyone know this would hypothetically be the case? This would go a long way into making BeOS/OpenBeOS a "friendly" OS that plays nice with others.

This project could take developers away from more crucial development areas for OpenBeos, but on the other hand I think we should never underestimate the importance of having some really useful apps to offer the prospective OpenBeOS user - the less a person has to reboot to get something done, the more useful an OS is. Yes, Gobe has a great product, but despite the various kinds of ugliness contained in OpenOffice, it does offer more: more features, and hopefully more cross-platform, cross-file-format compatibility. And if OpenOffice ever *does* become a sucessful Office Suite, instead of just a "instead of MS Office" app, BeOS/OpenBeOS will benefit from that success. And, OpenOffice is open source (what would happen if Gobe went under?)
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 11, 2002 8:29 pm   Post subject: Re: Hm. I don't know if I like this news! Reply with quote  Previous 

BeFrank wrote:
If BeUnited wants to do organise development again, I think it would be a better thing if BeUnited started to focus on the Operating System it self, and developed parts that it's missing today: Wireless LAN, Bluetooth, drivers, full USB and FireWire support. BeOS is rapidly falling behind in features, at least when it comes to being a MediaOS. We should also be able to say, that we can use BeOS as a "Digital Hub"!


Digital Hub, lol, somebody's been watching a few too many Microsoft / Apple keynote speeches icon_biggrin.gif

OBOS *does not want* (<- There's the keyphrase.) to add any more functionality to OBOS R1 than needs be, a decision I agree with, they have a clear well defined roadmap of where OBOS R1 is heading, it has certainly been the reason for the phenominal progress we have seen over the last few months.

R2 intends to really bring OpenBeOS up more on par with other operating systems, and this is the time such features as you mentioned should be implemented.

BeOS is also rapidly falling behind in terms of good applications...OpenOffice, apparently is a pretty good application. The overall reason for beunited.org's choice was ultimately that the OpenBeOS group intends to develop the OS, and intend for devlopers / distibution maker's to take on the application problem....and this is exactly what beunited.org is doing.
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