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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Happy Birthday!

Wishing the OpenOffice.org project a very happy birthday - it's three years old today. I remember the excitement in Monterey at O'Reilly OSCON when it was announced and I till treasure my "Freedom" t-shirt. The code-base has come such a long way since then, to the point where people describe some of the features (like save-as-PDF) as best-of-breed.

Its reach is far greater than you'd guess from the press, where it's treated as an amusing toy. At Linux Expo last week I called for a show of hands for who was using OpenOffice.org in the (large-ish) audience and was delighted to see pretty much everyone did (in contrast to the IBM guy before me who was met with two hands when he asked how many people were using IBM software...). Talking casually to business friends I am constantly amazed how many are using OpenOffice.org or have already largely switched from other systems - especially Windows users.

And all this in only three years! Today, with around quarter-million downloads each month, with the software localised globally by capable community members, with the software being at the heart of Sun's bold new Java Desktop System, it's hard to grasp the fact that it's only been three years. How baby has grown.

posted at 5:44 PM (UK) | |