NeoOffice Early Access FAQ

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-	=* * * D R A F T * * *=	+	'''The NeoOffice Early Access Program was discontinued in 2010.'''
-	''This FAQ supplements the official Early Access Program information found at http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/earlyaccess.php.''	+
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-	===What is the NeoOffice Early Access Program?===	+
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-	The NeoOffice Early Access Program provides individuals with access to a single, specific release-quality milestone binary in advance of the release of the same binary to the general public, in exchange for a small fee that helps offset development costs.	+
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-	The current Early Access Program is for NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha PowerPC. Participating in the Early Access Program will provide you with an opportunity to download NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha PowerPC either '''up to''' a month (or '''up to''' two weeks, for a reduced fee) in advance of the general public, depending on when you join the program.	+
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-	The Early Accces Progam for NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha PowerPC '''does not provide you early access to any future NeoOffice release, including but not limited to NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 2 PowerPC, NeoOffice 2.0 Beta PowerPC, or NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha Intel.'''	+
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-	NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha PowerPC '''will not run on Apple's new Intel-based Macintoshes, either natively or under “Rosetta”.'''	+
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-	Please note that you are purchasing a service (advance access), not a product; as such, there are no refunds. Moreover, while we believe NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha PowerPC is stable enough for advanced users to begin testing, there are likely many bugs still lurking, and, like all GPL software, there is [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html no warranty of any kind], including for the stability of the software or suitabiliy of the software for a particular task.	+
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-	<!--* Specific details in http://trinity.neooffice.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2600	+
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-	===Why should I participate in the NeoOffice Early Acces Program?===	+
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-	Participants in the NeoOffice Early Access Program provide funds which support the continued development of NeoOffice, including the most-requested features of further Aquafication and a version that runs on Intel-based Macintoshes.	+
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-	The NeoOffice project is funded entirely by donations (including "donations" by the developers of their own money and time), and as the popularity of NeoOffice has increased, the task of simply keeping up with existing bug reports has become a full-time job for one developer. Adding new features (such as the recent upgrade to the OpenOffice.org 2.0.x codebase, and planned support for Intel-based Macintoshes and adding additional Aqua widgets) takes an even greater amount of time.	+
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-	Without financial support from users (either through standard donations or participation in the new Early Access Program), NeoOffice maintenance and development would slow to a crawl, and there is a danger that, without sufficient funds, the currently-released version of NeoOffice could be the last version of NeoOffice.	+
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-	===Why are you charging for NeoOffice?===	+
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-	We are not charging for NeoOffice; the Early Access Program provides users willing to contribute to the program an opportunity to begin using an official NeoOffice binary in advance of the public release of the same binary.	+
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-	NeoOffice binaries are still freely available; at present, NeoOffice 1.2.2 PowerPC is available for download completely free-of-charge. On May 23, 2006, NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha PowerPC will be available for download completely free-of-charge. The NeoOffice source code remains available completely free-of-charge, and you are welcome to build NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha PowerPC yourself.	+
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-	===Why are you charging for Early Acces, then?===	+
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-	* Giving away software is not a good way to support one's family.	+
-	* Neo developers do it because they love it and believe in F/OSS, but	+
-	** # of downloads per month	+
-	** #/amount of donations decreasing, both overall and in relation to the # of downloads	+
-	** costs of bandwidth	+
-	** develop Neo or buy food?	+
-	**: OOo developed by a small company of Sun engineers plus paid employees from Novell, RedHat, others, with the assistance of true volunteers	+
-	**: Hours/week Patrick works on Neo; hours per year Patrick and Ed contribute	+
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-	===What about the GPL?===	+
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-	No problem; the GPL allows for sales of software. Plus, the source is still out there, still free (in both senses of the word). If you want NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha PowerPC on April 25 without paying $25, you're free to build it yourself.	+
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-	===Distribution===	+
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-	See [[NeoOffice CD Distribution & Trademark Usage]] (basically, if you build it yourself and don't call it NeoOffice, you can still redistribute it as before, even before its available in binary form to the general public, right?)	+
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-	===Why not ''idea x''...?===	+
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-	Because most of the other proposals were unpalatable to the developers or unrealistic in terms of the funds they would generate.	+
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-	===What else?===	+
-	* Other issues raised (esp. repeatedly) in [http://trinity.neooffice.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2557 this thread]	+

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Current revision

The NeoOffice Early Access Program was discontinued in 2010.