>> this announcement is also available online at http://s.apache.org/4BL
Leading Open Source office application and personal productivity suite for
Windows, Mac, and Linux reaches a major adoption milestone
17 April 2014 --Forest Hill, MD-- The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the
all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of more than 170 Open Source
projects and initiatives, announced today that Apache OpenOffice™ has been
downloaded 100 million times.
Apache OpenOffice is the leading Open Source office document productivity
suite, available in 32 languages on Windows, OS X, and Linux. OpenOffice
includes a word processor ("Writer"), a spreadsheet ("Calc"), a presentation
editor ("Impress"), a vector graphics editor ("Draw"), a mathematical formula
editor ("Math"), and a database management program ("Base"). As Open Source
software, Apache OpenOffice is available to all users free of charge; the C++
source code is readily available for anyone who wishes to enhance the
applications.
Originally created as "StarOffice" by StarDivision and after further
development as an Open Source product under the name "OpenOffice.org",
OpenOffice entered the Apache Incubator in 2011 and graduated as an Apache
Top-level Project in October 2012.
"I'm extremely pleased to see us reach this major milestone in less than two
years," said Andrea Pescetti, Vice President of Apache OpenOffice. "This is a
testament to our community volunteers: the hundreds of talented individuals who
make Apache OpenOffice what it is, who write the code, test for bugs, translate
the user interface, write documentation, answer user questions and manage our
servers. We remain committed to offering the successful combination of
reliability and innovation that so many users appreciate."
Official downloads at openoffice.org are hosted by SourceForge, where users can
also find repositories for more than 750 extensions and over 2,800 templates
for OpenOffice.
"By continuously improving Apache OpenOffice Extensions and Templates sites we
show how committed we are about providing projects with what they need most,"
said Gaurav Kuchhal, General Manager for Slashdot and SourceForge. "We are
happy to help open source projects to grow, no matter where they are hosted or
developed. We have been serving over 122 Million downloads for the Apache
OpenOffice project, with daily peaks of about 250,000 and we are committed to
providing products and services that demonstrate our dedication to technical
excellence."
"Apache OpenOffice reaching 100 million downloads is a remarkable achievement
in the project's 29-year history and testament to the power of successful Open
Source communities," said Shane Curcuru, Apache OpenOffice mentor and ASF Vice
President of Brand Management. "We extend our gratitude to all the volunteers
and users whose contribution, feedback, support, engagement, and enthusiasm
keeps us focused on delivering great software. We couldn't celebrate this
milestone without them!"
Some Trends and Fun Facts about Apache OpenOffice
- OpenOffice supports Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X and Linux
- Top downloads by operating system, in order: Windows, Mac, Linux
- Top downloads by browser, in order: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome
- Top 10 countries for OpenOffice downloads, in order: United States, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, Spain, Russia, Canada, and Poland
- OpenOffice supports 120+ languages --those that are 100% translated and
maintained are officially released. Latest languages released include Asturian,
Basque, Danish, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Scottish Gaelic, and Swedish, thanks
to the work of new translation volunteers
- Apache OpenOffice features integrated improvements from IBM Lotus Symphony
(a previous fork that has been closed and donated to the ASF) to bring better
compatibility with Microsoft Office documents
- OpenOffice 4.0 debuts a major change to its user interface with the
introduction of the Sidebar, developed by the Apache OpenOffice "dream team" in
Hamburg in close cooperation with hundreds of community members
- OpenOffice 4.0 reflects 500 bug fixes, advances in Microsoft Office
interoperability, enhancements to drawing/graphics, and performance
improvements, among many others
- The new logo for OpenOffice was chosen after a long selection process that
saw over 5,000 votes cast. The winning proposal was submitted by community
member Chris Rottensteiner from South Tyrol
- Demand for Apache OpenOffice 4.0 averages 1 million downloads per week
- The Apache OpenOffice 4.0.1 maintenance release fixes critical issues and
improves the overall quality of the application, including: additional native
language translations, bug fixes, performance improvements, and Windows 8
compatibility enhancements
- Apache OpenOffice successfully supports the Microsoft Active Accessibility
(MSAA) and IAccessible2 interfaces, enabling screen readers and other assistive
technologies to work with Apache OpenOffice, improving productivity for users
who are blind or with low-vision
- The new accessibility support makes OpenOffice even more attractive for use
by governments and public institutions, such as the administrative region of
Emilia-Romagna, Italy, that recently announced a migration to OpenOffice, among
many others
- Ports and distributed versions of Apache OpenOffice include a portable
version for Windows, the German PrOOo-box software collection, and AndrOpen
Office, an Android port of Apache OpenOffice
- The most frequently used channel for user support is the 60,000+ user-strong
official Apache OpenOffice Forum that averages over 100 posts per day and
features over 270,000 posts about Apache OpenOffice and all derivatives
Availability and Oversight
As with all Apache products, Apache OpenOffice is released under the Apache
License v2.0, and is overseen by a self-selected team of active contributors to
the project. A Project Management Committee (PMC) guides the Project's
day-to-day operations, including community development and product releases. To
learn how to become involved with Apache OpenOffice, visit
http://openoffice.apache.org/get-involved.html.
Downloads and Resources
Apache OpenOffice 4.0.1 -- http://www.openoffice.org/download
Apache OpenOffice Extensions -- http://extensions.openoffice.org
Apache OpenOffice Templates -- http://templates.openoffice.org
Apache OpenOffice ports and distributions -- http://openoffice.org/porting
Apache OpenOffice Forum -- https://forum.openoffice.org
Apache OpenOffice Facebook fans -- https://facebook.com/ApacheOO
Apache OpenOffice Twitter account -- https://twitter.com/ApacheOO
Major OpenOffice deployments --
https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Major_OpenOffice.org_Deployments
About The Apache Software Foundation (ASF)
Established in 1999, the all-volunteer Foundation oversees more than one
hundred and seventy leading Open Source projects, including Apache HTTP Server
--the world's most popular Web server software. Through the ASF's meritocratic
process known as "The Apache Way," more than 400 individual Members and 3,500
Committers successfully collaborate to develop freely available
enterprise-grade software, benefiting millions of users worldwide: thousands of
software solutions are distributed under the Apache License; and the community
actively participates in ASF mailing lists, mentoring initiatives, and
ApacheCon, the Foundation's official user conference, trainings, and expo. The
ASF is a US 501(c)(3) charitable organization, funded by individual donations
and corporate sponsors including Budget Direct, Citrix, Cloudera, Comcast,
Facebook, Google, Hortonworks, HP, Huawei, IBM, InMotion Hosting, Matt
Mullenweg, Microsoft, Pivotal, Produban, WANdisco, and Yahoo.
For more information, visit http://www.apache.org/ or follow @TheASF on Twitter.
"Apache", "OpenOffice", "Apache OpenOffice", "OpenOffice.org", and "ApacheCon"
are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation in
the United States and/or other countries. All other brands and trademarks are
the property of their respective owners.
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