Why LibreOffice Forked from OpenOffice in 2010

In September 2010, key community members of the OpenOffice.org project announced a fork to create LibreOffice, a decision driven primarily by deep concerns over the future of the software following Oracle Corporation’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Worried about Oracle’s corporate control, sluggish code contributions, and past hostility toward open-source projects, developers established The Document Foundation to ensure the office suite remained independent, community-governed, and actively maintained.

The Roots of Frustration Under Sun Microsystems

Even before the fork, tensions had existed between Sun Microsystems and the wider OpenOffice.org developer community. Sun owned the OpenOffice.org trademark and required all contributors to assign joint copyright assignment (JCA) to the company. This agreement allowed Sun to use community-written code in proprietary versions (like StarOffice) without sharing proprietary modifications back to the community under the same terms.

Furthermore, the process of getting patches and features reviewed and integrated into the main codebase was notoriously slow and heavily bureaucratic, creating bottlenecks that alienated external contributors.

The Catalyst: Oracle’s Acquisition of Sun

In January 2010, Oracle completed its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, gaining ownership of OpenOffice.org, Java, MySQL, and Solaris. Oracle quickly generated friction within the open-source world by discontinuing OpenSolaris, filing patent lawsuits over Android’s use of Java, and demonstrating a commercial-first management style.

OpenOffice.org contributors feared that Oracle would either neglect the project, impose closed development practices, or monetize the software in a way that contradicted its open-source mission. Repeated attempts by community leaders to secure commitments from Oracle regarding the future and open governance of OpenOffice.org went unanswered.

The Creation of The Document Foundation and LibreOffice

On September 28, 2010, a collective of developers, community leaders, and major Linux distribution representatives formed The Document Foundation (TDF). Their goal was to create an independent, vendor-neutral entity to manage the software’s development.

Because Oracle owned the “OpenOffice.org” trademark, TDF chose the temporary working name LibreOffice (a hybrid of the French/Spanish word Libre for “free” and Office). TDF extended an open invitation to Oracle to join the foundation and donate the OpenOffice.org trademark to the community.

Oracle’s Reaction and the Final Break

Oracle rejected the invitation. Instead, Oracle demanded that members of the OpenOffice.org Community Council who joined The Document Foundation step down due to a conflict of interest.

This hostility solidified the split: - Core developers, volunteer contributors, and major Linux distributions (including Ubuntu, Red Hat, SUSE, and Debian) immediately backed LibreOffice. - TDF adopted LibreOffice as the permanent name of the project. - Developers aggressively refactored the codebase, removing hundreds of thousands of lines of dead code, modernizing the architecture, and merging long-standing external patches (such as those from the Go-oo project).

The Aftermath

The migration of talent and Linux distribution support to LibreOffice left OpenOffice.org largely abandoned by active developers. Recognizing it could not sustain the project, Oracle discontinued commercial development in 2011 and donated the OpenOffice.org code and trademarks to the Apache Software Foundation, creating Apache OpenOffice.

By that time, LibreOffice had already established itself as the standard open-source office suite, successfully fulfilling the community’s original objective of an independent, rapidly developed, and community-driven project.