Apache vows to develop, protect OpenOffice

Citing its success with other donated projects, the Apache Software Foundation vowed to protect OpenOffice.org and prevent fragmentation.

In a lengthy statement issued to naysayers and concerned parties today, the ASF rejected claims that OpenOffice would be neglected and pointed to its success with other adopted open source projects such as SpamAssassin as proof that the "Apache Way" will grow and develop OpenOffice.

The ASF also noted that the project would be known under the name Apache OpenOffice.org and is officially in incubation status.

Oracle donated OpenOffice to the ASF in June. Enhancements and updates will be issued when they are ready, the statement said.

"As with many highly-visible products, there has been speculation and conjecture about the future of OpenOffice.org at Apache. More recently, destructive statements have been published by both members of the greater FOSS community and former contributors to the original OpenOffice.org product, suggesting that the project has failed during the 18 weeks since its acceptance into the Apache Incubator," the statement noted.

"Whilst the ASF operates in the open –our code and project mailing lists are publicly accessible– ASF governance permits for projects to make information and code freely available when the project deems them ready to be released. Apache OpenOffice.org is not at risk."

The ASF also noted that there's plenty of room for competition and pledged cooperation with LibreOffice, another OpenOffice,org project that spun off from the original OpenOffice.org after Oracle acquired it from Sun.

"At the ASF, the answer is openness, not further fragmentation. There is ample room for multiple solutions in the marketplace that are Powered by Apache. We welcome differences of opinion: a requirement at Apache is that a healthy project be supported by an open, diverse community comprising multiple organizations and individual contributors," the statement read.

"We congratulate the LibreOffice community on their success over their inaugural year and wish them luck in their future endeavors. We look forward to opening up the dialogue between Open Document Format-oriented communities to deepen understanding and cease the unwarranted spread of misinformation."