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| <title>The Apache OpenOffice Project Announces Apache OpenOffice ™ 3.4</title> |
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| <h1>The Apache OpenOffice Project Announces Apache OpenOffice™ 3.4</h1> |
| <p> |
| <strong>Numerous enhancements to leading Open Source multi-platform, multi-lingual office productivity suite with over |
| 100M users worldwide; <a |
| href="http://download.openoffice.org">downloads now available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh free of charge</a>.</strong> |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| <strong>www.OpenOffice.org —8 May 2012—</strong> The Apache OpenOffice Project today announced the |
| availability of Apache OpenOffice™ 3.4, the first release of OpenOffice under the governance of the Apache Software |
| Foundation. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| Apache OpenOffice is the original open source office productivity suite, designed for professional and consumer use. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| "With the donation of OpenOffice.org to the ASF, the Foundation, and especially the podling project, was given a daunting |
| task: re-energize a community and transform OpenOffice from a codebase of unknown Intellectual Property heritage, to a |
| vetted and Apache Licensed software suite," said Jim Jagielski, ASF President and an Apache OpenOffice project mentor. "The |
| release of Apache OpenOffice 3.4 shows just how successful the project has been: pulling in developers from over 21 |
| corporate affiliations, while avoiding undue influence which is the death-knell of true open source communities; |
| building a solid and stable codebase, with significant improvement and enhancements over other variants; and, of course, |
| creating a healthy, vibrant and diverse user and developer community." |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| Apache OpenOffice is the leading open source office productivity suite, with more than 100 million users worldwide in |
| home, corporate, government, research, and academic environments, across 15 languages. Apache OpenOffice 3.4 is <a |
| href="http://download.openoffice.org">available for download</a> free of charge. OpenOffice 3.4 features: |
| </p> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| word processing, spreadsheets, presentation graphics, databases, drawing, and mathematical editing applications support |
| for Windows, Linux (32-bit and 64-bit) and Macintosh operating environments |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| native language support for English, Arabic, Czech, German, Spanish, French, Galician, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, |
| Dutch, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| improved ODF support, including new ODF 1.2 encryption options and new spreadsheet functions |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| enhanced pivot table support in Calc |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| enhanced graphics, including line caps, <a href="https://blogs.apache.org/OOo/entry/features_for_graphicobjects_and_oleobjects">shear transformations</a> |
| and <a href="https://blogs.apache.org/OOo/entry/native_svg_support_for_apache">native support</a> for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| improvements in performance and quality |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| <p> |
| The complete list of new features, functions, and improvements is available in the <a |
| href="https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OOOUSERS/AOO+3.4+Release+Notes">Release Notes</a>. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| Apache OpenOffice users also benefit from a broad ecosystem of 3rd party products, including over <a |
| href="http://templates.openoffice.org/">2300 templates</a> and over <a |
| href="http://extensions.openoffice.org/">800 extensions</a>. |
| </p> |
| <h2>Community-Driven Development, The Apache Way</h2> |
| <p> |
| The OpenOffice code base was created by Star Division in the 1990's, acquired by Sun Microsystems in |
| 1999 and later Oracle Corporation in 2010, before being submitted to The Apache Software Foundation mid-2011. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| Today the project is being developed by an all-volunteer group of developers, testers, translators, and other |
| contributors under the ASF's meritocratic process informally dubbed "The Apache Way", and is supported by hundreds of |
| Open Source software volunteers from around the world. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| "Initially released a decade ago, the first release of OpenOffice 3.4 as an Apache project marks an important new chapter in the life of |
| a landmark project," said Stephen O'Grady, Principal Analyst with RedMonk. "Following months of effort, the open source productivity |
| suite is now licensed and built with the intent of courting a large population of users, developers and ISVs worldwide." |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| As a project in the Apache Incubator, Apache OpenOffice is overseen by a Podling Project Management Committee (PPMC) |
| that guides its day-to-day operations, community development, and product releases. Apache OpenOffice source code, |
| downloads, documentation, mailing lists, and related resources are available at <a href="http://openoffice.apache.org/">http://openoffice.apache.org/</a> |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| For the first official Apache release of OpenOffice, the developer team successfully conformed to the policy defined by |
| the Incubator Project Management Committee by identifying, removing and replacing with comparable function those |
| libraries with licenses incompatible with Apache Software Foundation license policy. |
| </p> |
| <h2>Future Developments</h2> |
| <p> |
| Plans for future enhancements by the Project include support for additional native languages, enhanced accessibility, |
| usability and performance improvements, and adopting new features and improvements from the upcoming IBM Lotus Symphony |
| contribution. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| The Apache OpenOffice Project Management Committee invites people to join. There are many different area where contribution is most |
| welcome. Check out the <a |
| href="http://openoffice.apache.org/get-involved.html">Get Involved</a> page. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| "Apache OpenOffice is the leading Open Source office productivity suite with more than 15 years of engineering |
| investment. We are pleased and excited to offer OpenOffice fully licensed under the Apache License 2. This offering will |
| form the foundation of OpenOffice innovation moving forward here at Apache," said Juergen Schmidt, Apache OpenOffice |
| Release Manager and veteran core developer. "With the achievement of this major milestone, we have established a diverse |
| and vibrant community with sufficient depth and skills to ably steward this important product into the future. We look |
| forward to graduating as an Apache Top Level Project soon." |
| </p> |
| <h2>For more information</h2> |
| <p> |
| More information on the Apache OpenOffice product can be found at our website, <a |
| href="http://www.openoffice.org">www.openoffice.org</a>. Information on the Apache OpenOffice project, including |
| information on volunteering with the project can be found at our <a |
| href="http://openoffice.apache.org/">project website</a>. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| To be added to a mailing list for official OpenOffice-related announcements, send an email to <a |
| href="mailto:announce-subscribe@openoffice.apache.org">announce-subscribe@openoffice.apache.org</a>. You can also |
| follow us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/ApacheOO">Facebook</a>, <a |
| href="https://twitter.com/#!/apacheoo">Twitter</a>, <a |
| href="http://identi.ca/apacheoo">Identi.ca</a> and <a |
| href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/114598373874764163668/">Google+</a>. |
| </p> |
| <h2>About The Apache Software Foundation (ASF)</h2> |
| <p> |
| Apache technologies power more than half the Internet, petabytes of data, teraflops of operations, billions of objects, |
| and enhance the lives of countless users and developers. Established in 1999 to shepherd, develop, and incubate Open |
| Source innovations "The Apache Way", the ASF oversees 150+ projects led by a volunteer community of over 400 individual |
| Members and 3,500 Committers across six continents. For more information, visit <a href="http://www.apache.org/">http://www.apache.org/</a>. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| "Apache", "Apache OpenOffice", "OpenOffice", and "OpenOffice.org" are either trademarks or registered trademarks of |
| The Apache Software Foundation in the United States and in other countries. All other brands and trademarks are the |
| property of their respective owners. |
| </p> |
| <hr/> |
| <h1>Testimonials</h1> <h2>Community</h2> |
| <p> |
| "OpenOffice.org was a revolution in its time as an office tool and its role launching the Open Document Format (ODF) |
| standard. We are excited to see OpenOffice succeed at Apache which is recognized for its strong reputation to grow |
| excellent projects. This milestone is evidence that the 'Apache Way', which respects the meritocracy of people |
| contributing their time and talent to benefit their projects, is the key ingredient that makes Apache OpenOffice ideal |
| for everyone." <br/> |
| — Claudio Filho, member of the Apache OpenOffice Project Management Committee and the Brazilian OpenOffice community |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| "Apache OpenOffice 3.4 is a worthy progression of OpenOffice.org. Many improvements have been completed, which |
| originally began for OpenOffice.org, but we have also added a lot of new features, all with usual high quality our users |
| have come to expect. Use Apache OpenOffice 3.4 for your personal, business, or education requirements, and reward the |
| work of the many volunteers who have made this possible. The Germanophone contributors will continue to support you and |
| listen to your questions, requests and suggestions. Together we will continue to shape the future of OpenOffice at |
| Apache." <br/> |
| — Regina Henschel, member of the Project Management Committee and the OpenOffice Germanophone community. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| "OpenOffice and its large, diverse community now have a new home at Apache. More than 40 volunteers from the Italian |
| community helped with translations and quality assurance, to make sure that Apache OpenOffice 3.4 is on par with what |
| users have come to expect from the OpenOffice brand. The new license allows for contributions to OpenOffice to be freely |
| re-used in other projects, and I am looking forward to cross-project collaboration in the best interest of users." <br/> |
| — Andrea Pescetti, member of the Project Management Committee and the Italian OpenOffice community |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| "Apache OpenOffice 3.4 is a major milestone for our OpenOffice community in Taiwan, because it is the first release |
| our Taiwan local community truly participates, both in its translation and its development. I sincerely invite you to |
| download and try our work. It shall bring you the best experience ever." <br/> |
| — Yang Shih-Ching, member of the Apache OpenOffice Project Management Committee, and the OpenOffice Taiwan community |
| </p> |
| <h2>Corporate</h2> |
| <p> |
| "These are exciting times! SourceForge has been a trusted partner to the open source community for over a decade, and we |
| are proud to be working with the Apache Software Foundation. Release 3.4 of Apache OpenOffice achieves a significant |
| milestone for the product and community. Our teams are happy to be contributing and look forward to continued progress. |
| Congratulations!” <br/> |
| — Jeff Drobick, CEO Geeknet Media |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| "IBM is pleased to contribute to the Apache OpenOffice project licensed under the Apache License v2. This project |
| represents a unique opportunity to innovate and create office productivity documents that meet the needs of social |
| businesses. We look forward to completing the source code contribution of Symphony to Apache OpenOffice in the near |
| future." <br/> |
| — Kevin Cavanaugh, Vice President, IBM Collaboration Solutions |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| "PSC Group, LLC included Lotus Symphony and OpenOffice in our customer’s solutions for many years. With the move to |
| the Apache Software Foundation, PSC has signed up with a Corporate Contributor License Agreement and many of our |
| consultants have decided to become Individual Contributors. We look forward to contributing to the next major version |
| proposed as Apache OpenOffice 4." <br/> |
| — John Head, Director, Enterprise Collaboration, PSC Group, LLC |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| "We are working on the Apache OpenOffice project because our goal is to consistently bring business value to users. The |
| project will ultimately drive increased productivity as we work towards extending report generation and document |
| collaboration from within SugarCRM. When users are more productive, they can focus on the most important task at hand |
| which is to deliver a stellar customer experience." <br/> |
| — Clint Oram, chief technology officer and co-founder of SugarCRM |
| </p> |
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