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LibreOffice

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LibreOffice is a free, open-source office productivity suite maintained by The Document Foundation, offering word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and more as a community-driven alternative to Microsoft Office.

Last updated October 14, 2026

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Overview

LibreOffice is a free and open-source office productivity suite developed by The Document Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Berlin, Germany. It was forked from OpenOffice.org in 2010 following concerns over Oracle's stewardship of the project, and has since become one of the most widely used open-source office suites in the world. The suite includes Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector graphics and diagrams), Base (database management), and Math (formula editing). It is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and various Unix-like systems, and is distributed under the Mozilla Public License v2.0. LibreOffice is used by individuals, businesses, governments, and educational institutions globally, and is often pre-installed on Linux distributions. The Document Foundation oversees development, with contributions from a large community of volunteers and corporate sponsors. The brand is associated with open standards, particularly the OpenDocument Format (ODF), and interoperability with Microsoft Office formats. LibreOffice is not a commercial product in the traditional sense; it is free to download and use, with no licensing fees. Its development is funded through donations and contributions from organizations that benefit from its existence. The suite is localized into over 100 languages and has a significant presence in public sector deployments, particularly in Europe. The project releases major versions roughly every six months, with long-term support versions available for enterprise users. LibreOffice has become a symbol of the open-source software movement and digital sovereignty, especially in contexts where organizations seek to reduce dependence on proprietary software vendors.

History

LibreOffice was created in 2010 as a fork of OpenOffice.org, led by members of the OpenOffice.org community who were dissatisfied with Oracle's management following its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. The project was initially named LibreOffice and was developed by The Document Foundation, a non-profit entity established to oversee its development. The first stable release, LibreOffice 3.3, was made available in January 2011. In 2011, Oracle donated the OpenOffice.org trademark and code to the Apache Software Foundation, which continued development as Apache OpenOffice. LibreOffice, however, quickly gained traction due to its more frequent release cycle and active community. Major versions have been released regularly, with LibreOffice 4.0 in 2013, 5.0 in 2015, 6.0 in 2018, 7.0 in 2020, and 24.2 in 2024. The suite has been adopted by numerous governments and organizations, including the city of Munich (LiMux project), the French Gendarmerie, and various Italian ministries. LibreOffice is also the default office suite in many Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Fedora, and Debian. The Document Foundation has received support from companies like Collabora, Red Hat, and CIB, which provide commercial support and development contributions. The project emphasizes interoperability with Microsoft Office formats and supports the OpenDocument Format (ODF) as its native format. Over the years, LibreOffice has expanded its feature set, improved performance, and enhanced compatibility. It remains a flagship example of open-source collaboration and is widely used in both personal and professional settings.

  • 2024

    LibreOffice 24.2 released, adopting calendar-based versioning.

  • 2020

    LibreOffice 7.0 released.

  • 2018

    LibreOffice 6.0 released.

  • 2015

    LibreOffice 5.0 released.

  • 2013

    LibreOffice 4.0 released.

  • 2011

    First stable release, LibreOffice 3.3, launched in January.

  • 2010

    LibreOffice forked from OpenOffice.org; The Document Foundation established.

Products and positioning

Free, open-source, community-driven office suite emphasizing open standards and digital sovereignty.

  • LibreOffice Writer

    Word processor.

  • LibreOffice Calc

    Spreadsheet program.

  • LibreOffice Impress

    Presentation program.

  • LibreOffice Draw

    Vector graphics editor and diagramming tool.

  • LibreOffice Base

    Database management system.

  • LibreOffice Math

    Formula editor.

Recent events

  • Unconfirmed

    Reported

    LibreOffice announces it will not add AI to its default software configuration[3]

    The Document Foundation, the nonprofit software maker behind the open source document editor LibreOffice, said in a blog post this week that while it does not reject AI out of hand, it "will not add" AI to its software's default configuration for the foreseeable future, citing user privacy and data control. Users can still connect the editor to local AI models by installing extensions.

  • Reported

    LibreOffice 26.8 released with no generative AI features[4]

    The Document Foundation released LibreOffice 26.8 on August 26, 2026, stating the version contains no generative AI elements and does not send documents to remote servers. Writer gained improved bidirectional text handling and faster opening of large image-heavy documents, while Calc now auto-applies right-to-left text direction in blank cells and defaults new documents to start alignment.

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