Sun to help port OpenOffice.org to Mac
updated 12:50 pm EDT, Thu May 3, 2007
Sun, OpenOffice.org on Mac
A Sun Microsystems developer has revealed via a blog post that Sun will help port Open Office to Mac OS X. "I'm excited to let you all know that as of now Sun engineering will add its support to the ongoing Mac/Aqua porting effort," wrote Sun developer Philipp Lohmann. "You can imagine my excitement when I first heard about renewed efforts to make an Aqua port reality. And now finally I can spend my paid time to add to this great effort." Lohmann notes that there was a plan to offer a native version of Open Office for Mac practically from the start, but adds that the community decided to produce an X11 port as a first step. The blogger says Sun is joining the Mac porting project because Apple has a significant market share in the desktop space, and the company's notebooks are appearing more and more at various locations such as conferences and airport lounges.
"At first Herbert Dürr and I will contribute to the Mac port, however there certainly will be other Sun developers involved in their areas of expertise when the need arises (e.g. when problems with the build system arise)."
Lohmann says the first step for he and his colleague is to get an overview about the current state of the work on Open Office for Mac OS X, and predicts that event handling as well as painting will likely be their first objective. Lohmann brings roughly 10 years of experience with vcl to the porting effort, while Dürr specializes in Text drawing via SalLayout implementations.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2003
finally !
I've told the OpenOffice.org team over and over again that the Mac may not have the share of Windows but it is in important areas of the enterprise graphics, education, media creation, as well as a rapidly growing share of the home user market. Apple users are some of the most frequent people to donate to open source software projects. I would definitely buy StarOffice for the Mac and many other will too. There is a reason why Microsoft and Adobe still make software for Macs - they make good money off them and not having a native OpenOffice.org will get a lot more contracts as many businesses need the Mac compatibility. Just don't do a WordPerfect style port - make the GUI conform to Apple HIG and have it come out at the same time as all other releases and continue your commitment for many years. Also, don't forget to advertise it. Most Windows users are very cheap - they only use what comes with their computers for free and very few buy any other software other than games.