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Annual Report 2015

Annual_Report_2016-08-07-page001The Document Foundation (TDF) is proud to announce its 2015 Annual Report, which can be downloaded from the following link: http://tdf.io/report2015 (3.6 MB PDF). The version with HD images can be downloaded from http://tdf.io/report2015hq (22.1 MB PDF).

TDF Annual Report starts with a Review of 2015, with highlights about TDF and LibreOffice, and a summary of financials and budget.

Community, Projects & Events covers the LibreOffice Conference 2015 in Aahrus, Certification, Website and QA, Hackfests in Brussels, Gran Canaria, Cambridge, Hamburg, Terni and Madrid, Native-Language Projects, Infrastructure, Documentation, Marketing and Design.

Software, Development & Code reports about the activities of the Engineering Steering Committee, LibreOffice Development, Google Summer of Code, and the Document Liberation Project.

The last section focuses on People, starting with Top Contributors, followed by TDF Staff, the Board of Directors and the Membership Committee, the Board of Trustees, or the body of TDF Members, and the Advisory Board.

To allow the widest distribution of the document, this is released with a CC BY 3.0 DE License, unless otherwise noted, to TDF Members and free software advocates worldwide.

LibreOffice 5.2 “fresh” released, for Windows, Mac OS and GNU/Linux

tdf-roadtolo52LibreOffice 5.1.5 “still” announced, for enterprise class deployments

Berlin, August 3, 2016 – The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 5.2, a feature-rich major release of the best free office suite ever created – targeted to early adopters and power users – with several user interface improvements and enterprise grade features.

At the same time, LibreOffice 5.1.5 has been released, for enterprise class deployments and more conservative office suite users

classificationLibreOffice 5.2 provides document classification according to the TSCP standard, and a set of improved forecasting functions in Calc. In addition, multiple signature descriptions are now supported, along with import and export of signatures from OOXML files.

Interoperability features have also been improved, with better Writer import filters for DOCX and RTF files, and the added support for Word for DOS legacy documents. Additional type argument values for interoperability with other spreadsheets, along with wildcard support in formula expressions for compatibility with XLS/XLSX and ODF 1.2, have also been added.

In term of user experience, a single toolbar mode has been added to Writer and Calc to help users really focus on content, and some icons have been added to the default toolbars to make several frequently used functions – such as hide/show track changes, and freeze the first column or row of a spreadsheet – quicker to access. Also, most of the context menus can now be customized, for even greater control.

LibreOffice has been downloaded 140 million times since the launch in January 2011. The office suite is deployed by large organizations in every continent, with the latest addition being the Lithuanian Police with over 8,000 desktops.

Other New Features of LibreOffice 5.2

  • New drawing tools, including filled curves, polygons and freeform lines, have been added to all program modules.

Writer

  • When printing a document, Print to File is now available in the list of printers.
  • If you use Google Drive for storage, two-factor authentication support has been included.
  • The Save toolbar button includes a quick Save as Template option, so you don’t have to go through the menu.

Calc

  • New functions have been added, along with extensive tooltips that describe what a function does as you type it.
  • Multiple status bar functions can be active at the same time, to provide a quick overview of your data.
  • The currency toolbar icon now includes a drop-down menu to quickly choose the currency you want to use.
  • When removing the border from selected cells, you can also choose to remove the border from adjacent cells as well.

Impress

  • When working with custom animations, you can now quickly add an effect to an element via the sidebar, instead of using a separate dialog box.
  • The list of effects in the sidebar now includes a description of the effect, along with the element name.
  • In the properties sidebar, a new Slide Background panel lets you quickly change the format, orientation and background image of a slide.

A complete list of the better documented new features is available in a separate PDF document (http://tdf.io/lo52features), and on the website at http://www.libreoffice.org/discover/new-features/. Short videos presenting the most significant new features for Writer, Calc and Impress are available at: http://tdf.io/52vids.

LibreOffice 5.2 has also been improved “under the hood,” thanks to the work of hundreds of volunteers (https://people.gnome.org/~michael/blog/2016-08-03-under-the-hood-5-2.html). This translates into an open source office suite which is easier to develop, maintain and debug. Although this is not visible to users, it is extremely important for enterprise deployments.

coverityAccording to Coverity Scan, the number of open issues for 1,000 lines of LibreOffice 5.2 source code at the time of release is a record setting 0.00 (for 7,8 million lines of source code), against an industry average of 0.61 for open source software and 0.75 for proprietary software.

“LibreOffice 5.2 is a significant step forward for Free Software on the desktop, and will soon be available as a full featured cloud office suite,” says Michael Meeks, a Director at The Document Foundation (TDF) and a leading developer of LibreOffice Online. “The tight integration between desktop and cloud will provide enterprises a value added experience, with the best of both platforms always available to all users.”

“LibreOffice is growing fast, thanks to distinctive advantages such as the standard document format, which is recognized by a growing number of governments as the best solution for interoperability,” says Thorsten Behrens, a Director at The Document Foundation (TDF) and a member of the OASIS ODF Technical Committee.

Availability and enterprise deployments

LibreOffice 5.2 represents the bleeding edge in term of features for open source office suites. For enterprise class deployments, TDF maintains the more mature 5.1.5 version.

LibreOffice 5.2 “fresh” and LibreOffice 5.1.5 “still” are immediately available from the following link: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/. LibreOffice users, free software advocates and all community members can support The Document Foundation with a donation at http://donate.libreoffice.org.

LibreOffice 5.2 for GNU/Linux is also available in new packaging formats, which make it easier for end users to install and update the application: Flatpak from Red Hat and Snap from Canonical.

In any case, TDF suggests deploying or migrating to LibreOffice with the backing of certified professionals providing Level 3 support, migration or training consultancy according to recognized best practices worldwide (http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/professional-support/).

Several companies sitting in TDF Advisory Board (http://www.documentfoundation.org/governance/advisory-board/) are providing either value added Long Term Supported versions of LibreOffice or consultancy services for migrations and trainings, based on best practices distilled by The Document Foundation.

LibreOffice 5.2 and LibreOffice 5.1.5 are built with document conversion libraries supporting proprietary document formats from the Document Liberation Project: http://www.documentliberation.org.

Additional technical details

LibreOffice 5.1.5 change logs: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.1.5/RC1 (fixed in RC1) and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.1.5/RC2 (fixed in RC2).

LibreOffice 5.2 change logs: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.2.0/RC1 (fixed in RC1), https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.2.0/RC2 (fixed in RC2), https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.2.0/RC3 (fixed in RC3), and http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.2.0/RC4 (fixed in RC4).

LibreOffice Conference

In 2016, LibreOffice Conference will be hosted by the Faculty of Information Technology at Brno University of Technology, and organized by OpenAlt, from September 7 to 9. Registration for the LibreOffice Conference is open at: http://conference.libreoffice.org/2016/registration/.

Press Kit and Screenshots

The press kit, with press release, infographic, and backgrounds, can be downloaded from: http://tdf.io/lo52presskit. Linux based screenshots can be downloaded from: http://tdf.io/lo52screenshots

The Document Foundation welcomes Canonical to the project Advisory Board

canonical-logo3Berlin, July 26, 2016 – The Document Foundation (TDF) today announced Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu GNU/Linux operating system, has joined the project Advisory Board.

Canonical is the company behind Ubuntu, the leading operating system for cloud and the Internet of Things. Most public cloud workloads, new smart gateways, self-driving cars and advanced humanoid robots are running on Ubuntu. Additionally, Canonical leads the development of the snap universal Linux packaging system for secure, transactional device updates and app stores.

Since its first release in early 2011, LibreOffice has been the default office suite of the Ubuntu operating system. With the announcement of LibreOffice 5.2 in August 2016, it will be one of the first applications to be available as a snap package which will make LibreOffice easier and simpler for The Document Foundation to maintain.

“Canonical has been an active member of the LibreOffice community since the early days, and one of the most frequent sponsors of the LibreOffice Conference. By becoming a member of the project Advisory Board, Canonical will provide the experience and the insights necessary to improve the presence of free software – and LibreOffice – inside enterprises and public administrations worldwide”, says Marina Latini, Chairwoman of The Document Foundation.

“We are extremely pleased to become a member of the LibreOffice Project Advisory Board and having the opportunity to provide our guidance and insights to help improve LibreOffice for users around the world,” said Will Cooke, Desktop Engineering Manager for Canonical. “At Canonical, we believe in the power of open source software. We are committed to developing it, and will support projects and initiatives that help to promote its benefits to a wider audience.”

The Advisory Board’s (AB) primary function is to represent The Document Foundation’s Sponsors, and to provide the Board of Directors (BoD) with advice, guidance and proposals. In addition, the AB is at the kernel of the LibreOffice ecosystem, and as such is key for the further development of the project.

Elections of the next Membership Committee

Dear Community,

we hereby officially announce the upcoming elections for the next Membership Committee of The Document Foundation.

As per § 12 II of our statutes, [1] the Membership Committee’s term lasts two years. The current Membership Committee started its duty on September 19, 2014. Therefore, the old Membership Committee remains in charge until the end of September 18, 2016, so the new MC will be in charge the day after that, which is September 19, 2016.

As per § 6 III, only members of the Board of Trustees of The Document Foundation, as well as current members of any of its bodies, are eligible to be elected into the Membership Committee, and the election is overseen by the Board of Directors (§ 12 II).

The active electoral right is reserved to those who have been members of the Board of Trustees before this announcement (§ 12 II).

There is one more notable limitation: Per § 8 IV of the statutes, a maximum of 1/3 members of the Membership Committee is allowed to work on an employment basis for the same company, organization, entities, affiliates or subdivisions.

Nomination of candidates fulfilling the above requirements, as well as self nomination is welcome. In total, at least five members of the Membership Committee members are required, and given there are enough candidates, up to four deputies can be elected based on the board decision from June 6.

Re-election of current members of the Membership Committee is explicitly permitted (§ 12 II).

Please send nominations and self-nominations via e-mail to elections@documentfoundation.org (which reaches the Board of Directors in private) and also (!) to board-discuss@documentfoundation.org (which is a public mailing list). We kindly ask nominees who would like to stand for elections to provide a statement of up to 75 words on their candidacy as continuous text (so no bullet lists or multiple paragraphs). In addition, please also provide your full name, e-mail address and your corporate affiliation, if any, and please announce that you will provide information on all future changes as soon as possible.

Discussions with the candidates and questions to them as well as questions about the elections should take place on the public board-discuss@documentfoundation.org mailing list. For details on how to use the mailing list, see http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/.

Eligible voters will receive further details via e-mail prior to the start of elections, including a summary of the candidates, details on how to access the voting system, and instructions on how to independently verify the vote count. Please ensure we have your recent and correct e-mail address on file. For questions, you can reach the Board of Directors in private at elections@documentfoundation.org.

Following the time line set forth in § 12 II, requiring a 45 day advance notice, we hereby announce the following time line for the elections:

  1. 2016-07-25: announcement of the elections (this e-mail); and start of the nomination phase
  2. 2016-08-31, 24:00 CET/UTC+2: end of the nomination phase (one week before the election starts, as per § 12 II)
  3. 2016-09-08, 00:00 CET/UTC+2: official start of the elections (at least 45 days after #1, as per § 12 II)
  4. 2016-09-14, 24:00 CET/UTC+2: end of the elections
  5. 2016-09-15: announcement of the preliminary results; and start of the challenging phase
  6. 2016-09-17, 24:00 CET/UTC+2: end of the challenging phase
  7. 2016-09-18: official announcement of the final results
  8. 2016-09-19: new Membership Committee officially in charge

Be advised that the newly elected Membership Committee will only be in charge beginning from September 19, 2016.

Challenges to this election announcement with respect to the deadlines outlined have to happen no later than seven (7) days after this announcement, via e-mail to elections@documentfoundation.org (which reaches the Board of Directors in private).

Challenges to the preliminary results of the election have to happen until the deadline set forth above, via e-mail to elections@documentfoundation.org (which reaches the Board of Directors in private).

On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Marina Latini, Chairwoman of The Document Foundation

[1] http://www.documentfoundation.org/satzung.pdf (binding version) and http://www.documentfoundation.org/statutes.pdf (non-binding translation)

LibreOffice 5.1.4 available for download

noun_23937Berlin, June 23, 2016 – The Document Foundation (TDF) announces LibreOffice 5.1.4, the fourth minor release of the LibreOffice 5.1 family, targeted at individual users and enterprise deployments. Users of previous LibreOffice releases should start planning the update to the new version.

For enterprise deployments, The Document Foundation suggests the backing of professional support by certified developers, migrators and trainers (the full list is available at: http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/professional-support/).

People interested in technical details about the release can access the change log here: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.1.4/RC1 (fixed in RC1) and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.1.4/RC2 (fixed in RC2).

LibreOffice Conference

In 2016, LibreOffice Conference will be hosted by the Faculty of Information Technology at Brno University of Technology, and organized by OpenAlt, from September 7 to 9.

Details of Call for Papers, open until July 15, 2016, are available at: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2016/04/08/libreoffice-brno-conference-call-for-paper/. Registration for the conference is open at: http://conference.libreoffice.org/2016/registration/.

Download LibreOffice

LibreOffice 5.1.4 is immediately available for download from the following link: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/.

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can support The Document Foundation with a donation at .

LibreOffice 5.1.3 available for download

wall51smallBerlin, May 12, 2016 – The Document Foundation (TDF) announces LibreOffice 5.1.3, the third minor release of the LibreOffice 5.1 family, supporting Google Drive remote connectivity on GNU/Linux and MacOS X.

LibreOffice 5.1.3 is targeted at technology enthusiasts, early adopters and power users. For more conservative users, and for enterprise deployments, TDF suggests the “still” version: LibreOffice 5.0.6. For enterprise deployments, The Document Foundation suggests the backing of professional support by certified people (a list is available at: http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/professional-support/).

People interested in technical details about the release can access the change log here: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.1.3/RC1 (fixed in RC1) and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.1.3/RC2 (fixed in RC2).

LibreOffice Conference

In 2016, LibreOffice Conference will be hosted by the Faculty of Information Technology at Brno University of Technology, and organized by OpenAlt, from September 7 to 9.

Details of Call for Papers, open until July 15, 2016, are available at: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2016/04/08/libreoffice-brno-conference-call-for-paper/. Registration for the conference is open at: http://conference.libreoffice.org/2016/registration/.

Download LibreOffice

LibreOffice 5.1.3 is immediately available for download from the following link: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/.

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can support The Document Foundation with a donation at http://donate.libreoffice.org.

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