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Community Member Monday: 锁琨珑 (Kevin Suo)

Photo of Kevin Suo

Today we’re talking to 锁琨珑 (Kevin Suo), who’s doing great work improving LibreOffice and fixing bugs…

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I’m 36 years old, and I was born in the Gansu Province of China. I live in Beijing and I’m working as an Of Counsel in a leading law firm in Beijing. Some people may think that I’m a lawyer. No, I am not a lawyer – I am a professional accountant. My team work as local counsel on behalf of clients defending on Antidumping and Countervailing Duty investigations initiated by authorities (e.g., the U.S. Department of Commerce, the European Union etc) against companies and industries in China, and accountants play an important role in this field.

Although I am very busy at work every day, I love the internet, computers and programming. I can program using Python+Pandas and SAS, and tools such as these have greatly helped me in my daily data analysis work. I’m also a Linuxer. Many years ago I used Ubuntu, Debian, Arch Linux, and even Gentoo, but now I stick to Fedora Workstation. Currently 99.9% of my daily work is done under Linux, including those mission-critical work we submitted to the U.S. DOC and EU authorities.

I also know some HTML, CSS and PHP, and I have a server running at home with a WordPress instance and a Nextcloud instance. The server also servers as a mirror of some of the Libreoffice bibisect repositories (it is very slow to download from the TDF server here in China, so I need to mirror them).

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

I started using LibreOffice many years ago, probably when I was in college (when it was the OpenOffice.org era). After that, I became a contributor to LibreOffice. I started with localisation and quality assurance (QA), reporting, testing and confirming bugs. Then I learned and started bibisecting. Soon, I started building LibreOffice by myself, and then I started to learn C++ and fix some easy bugs. I am even surprised by myself, that before contributing to LibreOffice I only learned very little of the C language (when I was in collage, as an “elective course”), and at that time I never thought I might learn and use C++.

Most of the commits I have made to LibreOffice were related to the pdfimport feature in the sdext module. I think I got involved in this module very randomly – I wanted to know more about the the LibreOffice code base, then I read the sdext pdfimport module by chance, and found that to understand the code I first need to read the PDF specifications!

Then I read the specifications, learned some C++ online, identified some bugs which have affected me on my daily work, and then found that I was able to fix them! Also, as I am trying to fix more bugs, I now find that I need to learn something about Unicode! That is a lot of fun. You learn, you contribute, and then you learn more!

Some of you may know that, recently, I fixed a bug related to right-to-left text mirroring in the Draw/Writer pdf import (i.e. tdf#104597) which has impacted many RTL (right-to-left text) users for a long time. That bug came to my view, since someone added me to CC due to several of my patches in the sdext pdfimport module. I got interested in that bug because, although I am a Chinese, I learned some Arabic characters and words in the mosque when I was young. Yes, I am a Chinese muslim!

When did you get involved in LibreOffice, and what was it like?

I don’t remember when I get involved, but my first commit to the core repository was in year 2014. Many people have helped me, e.g. Eike Rathke, Noel Grandin, Caolán McNamara, Mike Kaganski etc. At the beginning I thought everything is difficult, but now I feel comfortable.

What advice would you give for others who want to help out with the code?

I would like to say that, to contribute to LibreOffice, you do not need to be a programmer. An accountant can also contribute, given that you are desired to learn!

Welcome Stéphane Guillou, new QA Analyst for LibreOffice

Photo portrait of Stéphane Guillou

We have a new team member at The Document Foundation, the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice! (That means we’re now 13 people.) Stéphane Guillou joins us as a Quality Assurance Analyst – so let’s get to know him better:

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I am from France, with roots also in Peru, but lived for the last 10 years in Australia with my awesome little family before coming back to France. We now live in Alsace, close to the forest in the Vosges mountains.

I studied plants, ecology and sustainability before working in agricultural research. I am still very passionate about plants and the environment, but my focus has moved towards supporting researchers in their data analysis, promoting Open Science principles and offering training about FLOSS research software, which I was able to do for the last 4 years at the University of Queensland’s Library, and before that as a certified instructor of the Carpentries organisation.

I am passionate about sharing information about Open Science, and contributing data to the Commons. You can for example find me on other wonderful projects like OpenStreetMap, iNaturalist and MusicBrainz.

When I am not parenting or working, I like spending time on electronic music, amateur radio and cycling.

What’s your new role at The Document Foundation?

I am the new Quality Assurance (QA) Analyst, and a lot of my time will be spent on triaging the issues users report on Bugzilla – our bug-reporting platform. There is a lot of activity on Bugzilla, and classifying and testing the reports is fundamental for us to focus on the most pressing issues, help the work developers are doing, and keep improving the software for everyone! Part of the work will also be to analyse and summarise the wealth of data available to help us see the bigger picture and make better decisions when allocating resources.

Pie chart showing the split between resolved bug statuses on Bugzilla. Four main categories are fixed (40.7%), duplicate (18.8%), insufficient data (13.1%) and works for me (12.5%).

Pie chart showing the split between resolved bug statuses on Bugzilla. Four main categories are “fixed” (40.7%), “duplicate” (18.8%), “insufficient data” (13.1%) and “works for me” (12.5%).

How did you get involved in LibreOffice, before you joined TDF?

I have used LibreOffice since it was first released in 2011, and have always liked reporting problems and helping out with the QA process in little bursts, just like I like doing with any FLOSS tool I use. I feel it’s a great way to give back to the community.

How can regular users of LibreOffice help out with the QA project?

Everyone can help our QA project by first using the software, and reporting problems when you encounter them. Have a look if the issue has been reported before, and if not, you might have found a new one! It’s important to not assume that someone has reported the issue before you. LibreOffice is a very customisable and rich office suite, so people use it in vastly different ways.

If you want to help some more, feel free to install development versions to test them, look at reports on Bugzilla to confirm issues and classify them, identify exactly when an issue arose (it’s called “bibisecting“), and share your learnings and processes with others! There is a wealth of tasks you can start on on our Wiki.

Thank you for your help building an office suite for all!

We’re really happy to have Stéphane on board! Donations from LibreOffice users help us to grow our team, maintain our infrastructure and support the communities working on LibreOffice. Support us here!

Community Member Monday: Muthuramalingam Krishnan (Tamil project)

Today we’re talking to Muthuramalingam Krishnan, who’s helping to spread the word about LibreOffice in southern India…

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I’m Muthuramalingam, from Tirunelveli – a southern district in Tamil Nadu, currently living in Chennai. I was in the IT industry for around 10 years, from 2007 to 2017. Currently, I’m giving training on technical matters around open source programming languages like Java and Python in Payilagam, Chennai.

What are you doing with LibreOffice in Tamil?

A long time ago, I started contributing to LibreOffice by raising a few bugs. After a while, as I had the opportunity to meet a number of youngsters and graduates, I started introducing them to LibreOffice. Once they started using LibreOffice, it became very easy for us to get them involved in LibreOffice QA (Quality Assurance) related of activities. Thus, we started conducting few offline and online trainings. A few links about them are here, here and in this video.

What are some of the opportunities and challenges with free and open source software (FOSS) adoption in your region?

Let me think about the challenges first regarding FOSS adoption. As many people are using proprietary operating systems here, they don’t have much idea or clue about FOSS adoption. Thus, it would be difficult for us to convince them that they are capable of contributing to any FOSS software.

Where there are challenges, there are also opportunities. Hence, our easiest opportunity is creating awareness about open source first, and then ask them to use a FOSS operating system. (Linux Mint is a good start for Beginners.) Once they adopt the operating system (dual-booting is also fine for us), every other FOSS ddoption will automatically follow, including LibreOffice.

How can other people help out in the Tamil community?

There are lot of people who are involved in FOSS development in Tamil. There are many active communities including Kaniyam, ILUGC, KanchiLUG etc. They will definitely help us with spreading the word about events, by publishing on their websites, Telegram groups, Sometimes they will help us to get event spaces at places including colleges and Universities. We can get senior members of these communities to guide people with translations, QA and other activities.

Join the Tamil community on Telegram here! And thanks to Muthuramalingam for all his help 😊

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!

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!

Community Member Monday: Juan C. Sanz

Today we’re chatting with Juan C. Sanz, who helps out in many LibreOffice projects: documentation, translations, user help and more…

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I live in the city of Logroño, in the autonomous community of La Rioja (famous for its wines), in the north of Spain. Although I like reading a lot, my main passion is computers in general.

Almost all the time I have been working as a helicopter engineer, but due to my passion, while I was working, I studied to get a degree in Computer Science (Programming) and I was working as a programmer for a while without leaving my main job with helicopters.

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

I like to say that I have been collaborating with LibreOffice since before LibreOffice existed and it is really true, how is that possible?

Well, my history with LibreOffice started, like many of us, in OpenOffice.

When I discovered the existence of OpenOffice I loved both the program and the possibility of getting it for free (then I didn’t know about FLOSS – I thought only about “gratis”). But at the same time, I realized that there was no documentation available in Spanish. While searching, I came across that phrase, which I don’t remember exactly, but it says something like “if you can’t find what you want, collaborate to make it”, so I joined the OpenOffice documentation team at ODFAuthors and there, together with a mini-team (I don’t think there were more than a couple of active collaborators at that time) I started translating the Getting Started Guide into Spanish.

I don’t know if it was by chance or because there was movement, but soon some more contributors joined and we managed to translate and publish the complete guide.

Shortly after finishing the Getting Started Guide, convulsive times came and ended with the fork that gave birth to LibreOffice.

The few of us who were in the Spanish documentation team at that time, decided that, for the time, we would collaborate with both branches and our first work for LibreOffice was to rebrand the OpenOffice guide to adapt it to LibreOffice, that is, we took advantage of all the previous work in OpenOffice for the first LibreOffice guide in Spanish. That’s why I say that I worked (we worked) on LibreOffice before it existed.

Since those times I haven’t stopped collaborating in the documentation team, but, like almost everyone, I have collaborated in other places, like helping to translate the user interface, the help for users in Ask or Telegram, the wiki, I have even submitted a patch! (Although my skills as a programmer are already quite outdated.)

And here I am, collaborating, hopefully for a long time!

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

In all this time that I have been collaborating with LibreOffice, I have missed more collaboration with the project. Although there are many contributors in all fields, I think they are not enough. In my opinion, all of us who use free software should collaborate in its development by contributing our skills (or also economically), but personal collaboration seems to me essential for the improvement and dissemination of the project.

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

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