OpenOffice.org 2.0 Becoming the Next Mozilla Firefox?
Upon reviewing the news of the OpenOffice.org 2.0 launch, I ran across an interesting opinion on OSDir about the Mozillarization of OpenOffice.org. The piece looks at the similarities between OpenOffice.org and Mozilla, cutting down a piece of software to its “open source” core, then spinning it off as some cool and alternative branded project. After reading this article, it will be interesting to follow the launch and marketing of OpenOffice.org 2.0 and to see if there are any similarities between the “community grassroots marketing” feel of its launch and the successful Spread Firefox program.
With all of the recent discussion and email I have been receiving triggered from Opening the potential of OpenOffice.org, it makes sense if this process was drilled into OpenOffice.org.
Now, I understand that OpenOffice.org is a huge chunk of code, and the hackers behind it are working flat out to cut out the bloat and make it run faster with the current feature-set, but I get the impression that a lot of people will only use a subset of what OpenOffice.org provides and this could benefit from being Mozillarized (hey, its not a word, but we need a word to describe this process). As an example, I tend to use OpenOffice.org Writer for most of my word processing, but I rarely use certain portions of it, and much of the older functionality that looks a bit crusty around the edges, such as the 3D objects that look awful, could be happily junked in favour of better usability, more focused functionality and better performance.
