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Author: Italo Vignoli

TDF announces LibreOffice 3.4.6

Berlin, March 22, 2012 – The Document Foundation (TDF) announces LibreOffice 3.4.6, solving a potential security problem and a number of bugs of the program.

LibreOffice 3.4.6 is the last planned release in the 3.4 series. Since early 2012, the focus of the LibreOffice development team has been on the 3.5 series. LibreOffice 3.4.6 is released for the convenience of users, for them to plan a migration to the 3.5 series without being forced in time.

LibreOffice 3.4.6 is available for immediate download from the following link: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/?version=3.4.6

Change logs are available at http://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/src/bugfixes-libreoffice-3-4-6-release-3.4.6.1.log (fixed in 3.4.6.1) and http://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/src/bugfixes-libreoffice-3-4-6-release-3.4.6.2.log (fixed in 3.4.6.2).

Informations on the potential security problem are available on the advisory page: CVE-2012-0037.

LibreOffice 3.5.1 provides additional security and stability

Berlin, March 15, 2012 – The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 3.5.1, the second version of the 3.5 family, targeting private individuals and enterprises. LibreOffice 3.5.1 fixes the majority of the most-important bugs identified by users and is expected to be appealing for most enterprises.

TDF encourages large organizations to deploy LibreOffice in conjunction with a support partner, who can assess specific requirements, help manage migration and provide bespoke fixes for identified issues. Purchasing LibreOffice support from a TDF partner provides enterprises with an indirect means to contribute financially to the project, to fund software development, to improve the stability and accelerate the growth.

“During the last month, the number of TDF hackers has overtaken the threshold of 400 code developers, with a large majority of independent volunteers and several companies paying full time hackers. In any case, the project is independent, as none of these companies employs more than 7% of the developers”, affirms Italo Vignoli, member of the Board of Directors. “Since September 2010, a monthly average of 20 new hackers has joined the project, attracted by the copyleft license, the lack of copyright assignment and a welcoming environment”.

LibreOffice 3.5.1 is available for immediate download from the following link: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/.

Change logs are available at http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/3.5.1/RC1 and http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/3.5.1/RC2.

About The Document Foundation (TDF)

The Document Foundation is an open, independent, self-governing, meritocratic organization, which builds on ten years of dedicated work by the OpenOffice.org Community. TDF was created in the belief that the culture born of an independent foundation brings out the best in corporate and volunteer contributors, and will deliver the best free office suite. TDF is open to any individual who agrees with its core values and contributes to its activities, and warmly welcomes corporate participation, e.g. by sponsoring individuals to work as equals alongside other contributors in the community. As of March 15, 2012, TDF has over 140 members and well over a thousand volunteers and contributors worldwide.

Media Contacts

Florian Effenberger (based near Munich, Germany, UTC+1)
E-mail: floeff@documentfoundation.org – Skype: floeff
Charles H. Schulz (based in Paris, France, UTC+1)
E-mail: charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org
Eliane Domingos de Sousa (based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UTC-3)
E-mail: elianedomingos@documentfoundation.org – Skype: elianedomingos
Italo Vignoli (based in Milan, Italy, UTC+1)
E-mail: italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org – Skype: italovignoli
GTalk: italo.vignoli@gmail.com

Full contact details: http://www.documentfoundation.org/contact/.

Get ready for the Document Freedom Day 2012!

In two weeks from now we will be celebrating the Document Freedom Day. All over the world, thousands of people will be organizing events, meetings to raise awareness around open standards for digital documents. The Document Foundation encourages everyone to join the activities planned for this day and even to propose new ones.

 The Document Foundation is an enthusiastic supporter of the Document Freedom Day. We welcome this event each year as a great opportunity to expand the reach of an essential conversation : Open Standards and free digital documents for all.

 By removing the technical and legal barriers on document formats and standards, we enable true and effective interoperability while allowing hundreds of millions of people to create, think, and share content. We encourage everyone to join the existing initiatives that day and to get involved: Everyone can do this even with just a keyboard.

FOSDEM dev-room slides …

This FOSDEM we had a popular LibreOffice Dev-Room, with many interesting talks focused on a technical audience. Starting from Italo’s overview of where we’re at as of now, and moving into how to how to write filters, the code structure of our major components, how to get involved with easy hacks, and more.

If you missed some of that, the slides are now available (where there were slides) in our wiki, please do check them out.

The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice for Windows from SUSE is now available in Intel AppUp(SM) Center

Intel becomes a Member of TDF Advisory Board

Berlin, February 23rd, 2012 – The Document Foundation (TDF) today announced LibreOffice for Windows from SUSE is now available in the Intel AppUpSM Center, an online repository designed for Intel® processor-based devices. Intel is also becoming a member of TDF Advisory Board, a body that provides advice and funding for the LibreOffice project.

Intelappupcenter

LibreOffice for Windows from SUSE is available in Intel AppUpSM Center as a special, five-language version featuring English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. As a validated Intel AppUpSM Center app, LibreOffice for Windows from SUSE features a new, smooth, silent installation flow and improved uninstallation cleanup.

“I have been using LibreOffice from day one for presentations at conferences and for data analysis,” said Dawn Foster, open source community lead, Intel. “Our engineers have worked with the LibreOffice codebase to optimise it for Intel hardware. Adding it to the AppUpSM Center is an obvious extension, and will provide an exciting feature for all Ultrabook users.”

“We welcome Intel to The Document Foundation, and look forward to working with them,” said Dr. Gerald Pfeifer, senior director of product management, SUSE. “It’s great to see Intel providing LibreOffice through an exciting new channel so that more and more users can experience LibreOffice on Windows, with access to our world class support, that can make organizations more productive while saving costs.”

“We are thrilled to add Intel to our existing roster of supporters”, said Florian Effenberger, volunteer and TDF board member, “TDF is first and foremost a vendor neutral project committed to excellence in the office suite space, but we greatly value the support and advice we gain from organisations such as SUSE, Red Hat, Google, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Software in the Public Interest (SPI).”

About the Intel AppUpSM Center

Downloaded by more than one million consumers to date, the Intel AppUpSM Center is a key initiative to provide rich, compelling digital content and experiences, specifically designed for Intel® processor- based devices. Through its ever growing network of partner stores, the Intel AppUpSM Center is an open application distribution model which works across multiple platforms and operating systems. The Intel AppUpSM Center software can be downloaded at http://www.appup.com.

About The Document Foundation (TDF)

The Document Foundation is an open, independent, self-governing, meritocratic organization, incorporated in Berlin as a German Stiftung, which builds on ten years of dedicated work by the OpenOffice.org Community. TDF was created in the belief that the culture born of an independent foundation brings out the best in corporate and volunteer contributors, and will deliver the best free office suite. TDF is open to any individual who agrees with its core values and contributes to its activities, and warmly welcomes corporate participation, e.g. by sponsoring individuals to work as equals alongside other contributors in the community. As of February, 2012, TDF has 146 members and over a thousand volunteers and contributors worldwide.

Media Contacts

TDF
Florian Effenberger (based near Munich, Germany, UTC+1)
Phone: +49 8341 99660880 – Mobile: +49 151 14424108
E-mail: floeff@documentfoundation.org – Skype: floeff

Italo Vignoli (based in Milan, Italy, UTC+1)
SIP Phone: +39 02 320621813 – Mobile: +39 348 5653829
E-mail: italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org – Skype: italovignoli

SUSE
Amie Johnson (based in Provo, Utah, UTC-6)
Phone: +1 801 8612893 – E-mail: amie@suse.com

The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 3.5: “the best free office suite ever”

Berlin, February 14, 2012 – The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 3.5, the third major release of “the best free office suite ever”, which shows to end users the improvements derived from the development strategy adopted since September 2010. LibreOffice 3.5 derives from the combined effort of full time hackers – the largest group of experienced OOo code developers – and volunteer hackers, coordinated by the Engineering Steering Committee.

During 16 months, an average of 80 developers each month have provided a total of over thirty thousand code commits, introducing new and interesting features:

Writer

  • a new built-in Grammar checker for English and several other languages
  • improved typographical features, for professional looking documents
  • an interactive word count window, which updates in real time
  • a new header, footer and page break user interface

Impress / Draw

  • an improved importer of custom shapes and Smart Art from PPT/PPTX
  • a feature for embedding multimedia/colour palettes into ODF documents
  • a new display switch for the presenter’s console
  • new line ends for improved diagrams
  • Microsoft Visio import filter

Calc

  • support for up to 10,000 sheets
  • a new multi-line input area
  • new Calc functions conforming to the ODF OpenFormula specifications
  • better performances when importing files from other office suites
  • multiple selections in autofilter
  • unlimited number of rules for conditional formatting

Base

  • a new integrated PostgreSQL native driver

In addition, for the first time in the history of LibreOffice, we will be enabling the online update checker, which informs users when a new version of the suite is available.
“We inherited a 15 years old code base, where features were not implemented and bugs were not solved in order to avoid creating problems, and this – with time – was the origin of a large technical debt,” says Caolán McNamara, a senior RedHat developer who is one of the founders and directors of TDF. “We had two options: a conservative strategy, which would immediately please all users, leaving the code basically unchanged, and our more aggressive feature development and code renovation path, which has created some stability problems in the short term but is rapidly leading to a completely new and substantially improved free office suite: LibreOffice 3.5, the best free office suite ever.”

“In sixteen months, we have achieved incredible results – comments Michael Meeks, a SUSE Distinguished Engineer, who is also a founder and director at TDF – with nearly three hundred entirely new developers to the project, attracted by the copyleft license, the lack of copyright assignment and a welcoming environment. In addition to the visible features, they’ve translated tens of thousands of German comments, removed thousands of unused or obsolete methods – sometimes whole libraries – and grown a suite of automated tests. Although we still have a long way to go, users – who have sometimes complained for the stability of the software, as they were not aware of the technical debt we were fighting with – can now benefit from a substantially cleaner, leaner and more feature rich LibreOffice 3.5.”

LibreOffice 3.5 is the first release where the contribution of local communities and associations, such as ALTA in Brazil, has been acknowledged. In addition, TDF tried to recognize those volunteers – where we could easily identify them – who put so much into the 3.5 release, with a “hacking” or “bug hunting” hero badge presented the same day of the announcement. TDF is encouraging the development of a global, open and diverse ecosystem where companies, associations, local communities and volunteers share the common objective of developing the best free office suite ever.

The Document Foundation invites power users to install LibreOffice 3.5, and more conservative users to stick with LibreOffice 3.4 branch. Corporate users are strongly advised to deploy LibreOffice with the backing of professional support, from a company able to assist with migration, end user training, support and maintenance. The Document Foundation will soon provide a list of certified organizations providing these professional services.

LibreOffice 3.5 is available from: http://www.libreoffice.org/download. The new features and the improvements are described in the infographic which can be downloaded from: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/116590/lo35-infofinal.pdf.

Lo35 infofinal

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