Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 61685
Provide a means to remove all easter eggs from release versions
Last modified: 2015-03-12 22:09:10 UTC
Provide a means to remove all the eastereggs from release versions. Just saying to remove the offending bits from the source code and recompile it, is not an appropriate solution for the *end users or sysadmins*. It is perfectly reasonable to expect that a defect be addressed as part of the development team. Making it possible for an admin to block all Easter Eggs would be a quick fix. If it is such an important issue to retain the eggs, and the only option you are willing to entertain is that the end users or sysadmins to maintain their own fork, then provide instructions on how to do so.
I fully support the proposal to remove the Easter Eggs. Since they are present in at least Writer as well as Calc, I have changed component to framework. Also changed to Enhancement. Regards, Andrew
reassigned. If there are no other problems in OOo.......
The pictures of the developers could moved to 'about openoffice.org' or the help file, or even retained, but the interactive eggs (e.g games) are the ones that would be disruptive in a classroom environment.
Not only disruptive in a classroom environment, but also contributing (however small) to the size of the OO.o codebase. No matter how "cute' or "funny" these hidden games are, the fact is they are contributing to the size of the OO codebase and binaries. Heck, they're even in StarOffice 8! The Easter eggs need to go. That joke stopped being funny around 1986. Regards, Jeff
The problem here is that even though there are a lot of reasons why there should be no easter eggs and none why they should be in the code, there is no means to obtain what is reasonable. In an environment like this one, with a product like this one, it should be possible to use argumented decissions. Pro's versus con's. The only pro till now is that it is fun. For whom? Steven P.
->'larsnooden', I have just noticed that you have also raised Issue 61667 & Issue 61683. Please do not deliberately raise duplicate issues to force your viewpoint- it only creates more work for QA and annoys developers! It seems 'pjanik' / 'of' has let this Issue pass to Requirements. Hopefully this Issue will stay open, to allow for a *calm* and reasonable discussion. The following may help progress the Issue: - In this Issue record the various known Easter eggs. - Calculate the actual disk space overhead for an installed copy of OOo (Windows?) due to these Easter eggs (I suspect less than 2MB- but better if it was 0MB!) - With this information run a poll over at OOo Forums, to gather what the public consensus is. Regards, Andrew
Thanks, Andrew. If you look at issues 61667 & 61683 (ok, at least the former) I did try to keep everything under one single issue. If you read them, I was very specifically requested by pjanik to create a new issue each time he/she/it/they summarily dismissed the topic. The problem is currently being discussed on the discuss@openoffice.org : http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/BrowseList?list=discuss&by=thread&from=1269476 and marketing@openoffice.org : http://marketing.openoffice.org/servlets/BrowseList?list=dev&by=thread&from=1270355 I, unfortunately, have been the go-between. Alot of thought goes on in those two lists, but unless it makes its way to this awkward piece of software, I suspect that it counts for naught. Please, if you haven't already, join the discussion or at least read the archives. When the time comes to bring the topic to OOo Forums, please be sure to post a notice to both marketing and discuss.
The "vote for this issue" link does not allow me to cast any votes for this issue.
Some older Easter Egg Issues... Dec' 2002: Issue 10072 Sep' 2005: Issue 54703 Sep' 2005: Issue 54876 Sep' 2005: Issue 54877 Sep' 2005: Issue 54878 Dec' 2005: Issue 59593
For the record of the already known easter eggs: In Calc: =Game("StarWars") =Game(A1:C3;"TicTacToe") =StarCalcTeam() In Writer: StarWriterTeam + F3 -button It looks, like there have been some easter eggs removed, since I've tried all easter eggs, mentioned in this email: http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=discuss&msgId=1148237 and the dt + F3 and the "Answer" (or better "Antwort") won't work within my version of OOo.
I would like to lend my support to the effort to remove the Easter eggs or at least provide a way to get rid of them (I would prefer to see them missing by default). At least one person has pointed out that the presence of the EE's is a problem for a particular education market. Looking around the Internet, I've found other indications that the presence of EE's introduces problems with corporate customers and government agencies. So much so, that it appears that Microsoft(yeah, an unfortunate choice to cite as an example) considers it grounds for termination to program EE's into its products. As I've reviewed the arguments thus far relative to this issue, it has gotten me to wondering about the implications for adoption by governments that are looking for secure products. Major Linux vendors are working on a variety of secured versions to meet government specs. While most of this is probably intended for very specific applications, if there is ever a hope that OOo might be adopted on desktops in these agencies, getting rid of the EE's would probably be a good move to improve the quality and security of the stack. In addition, the presence of the EE's represents additional code that has to be QA'ed (it is being QA'ed and not slipped by somehow, right?). Surely OOo's developers have better stuff to work on than reviewing the code for these EE's. Likewise, it is adding additional complexity to the code. I'd suggest checking out this article: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=102181&seqNum=4&rl=1 that covers some of these issues in a much better manner than what I can express. Also, for some other discussion on the value of EE's, you might want to check out the link below (be sure to read some of the comments): http://blogs.msdn.com/larryosterman/archive/2005/10/20/483110.aspx Thanks to the developers for considering these comments! Jeff Causey
There are people who enjoy the EE. The EE are a part of OOo's history, and a part of honoring those developers who created the software. I ask you to not remove the EE. Perhaps, if you have to, add a way to remove them on install of the binary, but do not remove them from the codebase. Virutally every major computer program - open and closed source - from Windows to Debian to OS X to MS Office to Adobe Creative Suite to GIMP to Firefox - has EE. They are fun, they are geeky-cool, they don't hurt anyone - if you don't know they are there, they'll never bother you. -1 vote on this issue. This issue was right to be closed every other time it was brought up.
I think I see the core of the disagreement or confusion. I was specifically thinking about the interactive easter eggs like the games, not the developer snapshots and such. As much as I agree with the comments that eggs are 'cool', 'clever' or otherwise amusing, they do render OOo very much less marketable in some sectors, school classrooms in particular. It's not about likes or dislikes. No one has asked whether I like them or not. I actually do. However, they need to be removed for certain environments.
A Polite Request: At the risk of Policing this Issue, I would encourage a more technical debate. If everyone contributes their personal arguments 'for' or 'against', we will end up with a lot of text but little action. Please move any such debates to forums or mailing lists. To progress this Issue, please see my original points: we need to run a poll to get a democratic decision. The resolution I prefer is to add an IFDEF to include or exclude all EE when OOo is built. For environments that require EE removal (school, etc.), a special build can then be generated (I suspect customized builds would be desired anyway). In the default builds EE might (or might not) be enabled depending on how people vote. Having started to investigate some of the code and resources, the extra size is probably less than 2MB. It would be good if a Developer could check this and report on all EE that exist in OOo currently. Regards, Andrew
Please don't offer different builds! One with and one without EEs!? This will duplicate e.g the QA efford. Every build has to be tested twice. We need a decision: EEs or not. I like them and I would like to keep them. But this can't be voted. So voting here is meaningless.
If voting is meaningless, then it's better to remove EE. *But* provide them as downloadable "extension".
To clarify... @'of', I'm not suggesting that OOo offers different builds, just that a switch exists to remove the EEs for people who make their own custom builds. As such, someone's custom OOo build would fall outside 'warranty' for EE issues (obviously!), but since these EEs are meant to be nice'n'safe and self-contained, then surely removing them would have no effect on OOo stability...? But if we reached a decision by a large majority, then just one build is appropriate. Voting on this Issue obviously can't reflect those against, but I proposed that a Poll is run on a forum, to quantify: Yes, No, Don't care. Maybe someone with some spare time could set this up at oooforum.org, without bias. @'pmike', a downloadable extension would defeat the point of an EE and also require more OOo developer effort. Ideally we are looking for the least effort possible. Regards, Andrew
Just some additional comments on the perception of EE's. Here, http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/sec/0327sec1.html , an older article about security. Notice this part: "How much space in the source and object code does this Easter egg take? How much RAM and disk space are being wasted by all the people who have installed and are using this product? And much more seriously, what does this Easter egg imply about the quality assurance at the manufacturer's offices? An Easter egg is presumably undocumented code - or at least, it's undocumented for the users. ...I think the failure implies that there is no test-coverage monitoring in that quality assurance process." In the article, the author is talking about MS products. Do we really want OOo to be substituted and the target of analysis like this? Here, http://www.soci.niu.edu/~rslade/secgloss.htm , we have a glossary of among other things, information security terms. Here is part of what is said about EE's: "Opinion regarding easter eggs varies, from those who see them as simply harmless jokes to those who consider the more complex inclusions to be trojan horses. In general, however, the practice of including easter eggs and other undocumented code in programs is detrimental to strict security." By continuing to include the EE's, OOo may be practicing something that is considered "detrimental to strict security". Is that the message we want potential users to get? Finally, here http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/12/01/161213 we have a parody that was written just this past December about aliens (real aliens, like little green men from space) inserting malicious code into OSS projects like Linux. The thing about writing something like this is that it must contain little gems of truth to it and introduce concepts that are silly. Down near the end we find this: "As mentioned above, Windows is far too secure to be compromised by an alien. Not only that -- and this is the important part -- there is no way for that alien to hide code within Windows itself, while it could easily become a Linux kernel contributor and slip its nefarious Easter eggs into Linux." Why is that funny? Obviously because there is a belief that, thanks to the OSS programming method, the presence of Easter eggs in Linux is ridiculous. And it is probably equally ridiculous for other major OSS apps (which I think OOo is one). Yet here we are with EE's included in the code. While I appreciate the position of the programmers and others who don't mind the EE's, I fear there is far more of a downside to including them than there is an upside. Yes, the downside may be based a lot on perceptions. Unfortunately, it is far too common in this day and age that perceptions = reality. And as we try to push for wider adoption of OOo, this is one perception that we should not have to battle if it can be corrected. Once again, thanks for your consideration! Jeff Causey
IM(nsv)HO: - thinking EE's have any relevant infulence on used diskspace/memory is a sign of misunderstanding of the real code base of OOo. - EE's have nothing to do with security, being trusthworthy of code, quality control or whatsoever. Malicious code could be made in many ways, by purpose or not. An author putting EE and malicious code at one line, just doesn't understand. Thinking that software is more secure because no EE are present, is just not rational. - EE's never came up as possible issue in my professional/business contacts (office software). - for our school going children, there are many (possible) threats on the computer/internet, that have nothing to do with EE's. - there's not at all an argumented obvious contra EE's outcome, in Larry Osterman's weblog. EE's are not a culprit, nor a danger, above all no vehicles for Trojan Horses (it's open source software: 'look, threre they are' :-) just some fun, a harmless privilege for the coders. If we consider this, I would advice that we leave the developers (and ourselves) with the more important issues.
To move this forwards I have created a Poll here: http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=31663 Please add your personal views and votes there. Many thanks, Andrew
I think, this request as become obsolete, because in OOo3.3 all Easter Eggs are removed. See issue 111231.
All easter eggs are removed.