# OpenOffice development is looking grim as developers flock to LibreOffice



## TechSocial (Dec 20, 2011)

OpenOffice used to be the best free alternative to Microsoft's Office, but now it seems to be falling on hard times.

Development on the open-source productivity suite is down to just 16 people, according to a report last month by LWN.net, with 381 changesets over the last year. By comparison, LibreOffice (another open-source Office alternative) saw 22,134 changesets from 268 developers.

A recent draft report (via ExtremeTech) to the Apache Foundation board, which oversees the project, paints a bleaker picture: OpenOffice currently doesn't have a release manager, and is short on mentors that can help new volunteer developers get started. While OpenOffice's support channels remain active, the report admits that new development is practically non-existent.

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## Ent (Apr 11, 2009)

Which is why they should fold it and continue with Libre. 
(In case anyone doesn't know, Libre and Open Office are forks of the same open source program).


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

Open Office was grabbed by Oracle who (if I remember) did things like insisting you registered with Oracle before you could use it. I think there were other issues as well. Open Office is owned by Oracle who supply (or not) the staff. 

Libre Office is still (I believe) a community project and the last time I looked, lacked some of the features in OO.


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## Ent (Apr 11, 2009)

Open Office was owned by Oracle, but they gave up in 2011 and let Apache take over as an open source thing. 

By a fluke of the licensing Libre can now freely pilfer any innovations and code that Open comes out with, but the reverse isn't true.


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## carstorm (May 1, 2015)

I have tried both and long preferred Libre Office. It always felt more stable to me.


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## lighttech (May 6, 2015)

Oh no, I've literally just been extolling the virtues of OO over LO. This is bad news.


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