Author: Italo Vignoli

On 28 September 2010, a group of OpenOffice.org community members announced the launch of the LibreOffice project and the foundation that would support it: The Document Foundation. The announcement sparked some confusion and scepticism, as well as enormous enthusiasm amongst those in the community who believe in free and open-source software.

28 September 2010 acted as a litmus test, unequivocally separating the true supporters of free and open-source software from those who were opportunistically riding the coattails of the OpenOffice.org project, or waiting for the right moment to stamp their own proprietary mark on it.

Sixteen years on, LibreOffice has been independent for longer than OpenOffice.org ever was under Sun Microsystems. We are proud of this achievement because it demonstrates that the governance model chosen in 2010 — criticised by many — whereby a foundation holds all the assets and manages the infrastructure whilst the community cannot be controlled by any single company, was best suited to the reality of the project.

Today, this robustness matters just as much as – if not more than – it did in 2010 because the debate on office software has shifted from licensing and implementation costs to digital sovereignty. It is a concept that we have championed for over 20 years, ever since OpenOffice.org began using the standard open ODF (Open Document Format) file format.

At the time, the term ‘digital sovereignty’ was not yet in use, but the issue was already clear: control over the format in which public documents are stored, and how this format evolves, must not lie with a single company, but with the community.

In this sense, ODF is the “sovereign” format par excellence because it does not depend on the authority — and therefore the commercial strategies — of a single company, but on the users — individuals, organisations, and businesses — who use it and determine its evolution through the contributions of experts within the independent OASIS Technical Committee, which comprises companies, foundations, public bodies, and individuals.

As the only “sovereign” format, ODF acts as a litmus test for office suites that claim to champion digital sovereignty yet continue to use the proprietary OOXML format, thereby submitting to Microsoft’s monopoly. They are in good company, given that even the scientific community has renamed our genome for the same reason.

LibreOffice is the only office suite to use ODF as its native format without proclaiming itself a champion of digital sovereignty because, after sixteen years of consistent behaviour, it does not need to chase trends to secure its place in the market. The figures prove it: today, downloads stand at a steady one million per week, and the updates website receives almost fifty million visits per month.

We would simply like all software that proclaims itself a champion of digital sovereignty to demonstrate the same level of consistency as the LibreOffice project. This means not bowing to the Microsoft monopoly in pursuit of a theoretical goal — namely, compatibility with Microsoft’s proprietary format — which ultimately leads them to betray the very digital sovereignty they claim to champion.

Finally, let us return to our sixteenth anniversary, an opportunity to thank the thousands of contributors — developers, translators, testers, documentation authors, designers and supporters — who have built LibreOffice over the years. Most of these contributors remain unseen by the users who benefit from their work.

Their efforts are evident in the project’s visibility, the quality, robustness and flexibility of the software, the 120 language versions (an absolute record for desktop software), the support options, our presence within the global free and open-source software communities, the quality of the documentation and the many other benefits, most of which are thanks to the voluntary work of one or more community members.

Thank you all. Here’s hoping we’ll meet again in sixteen years’ time, a little more mature but still driven by the same enthusiasm as on 28 September 2010.

Today, 19 September, is Software Freedom Day, a special day that the free software community celebrates every year on the third Saturday in September all over the world.

It is a good opportunity to look at LibreOffice from a perspective that is often taken for granted: not what the software does, but what it allows users to do and what it does not impose on them.

Free software is defined by four freedoms. LibreOffice guarantees all of them, and from these derives a range of other freedoms that are important for anyone writing a letter, preparing a budget or presenting a project.

The four freedoms

LibreOffice is distributed under the Mozilla Public Licence 2.0, which guarantees every user the four freedoms that define free software:

1. the freedom to run the programme for any purpose, without any restrictions whatsoever;
2. the freedom to study how the programme works, thanks to the availability of the source code;
3. the freedom to modify the programme to suit one’s own needs, both at an individual and an organisational level;
4. the freedom to redistribute copies of the software, including modified ones, so that other users may also benefit from its advantages.

The freedom to own your own documents

A document belongs to its author only if the format in which it is saved does not belong to someone else. LibreOffice uses the Open Document Format (ODF) as its native format: an ISO/IEC standard, developed at OASIS through a transparent, fully documented process, which no single company can control or modify unilaterally.

This means that a document saved today in ODF format will still be readable in twenty years’ time, either with LibreOffice or with other software that implements the standard. For private individuals, it is a matter of practicality. For public authorities, which have a duty to preserve documents and to communicate with citizens without forcing them to purchase specific software, it is a matter of principle.

The freedom to keep your data private

LibreOffice does not collect data on its operation, and does not require you to create an account. Documents are created, edited and saved on the user’s computer, and remain there unless the user decides otherwise. There is no mandatory link to a cloud service, and no user profile is created on a remote server.

The freedom to work without distractions

LibreOffice does not display adverts and does not prompt users to take out a subscription or sign up for a premium plan. The interface is designed to support users’ work, not to sell additional services.

The freedom to decide on artificial intelligence

LibreOffice does not include any generative AI features. Users who need them can add them via extensions and choose which service to use, including locally running models, whilst users who do not need them do not have to miss out on anything, as there is nothing to miss out on.

The freedom to choose platform and language

LibreOffice runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and documents transfer seamlessly between systems. The user interface is available in 120 languages, thanks to the work of volunteer translators, including some languages overlooked by commercial software providers. For speakers of those languages, LibreOffice is the only office suite available.

The freedom from licence fees and vendor lock-in

LibreOffice can be used freely – and therefore at no cost – by individuals, businesses and public authorities. There are no subscriptions to take out or renew, and no mandatory updates: users decide when to upgrade to a new version. Furthermore, documents in ODF format can be transferred to any other software without the need for conversion.

The freedom to choose support

Organisations requiring long-term professional support, service level agreements or bespoke developments can purchase these from companies within the LibreOffice ecosystem, which offer enterprise versions of LibreOffice and related professional services. There is complete freedom of choice regarding providers, and changing providers does not require a change of software or document format.

The freedom to participate

LibreOffice is developed by a global community. Anyone can contribute, and not just by writing code: translation, quality assurance, documentation, design, marketing and user support are all activities carried out by volunteers. And those who do not have the time to contribute can support the project with a donation, which helps to maintain its independence.

How to celebrate Software Freedom Day

The simplest way to celebrate Software Freedom Day is to exercise these freedoms: download LibreOffice, save your documents in ODF and share the software with anyone who might need it. And if you’d like to do more, you can find out how to get involved or make a donation to The Document Foundation.

Download: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/
Get involved: https://www.libreoffice.org/improve-it/
Donate: https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/