Should OpenOffice and LibreOffice merge?

Developers of free software packages Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice should join forces for a joint project that can still compete with the ubiquitous proprietary competitor.

This idea was expressed by Daniel Brunner, head of IT at the Swiss Supreme Court, in a speech at the LibreOffice conference a week ago in Bern.

Brunner believes that the merger of the two projects will allow more organizations to implement free software. Now we have to check the document in both office suites, but after the merger, the hypothetical OpenLibreOffice will become a single standard.

The Swiss Supreme Court, where Brunner works, is one of the largest government agencies in Europe, which transferred the workflow to free software. For many years, it has been using the OpenOffice office suite; it is installed on approximately 460 computers. Brunner says that it would be nice to take advantage of the advanced document filters that LibreOffice has.

The strategy adopted earlier stipulates that the state budget organization should use only free software. Three months ago, an addition was made to the strategy. Now there is another requirement: free software must be independent of the vendor, that is, the organization must be able to freely change Linux distributions and office suites.


Organization of workflow in the Swiss Supreme Court

Comparing two free packages, Brunner each sees its own advantages. OpenOffice is more stable and accessible on mobile platforms, and LibreOffice brings together a larger community of developers, they release more interesting innovative features for the office suite.



If OpenOffice and LibreOffice combined, then the proprietary competitor would have been very tight, Brunner said.