2022-06-09 –, OW2con main virtual room
LibreOffice was announced in 2010 as a desktop productivity software for Windows, macOS and Linux. Since 2011, it has evolved from a single desktop product to a technology platform supporting applications for the desktop, the cloud and mobile. All products share the same engine, which provides superior consistency. The goal of the presentation is to present the different stages of this evolution.
LibreOffice was announced in 2010 to relaunch innovation of the already stagnant OpenOffice project. Since 2011, LibreOffice has evolved from a single desktop product to a technology platform supporting applications for the desktop, the cloud and mobile. All products share the same engine, which provides superior consistency.
This has been achieved in stages, following the evolution of the office suite market. First, it has been necessary to pay the technical debt inherited from OpenOffice. Then, source code has been refactored, with the introduction of new technologies to replace legacy ones. Third, the user interface has been modernized and made more flexible, with options for users migrating from proprietary software.
Today, the LibreOffice Technology platform is based on the same software engine for all modules, based on a clean and refactored source code, with a focus on code quality and consistency, and supported by easy and extensive APIs.
LibreOffice consistency represents a strong advantage over the "siloed" approach of all other office suites, where there is a different software engine for each application and each platform. The result is a lack of consistency for files, which are also different by platform.
LibreOffice Technology is the best open source platform for personal productivity, and is tightly integrated on desktop, mobile and cloud.
Italo Vignoli is a founding member of The Document Foundation and the LibreOffice project, an Open Source Initiative (OSI) board member, and the Chairman Emeritus of Associazione LibreItalia. He co-leads LibreOffice marketing, PR and media relations, co-chairs the certification program, and is a spokesman for the project. He has contributed to several large migration projects to LibreOffice, and is a LibreOffice certified migrator and trainer. From 2004 to 2010 he has been involved in the OOo project.