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posted by martyb on Thursday November 10 2016, @02:49AM   Printer-friendly
from the differences-are-good dept.

I find the Libre Office Update tool for the Windows version of the Suite is not really worth having at all. A notice will pop up indicating that an update is available, but the tool just goes to the Libre Office web site for you to download the full package manually. Compare that to the Pale Moon web browser, which will download small update packages when a new version becomes available. You do not need to remove the old version of Pale Moon to install the update, because its update tool takes care of it automatically.

Libre Office is a high profile Open Source application, I am surprised that their version for the Windows operating system does not have an easy upgrade path. I think that working on the Upgrade tool would be a worthy upgrade to the Suite, and the current version is holding back adoption of it.

Disclaimer: I am not a programmer, so I can't write an upgrade tool on my own. Also my employers owns any software I create (employment agreement).

[Ed note: I was debating whether or not to run this story. Sounds like it could lead to a good discussion. If LibreOffice can download deltas on other platforms, why not on Windows? What practical reason could there be?]


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10 2016, @03:59AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10 2016, @03:59AM (#424988)

    Also my employers owns any software I create (employment agreement).

    That's insane, but I've heard of it before. I presume this includes software written on your own time, since otherwise it wouldn't be worth mentioning. Nonsense like that should be outright unenforceable.

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  • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday November 10 2016, @04:44AM

    by mhajicek (51) on Thursday November 10 2016, @04:44AM (#425001)

    If your employer owns what you write then they're also liable for what you write.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10 2016, @09:21AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10 2016, @09:21AM (#425051)

      And possibly overtime for the time spent doing it.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10 2016, @09:49AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10 2016, @09:49AM (#425066)
      That's unlikely to be an upside in practice.

      Your employer owning everything you create even in your spare time seems almost as bad as slavery (in fact I think in some places slaves didn't have that part as bad).
  • (Score: 2) by choose another one on Thursday November 10 2016, @10:24AM

    by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 10 2016, @10:24AM (#425073)

    If you've never heard of it, where have you been? Such clauses have been standard in employment contracts since at least the 1980s when I started work.

    It is also the reason why some free software projects or organisations (e.g GNU / FSF) require, and have done for decades, employer disclaimers as well as copyright assignment from the author. It's not only employers - if you're a student your work may be owned by the university or college. In fact GPLv2 from 1991 states in the section on applying GPL to "your new programs":

        "You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if necessary."

    Also note that it's not only software, and the practice probably pre-dates software, it applies to hardware too (probably all "intellectual property" if you like that term) - if you invent a fusion reactor in your garage then check your employment contract for who will own the patent before you rush off and try and get one.