[ Thanks to Kelly
McNeill for this link. ]
“…Sun announced that it would no longer develop the OS/2
version of Star Office beyond v5.1, and we OS/2 users were
crestfallen. Then certain officials at Sun implied that OS/2
users had nothing to worry about, because Sun would be releasing
the OS/2 source code as part of its plan to GPL the entire
stable of Star applications. For a while, this sounded great. The
OS/2 developer community would be assured of a stable, powerful
suite of native OS/2 applications that also was sure to be popular
with Windows and Linux users (as well as Solaris users), meaning
that cross-platform file sharing would be straightforward and user
retraining would be nil. The OS/2 platform would gain a huge degree
of transparency that neither Microsoft nor Lotus nor Sundial
Systems could provide…”
“Well, we were deceived. Sun has announced that the GPL
versions of Star Office will only be based on the version 6.0
codebase, which does not include OS/2. And, in fact, Sun has
clearly stated that “Star Office 5.1 for OS/2 will be the LAST
version that Sun will release.” This means that Sun not only
will not develop the OS/2 version, but they refuse to release it to
the OS/2 community for their own use. Yes, Sun would rather
discard a popular OS/2 suite than share it.”
“This kind of short-sighted, narrow-minded exclusionism we have
come to expect from Microsoft — and from those companies who are
afraid of Microsoft — but not from Sun. Is Sun so bold and
self-confident that they believe they can turn their backs on the
large and growing mass of OS/2 users? Apparently so.”