OpenOffice.org @ WWDC

[Vroem]

Today I got this message (from the announce@openoffice.org list) that may be of interest.

As part of a continuing effort to inform the community of events and
conferences important to OpenOffice.org, I'd like to bring people's
attention to two conferences where OpenOffice.org will be present:

** The Fourth Annual GNOME Users And Developers European Conference
[... blah blah ...]

**Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2003;
http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/). San Francisco, USA, 2003-06-23 to
2003-06-27.
Not only will OpenOffice.org be presenting at the conference (details
forthcoming) but OpenOffice.org will have a booth in the exhibit area.
Last year's conference saw the announcement of our first port for Mac
OS X (X11); this year promises to be equally interesting. Of course,
Apple is also rumored to be introducing a slew of new things and a
major update to Mac OS X.

Other conferences are posted on the OpenOffice.org homepage,
http://www.openoffice.org/. And, if you want one listed, no matter
where in the world, contact me.

-
Louis Suárez-Potts
Community Manager
OpenOffice.org

I like the "this year promises to be equally interesting" part .

 

[KershMan]

What's the chance that Apple would take the core of OpenOffice and use it to develop their own office suite? Kind of like the way they used the Konquerer rendering engine and made Safari? Would that be a better choice then updating Appleworks? I do not have much experience with Appleworks. Openoffice the last time I worked with it about a year ago seemed to be a decent product. If Apple polished it up it could be a nice package for the Mac.

 

[hvfsl]

If openoffice ran natively on OS X then it would be a better product than AppleWorks. AppleWorks is still based on technology that is 10 years old.

 

[smada]

yeah, the only problem with OOO right now is that it's way slow, especially in start up times. I guess this is because it's a port and not a native app. If Apple sped it up, and made it OSX native with the slick interface and what not, they'd have a great product.

 

[NavyIntel007]

Originally posted by KershMan
What's the chance that Apple would take the core of OpenOffice and use it to develop their own office suite? Kind of like the way they used the Konquerer rendering engine and made Safari? Would that be a better choice then updating Appleworks? I do not have much experience with Appleworks. Openoffice the last time I worked with it about a year ago seemed to be a decent product. If Apple polished it up it could be a nice package for the Mac.

I think this is very likely. It's another example of a solid framework that Apple can build up into a killer application. It needs some aquification and some speed. Although I think Appleworks works pretty good. I have some issues with the spreadsheet application but oh well.

If anything, a native OOO would be perfect.

 

[Interiority]

I also think this is an excellent idea. In exactly the same way that Sun rebrands OpenOffice.org as StarOffice, and then sells it with support and documentation, Apple could do exactly the same thing. According to the OOo web-site, work is underway on an Aqua version, which should be due for release next year.

The only reason I question this though is because Apple already has a competing product with KeyNote. Maybe Apple does intend to produce its own office suite from scratch. What does everyone think?

 

[Tim Flynn]

I think Apple should do something here with an Office app. Appleworks is getting old.
And Microsoft ... will they continue to support Office X ?

 

[davy the bunny]

I can't remember where I read it but Microsoft will supposedly continue development on programs that you have to pay for. But I think that I would be the most excited person in the world if Apple turned OpenOffice into it's next office suite.