What Might Oracle Do With OpenOffice?

by Sam Dean - Apr. 20, 2009Comments (5)

In a post earlier this morning, I wondered why, amidst all the talk of Oracle buying Sun Microsystems, nobody is discussing the impact that it may have on OpenOffice. The OpenOffice open source suite of productivity applications hasn't been the huge success that many predicted it would be early on, but it has gotten better and better, and more compatible with Microsoft's applications. As Oracle becomes the steward of it, there are a lot of interesting scenarios to think about, including possible moves by Oracle to compete more directly with Microsoft Office. Does Oracle have an opportunity here?

Although most analysts of the Oracle/Sun deal are focusing on MySQL and Java, Sun actually has a huge portfolio of software applications, ranging from virtualization applications to the Glassfish application server. Sun has remained the steward of OpenOffice.org for many years, and with Oracle taking over that stewardship, the company can potentially make moves in parts of the desktop application business where it hasn't been a player.

The OpenOffice.org team has already weighed in on the Oracle/Sun deal, but there isn't much meat to what they've said, beyond expressing optimism. John MCreesh, OpenOffice.org's marketing lead, told ZDNet U.K. that he is "pleased that the uncertainty is coming to an end," and added:

 

"We've been very comfortable with the way that Sun set up the project and has kept a careful eye on us over the years. They'll be a hard act to follow, but we'll approach the future with optimism and an open mind."

 

Wow, that sounds like a strong dose of PR. Oracle has a long history of competing fiercely with Microsoft, and the two software titans are nearly the same age. Microsoft has been busy making its Office applications available online. Might that be a promising path for Oracle to go down with OpenOffice?

We've covered Ulteo before. The company lets users log into and use OpenOffice 3 applications from remote desktops online, and provides free storage for the files that they create. Oracle could possibly lead a similar effort on a larger scale, and the company has often spoken of the value of "the network computer," where applications exist in the cloud, and not locally.

There are really quite a few directions that Oracle could go in with OpenOffice. Novell already backs development of a fork of OpenOffice called go-oo, which we covered here. It's generally lighter and faster than OpenOffice. Might Oracle deliver a customized version of the suite, and throw support behind it? So far, there is no word on OpenOffice from Oracle or Sun, but there are millions of OpenOffice users, and change may lie ahead for them.

 


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5 Comments
 

It is my hope that Oracle will not change the primary focus of StarOffice (the commercial version of OpenOffice.org) nor OpenOffice.org itself. That model has worked very well for Sun, and has provided the Free Software community with it's flagship software application.


Any move toward making OpenOffice.org (or some derivative thereof) a "cloud" based application would be a terrible mistake. One of the primary benefits of Free Software is that it gives the user full control of their software, down to the source code. This benefit would be almost totally gone if the user depended on a thrid party in order to store or utilize their data.


It is my hope that if Oracle takes OpenOffice.org down the wrong path that a fork of the existing Free Software code will continue the legacy under the proper course.


0 Votes

This project has so much potential and it has, for a while, not lived up to its potential. How about a hosted version similar to Google Docs? How about something that takes on Zoho and the likes? There is a so much innovation that has gone in here, and it should be unleashed for everyone. How about some marketing ala Firefox? Where is OOo Day? Get with the program, guys!


0 Votes

Best thing Oracle could do is modularise OOo and move on from the megalithic approach - it would need considerable investment but it would result in a single office productivity suite that could be ported to smart phones and pdas, the cloud and serve the desktop using the arbitrary components individuals need. At the moment Google docs WP and Presentation are weak compared to desktop apps (Spreadsheet is much better) PDA WPs etc are functionally weaker but as hardware continues to fall in cost there is no real need to compromise, just organise the same software better to suite different environments. Let's hope Oracle has a genuine desire to compete with MS in the office space as well as maintaining the traditional data base business.


0 Votes

Best thing Oracle could do is modularise OOo and move on from the megalithic approach - it would need considerable investment but it would result in a single office productivity suite that could be ported to smart phones and pdas, the cloud and serve the desktop using the arbitrary components individuals need. At the moment Google docs WP and Presentation are weak compared to desktop apps (Spreadsheet is much better) PDA WPs etc are functionally weaker but as hardware continues to fall in cost there is no real need to compromise, just organise the same software better to suite different environments. Let's hope Oracle has a genuine desire to compete with MS in the office space as well as maintaining the traditional data base business.


0 Votes

well... yes, Oracle-Sun combination is perfect : for java (the core of all the oracle-application), solaris (for the server).... i like both companies a lot, and i was very happy to see them merged together. Actually, i was telling to my colleagues, during the ibm-deal : oracle shall buy sun.


but, now what will happen with Open Office ? What is Open Office ? this is for Sun a big strong bullet in the direction of Microsoft : don't let Microsoft alone on the market of the Office. On another market, we all know the wish of Microsoft to take the place of google. Sun saw (probably too late...) that they lost the enterprise desktop-market because ... of MS-Office. Yah, a lot of companies preferred Windows because and only because of the Office-Monopoly. Remember, that before G. W. Bush, the idea was to split Microsoft : one for Office, one for Windows.


In the oracle-constellation, open-office has no special place now.


but in the computer-constellation, open-office is the most important tool, in order to avoid the office-monopoly and then as consequence the operating-system monopoly.


Concerning Sun : what about solaris as desktop ? not good as windows or apple, but still existing. oracle should try to force it again... and especially : the company sun-oracle shall control the desktop : i mean : please, no more CDE, no KDE : force your desktop : JDS ! Microsoft and Apple don't let anybody using their desktops for something else... This was ever the big power of Microsoft and Apple : they control their own desktop. At each new-windows-release, all users get first the microsoft-application, then they re-install perhaps some previous software. No come-back anymore in the desktop-market, without Openoffice.


0 Votes
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