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First batch of videos from openSUSE + LibreOffice Conference 2020

We’ve edited and uploaded the first batch of videos from our recent joint conference. Here’s the playlist – use the button in the top-right corner to switch videos:

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Full list:

  • State of the Project (Italo Vignoli)
  • Bringing the Sidebars Online (Ashod Nakashian)
  • Revamping the Italian language support (Marina Latini)
  • Improving the User Experience of LibreOffice’s Website (Christine Louie)
  • Certification Workshop
  • Evaluation of new tooling for LibreOffice contributors (Ilmari Lauhakangas)
  • Growing the LibreOffice Japanese community under COVID-19 (Shinji Enoki)
  • Google Season of Docs Panel
  • Working with native/indigenous communities (Kuan-Ting Lin)
  • OOXML / PDF Digital Signing in Draw and elsewhere (Miklos Vajna)
  • Marketing Plan Workshop

And there are more to come – stay tuned to the blog! (We’re also uploading them to PeerTube too.)

Bug Hunting Session for LibreOffice 7.1 Alpha

LibreOffice 7.1 is being developed by our worldwide community, and is due to be released in early February 2021 – see the release notes describing the new features here.

In order to find, report and triage bugs, the LibreOffice QA team is organizing the first Bug Hunting Session for LibreOffice 7.1 on Monday October 26, 2020. Tests will be performed on the first Alpha version. Builds will be available for Linux (DEB and RPM), macOS and Windows, and can be installed and run in parallel along with the production version.

Mentors will be available from 07:00 UTC to 19:00 UTC for questions or help in the IRC channel #libreoffice-qa and the Telegram QA Channel. Of course, hunting bugs will be possible also on other days, as the builds of this particular Alpha release (LibreOffice 7.1.0 Alpha1) will be available until mid November. Check the Release Plan.

All details of the first bug hunting session are available on the wiki.

The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 6.4.7

Berlin, October 22, 2020 – The Document Foundation announces the availability of LibreOffice 6.4.7, the 7th and last minor release of the LibreOffice 6.4 family, targeted at users relying on the application for desktop productivity. LibreOffice 6.4.7 includes bug fixes and improvements to document compatibility and interoperability with software from other vendors.

Enterprises are strongly recommended to source LibreOffice from an ecosystem partner, to get long-term supported (LTS) releases, dedicated assistance, custom new features and other benefits, including SLAs (Service Level Agreements): https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/.

Developments done by ecosystem partners flows back into the LibreOffice project, and this represents an advantage for everyone.

LibreOffice individual users are supported by a global community of volunteers: https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/community-support/. On the website and the wiki there are guides, manuals, tutorials and HowTos. Donations help us to make all of these resources available.

Availability of LibreOffice 6.4.7

LibreOffice 6.4.7 is immediately available from the following link: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/. Minimum requirements are specified on the download page. TDF builds of the latest LibreOffice Online source code are available as Docker images: https://hub.docker.com/r/libreoffice/online/.

LibreOffice 6.4.7’s change log pages are available on TDF’s wiki: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/6.4.7/RC1 (changed in RC1) and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/6.4.7/RC2 (changed in RC2).

All versions of LibreOffice are built with document conversion libraries from the Document Liberation Project: https://www.documentliberation.org.

Support LibreOffice

LibreOffice users are invited to join the community at https://ask.libreoffice.org, where they can get and provide user-to-user support. People willing to contribute their time and professional skills to the project can visit the dedicated website at https://whatcanidoforlibreoffice.org.

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can provide financial support to The Document Foundation with a donation via PayPal, credit card or other tools at https://www.libreoffice.org/donate.

Community Member Monday: Marcin Popko

Today we’re talking to Marcin Popko, who is helping to grow the LibreOffice community in Poland…

Hey Marcin! Tell us a bit about yourself…

Hello! I’m from Bialystok, a city in north-east Poland. I work as an electromagnetic compatibility tester – it’s a seriously crazy and interesting area of electronics development. I’m quite an artist soul; in my free time I dance bachata and sing in a folk band called “Kurpie Zielone”. I also write a blog about dance, emotions and technology here.

What is the free software/Linux/LibreOffice scene like in Poland?

FLOSS (free/libre and open source software) has rather more awareness in geeky and technological domains, than in everyday normal life. LibreOffice is not well know among my friends – some of them are using Microsoft Office, and some of them are even using OpenOffice. So that’s my mission here: inform them 🙂 Companies use LibreOffice when they can’t afford Microsoft Office or when it’s not seriously needed.

You’ve recently been running Polish LibreOffice social media. How did that get started, and how has it developed?

If found a blog post about abandoned native language projects and social media sites, wrote an e-mail to the mailing list, and there I started working with Mike Saunders from The Document Foundation.

We couldn’t reach the the existing administrator of the old Polish LibreOffice fanpage, so we decided to create a new one. Then I also added a Twitter account. Step-by-step, I did surveys about our community, and I wrote articles on Polish technology sites about the current LibreOffice situation, like this one.

Then we reached 150 fans on Facebook, and I ran a sticker giveaway – thanks to Mike and TDF I can pass these stickers on to the community. We’ve also prepared a new official Polish LibreOffice site (the old one has corrupted download links).

Any tips for other people who want to start LibreOffice/FOSS social media in other countries/languages?

If you don’t know something, don’t be afraid to ask anyone from the LibreOffice community. People are helpful there and they redirect you to appropriate place if you get lost.

Many thanks to Marcin for his superb work and help! And for everyone reading this who wants to start (or expand) social media in more languages, get in touch and we’ll assist you along the way. You can gain valuable experience running social media, and of course it helps to spread the word about LibreOffice too!

Open Letter to Apache OpenOffice

Today marks 20 years since the source code to OpenOffice was released. And today we say: LibreOffice is the future of OpenOffice. Let’s all get behind it!

It’s great to have a rich and diverse set of free and open source software projects. Hundreds of millions of people around the world have benefited from the choice and customisation that they bring. But sometimes, users can lose out when they’re not aware of newer alternatives, or when one brand overshadows another.

OpenOffice(.org) – the “father project” of LibreOffice – was a great office suite, and changed the world. It has a fascinating history, but since 2014, Apache OpenOffice (its current home) hasn’t had a single major release. That’s right – no significant new features or major updates have arrived in over six years. Very few minor releases have been made, and there have been issues with timely security updates too.

In recent years, almost all development activity has taken place in LibreOffice, with 13 major releases and 87 minor releases. In 2019, LibreOffice had over 15,000 code commits, while OpenOffice had only 595. LibreOffice has a flourishing community, yearly conferences, professional support options, development and migration certification, and a robust commercial ecosystem.

In addition, LibreOffice has integrated many features essential for end users in 2020:

  • Export in Microsoft Office OOXML formats (.docx, .xlsx etc.)
  • ODF, OOXML and PDF signing for improved security
  • Major performance improvements in Calc, the spreadsheet
  • A fresh new NotebookBar user interface
  • …and a lot more

But still, many users don’t know that LibreOffice exists. The OpenOffice brand is still so strong, even though the software hasn’t had a significant release for over six years, and is barely being developed or supported.

If Apache OpenOffice still wants to maintain its old 4.1 branch from 2014, sure, that’s important for legacy users. But the most responsible thing to do in 2020 is: help new users. Make them aware that there’s a much more modern, up-to-date, professionally supported suite, based on OpenOffice, with many extra features that people need.

We appeal to Apache OpenOffice to do the right thing. Our goal should be to get powerful, up-to-date and well-maintained productivity tools into the hands of as many people as possible. Let’s work together on that!

Signed,
The Board of Directors at The Document Foundation

Update: Discussion on Reddit and LWN

LibreOffice Impress Template Contest by the Indonesian Community

Ahmad Haris writes:

Last month, LibreOffice Indonesia held an Impress Template Contest and today we announced the results. There are several items for prizes, such as ARM Mini PC and shoes, sponsored by FANS Shoes Factory.

The main goal of this contest is to get more people active in the community, design good Impress templates, and if possible, change the old default templates with the new ones. Most of the participants are from the younger generation (since in our group, only fewer than than 10 members from 739 are older than me).

Thanks to Haris and the whole Indonesian community for their great work! The templates are available on the website here.

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