The FSF & OpenOffice.org Extensions

No doubt many following the living history of free and open source software have already come across the Free Software Foundation's bulletin (communiqué?) on OpenOffice.org's Extensions Repository and what they mean to do about it. I've appended the link to it below, along with the response from the OOo Community Council, of which I am a part (and the Chair). My colleague in the CC, Charles-H. Schulz, of Ars Aperta, issued the response on behalf of us all in the CC and on behalf of the OpenOffice.org Community.

I've long been an advocate and promoter of extensions for OOo. The monolithic code demands them. And I've also long believed that free or non-free as a choice unjustly simplifies--to the point of absurdity--immensely complex positions regarding modes of production and consumption. I suppose I favor nudging the user or consumer, not enforcing a position and expect that the producer (who might be also the user) will respect the choices made in the market. I don't naively believe that what the market says is always right; hardly. But then, not all markets are the same.

FSF launches free software extension listing for OpenOffice.org — Free Software Foundation

OpenOffice.org Community Council Position on Extensions