LibreOffice. That’s the possible new name of OpenOffice.org. The volunteers that develop and promote the free office software severed ties with Oracle on Tuesday and formed an independent group called The Document Foundation.
OpenOffice.org successfully grew under the Sun Microsystems banner for a decade, but the volunteers believe a new ecosystem will generate more competition and choice for customers, as well as drive innovation in office-productivity software. The group also hopes to lower the barrier of adoption for users and developers. In essence, the group wasn’t happy under Oracle.
Oracle acquired the OpenOffice.org assets along with its acquisition of Sun. The Document Foundation has invited Oracle to become a member of the new foundation, and has asked the tech giant to donate the brand name. Until Oracle responds, the group is using the name LibreOffice. The break has been widely lauded by software companies large and small.
LibreOffice Finds Wide Support
Chris DiBona, open-source programs manager at Google, called The Document Foundation a great step forward in encouraging further development of open-source office suites. “Having a level playing field for all contributors is fundamental in creating a broad and active community around an open-source software project,” DiBona said.
Red Hat’s Jan Wildeboer and Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworthy, among many others, also offered support for the project. And Guy Lunardi, product management director at Novell, made a bold statement: “Viva la LibreOffice. Ultimately, we envision LibreOffice will do for the office-productivity market what Mozilla Firefox has done for browsers.”
The Document Foundation vowed to build on the work of OpenOffice.org. The founders noted that the group was created in the belief that an independent foundation is the best fit to the community’s core values of openness, transparency and valuing people for their contributions.
Oracle’s Tight Reins
Oracle has released two stable versions of the open-source software since the…