Home » Archives for Mike Saunders » Page 51

Author: Mike Saunders

Membership Committee Election 2022: Q+A sessions with the candidates

The Document Foundation is the non-profit home of LibreOffice, and its Membership Committee (MC) administers membership applications and renewals following the criteria defined in the Foundation’s Statutes.

The election process for a new MC is underway, and we’ve had three live Q+A sessions with the candidates! Check them out in this playlist, using the icon in the top-right to switch videos (and we’ll put them on PeerTube very soon):

Please confirm that you want to play a YouTube video. By accepting, you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Community Member Monday: Jean-Baptiste Faure

Today we’re talking to Jean-Baptiste Faure from the LibreOffice localisation community…

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I am Jean-Baptiste, living in a small town near Lyon in France.

I retired in 2021, and until then I was working as a researcher in hydroinformatics in a public research institute. I was developing numerical simulation software for the study of river flows and their dynamics: mainly floods and pollutant transport.

What are you working on in the LibreOffice project right now?

Currently my main contribution to LibreOffice is the French localization of the UI. So I am less active in Quality Assurance than previously, but I continue to build several versions of LibreOffice for my own use and QA needs.

Note: it is very easy to build LibreOffice on Linux – do not hesitate to try.

Why did you choose to join the project, and how was the experience?

Well, from my point of view, LibreOffice is the natural continuation of the OpenOffice.org project. I started with StarOffice 5.1 in 1998 because I needed a word processor able to write mathematical equations under Microsoft Windows, and I never liked Latex. 😉

In 2008, I was elected to succeed to Sophie as lead of the French speaking community. I managed the QA tests for the French localized versions of OpenOffice.org.

When LibreOffice was launched, it was clear for me that it was the future. Joining the project was proof.

Let’s not lie to ourselves, the experience is not a smooth one. Current debates about LibreOffice Online are an example, but certainly that will not be the last crisis. But LibreOffice is too central and important to be stopped by such crises. I want to believe that the community is strong enough to overcome theses problems.

Anything else you plan to do in the future? What does LibreOffice really need?

The Document Foundation, through LibreOffice and its other projects, has the mission to empower the user. Free software should make the user less dependent on software and service providers, and give him back the power over the computers he uses, more or less without realizing it.

More concretely, I think that the development effort of LibreOffice should focus in particular on the elimination of regressions, and on the frugality of the software to reduce its ecological impact.

Many thanks to Jean-Baptiste for all his contributions. All LibreOffice users are welcome to get involved, learn new skills – and make LibreOffice even better for millions of users!

LibreOffice project and community recap: August 2022

Here’s our summary of updates, events and activities in the LibreOffice project in the last four weeks – click the links to learn more…

  • And after announcing the new version, we followed social media, Reddit and other places to see what people were saying. The feedback was very positive! But of course, we’ll continue to maintain the LibreOffice 7.4 branch to fix issues that crop up – see the release plan here.

  • And while we’re on the subject of Mexico, we chatted with Mauricio Baeza who’s developing a library in Python to help program macros more easy.

  • Finally, the election process for a new Membership Committee at TDF is underway, and we’re having live Q&A sessions with the candidates. Two have already taken place, and one more is to come – keep an eye on this blog for video recordings very soon…

Keep in touch – follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Mastodon. Like what we do? Support our community with a donation – or join us and help to make LibreOffice even better!

Live town-hall meetings with the Membership Committee candidates

The Document Foundation is the non-profit home of LibreOffice, and its Membership Committee (MC) administers membership applications and renewals following the criteria defined in the Foundation’s Statutes.

The election process for a new MC is underway, and we’ll have live Q&A sessions with the candidates!

Where

When

A few notes

  • please send in your questions beforehand if possible, to elections@documentfoundation.org
  • pick the session that suits you best (so you can ask live questions)
  • the sessions are optional for the candidates, so while we’re grateful for everyone joining – if someone can’t make it, that is fine, and people can always ask questions on the mailing list
  • to give attendees the opportunity to ask questions in a language different from English, we’ll try to have a person doing live translations in every session
  • questions towards the candidates will be prepared in English, and/or translated to English on the go
  • we will record the sessions, for our members not able to attend
  • when you attend via Jitsi: please mute yourself when not speaking; keep your video off and ask your questions in the Jitsi chat, if you don’t want to be recorded; and note that the chat content itself might also be part of the recording

Please do follow-up with any questions – and we’re looking forward to meeting many of you in the next three days!

Community Member Monday: Mauricio Baeza

Today we’re talking to Mauricio Baeza (aka “El Mau”) from the Mexican LibreOffice community…

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I live in Mexico City. My hobbies are reading, watching movies and helping other people, and my cats.

What are you working on right now?

I am developing a library in Python to help develop macros more easy. I also update my book in Spanish, which covers developing macros in Basic.

When did you join the LibreOffice community, and how was the experience?

3. Although I have been a member of The Document Foundation for only a few years, I saw the birth of LibreOffice, and have always participated in the community. So joining the LibreOffice project was very natural and satisfying.

What else are you planning to work on, and what does LibreOffice really need?

The future, for me, is only tomorrow, so just keep doing what I do every day. I think LibreOffice should be consolidated as a truly community project, not to depend on the whims of some companies.

Many thanks to Mauricio for all his contributions! All LibreOffice users are welcome to get involved, learn new skills – and make LibreOffice even better for millions of users!

Congratulations to all community members, on the release of LibreOffice 7.4!

Yesterday, The Document Foundation announced LibreOffice 7.4, our latest major release. TDF helped to coordinate the release, but most of the work was done by community volunteers and certified developers in the ecosystem.

We at TDF would like to say a big thanks to everyone who helped out – but don’t just take it from us! Here’s a selection of congratulations and thanks we saw, across social media, Reddit and other places…

Congrats and a big thank you for the new release!

Thank you contributors!

Congrats on the new release

I’ve been using it for 11 years now. Keeps getting better and I’m sure this one will be too. Keep up the good work!

Nice! Congrats to the LibreOffice team! I switched a few months from Word to Writer, and it’s been a fairly pleasant experience.

Gracias al equipo de LibreOffice Por todo el trabajo; yo la uso desde sus inicios y me encanta. En mi taller usamos esta hermosa herramienta ofimática.

thank you, libre is awesome

🙂 I M P R E S S I V E work People.

Great software!

I am already using 7.4. Thanks to all

Excellent, big thanks to the Libreoffice team. I’ve switched from the other office and have really enjoyed the change, keep up the great work!

Best app for documents. Thanks.

Great piece of software!!

Un grand grand merci. Bravo l’équipe de développeurs

Congratulations to the Team @LibreOffice

A big thanks to the team of companies, The Document Foundation, and especially to the voluntary individuals who contribute code to improve the product. Keep it up! 🙂!

Nice !! Thanks all. Great team…

Excellent. Libreoffice I’ve been using on Windows for ages. Always keeps getting better with each updates.

Super robota, dziękuję

Congrats! I use LibreOffice exclusivly and love it. Smooth sailing!

#opensource thanks @LibreOffice

Congratulations

Great work ! Thanks you !

Cheers 😊

Press Releases

The Document Foundation Releases LibreOffice 26.2.1 with Contributions from Community and Ecosystem Partners

Videos describing new features available on YouTube and PeerTube Berlin, 26 February 2026 – The Document Foundation today announced the…

Open Document Format

Why ODF and not OOXML

Many interpreted the last article in this series as an attack on Microsoft for using the OOXML format against users'…