The release of Apache OpenOffice 4 will not happen tomorrow, but it is getting close. How close? Well, let’s just say it will happen soon. In months time, not weeks.
To usher in what will be a milestone release for the Free Software Office suite, The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) wanted a new logo to replace the old OpenOffice logo, and requested design submissions from the community. There were 40 entries.
Users were then asked to vote on their favorite entries in a survey conducted between April 24 and May 2 of this year. Six of the 40 entries receiving the most votes were announced by the ASF in a blog post on May 10. Designers of those top entries were then asked to refine and fine tune their entries using user feedback as a guide.
The six entries are shown below. If you did not participate in the original survey, this is your chance to have an input. I did not participate in the original survey, but if I did, the order that these images are shown below shows how I would have rated them, from highest to lowest.
1. One: This would have been my top pick mostly because of the symbolism of the open book. I would rather have the feather positioned like a pen writing on the open book. That’d be the perfect logo for Apache OpenOffice.
2. Two: If what this stands for doesn’t make sense to you, that’s an “a” merged with an infinity symbol. This looks nice too, but it does not carry the same symbolic weight as the first one. My only suggestion for this will be to make the “a” a little bit more obvious.
3. Three: The remaining four are just minor variations of the original OpenOffice logo. Which one of the six logos would be your choice, and what refinements will you suggest? Let the designers know your thoughts here.
4. Four:
5. Five:
6. Six:
See the survey here
I don’t want them to merge. Competition is good and necessary. We want more options. Because when they merge, the politics kicks in and the end users ends up getting the short end of the stick. One group that will dominate everything is a bad idea.
Plus OpenOffice sounds better than LibreOffice. But that’s just me.
OpenOffice will soon become irrelevant. The logo doesn’t matter. LibreOffice is the king.
I also think they should merge with LibreOffice. It is wasting resources to keep both. It is too bad Oracle had to be such a prick after the purchase.
Apache Foundation is where orphaned open source projects go to die. They should just close the project up and hand the trademark over to the Document Foundation.
my preferences are 1- The Logo No.1 and then 2- The Logo No.4
The best thing OpenOffice could do is to merge into LibreOffice.
They unnecessarily fragment the free-office landscape and LibreOffice has already taken away the mindshare.
Apache should concentrate on its own projects, not on this dumpware from Oracle.
I don’t thing that will ever happen. And the way it’s shaping out, Apache OpenOffice 4 will have features that LibreOffice lacks. That’s because code from IBM’s Lotus Symphony are being merged into OpenOffice 4, after IBM stopped developing Lotus Symphony and donated the code to ASF last year.
I am looking forward to Apache OpenOffice 4.
but everything unique in aoo that is any good will make it across to LO anyway. and better.
example: the sidebar — which LO did not just copy across but have been tweaking and polishing. experimental in 4.1, will be ready for prime time in 4.2.
aoo = ibm vanity project.