Is OpenOffice.org.il Dead?

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Guy Snir
Filed Under Open Source, Business, Israel, Education |

Bad news reported, by Adar Shalev and Ehud Keinan (in Hebrew), in the popular Israeli news site Ynet.

The current support that the Hebrew version of OpenOffice is getting from the Israeli Ministry of Finance ends this month. As a consequence, the company currently maintaining OpenOffice.org.il, TK Open Systems Ltd., announced yesterday that the project is taking a hiatus with no known date as to when the project will become active again.

The practical aspects of this means that until proper funding is found no bugs will be solved, phone support will not be available and the forums will be locked.

Jonathan Ben-Avraham, CEO of TK Open Systems, updated that efforts are being made to secure funds for next year, but that the source has not been found yet. According to Ben-Avraham the Ministry of Finance has not made a formal decision to cease its support for the project, but internal conflicts among the different government agencies is causing the current freeze.

Boaz Dolev, the manager of the government’s Tehila Project (that funded the Hebrew OpenOffice until now), claims he is optimistic. Dolev says that a committee will start working on this subject in March, and he believes that the proper funding will be found.

This is another example of the delicate and important relationship between the government and the Open Source community.