OpenOffice.org’s 10th Anniversary: The Difference a Decade Makes

“October 13, 2010 marks the tenth anniversary of the
OpenOffice.org project. It’s a significant landmark, both for me
personally and for free software in general.

“For me, OpenOffice.org was the wedge I used to find a niche in
computer journalism. In the early years of the millennium, few
people were writing about OpenOffice.org. Almost by accident, I
started comparing it with Microsoft Office, and writing How-Tos in
my spare time. Before I knew it, I was writing full-time. For a
while, I was worried that I would be too closely identified with
OpenOffice.org to sell stories on any other subject, but, with that
worry long behind me, today I can thank (or blame) OpenOffice.org
for what I am today.

“For the community at large, the importance of OpenOffice.org is
hard to over-estimate. Ten years ago, despite all the efforts to
market it, GNU/ Linux was a developers’ operating system. KOffice
was in its infancy, and AbiWord a glorified text editor.”

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