The ‘final version' of the new open source office software suite, LibreOffice, based on the popular OpenOffice package, is expected to be available for download later this month or in January, according to one of the key developers of the project.
LibreOffice was launched some months ago by some of those who had been associated with OpenOffice (OpenOffice.org), after they branched off on their own, under the aegis of the newly launched ‘The Document Foundation' (TDF). What is now being offered for download is the Release Candidate of version 3.3 of LibreOffice.
The parting of ways had to do with the takeover of Sun Microsystems, the company that promoted OpenOffice, by Oracle. The acquisition was completed in January 2010.
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Sun Microsystems had acquired the German company that created the software and released it under an open source licence a decade ago. It evolved over the years, and includes components for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics and databases. It is available in many languages and in different versions for use on all major computer operating systems. The Office.org website says over 100 million use this office software suite worldwide.
“LibreOffice 3.3 is based on OpenOffice.org, and has lots of shared code with it. However, there are already many patches included that the community has come up with,” said TDF steering committee member Florian Effenberger. End-users would see a difference, though the general impression might be one of familiarity because of the user interface and the way the product is used, he told The Hindu. “At the moment, it is hard to say how the two products will develop, how different they will look in one year — time will tell. We'll use the code of other projects, and our code is free to use as well, but it's not easy to predict what this means for the future,” he replied, when asked how long LibreOffice would take to emerge from the shadow of OpenOffice.
A leading LibreOffice developer had stated during the Foundation's launch in September, “We believe that the Foundation is a key step for the evolution of the free office suite, as it liberates the development of the code and the evolution of the project from the constraints represented by the commercial interests of a single company.”
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However, Oracle has stated that it is committed to supporting OpenOffice, and “developing software based on open standards, providing IT users with flexibility, lower short and long-term costs and freedom from vendor lock-in.” And OpenOffice continues to remain free.
The LibreOffice developers have been talking about revamping the software. They say it is old, and the ‘overall quality of the code' needs improvement. Besides, they are planning to re-work each component, starting with Calc. Improvements to the Writer and Impress components are also on the cards. Ensuring conversion fidelity between formats is also a priority.
Mr. Effenberger said 15 full-time developers, 77 new volunteer developers and 37 new translators were associated with it. An Indian developer, previously associated with OpenOffice and now with LibreOffice, welcomed the TDF launch, saying it would empower developers involved in free and open source projects.