LibreOffice took up the pen to address Apache OpenOffice. In essence, he is being asked to give up his office suite and join the one that really works.
The observation is relentless: you have to go back to April 29, 2014 to find the last major update of Apache OpenOffice. Since that date, only a few fixes have been released, mainly to fix bugs and security vulnerabilities. For its part, LibreOffice has shown continuous dynamism since its birth in the early 2010s. Its last major version dates from August 5, 2020.
This is the state of play after ten years of existence for Apache OpenOffice (its first branch dates from May 8, 2012) and for LibreOffice (which debuted on January 25, 2011). But for the team behind LibreOffice, it is time for Apache OpenOffice to face the facts: this project has been in decline for far too long. It’s time to let go.
A date that was not chosen at random
This is the meaning of the appeal launched on October 12 by LibreOffice on its blog. ” Today we say it: LibreOffice is the future of OpenOffice. Let’s all support it together! “A call whose date was not chosen by chance: twenty years ago, on October 12, 2000, the source code of OpenOffice was made available by its owner at the time, thus allowing the emergence of an office suite. free.
Because before LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice were born, there was OpenOffice.org. Founded in 2000 on the foundations of StarOffice, another office suite designed from the mid-1980s by the German company Star Division, OpenOffice.org was one of the great successes of the American company Sun Microsystems, which was able to build on the work of Star Division after buying it in 1999.
If StarOffice has benefited from development for another ten years, it is especially OpenOffice.org that has taken off. In 2009, however, a twist: this time it was Sun Microsystems’ turn to be bought by Oracle for 7.4 billion dollars (which then sold the software to the Apache foundation). This operation was the marker of a break with the supporters of free software, while OpenOffice.org was shut down.
« LibreOffice is the future of OpenOffice. Let’s all support it together! »
For its part, Oracle sought to unite the OpenOffice.org and StarOffice branches from the 2010s, first in a software called Oracle OpenOffice, then finally ceded the software to the free Apache foundation. As for the libriste community, it is another path which was taken, from the source code of OpenOffice.org, thanks to its permissive license. This is how LibreOffice was born.
It would no doubt have been possible to have the two projects coexist at the same time. After all, there could have been as many as five large office suites derived from StarOffice or OpenOffice.org. Only, Apache did not know or wanted to animate its solution. In 2016, moreover, the question of the future of Apache OpenOffice began to arise seriously in the discussion channels of the project.
« In recent years, almost all development activity has taken place in LibreOffice, with 13 major versions and 87 minor versions. “, Observes the LibreOffice team. ” In 2019, LibreOffice had over 15,000 code submissions, while OpenOffice only had 595. And besides, LibreOffice has features that Apache OpenOffice lacks or lacks on.
Below, the video presenting the main features of version 7 of LibreOffice, released this summer.
And LibreOffice to bear the brunt, by highlighting the entire ecosystem that revolves around the office suite: ” LibreOffice has a thriving community, annual conferences, professional support options, development and migration certifications, and a strong business ecosystem. “. So, isn’t it time to prepare for a general switch to LibreOffice?
The promoters of this office suite are not saying that we should abandon Apache OpenOffice overnight. ” A lot of users don’t know that LibreOffice exists. The OpenOffice brand is still going strong. There is a particular need to ensure follow-up for those using this program, to resolve concerns that arise over time.
But for the others, it is better to direct them to an up-to-date solution that has a future. ” Make them aware that there is a much more modern, updated and professionally supported suite based on OpenOffice with many additional features that people need. », They plead. It remains to be seen whether Apache will hear this call.
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