Re: Jakarta POI - HWPF for word files

On 8/10/06, AGlauser@xxxxxxxxxxxx <AGlauser@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Bob,

you wrote on 10/08/2006 10:29:47 AM:

> This is often the case with this "free" software. Most of the time,
people are
> doing it in the spare time, however frequently the unemployed (i.e.,
> recent grad
> students) are doing it to play in the sandbox and to get their resumes
out
> there. Odds are the "Maintainer and Main contributor" probably took jobs
at
> Google.
> This is the risk you take in using this opensource/free software.

I agree that this is a risk.  In the case of the POI HSSF subproject, it
is widely used enough that the chances of it being abandoned seem low. The
HWPF subproject seems to have been low on interest for its entire
lifespan, so its abandonment probably shouldn't come as a surprise.

While it is true that some free/libre open source software (FLOSS)
projects are the pet projects of one person, I don't think it's fair to
paint all FLOSS with the same brush.

do FLOSS projects not allow commercial enterprises to sell FLOSS
derived code? I dont need a legal opinion, it is just my impression
that if you sell FLOSS derived code you have to allow the buyer to
copy and distribute your add on as well as the FLOSS code base. If so
that would be a disincentive for a commercial enterprise to pick up an
abandoned FLOSS project.  ( but I guess the same is true for
commercial software. When IBM cut and ran from OS/2 it did not open
source it and its users were left stranded. bad precedent for i5/OS! )

-Steve