They might want a free software office suite, search for OpenOffice, and install it.
Your Linux distribution and its package manager made that decision for you so you don’t have to pay attention to the squabbling between projects.īut many people-Windows users especially-have never heard of LibreOffice. If you’re using Linux, you almost certainly have LibreOffice instead of OpenOffice. Want to stay up to date on Linux, BSD, Chrome OS, and the rest of the World Beyond Windows? Bookmark the World Beyond Windows column page or follow our RSS feed. It’s clear which project is more active and lively.
Developers working for IBM were responsible for 60 percent of the changes in OpenOffice, and IBM has been de-emphasizing this work for some time. Only sixteen developers have contributed to OpenOffice in the last year. Aside from more frequent releases over at LibreOffice, the LibreOffice project has over 250 developers and support from multiple companies. LWN surveyed development activity on both OpenOffice and LibreOffice back in March, 2015.
