Fork history does not favor OpenOffice.org

[ Thanks to Amy
Bennett for this link. ]

“Rob Weir argued this week that forked communities are not a
zero-sum game, and that the success of OpenOffice.org will not mean
the death of LibreOffice. He’s right and he’s wrong.

“If each project can find enough energy (again, we’re talking
resources, passion, motivation here), they can mutually succeed. In
the broadest sense, Weir is incorrect about his views on zero-sum.
The laws of conservation mean that everything is a zero-sum game.
(It’s actually worse, since we live in an entropic universe,
because no one gets out alive.)

“Weir, however, has also realized that the
OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice ecosystem (unlike my simple rocket
metaphor) is not a closed system. In physics, open systems mean
energy may be obtained somewhere else. Weir believes the
marketplace can provide each project with the energy it needs to
survive. That idea has merit.”

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