Apache OpenOffice

Apache OpenOffice

That is the link to the AOO homepage, and it's nice, clean and efficient. I rather like it. It also departs from the prior OpenOffice homepage--and the differences are worth going over.

The old page, at http://www.openoffice.org/, ultimately had shifted to focus more on the user, less on the developer. The new AOO page actually resembles the initial pages of OpenOffice, and not coincidentally. OpenOffice was squeezed into CollabNet's original template for collaborative projects, and that template was designed, at least in part, by the same people who ended up designing Apache's. (CollabNet was co-founded by Brian Behlendorf, who was instrumental in founding the Apache project. I joined CollabNet in 2000, to work on OOo, among other projects.)

Despite my likes or dislikes--they're pretty irrelevant, I hope--I'm also interested in promoting (and that means, "creating," too) the associated ecosystem. I'm frankly indifferent if that ecosystem works with other ODF implementations, or no ODF implementation but tools that nevertheless support OpenOffice technology. Elemental to that promotion is ensuring that users of all abilities, experiences, languages, expectations are able to negotiate the site, get what they want, and also--important!--contribute as they can and as they may.

But does that page we have now provide for that set of desires?