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LibreOffice 6.0.1 Start Center
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| Original author(s) | Star Division |
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| Developer(s) | The Document Foundation |
| Initial release | 25 January 2011 |
| Stable release | |
| Preview release | 6.0.5 RC1 (1 June 2018[3]) [±] 6.1.0 Beta 2 (15 June 2018[4]) [±] |
| Repository |
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| Written in | C++, Java, and Python[5] |
| Operating system | Linux, Microsoft Windows, macOS,[6] FreeBSD, OpenBSD,[7] NetBSD, Android (Viewer), Haiku |
| Platform | IA-32, x86-64, ARMel, ARMhf, MIPS, MIPSel, PowerPC, Sparc, S390, S390x, IA-64 (additional Debian platforms)[8] |
| Standard(s) | OpenDocument |
| Available in | 110 languages[9] |
| Type | Office suite |
| License | MPLv2.0 (secondary license GPL, LGPLv3+ or Apache License 2.0)[10] |
| Website | www |
LibreOffice is a free and open source office suite, a project of The Document Foundation. It was forked from OpenOffice.org in 2010, which was an open-sourced version of the earlier StarOffice. The LibreOffice suite comprises programs for word processing, the creation and editing of spreadsheets, slideshows, diagrams and drawings, working with databases, and composing mathematical formulae. It is available in 110 languages.[9]
LibreOffice uses the international ISO/IEC standard OpenDocument file format (ODF) as its native format to save documents for all of its applications. LibreOffice also supports the file formats of most other major office suites, including Microsoft Office, through a variety of import/export filters.[11][12]
LibreOffice is available for a variety of computing platforms,[6] including Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux (including a LibreOffice Viewer for Android[13]), as well as in the form of an online office suite.[14][15] It is the default office suite of most popular Linux distributions. It is the most actively developed free and open-source office suite, with approximately 50 times the development activity of Apache OpenOffice, the other major descendant of OpenOffice.org.[20]
The project was announced and a beta released on 28 September 2010. Between January 2011 (the first stable release) and October 2011, LibreOffice was downloaded approximately 7.5 million times.[21] The project claims 120 million unique downloading addresses from May 2011 to May 2015, excluding Linux distributions, with 55 million of those being from May 2014 to May 2015.[22]
Features
Included applications
| Module | Notes | |
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Writer | A word processor with similar functionality and file support to Microsoft Word or WordPerfect. It has extensive WYSIWYG word processing capabilities, but can also be used as a basic text editor.[12] |
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Calc | A spreadsheet program, similar to Microsoft Excel or Lotus 1-2-3. It has a number of unique features, including a system which automatically defines series of graphs, based on information available to the user.[12][23] |
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Impress | A presentation program resembling Microsoft PowerPoint. Presentations can be exported as SWF files, allowing them to be viewed on any computer with Adobe Flash Player installed.[12][24] |
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Draw | A vector graphics editor and diagramming tool similar to Microsoft Visio and comparable in features to early versions of CorelDRAW. It provides connectors between shapes, which are available in a range of line styles and facilitate building drawings such as flowcharts. It also includes features similar to desktop publishing software such as Scribus and Microsoft Publisher.[25] It is also able to act as a PDF-file editor. |
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Math | An application designed for creating and editing mathematical formulae. The application uses a variant of XML for creating formulas, as defined in the OpenDocument specification. These formulas can be incorporated into other documents in the LibreOffice suite, such as those created by Writer or Calc, by embedding the formulas into the document.[26] |
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Base | A database management program, similar to Microsoft Access.
LibreOffice Base allows the creation and management of databases,
preparation of forms and reports that provide end users easy access to
data. Like Access, it can be used to create small embedded databases
that are stored with the document files (using Java-based HSQLDB
as its storage engine), and for more demanding tasks it can also be
used as a front-end for various database systems, including Access
databases (JET), ODBC/JDBC data sources, and MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL or Microsoft Access.[12][27] Work is ongoing to transition the embedded storage engine from HSQLDB to the C++ based Firebird SQL backend. Firebird has been included in LibreOffice as an experimental option since LibreOffice 4.2.[28][29] |
Operating systems
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Screenshot of LibreOffice 5.3 Writer using the MUFFIN interface running on Ubuntu 16.04
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LibreOffice Viewer on Android
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In 2011, developers announced plans to port LibreOffice both to Android and to iOS.[38] A beta version of a document viewer for Android 4.0 or newer was released in January 2015;[13] In May 2015, LibreOffice Viewer for Android was released with basic editing capabilities.[39]
The LibreOffice Impress Remote application for various mobile operating systems allows for remote control of LibreOffice Impress presentations.
LibreOffice Online
LibreOffice Online is the online office suite edition of LibreOffice. It allows for the use of LibreOffice through a web browser by using the canvas element of HTML5. Development was announced at the first LibreOffice Conference in October 2011, and is ongoing.[40] The Document Foundation, IceWarp, and Collabora announced a collaboration to work on its implementation.[41][42]A version of the software was shown in a September 2015 conference,[43] and the UK Crown Commercial Service announced an interest in using the software.[44][45] On 15 December 2015, Collabora, in partnership with ownCloud, released a technical preview of Libreoffice Online branded as Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE).[46] In July 2016, Nextcloud and Collabora partnered to bring CODE to Nextcloud users.[47][48] By October 2016, Collabora had released nine updates to CODE.[49] First source code release of LibreOffice Online was done with LibreOffice version 5.3 in February 2017.[14]
Unique features of LibreOffice
A detailed 60-page report in June 2015 compared the progress of the LibreOffice project with the related project Apache OpenOffice. It showed that "OpenOffice received about 10% of the improvements LibreOffice did in the period of time studied."[50]Miscellaneous features
LibreOffice can use the GStreamer multimedia framework in Linux to render multimedia content such as videos in Impress and other programs.Visually, LibreOffice uses the large "Tango style" icons that are used for the application shortcuts, quick launch icons, icons for associated files and for the icons found on the toolbar of the LibreOffice programs.[69][70] They are also used on the toolbars and menus by default.
LibreOffice also ships with a modified theme which looks native on GTK-based Linux distributions. It also renders fonts via Cairo on Linux distributions; this means that text in LibreOffice is rendered the same as the rest of the Linux desktop.[71]
LibreOffice has a feature similar to WordArt called Fontwork.[72]
Licensing
The LibreOffice project uses a dual LGPLv3 (or later) / MPL 2.0 license for new contributions to allow the license to be upgraded.[73] Since the core of the OpenOffice.org codebase was donated to the Apache Software Foundation, there is an ongoing effort to get all the code rebased to ease future license updates. At the same time, there were complaints that IBM had not in fact released the Lotus Symphony code as open source, despite having claimed to. It was reported that some LibreOffice developers wanted to incorporate some code parts and bug fixes which IBM already fixed in their OpenOffice fork.[74]Scripting and extensions
LibreOffice supports third-party extensions.[75] As of July 2017, the LibreOffice Extension Repository lists more than 320 extensions.[76] Another list is maintained by the Apache Software Foundation[77] and another one by the Free Software Foundation.[78] Extensions and scripts for LibreOffice can be written in C++, Java, CLI, Python, and LibreOffice Basic. Interpreters for the latter two are bundled with most LibreOffice installers, so no additional installation is needed. The application programming interface for LibreOffice is called "UNO" and is extensively documented.[79]LibreOffice Basic
LibreOffice Basic is a programming language similar to Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) but based on StarOffice Basic. It is available in Writer, Calc and Base. It is used to write small programs known as "macros", with each macro performing a different task, such as counting the words in a paragraph.[80]History
ooo-build, Go-oo and Oracle
Members of the OpenOffice.org community who were not Sun Microsystems employees had wanted a more egalitarian form for the OpenOffice.org project for many years; Sun had stated in the original OpenOffice.org announcement in 2000, that the project would eventually be run by a neutral foundation,[81] and put forward a more detailed proposal in 2001.[82]Ximian and then Novell had maintained the ooo-build patch set, a project led by Michael Meeks, to make the build easier on Linux and due to the difficulty of getting contributions accepted upstream by Sun, even from corporate partners. It tracked the main line of development and was not intended to constitute a fork.[83] It was also the standard build mechanism for OpenOffice.org in most Linux distributions[84] and was contributed to by said distributions.[85]
In 2007, ooo-build was made available by Novell as a software package called Go-oo (ooo-build had used the go-oo.org domain name as early as 2005[86]), which included many features not included in upstream OpenOffice.org. Go-oo also encouraged outside contributions, with rules similar to those later adopted for LibreOffice.[87]
Sun's contributions to OpenOffice.org had been declining for some time,[88] they remained reluctant to accept contributions[89] and contributors were upset at Sun releasing OpenOffice.org code to IBM for IBM Lotus Symphony under a proprietary contract, rather than under an open source licence.[90]
Sun was purchased by Oracle Corporation in early 2010. OpenOffice.org community members were concerned by Oracle's behaviour towards open source software,[91] the Java lawsuit against Google[92] and Oracle's withdrawal of developers[93] and lack of activity on or visible commitment to OpenOffice.org, as had been noted by industry observers[94] – as Meeks put it in early September 2010, "The news from the Oracle OpenOffice conference was that there was no news."[95] Discussion of a fork started soon after.[96]
The Document Foundation and LibreOffice
On 28 September 2010, The Document Foundation was announced as the host of LibreOffice, a new derivative of OpenOffice.org. The Document Foundation's initial announcement stated their concerns that Oracle would either discontinue OpenOffice.org, or place restrictions on it as an open source project, as it had on Sun's OpenSolaris.LibreOffice 3.3 beta used the ooo-build build infrastructure and the OpenOffice.org 3.3 beta code from Oracle, then adding selected patches from Go-oo.[101] Go-oo was discontinued in favour of LibreOffice. Since the office suite that was branded "OpenOffice.org" in most Linux distributions was in fact Go-oo, most moved immediately to LibreOffice.[102]
Oracle was invited to become a member of The Document Foundation. However, Oracle demanded that all members of the OpenOffice.org Community Council involved with The Document Foundation step down from the OOo Community Council, claiming a conflict of interest.[103]
Naming
The name "LibreOffice" was picked after researching trademark databases and social media, as well after checks were made to see if it could be used for URLs in various countries.[104] Oracle rejected requests to donate the OpenOffice.org brand to the project.[105]LibreOffice was initially named BrOffice in Brazil. OpenOffice.org had been distributed as BrOffice.org by the BrOffice Centre of Excellence for Free Software because of a trademark issue.[106]
End of OpenOffice.org and beginning of Apache OpenOffice
Oracle announced in April 2011 that it was ending its development of OpenOffice.org and would lay off the majority of its paid developers.[107] In June 2011, Oracle announced[108] that it would donate the OpenOffice.org code and trademark to the Apache Software Foundation, where the project was accepted for a project incubation process within the foundation, thus becoming Apache OpenOffice. In an interview with LWN in 2011, Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth blamed The Document Foundation for destroying OpenOffice.org because it did not license code under Oracle's Contributor License Agreement.[109] But former Sun executive Simon Phipps denies this is the case:The act of creating The Document Foundation and its LibreOffice project did no demonstrable harm to Oracle's business. There is no new commercial competition to Oracle Open Office (their commercial edition of OO.o) arising from LibreOffice. No contributions that Oracle valued were ended by its creation. Oracle's ability to continue development of the code was in no way impaired. Oracle's decision appears to be simply that, after a year of evaluation, the profit to be made from developing Oracle Open Office and Oracle Cloud Office did not justify the salaries of over 100 senior developers working on them both. Suggesting that TDF was in some way to blame for a hard-headed business decision that seemed inevitable from the day Oracle's acquisition of Sun was announced is at best disingenuous.[110]In March 2015, an LWN.net comparison of LibreOffice with its cousin project Apache OpenOffice concluded that "LibreOffice has won the battle for developer participation".[111]
Release history
Versions
Since March 2014 and version 4.2.2, two different major "released" versions of LibreOffice are available at any time, in addition to development versions (numbered release candidates and dated nightly builds).[143] The versions are designated to signal their appropriateness for differing user requirements.[144] Releases are designated by three numbers separated by dots. The first two numbers represent the major version (branch) number, and the final number indicates the bugfix releases made in that series. LibreOffice designates the two release versions as:- "Fresh" – the most recent major version (branch), which contains the latest enhancements but which may have introduced bugs not present in the "still" release.
- "Still" (formerly "Stable") – the previous major version, which, by the time it has become the "still" version, has had around six months of bug fixing. It is recommended for users for whom stability is more important than the latest enhancements.
Release schedule
LibreOffice uses a time-based release schedule for predictability, rather than a "when it's ready" schedule. New major versions are released around every six months, in January or February and July or August of each year. The initial intention was to release in March and September, to align with the schedule of other free software projects.[145] Minor bugfix versions of the "fresh" and "still" release branches are released frequently.Users and deployments
LibreOffice weekly downloads since 2010.
The Document Foundation estimated in September 2011, that there were 10 million users worldwide who had obtained LibreOffice via downloads or CD-ROMs. Over 90% of those were on Windows, with another 5% on OS X. LibreOffice is the default office suite for most Linux distributions, and is installed when the operating system is installed or updated. Based on International Data Corporation reckonings for new or updated Linux installations in 2011, The Document Foundation estimated a subtotal of 15 million Linux users. This gave a total estimated user base of 25 million users in 2011.[146] In September 2013, after two years, the estimated number of LibreOffice users was 75 million.[147] A million new unique IP addresses check for downloads each week.[148] In August 2016, the number of LibreOffice users was estimated at 120 million.[149]
In 2011, the Document Foundation set a target of 200 million users worldwide before the end of 2020.[146]
LibreOffice has seen various mass deployments since its inception:
2003–2010
- In 2003–2004, the Brazilian corporation Serpro started migrating its software to BrOffice (the local version of LibreOffice at the time), with estimated value of BRL 3.5 million (approximately US$1.2 million at the time), and became a case study for similar initiatives in Brazil, particularly in e-government.[150]
- In 2005, the French Gendarmerie announced its migration to OpenOffice.org.[151] It planned to migrate 72,000 desktop machines to a customised version of Ubuntu with LibreOffice by 2015.[152]
- In 2010, the Irish city of Limerick gradually started migrating to open-source solutions to free itself from vendor lock-in and improve its purchase negotiation power. One of the key aspects of this move has been the use of LibreOffice.[153]
- The administrative authority of the Île-de-France region (which includes the city of Paris) included LibreOffice in a USB flash drive given to students which contains free open-source software. The USB flash drive is given to approximately 800,000 students.[38][154]
- It was announced that thirteen hospitals of the Copenhagen region would gradually switch to LibreOffice, affecting "almost all of the 25,000 workers".[155]
- The Greek city of Pylaia-Chortiatis migrated its PCs to use LibreOffice. The local Linux user group estimated cost savings to be at least €70,000.[156]
- In July, the Spanish city of Las Palmas switched its 1,200 PCs to using LibreOffice, citing cost savings of €400,000.[157]
- The administration of Umbria, Italy, started a project to migrate an initial group of 5,000 civil workers to LibreOffice.[158]
- The city of Largo, Florida, US has been a long-time user[159] of open-source software using Linux thin clients. Originally using OpenOffice.org, the city of Largo switched to LibreOffice in 2013.[160]
- In June, the government of the Italian province of South Tyrol will be switching 7,000 PCs in administration and "many more thousands" of PCs in health services using LibreOffice and ODF.[161]
- In August, the administration of the Spanish autonomous region of Valencia has completed the migration of all 120,000 PCs of the administration, including schools and courts, to LibreOffice.[162]
- The German city of Munich announced that it would transition from OpenOffice to LibreOffice in the near future. This is in line with Munich's long term commitment to using open-source software. Munich uses LiMux, an Ubuntu Linux derivative, on nearly all of the city's 15,000 computers.[163][164] The city of Munich is the second public administration to join the advisory board at the Document Foundation.[165] News appeared in 2014 that the Council is considering migrating back to Microsoft Windows & Microsoft Office[166] but was later denied.[167] Based on a study, the mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter, initiated the re-investigation of the scenario of migrating back to Microsoft systems.[168] The trustworthiness of the study is questionable because the company has been "Microsoft's Alliance Partner of the Year" for nine years.[169] Further details were issued by the Document Foundation.[170]
- The French city of Toulouse announced it saved €1 million by migrating thousands of workstations to LibreOffice.[171][172]
- The Italian Ministry of Defence announced that it would install LibreOffice on 150,000 PCs.[173]
- The Italian city of Bari replaced Microsoft Office with LibreOffice on its 1,700 PCs.[174]
- LibreOffice was officially made available for all UK Government agencies nationwide.[175] Annual cost saving on a subscription for 6,500 users compared to MS Office is approximately 900,000 GBP.[176]
- In July 2015, the IT project manager working for the administration of Nantes (France’s sixth largest city) talked about the ongoing switch of its 5,000 workstations to LibreOffice started in 2013. According to the IT project manager, the switch to LibreOffice allowed the administration to save €1.7 million.[177]
- As of 2015, LibreOffice is installed on almost all of the 500,000 workstations of the 11 French ministries members of the MIMO working group.[178] The MIMO working group was the first public administration to join the advisory board at the Document Foundation.[179]
- The Taiwanese county of Yilan would purchase no more Microsoft Office licenses and turned to ODF and LibreOffice.[180]
- The Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group switched all of its PCs (more than 15,000) to LibreOffice.[181]
- Lithuanian police switched to LibreOffice on over 8,000 workstations, citing cost savings of €1 million.[182]
- The majority (75%) of municipalities in the Walloon region of Belgium use open source software and services which include LibreOffice. As of March 2017, over 20,000 public administration staff and many times more citizens use the services.[183]
- The Spanish autonomous region of Galicia announced plans to finalize its switch to LibreOffice at several central government services and ministries, making LibreOffice the only office productivity suite on 6,000 workstations.[184]
- The city of Rome, Italy, began installing LibreOffice on all of its 14,000 PC workstations, in parallel to the existing proprietary office suite. It is one of the planned steps to increase the city's use of free and open source software, aiming to reduce lock-in to IT vendors.[185]
