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IFIP International Conference on Open Source Systems

OSS 2012: Open Source Systems: Long-Term Sustainability pp 29–47Cite as

Long-Term Sustainability of Open Source Software Communities beyond a Fork: A Case Study of LibreOffice

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Part of the IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology book series (IFIPAICT,volume 378)

Abstract

Many organisations have requirements for long-term sustainable software systems and associated communities. In this paper we consider long-term sustainability of Open Source software communities in Open Source projects involving a fork. There is currently a lack of studies in the literature that address how specific Open Source software communities are affected by a fork. We report from a case study aiming to investigate the developer community around the LibreOffice project, which is a fork from the OpenOffice.org project. The results strongly suggest a long-term sustainable community and that there are no signs of stagnation in the project 15 months after the fork. Our analysis provides details on the LibreOffice developer community and how it has evolved from the OpenOffice.org community with respect to project activity, long-term involvement of committers, and organisational influence over time. The findings from our analysis of the LibreOffice project make an important contribution towards a deeper understanding of challenges regarding long-term sustainability of Open Source software communities.

Keywords

  • Open Source
  • Open Source Software
  • Left Graph
  • Global Software Development
  • Open Source Software Project

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden

    Jonas Gamalielsson & Björn Lundell

Authors
  1. Jonas Gamalielsson
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  2. Björn Lundell
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tampere University of Technology, Korkeakoulunkatu 1, 33101, Tampere, Finland

    Imed Hammouda & Tommi Mikkonen & 

  2. University of Skövde, Högskolan i Skövde, 541 28, Skövde, Sweden

    Björn Lundell

  3. Institute for Software Research, University of California, 92697-3455,, Irvine, CA, USA

    Walt Scacchi

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© 2012 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing

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Gamalielsson, J., Lundell, B. (2012). Long-Term Sustainability of Open Source Software Communities beyond a Fork: A Case Study of LibreOffice. In: Hammouda, I., Lundell, B., Mikkonen, T., Scacchi, W. (eds) Open Source Systems: Long-Term Sustainability. OSS 2012. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 378. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33442-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33442-9_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

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