Community Articles: Opinions, Interviews, 分析
2001 October 13
Birthday Story
In what was あられ／賞賛するd as the largest Open Source 事業／計画（する） ever, Sun Microsystems 解放（する）d the code for its recently acquired StarOffice one year ago today, October 13. At the time, the 解放（する） of the code, which was 熱望して 報告（する）／憶測d by all the major technical magazines, was 述べるd using grand rhetoric: OpenOffice.org was to be the new thing, bigger and more みごたえのある than Mozilla (never mind Darwin), and to be animated by the same enthusiasm and eager work that has transformed Linux and Apache into serious 脅しs to Microsoft (the 執拗な Goliath). If Open Source was an "円形競技場," OpenOffice.org entered the field ready for a 捨てる.
As it happens, the rhetoric 現実に underplayed the facts. Yes, OpenOffice.org the code is big (that's what everyone 焦点（を合わせる）d on); but the sheer magnitude, linguistic 多様制, and 全世界の stretch of the community that has come to define the 事業／計画（する） was surely unanticipated. For Sun really 解放（する）d the code to the world. And it is the world community that has しっかり掴むd Sun's bold 申し込む／申し出ing and worked to make it its own.
Today, we count の中で our 正規の／正選手 使用者s and developers people from Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, to 指名する a few), Europe (特に England, フラン, Italy, Germany), Asia (特に India, 中国, Japan, Korea), Australia, Africa (South Africa and French Africa), and Canada. Keep in mind that OpenOffice.org is an office 控訴, not a language-独立した・無所属 programming language. The 利益／興味 the world shows in OpenOffice.org 反映するs a 革命 that Sun has brilliantly 逮捕（する）d: Communities are turning from Microsoft.
の中で them, the city of Turku, in Finland. A news article on the 支配する 詳細（に述べる）s that not only is the city switching from Microsoft, but it is also 本気で considering using OpenOffice.org. We can also number in this growing （人が）群がる of those 利益／興味d in 転換ing over to Open Source, cities and 政府s in both developed and developing nations. Argentina, Brazil, Germany--these are but a few 指名するs; there are more today, and there will be yet more to come.
OpenOffice.org has never been so popular, and not just の中で developers. Yes, the developer 代表するs our 最初の／主要な audience, but we also have an active end-使用者 community. Our downloads last week, for example, 越えるd 112,000--for only that week. Since last year, we have had around one million downloads. Sure there were some duplications, errors, you 指名する it, in the 編集 of these 統計（学）. But as I について言及するd last week, when I was 類似して amazed by the 人物／姿／数字s for the week 先行する, it にもかかわらず 示すs that there is an enormous 全住民 of end-使用者s wanting to use and perhaps even 参加する in the OpenOffice.org 事業／計画（する）, either by submitting bugs to IssueZilla or 簡単に engaging in discussions in our 会議s. These are people willing to work together to make OpenOffice.org more than an also-ran 代案／選択肢 to Microsoft.
Why do they want to 参加する? Because they can feel that they are part of an exciting 事業／計画（する） and because they can help to make it happen. This model of 生産／産物, in which the 消費者 helps to make the 製品, in which there is hardly a distinction between 生産者 and 消費者, in which both can （人命などを）奪う，主張する that it is theirs, is, if not 正確に／まさに novel, enormously powerful.
Where We Are
Where does OpenOffice.org stand, on this, our first 周年記念日? By any 手段 OpenOffice.org, the code and the 事業／計画（する） (and as our 使節団 声明 says, it's hard to separate them), is a success. OpenOffice.org Build 638c, which is 大幅に StarOffice 6.0 Beta, can almost 取って代わる Microsoft's Office. Almost because we are 公式文書，認める やめる "there" yet. But the OpenOffice.org community has created something that can run on more 壇・綱領・公約s than Microsoft's Office and, in many regards, do more. Like, for example, save in XML, or run on LinuxPPC, or on Linux, for that 事柄. (To see a 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of all our 業績／成就s, and a 簡潔な／要約する synopsis of what the program can do, please see our features page.)
A moment to consider this ability of OpenOffice.org to run on LinuxPPC: OpenOffice.org can run on it because community member Kevin Hendricks pretty much built it to so that it could run on it. Sure, he had help from the impressively talented Hamburg engineers who （不足などを）補う the 核心 of the OpenOffice.org 開発 group. But it was his 運動 and his 成果／努力 that made the build for Linux PPC a reality. So, here's a rhetorical question: can Microsoft, or for that 事柄 any other major 会社／団体 誇る of such an 業績／成就? No, or at least not 公式に. And they wouldn't bother: Not enough money in it; too much of a niche thing. But the beautiful logic of Open Source and in particular OpenOffice.org is that it doesn't 孤児 some 使用者s; it rather 許すs for independence and 率先. In fact, it encourages them.
We now have at least five end-使用者-sponsored 事業／計画（する）s in the "Whiteboard / Incubator" section of OpenOffice.org, which houses community-提案するd, "実験の" 事業／計画（する）s. These 含む the Groupware 事業／計画（する）, the Documentation 事業／計画（する）, the Mirrors 事業／計画（する）, the Screenshots 事業／計画（する）, and the Marketing 事業／計画（する）. In the "Lang" area, which 取引，協定s with native-language support and （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）, we have the French 事業／計画（する） and now, still forming, the German language 事業／計画（する）. All these end-使用者 事業／計画（する）s are staffed by community members who 利益 only by 存在 part of OpenOffice.org and by 形態／調整ing the 事業／計画（する） into something that is part their 見通し, part the developers'.
And OpenOffice.org's developers are very, very good. As I have said before, it needs the constant attention of many to make this code, and this 事業／計画（する）, work so 井戸／弁護士席. Accordingly, I would like to give credit to the developers from Sun and どこかよそで who have helped to build this 事業／計画（する）: Thanks.
For other articles 関係のある to the OpenOffice.org one-year 周年記念日, please see the Birthday Page.
