For a long time various Linux distributions, including [[SUSE]] in its various forms, [[Debian]] and [[Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu]], have cooperated in maintaining a large set of patches to the upstream [[OpenOffice.org]] that for various technical or semi-political reasons have not been accepted or not even submitted upstream.<ref name="ooo-build">[http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Ooo-build Ooo-build - collection of patches, artwork and build infrastructure]</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oooninja.com/2007/12/building-ooo-build-from-source.html |title=Building ooo-build from source |date=2007-12-22|accessdate=2010-02-09}}</ref><ref name="ooo-editions">[http://katana.oooninja.com/w/editions_of_openoffice.org Editions of OpenOffice.org]</ref> Some of the companies behind those distributions have also offered [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] builds of [[OpenOffice.org]] offering the same enhancements compared to the upstream build. Windows builds include, for example, [[OxygenOffice]] Professional and OpenOffice.org Novell Edition. Go-oo is just a more concentrated branding effort for these patches and patched builds of [[OpenOffice.org]].
[[Michael Meeks (software developer)|Michael Meeks]], from [[Novell]], (who also works on OpenOffice.org and [[GNOME]]), said that the differentiation was done because [[Sun Microsystems]] wanted to preserve the right to offer its own version ([[StarOffice]]) and even sell the development to the proprietary software market, like [[IBM Lotus Symphony]] from [[IBM]].<ref name="meeks">[http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=1216917892794 Reviewed July 7, 2008, Der Standard interview with Michael Meeks]</ref> Sun was accused of not accepting contributions from the community.<ref name="slashdot">[http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/03/1212234 Sun Refuses LGPL for OpenOffice; Novell forks]</ref><ref name="computerworld">[http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9037499 Can IBM save OpenOffice.org from itself?]</ref>
== Some differences between OpenOffice.org and Go-oo ==
