KOffice.org

By Thomas Zander

Some 3 weeks ago we released the KOffice 2.0.0 platform to the world. The release feels successful as I look at the amount of positive buzz created on the intrawebs. I did note some questions and concerns came up that I want to address.

This release is marked not for end-users, then why release instead of wait until its done?

Indeed, we marked the 2.0 release as not for end users. KOffice has for the past decade been an open source project with the concept of “release early, release often”. This is a strategy that works very well for us. It just feels natural. I think we should realise that in the last couple of years the open source audience has changed. When I did a release of an application 10 years ago the chance of that reaching a user that wasn’t himself also a developer was pretty slim. Now I release an application and some weeks later users that may not even use a command line at all can be using it.

Naturally, this is great news. I personally love it that my software reaches a lot wider audience. On the other hand the concept of release early, release often has a mis-match between what is released and what many people expect from it.

We released because we have to release, its the way that has proven to work very well. Enthusiasts should consider to try the release and tell us what they think, help us make it better. Others that don’t want to live dangerously with their software can wait until its ready for them.

What is a “platform” release?

KOffice2 is a new approach to office components. I’ll write a bigger blog about that later. The big new thing in KOffice2 is a component-based approach, so we have, for example, a text component that is the same in all KOffice2 applications. This component system requires a solid base, a platform as it were. We invite 3rd party developers and interested users to look at our office suite from the perspective of how this platform not only allow an traditional office but also allows innovative new usages for them to build on top of KOffice 2.0.

More to the point; we show things like the kids office plugin that shows integrators and distros a proof of concept that KOffice can be tweaked rather severely. The message is clear; companies that package or sell open source software now have another option to consider for their clients. One that we are convinced will have a lot of potential for them.

When will I, the end user be able to use it?

KOffice 2.0 is a stable release. The features we have should be reliable (not crash, etc.). In fact, version 2.0 already has a lot of features no other suite has. At the same time its missing a lot of features you should really expect from an office suite.

The short answer is thus that it depends. If your office requirements are low, you might very much like the 2.0 release. Otherwise we suggest to wait till 2.1 or 2.2.

Tags: Background, Q&A

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 20:29 and is filed under Background. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.