OpenOffice.org vs. Go-OO: Cutting through the Gordian Knot

"In particular, Go-OO contributors such as Meeks and Kohei Yoshida balk at the requirement that the copyright of all code contributed to OOo be assigned to Sun. Other criticisms center on Sun's tight control of the project, which allegedly prevents the development of a healthy FOSS community. Go-OO is supposed to be a project where contributors do not have to abandon the copyright on their code, and they can develop features that Sun -- for reasons good for the corporation but not necessarily the community -- does not care to accept into OOo.

"Some of those who object to Go-OO, such as Sun employee Simon Phipps, rebut the project's critique of Sun. However, most objections come from those who have ostracized Novell from the free and open source software (FOSS) community ever since its first deal with Microsoft in November 2006. The objectors focus on Go-OO features ranging from support for VBA for scripts and file import and export for Microsoft Works and OOXML format to the use of the Mono programming language for add-ons. They express concerns that Go-OO is yet another effort by Novell to corrupt FOSS with Microsoft technologies that might be vulnerable to patent claims. For instance, in response to one recent article on Go-OO, a commenter mused, "I wonder if this is really an improvement or an attempt to get mono code integrated into OOo."

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