LibreOfficeOpenOffice

LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice are two free, open-source office suites that share a common origin in the OpenOffice.org project. LibreOffice, started as a fork in 2010 by The Document Foundation after Oracle Corporation's acquisition of Sun Microsystems, has since become the more actively developed of the two. Apache OpenOffice, maintained by the Apache Software Foundation since 2011, represents the continuation of the original OpenOffice.org codebase with a slower development cadence.

Both suites include a word processor, a spreadsheet program, a presentation tool, a drawing module, a database component, and a formula editor. Their core applications are Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, and Math. They support the Open Document Format as native files and offer compatibility with Microsoft Office formats through import and export filters; they also provide extensions and templates to extend functionality.

LibreOffice is distributed under a multi-license model that includes MPL 2.0, GPLv3, and LGPLv3, reflecting its community-driven development by The Document Foundation and a broad contributor base. Apache OpenOffice is released under the Apache License 2.0. Both suites run on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and they support multiple languages and accessibility features.

In practice, LibreOffice tends to have more frequent updates and broader enterprise and developer support, while Apache OpenOffice follows a steadier release cycle. Users choose based on update expectations, integration requirements, and existing deployments.