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Understanding ODF compliance and interoperability

The Open Document Format (ODF) is an open standard format for office documents, which offers a vendor-independent, royalty-free way to encode text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more.
However, to realise its potential, it is necessary to understand the concepts of compliance – the degree to which an implementation adheres to ODF specifications – and interoperability – the ability to exchange and view ODF files without loss of fidelity or functionality across different applications and platforms.

ODF is an XML-based file format that has been standardised by OASIS and ratified by ISO/IEC 26300. Milestones include:

  • ODF 1.0 (2006): the initial version defining the basic document types: text (.odt), spreadsheet (.ods) and presentation (.odp).
  • ODF 1.1 (2012): updates to formula specifications and accessibility improvements were made, but it was never submitted for standardisation.
  • ODF 1.2 (2015): introduces digital signatures, RDF metadata, and OpenFormula for standardising spreadsheet calculations.
  • ODF 1.3 (2020): an extension of security features, including improvements to encryption and import/export conventions, as well as a clarification of compliance clauses.

Each version has strengthened the role of ODF as a universal interchange format, ensuring that documents remain readable and editable in all programs, both now and in the future.

Definition of compliance

Compliance refers to the extent to which a given software implements the ODF standard. It comprises several levels:

  1. Structural compliance: ensures that file archives contain the expected XML files (e.g. content.xml, styles.xml and meta.xml), in accordance with the ODF Packaging specifications.
  2. Schema validation: verifies that the XML content matches the applicable ODF schemas (Relax NG or W3C XML Schema). This prevents a <draw:image> element, for example, from appearing where only text is permitted.
  3. FeatuSecurity profilesre compliance: supports the required features (styles, tables, charts and metadata) and the correct implementation of the optional features required by the application (digital signatures, encryption and change tracking).
  4. Formula compliance: for spreadsheets, adherence to OpenFormula specification ensures that formulas behave consistently across different applications.
  5. Compliance statements and profiles: applications often declare their compliance levels (e.g. ODF 1.2 Part 1: OpenDocument Schema). Some define profiles, which are subsets of the full standard tailored to specific industries or workflows.

Non-compliant files risk becoming unreadable or displaying incorrectly in other applications. Validating ODF schemas and integrating compliance tools enables developers and users to guarantee the longevity and accuracy of documents.

The interoperability landscape

Even when two applications claim ODF compliance, disparities can arise.

  • Rendering differences: variations in character substitution, line spacing or image placement can slightly alter the layout.
  • Functionality differences: for example, an editor may support digital signatures, but implement them in a way that causes signatures to be rejected when files are exchanged.
  • Use of extensions: some applications use proprietary extensions (e.g. custom XML blocks) that others do not recognise, which can result in data or content loss.
  • Metadata management: different handling of document properties, such as author, version history or custom metadata, can hinder workflows.

To achieve strong interoperability, systematic testing is required.

  1. Automated schema validation: tools such as ODF Validator can check thousands of files against ODF schemas in batches.
  2. Feature compliance suites: OASIS provides test suites that cover every aspect of the ODF specification, including basic document elements and encryption profiles.
  3. Round-trip testing: save a document in application A, open it in application B and save it again, then reopen it in application A to detect any differences.
  4. Visual regression testing: use headless rendering engines (e.g. LibreOffice in server mode) to generate PDFs or bitmaps for pixel-level comparison.
  5. Community reports: projects such as ODF Plugfest bring vendors together to exchange test files and submit interoperability reports.

Best practices for ensuring compliance and interoperability:

  1. Adherence to the core standard: avoid proprietary extensions unless they form part of an agreed ODF profile.
  2. Early and frequent validation: integrate schema and conformance testing into CI/CD pipelines for document-centric applications.
  3. Prioritise OpenFormula: when creating a spreadsheet, use standard functions and avoid vendor-specific formula syntax.
  4. Adopt the Flat ODF format: the Flat ODF format (.fodt, .fods and .fodp) stores the entire document in a single XML file, making it easier to compare, validate and process in scripts.
  5. Document compliance statements: indicate the ODF version supported by the application, as well as the schema, encryption and signature parts.
  6. Participate in plugfests and community testing: real-world feedback is valuable, so it is important to participate in interoperability events and contribute to public issue trackers.
  7. Make smart use of metadata: use ODF metadata elements (e.g. dc:meta, RDF blocks) to ensure the consistency of document properties when transferring between tools.

Looking ahead: ODF 1.4 and beyond

Although ODF 1.3 has addressed many functional issues, the ecosystem continues to evolve.

  • Accessibility improvements: better support for tagged PDFs, ARIA roles and semantic markup.
  • Native cloud editing: harmonisation of ODF with collaborative protocols (e.g. WOPI and CMIS) to enable real-time co-authoring.
  • Extended multimedia management: richer multimedia support is incorporated (e.g. video and embedded web components), while maintaining interoperability.
  • Security profiles: standardisation of profiles for high-security environments (e.g. government or healthcare), combining encryption, signatures and content redaction.

Conclusion

ODF compliance and interoperability are fundamental to document longevity, workflow resilience, and user trust. By adhering to ODF schemas, testing across multiple applications and adopting community best practices, organisations can safeguard their content against vendor lock-in and format degradation. As it continues to mature, ODF is set to remain the foundation of open, accessible and durable office documents.

Before LibreOffice there was OpenOffice, and before OpenOffice there was StarOffice…

Stefan Soyka, StarOffice developer in the early '90s

LibreOffice is the successor project to OpenOffice(.org), which in turn was based on StarOffice, a proprietary office suite developed in the 1990s. Learn more about the history here! And let’s hear from Stefan Soyka, who worked on StarOffice from 1990 – 1992…

When did you join Star Division, and what did you work on?

I came from Berlin to Hamburg to work for Marco Börries in his Star Lab in spring 1990, together with my friend and study mate Stefan. Both of us joined the project more or less at the same time and shared the same first name, which caused some confusion at first.

The situation in Hamburg needs some explaining if you are new to it. The Writer application that is the foundation of what we use today is not the first Star Writer – but thesedays it is often referred to as Star Writer 6 or Star Writer Graphic. Marco’s company Star Division, based in rural Lüneburg not far from Hamburg, had developed and sold with considerable success a text processing application with the same name, that was an MS-DOS application based on a home-grown graphics framework. A team of freelance programmers was working on it under the lead of Sven-Ola Tücke.

This was also the tool we used to write the first drafts for specifications, by the way.

The old Star Writer had a solid fanbase and sold quite well even after Star Lab started in Hamburg. So it is fair to say that the money we burned in Hamburg was earned in Lüneburg.

Marco, however, had the right feeling that graphical user interfaces were already around and taking up speed. The future (that is the time we live in now) would belong to applications running on the main graphical user interface platforms at this time, being Microsoft Windows, the X Window System and macOS. Of course there were voices that argued that graphical user interfaces were only hampering productivity and real pros would always use the command line. That may sound a bit funny today, but I took it all in my heart.

When I arrived there, development had pretty much advanced in the compatibility layer named Star View, that allowed portable programming of both operating system functions and graphical user interfaces. There was, however, no application yet. Because I had worked on a C++/X Window System project on the ODA standard (ISO 8613, Open Document Architecture), I had some background on this and formed with some others the core of the Star Writer project team.

Star Division logo

Tell us about the office location and team back then!

The offices of Star Lab at that time were at Heidenkampsweg, near Berliner Tor, in Hamburg in a quite modern building. I remember the adjacent gas station; many of us were heavy cigarette-smokers at that time, and I sometimes went there at night to get the next pack.

Dirk Bartels supervised the daily operations. He had a software company back in Berlin and he expected benefits from the Star View portability layer for his own products. His personal secretary was Marita, if I remember the name correctly, a lovely young woman, I think the only one in the project at that time. When I joined the team, there were about twenty people working there including administrative staff.

Andreas, a good-natured guy with intense freckles, managed the Star View project. Almost all the coding however, at least for the Microsoft platform, was completed by Thomas – a very young man who was incredibly well-organized and productive, the type of coder who writes a screen full of statements that compile instantly error-free. He also virtually lived in the offices. The staffing for this platform was good; the other platforms had fewer developers. I remember Dirk, a shy young man who did the Macintosh port. One day, he showed us that all output appeared like upside down. It turned out that the Macintosh uses a y-origin different from the Microsoft platform (top left, I think). That gave him certainly some headaches.

Michael, a freelancer from Lüneburg, sometimes visited Star Lab in his tiny, first generation Mazda MX-5, that he could barely fit into. He was the only engineer who contributed to both the “classic” Star Writer with Sven-Ola Tücke, and Star Lab. He introduced the first Star Basic macro language. For the Windows platform, it had been worth thinking about a Star Writer application programmers interface or component object model (OLE at that time, but was just emerging in 1991 with Word and Excel), but with portability above all, this did not come to pass.

The team at this time was Euro-centric at least – effectively most staff members came from nearby. Another great developer in the Star View team, however, was Eddy McGreal, an Irish guy, whom I saw by incidence recently in a software product presentation he held. Can’t stop hacking.

Armin kept the business in order. He was also working on internationalisation. When he married, he invited all mates to comes and celebrate. It was in a small town in the moors, I don’t remember the name, but we had a great time. When we went back to Hamburg in the morning – hopefully at least the driver was more or less sober.

In the Star Writer team, Jürgen was the most productive programmer, about two meters tall with a sad face. Playing handball was his first priority, if he was not hacking. He did incredible work under the hood, like importing exotic files from other text processors, and never complained or missed a deadline. I think we never gave him enough credit for what he achieved.

Despite all the good work, the Star Writer project did not meet the expectations in the time when I was there. Later, I spent many thoughts on why we were not more successful in the beginning, because it felt like a wasted opportunity to me. It was not for the lack of ambition: there are folders full of splendid concepts and intricate specifications. But none of us had a good blueprint of the best way to start this enormous, complex task, I believe.

What was the toolset and development process like back then?

The object-oriented programming paradigm had evolved into the first C++ standard and implementations. Before I came to Hamburg, a pre-compiler was used, on Sun Workstations at least, to generate standard K&R C code, that was fed into the platform native C-compiler. The result was not always predictable or free of errors, but luckily, at Star Division, we had the one-step Microsoft C++ compiler, so we were a step ahead at this point.

Star View, however, was a huge library and the Microsoft linker had a hard time (and needed a long time) to do the static linking. When it came to a code freeze, that is the integration of the stable versions of all projects, Stefan used an egg timer so that he didn’t miss the time when the linker had finished, to see if there were problems with the linking or not. It took so long, you could easily forget it. If it failed, it needed fixes and another round. The whole process needed much time, until Stefan one day found out that someone had tackled the problem with the Microsoft linker and had released a better implementation that did the job in a fraction of the time.

Another paradigm that came up at the time was the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. It says, in short: what you see is only a volatile transformation of the model. The controller, like someone typing text into the application or a report generator producing table data output into a document, changes the model, which in turn from time to time updates the view.

Many in the project and even in the management were not comfortable with this procedure, because it appeared to make a simple thing unnecessarily complex. The argument was like: “This is meant to be a WYSIWYG text processor, and we need nothing beyond what the user sees on the screen, so let’s store this”. Nobody wanted to look at a document any different from before, when he or she opened it again – maybe on a different machine were fonts were missing or the display had a different resolution. There was a lot to explain and no proof that either concept was superior. What’s more, nobody could tell reliably and by their own experience, what adopting the MVC pattern for a text processing application meant in practice, and how the code would look like.

Then, the Unicode standard was evolving and a controversial debate started about what that meant for our plans. Speaking of 16-bit Unicode only, two aspects were unsettling: the same document would need twice the memory compared to 8-bit characters (we had no concept for memory management then and kept the whole document in RAM all the time, which obviously still needed some reworking). At that time, the model was using zero-terminated C strings for text paragraphs for the comfort of using the standard C string libraries.

Turning to Unicode, we would have to say goodbye to that and rewrite the functions we needed. It probably had not yet dawned everyone, that C strings would not suit the requirements of text attributes and formatting anyway.

UTF-8 strings, on the other hand had the downside that it was complicated to find out, how many character positions the output would use. Building substrings from UTF-8 strings is also a delicate matter, because the string can not be cut at any position without creating invalid UTF-8 character sequences.

Most of the developers working on StarOffice later will certainly be surprised, what basic considerations were moving us at the start, but man, this was all serious stuff.


StarOffice 3.1 and modern LibreOffice screenshot comparison
StarWriter 3.1 (screenshot courtesy of WinWorld) and modern LibreOffice

Do you still use LibreOffice today, and do you have any contact with old Star Division team members?

Sorry to say that I have no contact any more with my has-been workmates. I left Star Division somewhat frustrated because it took so long for the good concepts to materialize and also, because I felt, I was not the right man to promote that. But I also had a pregnant girlfriend (now my wife) in Berlin, which was even a better reason to say good-bye.

Frankly, I was relieved and amazed to see the first product. It was not free at that time. I don’t think it really paid for Marco before it went to Sun Microsystems – anyway there was no free download. With my Zyxel 14.400 baud modem, it had taken a long time anyway. I got versions on batches of CDs from time to time from my friend Stefan, though, who was still with the project.

I was not so happy with the application at first, because at that time it was a monolithic “desktop” with all applications in its belly (like Writer, Calc, Impress and Draw, I believe), which took ages on my machine to load. I would have loved to see more collaboration in it: at that time that would meant an e-mail client and calendar.

Sometimes I thought to myself, “If I had to decide …” but ended with a sigh :“There would be no Star Writer to this very day”. In fact, it would be another interesting story, which changes it took to finally make it happen.

I never had Microsoft Office for myself (I like Microsoft Publisher for the themes and the artwork that came bundled with it, but somehow Pokémon Druckstudio was an acceptable replacement). I had to buy a Microsoft licence for my children though, because teachers did not expect that someone would not have access to Microsoft Office, and I was hesitant to end my child’s learning career over this.

I use LibreOffice almost every day now. It has all I need, and probably much more.

I use LibreOffice for my everyday correspondence, and less often I use it to create PDF files for printing. I have a nice set of Star Basic macros, and a good document template I load all the formatting from, to create a good-looking A5 format book from a text file or a website, in no time at all. Creating PDF files is very easy in LibreOffice, yet it has some uncommon features that come in very handy at times, like the option to export also blank pages (that would usually be omitted). Believe me, you don’t want to go to print without the blank pages.

The E-books that I create from the same document (printing is a bit out of fashion) have no frills (they could have, of course) but they are nice to read. I confess that I find it very convenient to load them into my Kindle account, from which I can read them on any device that comes near to me.

Well, I’m not a young man anymore, I like to say that before anyone else does, and programming to empower users (with more luck in later projects) is still my passion to this day. The StarOffice project has been with me more or (sometimes) less all the way, a bit like a child I gave up for adoption at an early age.

TDF says: Thanks to Stefan for the insights into the early days of StarOffice – and we’re happy to hear that he’s still using LibreOffice today!

LibreOffice at the Linux Arena in Pordenone, Italy

LibreOffice at the Linux Arena in Pordenone

Marco Marega writes:

Hi, I’m Marco, an Italian translator and Member of The Document Foundation. Twice a year I take part in an event in Pordenone to promote LibreOffice within the stand “Linux Arena” of the PNLUG Linux User Group. It’s inside a local fair, part of which is dedicated to technology, makers, electronics and so on.

For the event from April 25 – 27 we had a LibreOffice stand with a 32″ monitor, showing an Impress presentation about LibreOffice on a loop. At the stand I met different interested people – some of whom I already know since they visit the fair regularly, while others I saw for the first time.

There is always curiosity about LibreOffice, and this time I noticed an increasing demand about AI integration and related plugins. The LibreOffice coffee/beer mats were very much appreciated by visitors to the stand.

LibreOffice at the Linux Arena in Pordenone

The Pordenone Linux User Group invited other associations to share the stand, so there were also:

  • Trieste Linux Users Group, with a nice game to learn bash commands while trying to deactivate a bomb
  • Odoo group, presenting the ERP/CRM/…
  • Bergamo Linux Users group presenting OpenWRT and some other projects (Emiliano Vavassori is one of them)
  • A Blender expert
  • Another member who uses openSUSE for multimedia production
  • A corner where volunteers helped visitors to install Linux on their PCs, or to solve little problems

The next edition of the event will be on 22 – 23 November.

LibreOffice at the Linux Arena in Pordenone

ODF: An Analysis of the Adoption of the Open Document Format

Over the course of its 20-year history, the ODF standard has been adopted, or at least recommended, by numerous supranational bodies and several countries on almost every continent. However, this does not necessarily mean that the ODF standard is used in accordance with these decisions, which are often laws in their own right, as Microsoft’s substantial lobbying and misinformation campaigns aimed at protecting its revenue of around $25 billion generated by the proprietary OOXML format (DOCX, XLSX and PPTX) encourage the use of the latter. This is despite the fact that the disadvantages for national systems, communities of citizens and individuals are very easy to demonstrate: loss of control over content, interoperability problems and dependence on the commercial strategies of a single vendor.

The information in this post is based on my research into sources relating to the adoption or recommendations for the use of ODF. I began compiling this collection of documents around 2010 and continue to update it annually. Over the last twelve months, I have also used artificial intelligence in my research, which has helped me find some articles.

Unfortunately, formal adoption or recommendation of ODF does not guarantee its actual use in accordance with the law. For example, the latest version of Italy’s Digital Administration Code explicitly prohibits the use of OOXML because it is not a standard, yet this decision is largely ignored by public bodies.

SOVEREIGN BODIES

NATO requires all 28 member countries to use ODF as the standard format for document exchange.

UN and NGOs: UN organisations favour standard and open formats to ensure that all documents remain accessible and do not depend on expensive or restricted tools. This is why ODF is used for reports, policy drafts, and collaborative documentation between teams.

European Commission: has taken a strong stance in favour of open standards and promotes the use of formats such as ODF in documents through its open source software strategy. The European Parliament, the European Commission and the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) have integrated LibreOffice and ODF into their internal workflows to ensure greater transparency and language neutrality.

EUROPE

Belgium: Since September 2007, all Belgian federal government departments have been required to accept and read ODF documents, and a memorandum has established ODF as the standard for the exchange of office documents within the federal public administration.

Denmark: From 1 April 2011, the Danish Parliament has mandated the use of ODF by state authorities for the exchange and archiving of documents, whereas previously agencies were only required to accept ODF documents. In recent weeks, articles have claimed that the Danish government will formally migrate to open-source software and, therefore, to ODF. We are, of course, seeking confirmation of this project.

Finland: The Ministry of Justice and other ministries have adopted ODF as the main document format.

France: The Référentiel Général d’Interopérabilité (RGI) recommends ODF as the preferred format for office documents in public administrations. Agencies are therefore encouraged to use ODF for creating and archiving text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Germany: The German Council for Information Technology Planning, representing the federal and state governments, has committed to making ODF the standard for document management in public administration by 2027. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and several federal courts already use ODF exclusively. Several federal states and municipalities have also switched to ODF-compatible office suites, such as LibreOffice and Collabora Online. ODF is cited as a core element of Schleswig-Holstein’s digital sovereignty strategy.

Italy: The Digital Administration Code only allows ODF in its guidelines for public administration, as OOXML does not meet the open standard criteria contained in the document’s glossary.

Netherlands: The Dutch government mandates the use of open standards, including ODF, for all data exchanges in the public sector, and adoption is monitored by an active political community that supports implementation.

Slovakia: All public authorities must be able to read and use ODF for electronic communication and publication of documents, including those with electronic signatures.

Spain (Andalusia and Extremadura): These regions require government agencies to use ODF (or PDF/A for static documents) for communication with each other and with citizens.

Switzerland: Government agencies are recommended to use ODF for document exchange with citizens or other agencies.

United Kingdom: In 2014, the British government adopted ODF as the sole standard for sharing and collaborating on editable documents across the public sector. The Home Office has a formal ODF adoption plan and does not reject ODF documents from citizens or businesses.

AMERICA

Argentina (Province of Misiones): The use of ODF is mandatory within government administrative organisations.

Brazil: Since 2010, proprietary formats have been prohibited in the federal public administration and ODF has been the standard for all office documents. It is mandatory in federal IT policies and is widely used in ministries and state governments. SERPRO (the federal data management service) ensures that national document workflows comply with the ODF standard.

Uruguay: public documents must use ODF for editable files and PDF for fillable forms and non-editable documents.

Venezuela: all federal government organisations must use ODF 1.0 for editable documents.

ASIA

India: India’s policy on the adoption of open standards for e-governance includes ODF as the preferred format for all federal and state services, particularly where vendor neutrality is critical for affordability and scalability.

Taiwan: The Ministry of Education has introduced ODF-compliant tools in all schools, and local governments use LibreOffice for daily administration.

AFRICA

South Africa: South Africa’s MIOS (Minimum Interoperability Standards) policy aims to ensure a future-proof digital government and access for all. It promotes open standards and lists ODF as an accepted format.

CASE STUDY

Monaco: In 2013, the city of Monaco made headlines when it migrated 15,000 desktops to Linux and OpenOffice/LibreOffice, adopting ODF. Despite positive results and significant cost savings, the project faced strong political opposition backed by the Microsoft lobby. In 2017, part of the migration was cancelled. This case is emblematic because it highlights the complexity of vendor lock-in and demonstrates the pressure that public institutions face from proprietary vendors to maintain a monopoly that is detrimental to the institutions themselves and their citizens.

Create a colour wheel in LibreOffice

Screenshot of colour wheel being created in LibreOffice Calc

Regina Henschel writes:

Susanne Mohn asked on the German-language user’s mailing list how to create a colour wheel with LibreOffice. It was not about the colours themselves, but about the geometry. How do you create a circle or ring with equally sized sectors?

Very different solutions were proposed. Susanne Mohn, Harald Berger and I (Regina Henschel) have created a page in the LibreOffice Wiki so that these do not remain hidden in a thread. Due to the development process, some sample files are in German, but the page itself is in English.

Colour wheels can be used to create “doughnut charts” of data. Have fun exploring!

Colour wheel

The end of Windows 10 is approaching, so it’s time to consider Linux and LibreOffice

The Document Foundation and LibreOffice support the international campaign @endof10 https://endof10.org/

The countdown has begun. On 14 October 2025, Microsoft will end support for Windows 10. This will leave millions of users and organisations with a difficult choice: should they upgrade to Windows 11, or completely rethink their work environment?

The good news? You don’t have to follow Microsoft’s upgrade path. There is a better option that puts control back in the hands of users, institutions, and public bodies: Linux and LibreOffice. Together, these two programmes offer a powerful, privacy-friendly and future-proof alternative to the Windows + Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

The real costs of switching to Windows 11

The move to Windows 11 isn’t just about security updates. It increases dependence on Microsoft through aggressive cloud integration, forcing users to adopt Microsoft accounts and services. It also leads to higher costs due to subscription and licensing models, and reduces control over how your computer works and how your data is managed. Furthermore, new hardware requirements will render millions of perfectly good PCs obsolete.

This is a turning point. It is not just a milestone in a product’s life cycle. It is a crossroads.

The new path: Linux + LibreOffice

These two programmes form the backbone of a free and open computing environment based on open standards. For individual users, public administrations, schools and businesses, this combination offers more than enough: it is mature and secure, and is already in use worldwide for mission-critical workloads. Furthermore, using open standards protects users against any attempts by software developers to control them.

Here’s what this alternative offers:

  1. A modern, stable and unrestricted operating system, accessible to all users thanks to intuitive distributions that allow each user to choose the configuration that best suits their needs. It also offers regular updates, long-term support versions and communities where people can help each other and develop their digital knowledge together.
    Unlike Windows 11, Linux works with all personal computers that ran Windows 10, meaning there is no need to replace your old PC. Those with even older computers can also find a suitable version of Linux, extending their useful life and reducing electronic waste.
  2. LibreOffice is a complete office suite offering word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawing and database tools. It respects freedom and data because it is based on an open, standard document format (ODF), and is compatible with Microsoft’s proprietary formats (DOCX, XLSX and PPTX). This gives users control, as Microsoft cannot decide to end support at any time, as it is doing with Windows 10.
    LibreOffice is supported by a global community of volunteers, consultants, and companies who provide free and paid professional support, ensuring the ongoing development of the software and the prompt resolution of security and operational issues. There are no licence fees, telemetry or vendor lock-in.
  3. Both Linux and LibreOffice are based on transparency. This means that all documents saved in the standard format will always be available because the format is open, and all documentation is available online. They also do not require a user licence subscription that protects the software vendor more than the user, and which contains incomprehensible legal clauses.
    Both the operating system and the software are managed by foundations, not companies. All activities, including development, quality assurance, problem-solving and the release of new versions, take place in public because users have the right to control the quality of the digital tools they use and entrust with their content.

What does migration look like?

Replacing Windows and Microsoft Office is not as difficult as it seems, either at an individual or corporate level. Many organisations around the world have already done so, and many others are planning to do so right now, precisely because they no longer want to be subject to the commercial strategies of Microsoft and its partners.

These are the key steps:

  1. Start by testing Linux and LibreOffice on a second partition of your PC (for individuals) or in less critical departments (for companies).
  2. Check the compatibility of your software configuration with Linux and LibreOffice; most office tasks can easily be transferred or adapted with minimal effort.
  3. Build documentation to learn how Linux and LibreOffice work and organise training if necessary.
  4. Find a consultant who can help with the migration process, such as someone certified by the Linux Professional Institute or The Document Foundation (for LibreOffice).

This is not a radical change, but rather a gradual, tailor-made transition depending on user needs.

It is important to start immediately

Microsoft is forcing users’ hands, but it is also opening a door. Now is the time to challenge your assumptions and take back control of how your personal computers work, how long they last, and most importantly, how your content is managed.

Linux and LibreOffice are not just alternatives; they are superior choices that most users have not considered until now because they trusted Microsoft — perhaps too much. This trust has been betrayed by the decision to abandon a functioning operating system such as Windows 10, purely to sell more products and lock users in further, which cannot be justified by any technological assessment.

Here’s how to get started:

The end of Windows 10 does not mark the end of choice, but the beginning of a new era. If you are tired of mandatory updates, invasive changes, and being bound by the commercial choices of a single supplier, it is time for a change. Linux and LibreOffice are ready — 2025 is the right year to choose digital freedom!

The Document Foundation and LibreOffice support the international campaign @endof10 https://endof10.org/

Press Releases

Announcement of LibreOffice 25.8.4

Berlin, 18 December 2025 – LibreOffice 25.8.4, the fourth minor update to the free office suite developed by volunteers for…

Open Document Format

The Future of Open Standards and the Importance of ODF

Open standards don't make headlines. Instead, they work quietly behind the scenes to define how information is created, shared and…