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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/.

LibreOffice Conference 2012 will be held in Berlin, Germany

Today, The Document Foundation proudly announces Berlin, Germany as the host for this year’s LibreOffice Conference.

The Document Foundation members jointly decided on the location for their conference in a public poll that closed last week. Its final results are now fixed.

The Board of Directors congratulates Berlin for having won this year’s LibreOffice conference bid. We sincerely hope to meet many of you later this year, when in autumn 2012, the LibreOffice conference opens up in Berlin!

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 officially incorporated in Berlin, Germany

New entity has been legally created on February 17th, 2012
German Stiftung to provide strong and enduring rights for the LibreOffice community

Berlin, February 20th, 2012. The Document Foundation today announces that it has been officially incorporated in the state of Berlin, Germany. The legal form of the entity is a German “rechtsfähige Stiftung des bürgerlichen Rechts”, a form based on the governance model the LibreOffice community has chosen. On Friday afternoon, February 17th, the incorporation certificate, signed by the state secretary, has been handed over by the authorities. With this legal act, the entity officially came to life and is legally recognized.

The legally binding German version of the statutes are available at http://www.documentfoundation.org/satzung.pdf
For convenience, an English translation of the statutes, which is not legally binding, is available at http://www.documentfoundation.org/statutes.pdf

“We are proud of having achieved this major milestone. During the last months, we have been working extensively to incorporate the bylaws into legally binding statutes, to provide a stable and safe basis for our future” said Thorsten Behrens, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the new Foundation. He adds: “Our primary focus was on the membership element. Those who are approved members have inalienable, strong rights, embedded into the statutes. Since we have been aiming to be a German Stiftung, those rights are guaranteed by law, and enforced by the authorities. The Document Foundation is the legal affirmation of the community spirit – an entity by the community, for the community, and an entity independent from any single vendor.”

Michael (Mike) Schinagl, a Berlin-based lawyer who has been working on the incorporation process, explained: “The creation of such a Foundation is unique in the history of free software. There are not many, if any, entities that guarantee such strong rights to active contributors. Embedding those into legal language was a tremendous task, but one that was very worthwile. The Foundation and its statutes provide the ideal grounds for a free office ecosystem, including users, developers, marketeers, adopters, service providers and many, many more, and they can serve as an example for other communities with similar goals.”

The donor is the German nonprofit association Freies Office Deutschland e.V., formerly OpenOffice.org Deutschland e.V., which acted as interim legal entity from the very beginning. Thomas Krumbein, its Chairman, is grateful: “Our sincere thanks goes out to the Berlin authorities for their helpful cooperation in the past months, and for their flexibility and enormous support in achieving the community’s goals. Berlin has definitely made a landmark decision by approving The Document Foundation. Freies Office Deutschland e.V. is proud to be the donor of this important entity, and we look forward to working together with the new Foundation to the benefit of all users and contributors.”

André Schnabel, Chairman of the Membership Committee, stated the Foundation’s openness: “I am sure we will see the community prospering and growing even more, now that the legal entity has been created. Finally, after nearly 12 years, the community has created a Foundation that ideally fits to its needs, that is vendor-neutral, that provides safety, builds trust, and that sends out a strong sign of stability to all stakeholders. I would like to repeat our honest invitation to everyone interested in the future of free office suites, to join The Document Foundation, no matter if you are an individual volunteer, employee of a software vendor or support our activities with help from local non-profit organizations.”

The home of The Document Foundation is at http://www.documentfoundation.org
LibreOffice, the free office suite, has its home at http://www.libreoffice.org

Note to editors: A “Stiftung” is a German Foundation established with an endowment and supported by state authorities. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_%28non-profit%29#Germany for more details. In addition, “bürgerlichen Rechts” indicates it is a fully independent Foundation with long-term intent and independent finances.

Media Contacts for The Document Foundation

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

Olivier Hallot (based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UTC-3)
Mobile: +55 21 88228812
E-mail: olivier.hallot@documentfoundation.org

Charles H. Schulz (based in Paris, France, UTC+1)
Mobile: +33 6 98655424
E-mail: charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org

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

Media Contact for Freies Office Deutschland e.V.

Thomas Krumbein (based in Wiesbaden, Germany, UTC+1)
Phone: +49 611 1885339
E-mail: t.krumbein@frodev.org
Web: http://www.frodev.org

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

By the community, for the community: TDF to base community-driven foundation in Berlin, Germany

Openness, meritocracy and transparency anchored in cornerstones of an enduring entity
Successful vendor-neutral development model to provide the best free office suite

Berlin, February 1st, 2012 – The Document Foundation (TDF) today announces that it will base its community-driven entity in Berlin, in the legal form of a German Stiftung. This kind of structure is recognized worldwide as a legally stable, safe and long term entity, providing the ideal cornerstone for the long term growth of the community and its software.

“For the first time in 12 years, the development of the free office suite finally takes place within an entity that not only perfectly fits the values and ideals of the worldwide community, but also has this very same community driving it. The future home of the best free office suite is built and shaped by everyone who decides to participate and join. And the best is: Everyone can contribute and is invited to do so, to further strenghten the free office ecosystem”, says Florian Effenberger, Chairman of the Board at TDF.

Charles-H. Schulz, one of the founders and a member of the Board of Directors, adds: “Berlin is the icon of reunification and unity, and as such is the ideal home of our global community, aggregated around the objective of creating the best free office suite ever. We expect to be legally established during the next weeks, as soon as the last details of the formal process have been finished.”

“After many months of work in close cooperation with the authorities, we were able to keep the spirit of the community bylaws, and incorporate them into legally binding statutes, that ensure the promises that TDF has made in its manifesto”, says Michael (Mike) Schinagl, a Berlin-based lawyer and contributor to various free software projects, who has been driving the legal aspects of the foundation set-up from the very beginning.

In addition, TDF currently publically discusses ways for local entities to join and participate, and operative entities are currently being created to carry on special projects.

Founder of the Stiftung will be the German nonprofit association Freies Office Deutschland e.V., formerly OpenOffice.org Deutschland e.V., that so far acted as interim legal entity. “We congratulate the community for having achieved this key step, and are proud of having played a key role in setting up The Document Foundation. Our association is looking forward to working closely with the new entity and acting as a gateway between TDF and private as well as enterprise users”, says Thomas Krumbein, Chairman of the Board at Freies Office Deutschland e.V.

The LibreOffice project welcomes donations at http://www.libreoffice.org/get-involved/donate/

The website of TDF can be found at http://www.documentfoundation.org
The best free office suite, LibreOffice, has its website at http://www.libreoffice.org
Freies Office Deutschland e.V. host their German homepage at http://www.frodev.org

Note to editors: A “Stiftung” is a German Foundation established with an endowment and supervised by state authorities. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_%28non-profit%29#Germany for more details.

About The Document Foundation

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 February 1, 2012, TDF has 146 members and over a thousand volunteers and contributors worldwide.

Media Contacts

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

Olivier Hallot (based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UTC-3)
Mobile: +55 21 88228812 – E-mail: olivier.hallot@documentfoundation.org

Charles-H. Schulz (based in Paris, France, UTC+1)
Mobile: +33 6 98655424 – E-mail: charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org

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
GTalk: italo.vignoli@gmail.com

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