The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 3.5.2

Berlin, April 5, 2012 – The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 3.5.2, the third version of the 3.5 family, targeting private individuals and enterprises. LibreOffice 3.5.2 fixes an additional large number of the bugs identified by TDF QA experts and LibreOffice users worldwide.

LibreOffice has recently been selected as a mentoring organization for Google Summer of Code. Students are invited to look at the GSoC Ideas Wiki Page at http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/Gsoc/Ideas to get inspired for their next task. One of 2011 GSoC projects, the MS Visio Import Filter, has been integrated in LibreOffice 3.5 (and the author, Eilidh McAdam, has already found a LibreOffice development related employer: Lanedo).

“The Document Foundation continues to grow month after month, with a constant flow of new hackers and volunteers taking care of development, quality assurance and localization”, says Florian Effenberger, Chairman of the Board. “The updated LibreOffice infographic represents some of the numbers, with the growth of pure code hackers – who are now 429 (376 if we do not include the former Sun/Oracle employees) – being the most impressive achievement”.

LibreOffice 3.5.2 is available for immediate download from the following link: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/.

Change logs are available at http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/3.5.2/RC1 and http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/3.5.2/RC2.

LibreOffice @ Google Summer of Code

So, it is here again! The wonderful time of spring. Projects that were lucky enough to be selected by Google look for talented students. And students that care enough about open source try to find a matching project. LibreOffice was selected as a mentoring organization for Google Summer of Code again this year. And today, it is the first day when students can submit their applications. We would like you to convince you that LibreOffice is indeed the best choice for you if you are a student looking to impact the open source scene in a permanent way.

LibreOffice empowers you!

LibreOffice is a project of many volunteers and paid developers. Whether you are employee of one of the many companies that contribute to LibreOffice, or volunteer representing yourself only, you are handled in the same way and only your capacities dictate what you can and cannot do. It is not unusual to find a volunteer contributor being part of decisions about technical directions of the project.

The code you will produce during the summer will be going directly to the LibreOffice git repository. We always do our best in order to see student’s work integrated in the next big release.

Participation in Google Summer of Code with LibreOffice is good for your career!

Some of you might remember that last year we had several extremely successful Google Summer of Code projects. Two of our successful students are currently employed working on free and opensource software as a direct consequence of their participation in the program. Eilidh McAdam implemented a Visio import filter that is one of the flagship features of LibreOffice 3.5. Eilidh has been employed by Lanedo before she even was able to complete her PhD degree. Miklos Vajna worked in 2010 on RTF export filter and in 2011 on RTF import. As soon as he finished his studies, he was hired by SUSE to work on LibreOffice.

This is not always the case of course, but they were neither the first nor last to find paid opportunities in the project.

Wide choice of projects and mentors

Our GSoC Ideas wiki page is containing more then 40 different proposals in each and every corner of LibreOffice code-base. From import filter for Microsoft Publisher file-format to support of sqlite in LibreOffice Base, from hacking on collaborative feature to performance improvements in Calc, everybody can find the shoe for her feet.

LibreOffice project is full of dedicated mentors that know how to work with people that don’t share with them the room next door or even the same timezone. The community is friendly and welcoming.

How to apply

Convinced? We hope so. So, here is how to proceed.

  • Present yourself. Since we don’t know you we want to know some bits like your name, education, email, nickname on the LibreOffice IRC channel.
  • Prove that you want to get involved into LibreOffice. In order to check this we require students to complete one of the Easy programming tasks on the Easy_Hacks page (or part of one if that EasyHack is a selection of separate tasks), though the dead-line for this isn’t hard but needs to be somewhere before the end of the selection process. This means that each student who wants to have chances to be picked for a LibreOffice project will need to build the whole application, fix a bug and submit the patch to the development mailing list. See the Development page for more infos on this.
  • Explain what you want to achieve. Provide detailed informations on the project you want to work on and the use cases. The better you described it the better it is for us. It is best to base your project on one of our Ideas that come complete with friendly mentors to help you.
  • How do you plan to achieve it?Provide us the following:
    • An estimated schedule for the summer (including any potential conflicts you could have like courses, exams…)
    • Technical details on how you want to implement it. The more sensible details you provide the easier it will be for us to check that you understood the problem and difficulty.
  • Why should we choose you? Give us all the reasons for choosing you. Any past open source hacking is interesting us as well as your hacking and socializing skills.

LibreOffice community is looking forward to an enjoyable and productive summer with you.

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/.

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