Petr Valach from the Czech LibreOffice community writes:
On the last weekend of March 2026, the regular InstallFest 2026 conference took place. Here is a summary of the news and insights we gained at the event.
New venue
What every visitor noticed immediately upon entering was the change in the location of the conference spaces. Instead of Building E in the courtyard of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering complex, visitors headed up the stairs directly inside Building A from the reception. The conference thus gained larger premises (three floors were allocated), which visitors likely appreciated, as there was no crowding anywhere.
As I mentioned in my report from the previous year, I personally prefer historic spaces over modern architecture like that of LinuxDays. Its design is also very interesting, with a certain intended rawness and practicality, but historic buildings hide their own charm and the mystery of bygone times.
However, the placement of most booths was problematic. They were (as last year) located in a single room. If visitors didn’t know about them, they wouldn’t go there on their own – they had to deliberately search and find them (although there were signs everywhere and the magnetic navigation system deserves praise). Booths should rather be placed in hallways where they are visible. On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that due to echo, such placement would increase noise levels in the corridors, which could be disturbing. In any case, there were very few visitors at the LibreOffice booth – much fewer than at LinuxDays. Therefore, the list of observations will be brief.
At the The Document Foundation / LibreOffice booth
At the booth, in addition to providing information and advice, we offered traditional promotional items such as stickers, beer coasters, and flyers. New this time were badges that visitors could pin to their lapels, and interest in them was surprisingly high.
A small contest in the form of a fill-in puzzle was again prepared for visitors. Clues were distributed across two floors where the conference took place.
This year, only one member of The Document Foundation attended InstallFest. A significant reinforcement, however, was thirteen-year-old Matěj, who helped mainly with carrying things and staffing the booth. He also attended a lecture focused on FreeCAD and its related workshop (plus one more). Matthew is a high-functioning autistic with interests in physics, astronomy, photography, and IT, and he will newly contribute to LibreOffice translations. We’ll see how he does.
Topics and insights
Just a few days before the conference, the German government issued a directive mandating the use of the ODF format in public administrations. ODF is one of the required formats (alongside XML, PDF, etc.). The OOXML format is entirely absent, meaning it is not supported at the federal level in Germany. This has clear consequences and signals a move away not only from OOXML but also from Microsoft Office, as its compatibility with ODF is not good.
This information (along with recent implementations, for example in Denmark, Austria, Schleswig-Holstein, etc.) generated significant interest among visitors. These implementations demonstrate that governments (regional or national) take LibreOffice seriously. They send a signal that LibreOffice is a high-quality suite capable of meeting governmental needs.
For this to be the case, LibreOffice must meet certain criteria. Perhaps the most important is functionality – it must be able to do what governments require. Equally important, however, is security. As we know, using Microsoft 365 (the cloud version of Microsoft Office) is problematic because it conflicts with GDPR regulations. Users do not have control over their data when using this application. This issue does not arise when using the desktop or online version of LibreOffice; here, users have full control over their data. For institutions that process sensitive personal data, this is a crucial requirement that cannot be taken lightly.
It was interesting to observe how important privacy and security are to booth visitors (mostly young students). But not only to them. One student from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University mentioned that using Google Workspace is prohibited at their school due to data protection concerns; however, it is curious that Microsoft 365 is still allowed (even though the same policy issues apply).
The students we spoke with are generally satisfied with LibreOffice and use it for standard office tasks. In addition to Writer and Calc, Impress is also used – students are satisfied with it, although it is often considered the weakest module of LibreOffice. They agreed that it would be very useful to directly label objects on slides automatically, which would improve clarity when editing animations; users would immediately see the order of actions applied to specific objects (as in PowerPoint).
One student also asked about morphing between slides (as in PowerPoint); Impress does not support this feature, and subjectively it is not essential – more of an unnecessary “visual effect.”
This time, far fewer people participated in the contest than at LinuxDays – only seven completed entries were submitted, which is even fewer than last year at InstallFest. Nevertheless, three successful participants were drawn and won T-shirts and a printed color translation of the Writer manual. As always, participants could add questions or comments – only one participant did so, with two questions:
- The first concerned dark mode support. This is not new in LibreOffice; it can be selected under Tools | Options in the LibreOffice | Appearance section. Since LibreOffice 25.8, users can not only switch between light and dark themes but also install themes that completely change the interface colors.
- The second question was about support for cloud services in LibreOffice. LibreOffice allows connections to various cloud services such as OneDrive, Google Drive, WebDAV, and others. This option is available under File | Open Remote.
The InstallFest 2026 conference is now behind us. We’ll have to wait until October for the next IT conference – LinuxDays 2026. Will we meet there?
