LibreOffice

An office suite run by a foundation

LibreOffice is an office suite for creating, managing, editing and modifying documents, spreadsheets, slides and more, offered both as software installed on a computer and as a cloud-based version for businesses. The Document Foundation, a charitable body formed under German law by free software advocates, is the home of LibreOffice. The foundation says it builds on the work of the OpenOffice.org community, and that an independent foundation brings out the best in contributors and so produces better software for users.

LibreOffice is made possible by thousands of volunteers around the world and by the generosity of donors. The foundation asks supporters to donate so that it can deliver a better product, and it welcomes corporate participation, for example through companies that sponsor individuals to work as equals alongside other contributors.

Membership and the bodies of the foundation

Anyone who agrees with the foundation's core values and contributes to its activities may take part. Volunteers who work on LibreOffice or the Document Liberation Project are invited to apply for membership, using the foundation's application form and meeting the criteria set out in its statutes.

The formal bodies are the Board of Directors, which runs the foundation's projects and teams and whose members act as its judicial and extrajudicial representatives; the Membership Committee, which handles applications and renewals and oversees the election of the board; and the Board of Trustees, which consists of all people actively contributing to the foundation's projects. Other entities support the board without being formal bodies. The TDF team oversees projects and supports the community, the Engineering Steering Committee gives technical guidance on strategic matters, and an Advisory Board gives organizations that provide substantial support a forum to meet the board.

Open formats and the Document Liberation Project

The Document Liberation Project is a community of developers that frees users from vendor lock-in of their content. It provides tools that turn proprietary file types into the open ODF standard, The foundation is also home to the Document Liberation Project, alongside LibreOffice, and its purpose is to give users a way out of lock-in to a single vendor's formats.