LibreOfficeQ&A about Media Articles and Forum Comments
https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/04/10/qa-about-media-articles-and-forum-comments/
Gabriela Salvisberg@libreoffice @tdforg I can't make head nor tail of the dispute, other than "People's Front of Judea" vs "Popular Front of Judea" (yay, Monty Python). Meanwhile, companies are turning to OnlyOffice (links to Russia). This can't be good.
1. I still don't get what the problem is between TDF, TDC, Collabora, etc. Is there any clear, non-biased explanation?
2. Don't we all want the same thing?
3. What can LO users/OSS advocates do to help put an end to this dispute?
OSS should be a war-free zone.
1. I still don't get what the problem is between TDF, TDC, Collabora, etc. Is there any clear, non-biased explanation?
2. Don't we all want the same thing?
3. What can LO users/OSS advocates do to help put an end to this dispute?
OSS should be a war-free zone.
Paolo Vecchi@gsalvisberg Didn't realise you asked questions here as well before providing some hints in another thread.
1) As the Q&A hints to, the issues derived from an apparent unwillingness by some to understand that a foundation under German laws cannot be subservient to their business interests. Even once the issues were made clear with the help of legal specialists the same people made it impossible to fix governance and issues.
@gsalvisberg
TDF tried to avoid a public dispute in the hope that ongoing legal consultations would lead to positive results soon.
In the meantime the board implemented policies, rules and bylaws to reduce the risk of having these types of behaviours in the future.
Some didn't like of having rules reducing their opportunities to influence the foundation and went public with very biased comments forcing TDF to hint at the actual issues that led to these rules.
@gsalvisberg 2) Yes, of course but there are different views on how to reach a goal and different purposes for different types of organisations.
A commercial company could change focus at any time, as it has happened, and it could even be taken over by another organisation to kill the project so it represent a risk and that was taken in consideration in 2022 with the proposal of employing developers
Invitation and agenda for TDF board meeting on Tuesday, 2026-04-07, 1600 UTC (1800 Berlin time)
The fact that Collabora Productivity would change focus onto something else has been a topic and a risk that has been taken in consideration quite a while ago. Back in 2022 it was part of a risk analysis, due to precedent with LibreOffice Online, and a risk mitigation proposal has been shared: In the “Contributors risk mitigation” section you will notice that, in a quite diplomatic way, it was already expected that sooner or later Collabora Productivity would focus its business interests on s...
@gsalvisberg TDF is a very different type of organisation whose mission and goals revolve around #LibreOffice and it has been structured in a way to avoid changing focus or being taken over by an organisation that wants to negatively affect its mission.
TDF shouldn't be driven by commercial interests but by the mission of developing and improving LibreOffice for everyone and deliver it to its millions of users free as in freedom but also free as in free of charge. @libreoffice @tdforg
TDF shouldn't be driven by commercial interests but by the mission of developing and improving LibreOffice for everyone and deliver it to its millions of users free as in freedom but also free as in free of charge. @libreoffice @tdforg
@gsalvisberg 3) Being more active with Libreoffice and applying to become a member of the board of trustees, and then TDF's bodies, to have a larger and more diverse number of voices would have helped and will help in avoiding a repeat of past issues.
The disputes should, hopefully, be settled soon leaving finally a lot more time and resources for TDF and the community to focus on more productive topics and tasks. @libreoffice @tdforg
The disputes should, hopefully, be settled soon leaving finally a lot more time and resources for TDF and the community to focus on more productive topics and tasks. @libreoffice @tdforg