Free Softwares and money
Just thinking to the last post concerning OpenOffice.org and other Free softwares at the French National Assembly : a lot of services will probably generate a lot of money around OpenOffice.org (and other quality free softwares of course), for a lot of business.
No doubt about that : even if the software is free, money is necessary for services.
But AFAIK, I read nothing saying anything will never be reversed to the developers nor to the community, and how it will.
To avoid confusion, and if some "decider" reads that, Free Softwares need money to progress. Not too much money, but enough to create, and invent.
e.g. developpers (large sense) need hardware, and - a bit of -money ( for travels and rooms e.g. , but not only) when they have to attend important developers events, or simply work in correct conditions.
How explain our Ministers and Deputies, a good idea could be to find a *real way* to reverse and contribute in return to the one doing Free Softwares ?
Keywords : profit, money, transparency
Mac ( X11) version : 450 Macs will use it
This is our first success story : A migration of 450 Macs using OpenOffice.org on Mac OS X ( X11 ) in a french administration is scheduled.
Our reactivity, the last fix for AFP ( great work from Oliver Braun) + our disponibilty helped for the decision. I'll provide more infos asap.
Many thanks to the entire Mac Team !
To be continued
And you ?
Keywords: fun, spare time
.. I've found a Treasure
Not at home ...
Looking at last wiki changes, I found that :
User Interface projectAnd looking at the
meeting minutes project it's clear this is an old, but very instructive project*** for Mac OS X port :
- first, people who worked for native controls are not the one who forked the Mac OS X version
- second this project is very promising , and I wonder why it was .. a bit forgotten (hidden looks better).
Last, recently I found that:
User Experience CommunityThe problem, this -very interesting too- project seems to completely ignore
Aqua Human Interface Guidelines ( and somewhere the work we do for Mac OS X Aqua version, mainly based on User Experience... )
We did a very important work ( see
Aqua topics in the wiki ) and our guidelines are simple : Respect Aqua Human Interface Guidelines (at least what is possible), and postpone what is not directly.
I perfectly understand this is not an obligation to do like Apple, but I found no reference pointing to Aqua Human Interface Guidelines on this site, or in links section. Anyway, I strongly suggest to add one, and read....
Apple is the most avanced company for that, and works since years to improve design and User Experience, and the description is available, for free.
Hmmm ... reinvent the wheel ?
***I did a complete backup of the meeting minutes ;-)
2nd Mac porters meeting
The 2nd OpenOffice.org Mac Porters Meeting is scheduled on 2nd and 3rd of December, 2006.
Location : Google Office, ABC-Strasse 19, 20354, Hamburg, Germany.
The main developers of the Mac OS X port for OpenOffice.org project meet to work together over a weekend
- show, analyse, work on current development version,
- share our knowledge in workshops (e.g. for debug )
- define tasks and objectives
- meet, collaborate and have fun coding.
If you are interested in attending and developing OpenOffice.org for the Mac please contact : ericb@openoffice.org
The minutes of this meeting will be public, and available shortly after the event.
Many thanks to Google for hosting us.
Mac OS X port : estimation of needed resources
Because I'll have to return my current devel machine next month (and probably stop coding waiting I can buy a new one), I did a short inventory : what are our current resources for Mac port (mainly Aqua version, without X11) ?
Excepted the fact all are volunteers ( not a problem for me ), I retained :
- for important events, we have to pay for everything : travels, rooms, food ...
- some of us only have recent/correct hardware : means our Apple hardware is either outdated, or not sufficient
- our resources are very limited : Mac porting project has no money, and the way to receive donations is very complicated, nor transparent either.
The number of regular contributors is between 10 and 20. Currently less than 10 (don't know why exactly)
A quick estimation let me think that, to really work comfortably and improve the current dynamic, we would need (at least) :
2 Mac mini Intel ( 700 euros / mac mini ) for people doing builds and representing us on important events, like Apple Expo Paris or Solution Linux or LinuxTag ...etc : this is a more marketing than devel point, but we have such people, and they are doing a very positive work for the project.
3 Mac book pro ( ~2000 euro / laptop ) for coders currently working on G3 (or whorse .. ). Why laptops? This is the best to work using "hidden time" while travel from home to work e.g., using train, plane ..etc, or even to attend a conference
3 ADC Select memberships ( 500$ every ) : whe need to have an eye on code news, but the hardware discount alone can justify itself the need of the ADC !
+ some money to help developers for travels and food (to attend the coming Mac porters meeting in Hamburg .. e.g. )
Here is the current status of what needs Mac OS X port to work in good conditions.
The current amount is a lot, e.g. for one people, but this is ridiculous regarding the objective : Apple market is explosive, and it's market part is growing every day.
Complicated ....
OpenOffice.org Aqua (without X11) : respect Apple Aqua Human Interface Guidelines
Thank's to Ismael Merzaq from
INSA Lyon who proposed some code to add shortcuts.
As you can see, a lot of shortcuts seems to work fine ( all have been verified working). Again, this is work in progress, and we need to verify if we really respect Aqua Human Interface Guidelines.
If you are interested to see how Mac porting works, Ismael started his work explaining what he's doing on
Ismael wiki page.
Other screenshots And if you want to join us,
we need people with C / C++ and Carbon API knowledge.
Other work in progress: I started to work a bit on sallayout (looks very complicated) :
- analysed bad (?) param rArgs.mpStr returned from ATSLayout::LayoutText()
- obsolete ATSUGetGlyphInfo has been replaced
- updated the wiki page.
--
Contact:
ericb at openoffice dot org
or join us using IRC
Server : irc.freenode.net / channel: #ooo_macport
First shots of OpenOffice.org using Aqua look
Don't forget this is work in progress, and everything does not work completely yet...
More screenshots of Aqua look...Other screenshots...Older Screenshots Still not working / missing:
- alpha channel
- theme with tabs
- native text in lists
- combobox -including editing - (HIView issue to solve)
- repaint the window frame using Aqua grey
Last but not least, if you want to help us, we appreciate donations ( see Cusoon link above )
