Oct

31

Google and OpenOffice

October 31, 2005 |

Remember the puzzling Google/Sun announcement a few weeks back. Nobody could really figure out what it was all about. Beforehand, pundits were wondering if an office suit in your web browser was going to be announced, but nothing of that sort materiazlied. Now, though, at least Google is throwing some manpower at the OpenOffice.

 

That’s probably a good idea. After all, Google is good at making big, complex problems look easy. And OpenOffice has become a bloated, memory hugging piece of software.

 

From the good people at CNET:

Now Google believes it can help OpenOffice–perhaps working to pare down the software’s memory requirements or its mammoth 80MB download size, said Chris DiBona, manager for open-source programs at the search company.

“We want to hire a couple of folks to help make OpenOffice better,” DiBona said.

Google has shown an affinity for open-source software, which are programs developed in the open and available for free. Many of the company’s programmers came of age in the open-source era, so advancing the open-source agenda comes naturally, DiBona said. But the company also has business reasons to justify its open-source embrace.

“We use a fair amount of open-source software at Google. We want to make sure that’s a healthy community. And we want to make sure open source preserves competitiveness within the industry,” he said.

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1 Comment so far

  1. Ignat on October 31, 2005 6:56 pm

    I think it’s pretty obvious as to what Google is trying to do with OpenOffice and Base.Google earlier. I think the goal is to transform the Web into a development platform that can be accessed anytime and everywhere. Remember a rumor about a global Wi-Fi network?

    I think in the near future Google will be what Microsoft once was. If Google’s efforts continue at this pace, the near future could in fact be VERY near.

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