Hacker News: mksaunders2

New comment by mksaunders2 in "The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice"

mksaunders2 — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 07:03:39 +0000

That's not true at all. Donations are the biggest source of income for The Document Foundation, the non-profit behind LibreOffice, and have been used to pay developers who've joined the team in recent years:

* Michael Weghorn (accessibility)

* Jonathan Clark (language and scripting support)

* Neil Roberts (scripting improvements)

* Dan Williams (macOS support and general UI improvements)

LibreOffice 26.8: Tabbed UI improvements, better typography, and no AI

mksaunders2 — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 11:38:05 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/08/26/libreoffice-26-8/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49447240

Points: 7

# Comments: 0

Why and how the Austrian Military moved to LibreOffice (Part 1)

mksaunders2 — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 07:59:39 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/08/07/why-and-how-the-austrian-military-moved-to-libreoffice-part-1/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49207250

Points: 18

# Comments: 0

New comment by mksaunders2 in "LibreOffice 26.4 Beta Experiments with AI Writing Features"

mksaunders2 — Tue, 12 May 2026 06:47:57 +0000

Just to point out that that this article is a mixture of completely wrong, and misleading:

* There is no such thing as "LibreOffice 26.4 Beta". The next release of LibreOffice will be 26.8, and hasn't gone into beta yet. So the author is seemingly inventing this

* LibreOffice is not "introducing early AI-powered writing capabilities". There are no plans to put AI in LibreOffice. Some people are working on third-party extensions that add AI features, but those are separate. Very misleading.

New comment by mksaunders2 in "The Document Foundation ejects its core developers"

mksaunders2 — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 10:30:24 +0000

You can read TDF's position: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/04/01/comment-...

New comment by mksaunders2 in "The Document Foundation ejects its core developers"

mksaunders2 — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 09:39:06 +0000

Everyone, please also read TDF's side of the story, before speculating: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/04/01/comment-...

New comment by mksaunders2 in "The Document Foundation ejects its core developers"

mksaunders2 — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 09:37:38 +0000

Please do read TDF's side of the story as well: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/04/01/comment-...

New comment by mksaunders2 in "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2025)"

mksaunders2 — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 14:30:33 +0000

LibreOffice developer | Preferably full-time | Remote

Love LibreOffice development? Want to turn your passion into a paid job? We are The Document Foundation (TDF), the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice. We’re passionate about free software, the open source culture and about bringing new companies and people with fresh ideas into our community.

To improve the user interface of LibreOffice, the office productivity suite for over 200 million users around the globe, we’re searching for a developer (m/f/d) to start work (from home) as soon as possible. This is what you’ll do:

* Work on the LibreOffice codebase (mostly C++)

* Focus on LibreOffice’s user interface, in the way it is rendered and laid out

* Fix bugs, implement new features, and improve the quality of the UI code in LibreOffice while working together with the design team and other contributors

* Document what you do, actively share knowledge in public with volunteers and contributors via blog posts, workshops and conference talks, so other developers and users have an easier time learning about your work

Full listing: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2025/08/07/join-the...

Because of security vulnerabilities: LibreOffice advises against OpenOffice

mksaunders2 — Fri, 09 May 2025 15:57:57 +0000

Article URL: https://www.heise.de/en/news/Because-of-security-vulnerabilities-LibreOffice-advises-against-OpenOffice-10375105.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43938268

Points: 9

# Comments: 0

New comment by mksaunders2 in "OpenOffice still being recommended despite year-old unfixed security issues"

mksaunders2 — Tue, 06 May 2025 12:46:41 +0000

Here's also the Apache Software Foundation's Security Team minutes with "openoffice (Health amber): Three issues in OpenOffice over 365 days old and a number of other open issues not fully triaged":

https://whimsy.apache.org/board/minutes/Security_Team.html

New comment by mksaunders2 in "OpenOffice still being recommended despite year-old unfixed security issues"

mksaunders2 — Tue, 06 May 2025 12:21:10 +0000

The Git log is also almost entirely two people removing whitespace, changing the case of HTML tags and tweaking comments: https://github.com/apache/openoffice/commits/trunk

OpenOffice still being recommended despite year-old unfixed security issues

mksaunders2 — Tue, 06 May 2025 12:21:10 +0000

Article URL: https://fosstodon.org/@libreoffice/114457065586781781

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43904257

Points: 12

# Comments: 4

New comment by mksaunders2 in "LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs"

mksaunders2 — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 09:36:59 +0000

BTW, anyone concerned can email apache at apache dot org and ask why they're still distributing OpenOffice despite vulnerabilities. A few people on Mastodon have done that but gotten no answers yet. The more pressure there is to put it in the Attic, the sooner this awful situation will end...

New comment by mksaunders2 in "LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs"

mksaunders2 — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 07:20:38 +0000

It's extremely risky to keep using OpenOffice. Apache has marked its security status as "Amber" with "three issues in OpenOffice over 365 days old and a number of other open issues not fully triaged."

It's also worrying that The Apache Foundation continues to promote and distribute OpenOffice despite unfixed security issues and zero updates to the software. So many people in the FOSS world have called on them to finally retire it, put it in the Attic and keep up a good reputation for FOSS - but they won't do it. It still gets hundreds of thousands of downloads despite being unfixed.

It's irresponsible of The ASF IMO.

New comment by mksaunders2 in "LibreOffice still kicking at 40, now with browser tricks and real-time collab"

mksaunders2 — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 15:49:35 +0000

Yes, and now there are unfixed security issues in OpenOffice over a year old, so the ASF really, really should put it in the Attic ASAP. If more people in the FOSS world raise awareness about this, perhaps it will finally happen, so users become aware of maintained, fixed successor projects:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_OpenOffice#Security

New comment by mksaunders2 in "LibreOffice still kicking at 40, now with browser tricks and real-time collab"

mksaunders2 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 22:24:52 +0000

> I still don't understand there isn't a supported version of LibreOffice that I can pay for

But there are, and has been for years, such versions: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business...

New comment by mksaunders2 in "LibreOffice still kicking at 40, now with browser tricks and real-time collab"

mksaunders2 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 21:47:09 +0000

The Apache Security Team report says it now has "three issues in OpenOffice over 365 days old and a number of other open issues not fully triaged". So it's not just unmaintained, but actively putting users at risk. It's not clear why the ASF won't put it in the Attic.

New comment by mksaunders2 in "LibreOffice still kicking at 40, now with browser tricks and real-time collab"

mksaunders2 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 21:13:37 +0000

The "NotebookBar" tabbed user interface is a huge change and was implemented a few years ago. Still needs some refinement (anyone is welcome to help the Design community volunteers!) but there have been some very big changes...

New comment by mksaunders2 in "LibreOffice still kicking at 40, now with browser tricks and real-time collab"

mksaunders2 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 21:11:51 +0000

Auto-updates on Windows were implemented in the previous major release :-)

New comment by mksaunders2 in "LibreOffice still kicking at 40, now with browser tricks and real-time collab"

mksaunders2 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 21:06:59 +0000

Totally incorrect. LibreOffice had no plans to do a "commercial" version - it's from a non-profit organisation. A few years ago, the version from The Document Foundation was given the label "LibreOffice Community" to make it clear that it's a community-driven project and doesn't provide long-term support or other things that enterprises need. (Because enterprises were getting it from TDF and expecting technical support contracts and other things.)