In just 3 days beunited.org has been pledged over $10,000.00 by the public and corporate community for the release of Gobe Productive for BeOS (and other platforms). Linux users have also pledged, and beUnited.org encourages more members of the Linux community to participate for the release of the Linux version.
beunited.org Donation Pledge Reaches $10,000.00
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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thats a good start, but has the official number for the end result been released yet? I dont see the point of raising money if there’s no real goal set out yet.
As the Be community is pretty small, beunited wanted to see what kind of interest there was from the community before going into full-scale negotiations with Gobe. No money has changed hands yet – the figure is just based on promises. Still, I for one will be good to my word, and hopefully 99% of the people who have pledged are prepared to pay up when the time comes.
wow,,… really….. impressive… =)
AFAIK beunited.org has already contacted gobe,.. I really hope that GoBeProductive will be OpenSourced, because OpenOffice is just not the right thing for BeOS [IMCAO]
I really hope that gobe gets opensourced. OO isn’t good for any OS. It is a bloated and poorly integrated piece of software
I hope they open source GoBE. I purchased the Windows version just so I could get the Linux version, and then they never released it. I kind of hate pledging more money than I already have to get the Linux version, but if that’s what it takes, I’ll do it.
I can’t see how Gobe can sell the BeOS version without the rights to the Linux and Windows versions. My guess is that over 90% of the code between the two versions is the same. If the GPL the BE code the rights to sell the Linux and Windows versions could become quite complicated as far as what is being sold and rights of transfer. The prospective owners are unlikely to want to buy that kind of legal mess.
Even if they BSD the Gobe code there would be nothing to stop someone from releasing a competing commercial product for Windows or Linux using this code. Or for that matter FSF picking up the code and creating a GPL version which might create problems down the line.
Were Gobe worth a lot of money it would be worth the legal hassles. IMHO they should sell the whole ball of wax or none of it. I kind of get the impression that what Gobe is doing is using these hints of open sourcing their code to create mindshare for the future commercial releases beyond the original BE community; I hope I’m wrong, but what kind of CEO promises an open release without checking with the owners first?
Ok, that’s Be programs, cool stuff … but is nobody really noticed this petition : http://www.petitiononline.com/laafs/petition.html ?? That’s about good old OpenStep programs, from Lighthouse design… Sun bought LD years ago and did nothing with their programs.. So, go and sign this petition : with luck, theses programs will be ported on Cocoa (MacOS X) and GNUstep (Linux, *BSD, etc.)
Does anyone know what what companies have donated money? So far users have pledged about $5590 (on the beunited website). Great job guys!
Kevin, as to which companies, those companies have not yet actually donated money, only pledged it, so releasing names, is just not the right thing to do. Some have asked to remain anonymous as well.
And as far as raising enough money, when Simon first spoke with me about doing this, I was very skeptical that it could even be done. The numbers that likely would be required were just too high, especially for the BeOS community alone.
But with the recent numbers coming in, I honestly believe that it could be done. I think we have yet to tap the potential of the Linux community in this funding.
Gobe Productive was not BeOS-only, and therefore doesn’t have to be restricted to BeOS users donating. There is tremendous opportunity here for all alt-OS camps. Imagine, just the readership here on OSNews is around 100K people per day. If only half of those people all donated a mere $5, we’d still have a quarter of a million dollars to offer to free the source.
Gobe took Productive outside the BeOS community, and hopefully those communities will value it’s presence there. I am hopeful of seeing Productive on not just BeOS again, but a great many platforms. We’ll see where the coming weeks take us.
Deej
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Donovan Schulteis
Chairman, Founder, beunited.org
“OO isn’t good for any OS. It is a bloated and poorly integrated piece of software”
Yeeees!, that’s right there’s not a really good and complete open source office for linux (BSD, BeOS…) this could be a giant step for the open source community, we can wait till OO gets better (a really long way) or trust in KOffice’s future.
While I never got a chance to use Gobe, the ideas behind it (compact, efficient, highly integrated) are great. Although I also hope it is open sourced, why can’t the OSS community take those ideas and produce an open source office suite?
An open source competitor to Open Office (especially one with a different philosophical bent) would greatly benefit BOTH packages.
Unfortunately, I only have a couple of months of Python experience (I am a statistical programmer), but let’s get going!
KOffice.
I’m more than willing to pledge $50 US to open source Gobe.
Lets do everyone a favor when it becomes GPL. OpenOffice, GOBE, KOffice and others I’ve forgotten to mention each have different file formats; of course, this might be tricky w/ GOBE since the whole idea behind it is to do everything in one program. If people are going to use Linux en-masse on the desktop we really need one open file format.
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Lets do everyone a favor when it becomes GPL.
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who said it was going to be relised under the GPL. they are going to open source it but i never heard anything about it getting relised under the GPL.
it only runs on Linux. an Open source Office suite should be multiplatform like mozy
I’m quite suprised. If they amange to get this rate on another donation, I’m quite sure they would be able to license Be OS code from Palm.
jbolden1517: I can’t see how Gobe can sell the BeOS version without the rights to the Linux and Windows versions.
I don’t understand what you mean by that. If BeUnited succeeds, they would be buying Gobe’s assets and open sourcing it. Gobe is heading towards bankruptcy, there’s no stoping that.
jbolden1517: Or for that matter FSF picking up the code and creating a GPL version which might create problems down the line.
Extremely unlikely. FSF’s GNU currently houses some competiting projects, namely the GNOME Office. FSF rarely forks a project to create a new one.
jbolden1517: I kind of get the impression that what Gobe is doing is using these hints of open sourcing their code to create mindshare for the future commercial releases beyond the original BE community
Well, Gobe already released Productive 3 for Windows, and no version of Be OS. If Gobe is trying to build a mindshare, this is a extremely stupid way to do it. If they plan to GPLing their software while continuing to sell their software, they wouldn’t be successful. And if they don’t make their software go under the GPL at the end, it would be bad for PR, imagine the backslash.
Deej: Gobe Productive was not BeOS-only, and therefore doesn’t have to be restricted to BeOS users donating.
Actually, only in the late, Gobe Productive had Windows versions, and Linux alpha versions. But these two versions still use Be’s APIs (the Windows version had be.dll). The main people benefiting is Be OS users (and OSBOS OS users), not those from other platforms.
Enersto: Yeeees!, that’s right there’s not a really good and complete open source office for linux (BSD, BeOS…) this could be a giant step for the open source community, we can wait till OO gets better (a really long way) or trust in KOffice’s future.
With the way OOo community is treating things, I don’t really think it would improve. They take flaws as features. For example, the unified UI look between Windows and Linux is claimed to be a feature, however it is more like a flaw. I lost count of how many people retorted on how ugly OOo look in Red Hat 8.0 when I should it off. Plus, in Windows XP, it really looks ugly in comparison with other apps, like Photoshop 7.
Another thing is their cross platform libraries. If they create two new versions, one for Win32 and another for GTK+ (since Sun supports them), I think they would be way better off. Heck, having these “cross platform” libraries don’t really make it anymore cross platform as it is today. The only group at OOo that got it right, IMHO, is the Mac OS X port.
KOffice on the other hand is a remarkable project, however the future is bleak. It would only be a main competitor with Office, OOo, StarOffice etc. if it had far more features. Which is impossible with the amount of developers it currently have. Most, if not all, in the KOffice team contribute for fun/ volunteer. Not paid to do it.
Although I also hope it is open sourced, why can’t the OSS community take those ideas and produce an open source office suite?
Actually much of the ideas behind Gobe can be found in KOffice. The difference is that it isn’t as integrated as Gobe Productive, but it is extremely possible with KParts.
slackware: If people are going to use Linux en-masse on the desktop we really need one open file format.
No I don’t agree. I would agree if you say that it should be compatible with other file formats, but having one file format is impossible and would only serve to hinder development for most, if not all, of these projects.
deb-man: it only runs on Linux. an Open source Office suite should be multiplatform like mozy
Well, actually, it runs on various types on Unixes, like FreeBSD, Darwin, etc. But KOffice is more portable than Gobe Productive and OpenOffice and other projects. KOffice is based on Qt and KDE’s libraries. It would be quite easy to reimplement those libraries used by KOffice to be multiplatform (like Qt).
So making KOffice crossplatform is actually easier than Gobe Productive.
>So making KOffice crossplatform is actually easier than Gobe Productive.
I am sorry RajanR, you are wrong here.
Eugenia: I am sorry RajanR, you are wrong here.
And you care to explain to me why?. Gobe Productive is written from ground up using BeOS’s APIs. The Windows port itself still use the same API, only having wrappers, and some Win32 components. Since KOffice is based mostly on Qt, writing wrappers for KDE libraries would be potentially easier for Windows and Mac OS X, and therefore a potential port would be faster than how long the Windows port of Productive 3 took, provided the same amount of resources (meaning manpower) is given.
However, this is just a guess, because only Gobe employees really know about the internals of their product.
>Even if they BSD the Gobe code there would be nothing to
>stop someone from releasing a competing commercial product
>for Windows or Linux using this code.
Um.. I suspect that the core of the application is the same, but the fact that GoBe REIMPLEMENTED much of the BeAPI rather than converting to some cross platform GUYI API environment scuppers this plan. All GoBe have to do is hold back the code from the Windows version of libBe.dll etc and you’re going to have to reimplement most of the BeAPI (in all it’s multithreaded goodness) to effectively ‘port’ to Windows. My guess is that this is unlikely to ever happen. I know one developer is working on his own implementation of the Be API for Windows (winBe) but I doubt it will be as simple as taking his code and gettin Productive to compile…
There is a discussion on the ARS Technica website about the fund drive, with comments from people outside of the BeOS community. Here is the link:
http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=17…
Head over and tell them why they should contribute to open-sourcing GP!
Koki