OpenOffice.org
In May 2002, the first official version was released: OpenOffice.org 1.0 was born. The final version of the 1.x series appeared as 1.1.5 in September 2005.
OpenOffice.org 2.x
In October 2005, OpenOffice.org 2.0 was released. The user interface was updated and Base was added. ODF was the new standard format for all modules. The 2.x code branch was long maintained, with OpenOffice.org 2.4.3 being published in September 2009.
OpenOffice.org 3.x
OpenOffice.org 3.0 released in October 2008, was again greatly extended. The adaptation to the various user interfaces provided by the supported operating systems and MacOS has been improved, with a native version now supported as well. The latest version of this development is the OpenOffice.org 3.3.0, released in January 2011.
Autonomy and rights
The supreme governing body of the project was the Community Council, elected by the members, which however had virtually no influence on the main processes of development at Sun. The release of the code as open source was planned with all rights to the name, etc. to be transferred to a foundation still to be established. As a basis for this, some developers at Sun Microsystems founded as a precursor the association "OpenOffice.org team" which received donations for the project in order to support various marketing campaigns. By 2009, this body managed the rights to the name "OpenOffice.org". To improve the policing of infringements, the trademark in 2009 transferred to Sun Microsystems.
Sun/Oracle
Throughout this time, Sun Microsystems had taken a large role in the development of the code, supported primarily by the community, but also by other software companies such as Novell and IBM. In 2009, Oracle made a takeover bid for its rival Sun, which was economically depressed, and after approval by the antitrust authorities, this acquisition was completed in January 2010. The development department of OpenOffice.org in Hamburg was included only on the condition that it was profitable in itself.
Transfer of the code to Apache
In April 2011, Oracle announced the recruitment of professional support for OpenOffice.org and announced the conversion to a community-based project. In early June 2011 the source code and all trademark rights was given to the Apache Foundation. OpenOffice.org continues to be developed significantly there, with IBM as a major contributor.
The Document Foundation / LibreOffice
In September 2010, some of the developers, in particular volunteers from the community, announced the establishment of "The Document Foundation" to allow the program to continue independently of Oracle with the product name "LibreOffice".
LibreOffice
LibreOffice 3.3.0 was presented as a beta in September 2010 and published on January 25, 2011. Unlike the approach in OpenOffice.org LibreOffice is developed in strict accordance with a time-based release plan. Several code branches are maintained in parallel and supplied with corrections.
The Document Foundation
The Foundation holds all rights to the project and was legally founded on 17.02.2012 [1]. The necessary foundation capital (a minimum amount of Euro 50,000) was raised by a campaign in February 2011 and collected within eight days. The members of the Foundation chose a board of directors in accordance with the Bylaws , which controls the fate of the Foundation. Further information is contained in the Geschaeftsordnung (Bylaws).--