ploum

WTF is happening at the Document Foundation ?

It seems that all the people who were very active a decade ago are ejected!

https://meeksfamily.uk/~michael/blog/2026-04-02-tdf-ejects-core-devs.html

One year ago, it was @italovignoli himself (for whom I have a deep respect)

https://community.documentfoundation.org/t/i-am-exhausted-this-is-my-resignation-from-the-board-of-directors-of-the-document-foundation/12950

Where is the TDF that I enjoyed so much during #LibreOffice conferences 15 years ago?

What is happening?

For those interested, an history of Libreoffice:

https://ploum.net/de-staroffice-a-libreoffice-28-annees-dhistoire/index.html

Stuff Michael Meeks is doing

Apr 3 at 7:05pmWeb
Show threadhalfa3d ago
@ploum @italovignoli [edit] this was wrong, explanation here https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/04/05/lets-put-an-end-to-the-speculation/
Let's put an end to the speculation - TDF Community Blog

Ideally, we would have preferred to avoid this post. However, the articles and comments published in response to Collabora’s and Michael Meeks’ biased posts compel us to provide this background information on the events that led to the current situation. Unfortunately, we have to start from the very beginning, but we’ll try to keep it brief. The launch of the LibreOffice project and The Document Foundation was handled with great enthusiasm by the founding group. They were driven by a noble goal, but also by a bit of healthy recklessness. After all, it was impossible to imagine what would happen after September 28, 2010, the date of the announcement. At the time, nobody could imagine that the companies that had supported OpenOffice.org until then would create a project to kill LibreOffice. Also, if the project were to be successful, it would require resources greater than those available, and above all, a deep management experience. Fortunately, the project grew quite rapidly. However, the founders’ different backgrounds and opinions were at the same time the reason for some bold decisions – many of which right – as well as a few mistakes, which are the root cause of some of the current

TDF Community Blog
Show threadhalfa3d ago
@ploum @italovignoli I found the post and the response here to be the most evident place of the dissention https://community.documentfoundation.org/t/vote-revoke-votes-related-to-libreoffice-online-atticiziation-and-freezing-of-repository/13495/17
[VOTE] Revoke votes related to LibreOffice Online atticiziation and freezing of repository

The great news of course is that there is one: Collabora Online - it is available for free download by anyone interested. The slightly sad news is that some people don’t know that yet. Sadly this is just incorrect. There are a couple of FAQ entries “who created LibreOffice Online” and “Who contributed to the mobile work” that present the facts (as of ~five years ago, when the entire development community around LOOL moved away to COOL, there is now a rather larger team working on COOL). We tr...

The Document Foundation Community
Show threadsll - un kien avec un capiau3d ago
@halfa @ploum @italovignoli how are both events linked? (Dumping core devs vs. Collabora/LO feud)
Show threadIan McLean3d ago
@sll @halfa @ploum @italovignoli The core devs are (almost?) all Collabora employees
Show threadsll - un kien avec un capiau2d ago
@ianmclean thanks @halfa @ploum @italovignoli
Show threadploum2d ago
@halfa @italovignoli : thanks for the clarification !
Show threadPaolo Vecchi1d ago

@ploum Well... unfortunately that "clarification" is completely incorrect.

It is understandable that many are confused as TDF hasn't officially and strongly reacted to many biased public statements over the years to avoid fuelling unnecessary public dramas but it is now clear that it left room to speculations that are not helping anyone:
https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/04/05/lets-put-an-end-to-the-speculation/
@halfa @italovignoli

#libreoffice #opensource

Let's put an end to the speculation - TDF Community Blog

Ideally, we would have preferred to avoid this post. However, the articles and comments published in response to Collabora’s and Michael Meeks’ biased posts compel us to provide this background information on the events that led to the current situation. Unfortunately, we have to start from the very beginning, but we’ll try to keep it brief. The launch of the LibreOffice project and The Document Foundation was handled with great enthusiasm by the founding group. They were driven by a noble goal, but also by a bit of healthy recklessness. After all, it was impossible to imagine what would happen after September 28, 2010, the date of the announcement. At the time, nobody could imagine that the companies that had supported OpenOffice.org until then would create a project to kill LibreOffice. Also, if the project were to be successful, it would require resources greater than those available, and above all, a deep management experience. Fortunately, the project grew quite rapidly. However, the founders’ different backgrounds and opinions were at the same time the reason for some bold decisions – many of which right – as well as a few mistakes, which are the root cause of some of the current

TDF Community Blog
Show threadhalfa1d ago
@paolo @ploum @italovignoli thanks for the post! That explains the removal of the Collabora members from the board. I don't really understand how anyone though that removing half your board, many longtime contributors, saying "it was needed for compliance" would cause less drama than explaining the situation like it was done now.
Show threadPaolo Vecchi1d ago
@halfa It was explained to the members of the board of trustees as a notification related to these issues and their membership.
These are issues that have been dragging on for years, as explained in the post, and one would have hoped that it wouldn't have been necessary to make a public post about it as it could have been just an understandable minor inconvenience for some. Someone instead decided to make it look like they were being kicked out creating unnecessary drama. @ploum @italovignoli