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Coming up: the next LibreOffice Bug Hunting Session

A new release of LibreOffice is coming up – so help to make it the best version ever! LibreOffice 5.2 is due to be released at the start of August, and developers are busy working on new features and updates. With so many changes in the next version, we’d really appreciate your help finding bugs so that we can squash them!

To this end we’ll be holding a Bug Hunting Session on Friday 24 June, from 07:00 to 20:00 UTC. Anyone can take part at any time – it’s simple and fun! All you have to do is download the latest development release, try out the new features, and report bugs on our IRC chat channel. Even if you can only spare half an hour of your time, it’s a great help to make LibreOffice better than ever before – and you can show off a badge like the one above!

So mark the date in your calendar: Friday 24 June. We’ll post more details on this blog soon, so stay tuned…

Month of LibreOffice, May 2016: The results!

So we’ve come to the end of the Month of LibreOffice, our campaign to credit the awesome work of contributors across the globe. And it has been a great month: we’ve seen updates and improvements across all areas of the software, from code and translations through to documentation and bug reports. So without further ado, let’s see the numbers…

Number of badges awarded: 341 – click here to see if you got one!

If you got a badge, click one of the share links to tell the world about it – or use the link to the small image to save a version for your blog or website. Thanks very much for taking part, and we look forward to your LibreOffice contributions in the future!

Here’s a chart showing how many badges were awarded as May progressed. There was a big jump at the start as lots of new names were added, but growth was steady and we could constantly see new names appearing as people made contributions to LibreOffice. This chart shows the total amount of badges awarded at the end of each day in the month:

Meanwhile, we also created a page where community members could award Barnstars to each other. These are icons to say thanks for doing a specific job, with bronze for smaller tasks, silver for bigger ones, and gold for making major improvements:

Number of Barnstars awarded: 22 – click to see if you got one!

So what’s next? Every month in the LibreOffice is full of activity, but we have some major events coming up such as the release of LibreOffice 5.2 in August and our conference in September. We plan to do another Month of LibreOffice later in the year – if you have any ideas or want to help out, join our marketing team!

Keeping track of LibreOffice activity

noun_27464LibreOffice is a big project, with over 7 million lines of source code and hundreds of developers, testers, translators and other contributors spread across the globe. With so much activity going on, it can be difficult to keep track of recent developments – so here are a few pointers to keep you in the loop.

Upcoming releases

The current supported release of LibreOffice is 5.1, and the latest bug-fix version is 5.1.3. There are three more bug-fix updates due this year, so see this wiki page for information on the release schedule. The last planned update will be 5.1.6, due in October.

Meanwhile, the development team is working hard on LibreOffice 5.2, which is scheduled to be released in the first week of August. A beta version (for testing) is due very soon – keep an eye on this blog for more information. You can also see a mid-development list of new features in 5.2, but bear in mind that everything is subject to change!

Team calls

Many teams inside the LibreOffice project have regular audio or video calls to catch up, share ideas and ask questions. These teams also share minutes (notes) from the meetings afterwards, so that others can keep track of news and developments.

For instance, the Engineering Steering Committee (ESC) usually has a call every Thursday to discuss technical aspects of the project: release engineering, new features, quality assurance, mentoring new developers, and other matters. Minutes from these are posted on the projects mailing list – see the archive here (search for “minutes of ESC” for recent calls).

Similarly, the Design Team holds regular Hangouts to discuss user interface changes and usability enhancements. Then there’s the Infrastructure Team, which has calls to talk about the hardware and software that’s used by LibreOffice contributors, and the Documentation Team, which has just started regular calls to coordinate content and bring in new writers. Minutes from all of these teams are also posted on the projects list.

Finally, The Document Foundation’s Board of Directors has regular meetings to discuss organisational aspects: finances, budget requests, the yearly conference and so forth. Minutes from these meetings are available on the wiki.

Annual Report

A good summary of last year’s activity in the LibreOffice project is provided in the Annual Report. This is currently being worked on, and will have detailed updates from the native language projects, hackfests, development and QA teams, plus information on donations received throughout 2015 and other aspects of the project.

We’ll post an update on this blog when the 2015 Annual Report is available – meanwhile you can read about what happened in LibreOffice during 2014 in the previous report.

The Document Liberation Project: What we do

While The Document Foundation is best known for LibreOffice, it also backs the Document Liberation Project. But what exactly is that? We’ve made a short video to explain all…

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Month of LibreOffice: Half way there

Yes, we’re just over half way through the May 2016 Month of LibreOffice campaign, and a lot of activity has taken place. So far we’ve awarded over 230 badges for contributions to code, translations, documentation, AskLibreOffice and social media. Take a look at that page and if you spot your name, click one of the Share buttons to tell the world about your contribution!

Want to adorn your website or blog with one of these lovely badges? Just follow these steps and help to make LibreOffice even better than ever before. And, of course, if you want to give someone credit for their work in the LibreOffice project, award them a barnstar and show your thanks.

There’s still two weeks to go in the Month of LibreOffice, so get involved and see how may badges you can collect!

International Day against DRM

253651703_5d9f260d28_oToday, May 3, is the International Day against DRM (Digital Restrictions Management).

Digital Restrictions Management is the practice of imposing technological restrictions that control what users can do with digital media. When a program is designed to prevent you from copying or sharing a song, reading an ebook on another device, or playing a single-player game without an Internet connection, you are being restricted by DRM.

In other words, DRM creates a damaged good. It prevents you from doing what would be possible without it. This concentrates control over production and distribution of media, giving DRM peddlers the power to carry out massive digital book burnings and conduct large scale surveillance over people’s media viewing habits.

If we want to avoid a future in which our devices serve as an apparatus to monitor and control our interaction with digital media, we must fight to retain control of our media and software.

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