Episode: 3143
Title: HPR3143: LibreOffice 7.0 Released!
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3143/hpr3143.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-24 17:44:46

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3143 for Wednesday, the 19th of August 2020. Today's show is entitled,
Librofus 7.0 released
and is part of the series, Librofus. It is hosted by Ahuka
and is about 15 minutes long
and carries a clean flag. The summary is,
Librofus releases a new major update. Librofus 7.0
This episode of HPR is brought to you by Ananasthos.com
Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code
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Librofus 7.0
Librofus 7.0
Librofus 7.0
Librofus 7.0
Librofus 7.0
Hello, this is Ahuka, welcoming you to Hacker Public Radio
and another exciting episode. And this is going to be Librofus.
I bet you thought I was all done with that, but you're wrong.
Actually, what I want to do is talk about the Librofus 7.0
Just came out like this morning.
I'm recording this on August 5th, and the announcement was made.
It is now released for all platforms. It may take a few days to roll out.
I tried logging into the download site and was not offered it.
And actually, on my platform, it may take a little while longer.
You know, because I'm using a version of Linux,
and I try to stick with what's in the repose.
So it is an exciting milestone release, though.
There's some good things, and that's what I want to talk about.
Now, I personally tend to lag a bit in getting new releases
because I use the Kabuntu LTS.
And that means that right now I am on 1804.
I said, hey, hasn't 2004 been released?
Well, the way it works, if you're an LTS user,
is you are not offered the upgrade.
I know there are ways around it.
Don't bother trying to explain to me how I can get it anyway,
because I already know that.
I am conservative in this respect.
So basically, what happens is I will get offered it when the .1 release.
So 20.04.1, when that comes out,
is probably when I'm going to be offered an upgrade thing.
And I just checked, and that's scheduled for tomorrow, August 6th.
So it probably won't take all that long.
But when I get it, will it have LibreOff at 7.0?
I don't know.
And so I'll have to decide if I want to go outside the repo
and pull it in from other sources.
So anyway, you know,
what are the major things that this new release has?
The first one is ODF 1.3.
Now, ODF stands for Open Document Format.
And that is basically the LibreOffice XML-based file format
for all documents containing text, spreadsheets, charts,
graphical elements.
You know, it's pretty much the whole inch a lot of there.
So when we talk about an XML-based file format,
what that means is that what looks like a single file
containing your document, your spreadsheet, or whatever,
is actually a container.
You can see this by opening the file with a utility like ARC
or some other zipping, unzipping utility.
Now, I did that with a writer document that I happen to have,
just a random document I pulled up.
And what I found was I had seven files at the top level
then there were six folders that had sub-directories
and files inside of them as well.
So it's pretty complicated.
So, you know, what looks like one file is an interesting kind of thing.
Now, that's what we mean by XML-based formats.
So, ODF 1.3 was approved by the Open Document Foundation
as an OASIS specification.
What's OASIS?
OASIS is the organization for the advancement
of structured information standards.
So it's an acronym.
This body began as something called SGML Open in 1993.
SGML is standard generalized mark-up language.
So, XML is in some sense a subset of SGML, as I understand it.
And what OASIS is attempting to do is it is an industry-wide body
to promote development, convergence, and adoption of open standards
for security, internet of things, energy, content technologies,
emergency management, and other areas.
And by the way, there will be lots of links in the show notes
for all these things that I'm talking about.
If you want to follow up on it.
But basically, OASIS is something a lot broader than just office software.
So it's the umbrella organization over all of this open SGML stuff
and open office is one piece of that.
So it's an important body for promoting open standards.
So what are some of the specifications for ODF 1.3?
You might ask, well, you can digitally sign documents.
And going along with that is they've put in support
for open PGP-based encryption of XML documents.
So those are both pretty important.
Being able to sign documents and protect them matters
when you're talking about security.
There's also improvements in change tracking,
which I think goes along with some of these things.
You want to be able to know when someone makes changes.
There's also some improvements in the description of elements
and first pages, text, numbers, charts, and so on.
So that's what ODF 1.3 is about.
That's not all the goodness in this latest version.
The graphics have been improved.
The first thing I want to mention here is the Schia Graphics Library.
Again, link in the show notes.
The Schia Graphics Library is an open source 2D graphics library
that provides a common set of APIs that work across a variety of platforms.
It is the graphics engine for Chrome, Chrome OS, Android, Flutter, Firefox,
and Firefox OS, among others.
Now, this is sponsored by Google, and Google is the lead developer,
but it is licensed under the BSD free software license
and is available on a variety of platforms, such as Windows 7,
8, 8.1, and 10, macOS 10.10.5, or later,
iOS 8, or later, Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, or later,
Ubuntu 1404, or later, Debian 8, or later,
OpenSusa 13.3, or later, or Fedora Linux 24, or later.
Now, Schia can be used for drawing text, shapes, and images.
It is now the default on Windows for faster performance,
and the implementation in Libra Office 7.0 is due to sponsorship from AMD.
That was the 2D.
On the 3D side, they put in support for something called the Vulcan API.
Vulcan is an alternative to other graphics APIs,
such as DirectX and OpenGL.
It offers high performance 3D graphics with low overhead,
and supports better parallelization on multiple cores.
So between Schia and Vulcan, some pretty good graphics improvements
for both 2D and 3D graphics.
And I don't see graphics ever becoming less important
in the environment we're in, so that's a good thing.
Next, some compatibility improvements.
Now, it's no secret, obviously.
Microsoft Office is the largest player in the office space.
An interoperability is key if you want to get in there.
I've mostly not had any problems for some time now,
moving between Microsoft Office and Libra Office,
but there are always corner cases where things can get ugly.
The latest Libra Office handles things even better.
And they are constantly improving this.
Every new version gets a little bit better.
So for instance, if you want to save a Libra Office writer document
in the Microsoft Doc X format,
you can now save in native 2013, 2016, and 2019 modes.
Whereas previously you were restricted to a 2007 compatibility mode.
In Calc, you can export to Excel with sheet names
longer than 31 characters now.
And PowerPoint, import, and export filters were improved as well.
So Libra Office is really the only choice
if you want interoperability across platforms and applications.
They're not trying to lock you in, unlike Microsoft.
And this does matter.
As someone who spent a number of years as a contractor,
and then I was constantly sending resumes out,
and every place I ever sent a resume to specified it had
to be Microsoft Office format.
It's like, okay, I got to spend money on Microsoft Office,
just so I can send you a resume that is basically text.
Well, you know, I can do it in Libra Office writer
and just save it in a Microsoft Office format.
So that's why things like this matter.
Now, I'm just going to do a quick run through
of some of the other new features.
First, some general ones.
New icon theme, which is going to be the default on Mac OS,
called Sukapura.
There's new shape galleries.
The arrows, diagrams, icons, and more,
glow and soft edge effects for objects.
Now, all of these things are called general,
because Libra Office is a fully integrated office suite.
So, there are a lot of elements that are just common
to all of the different components of Libra Office,
so they put those in general.
Then, for writer, Navigator is easier to use,
or context menus, semi-transparent text is now supported.
Bookmarks can now be displayed in line in text,
padding, numbering, and lists for consistency,
better handling of quotation marks and apostrophes.
Then, for Calc, new functions for non-volatile,
random number generation.
Then, they've added a keyboard shortcut for Autosom.
Autosom is probably the single most used function in spreadsheets,
so this is a welcome development.
Impress and draw, semi-transparent text is supported here too.
Subscribes now return to the default of 8%,
and PDFs larger than 500 centimeters can now be generated.
Now, who do we thank for all of this?
Oh, this wonderful goodness.
This new release of Libra Office contains work from a number of companies,
74% of the commits come from companies on the advisory board,
of whom Red Hat may be the best known,
and Red Hat does contribute a lot to open source,
but also heavily involved were Calabra and CIB software.
Now, I mentioned these companies because they're great examples
of how an ecosystem can grow in open source.
Both of these companies built business around Libra Office technology,
and both are giving back and helping it grow.
Calabra, for instance, is the home of Michael Meeks,
and any longtime followers of Libra Office should recognize him as a major developer in this project.
Now, he's the managing director of Calabra,
and they're making money by selling a service.
It's Libra Office in the cloud.
CIB software is located in Munich and provides integrated document management solutions
that include Libra Office as part of a suite of software.
Now, I find it interesting that they're located in Munich.
Munich has reversed course yet again and is now planning to move back to open source software.
The coalition agreement between the Green Party and the Social Democratic Party in Munich
is finalized in May and says, we will adhere to the principle of public money, public code.
That means that as long as there is no confidential or personal data involved,
the source code of the city software will also be made public.
And since the coalition should be in power until 2026,
there's a good chance for significant progress there.
And then in June of this year,
Hamburg joined the movement open source as well,
adding to a growing movement in German cities and states.
Of course, companies are not the only supporters.
26% of commits came from individuals.
And even if you're not a coder, there are ways you can help.
I personally have participated in the documentation area,
in writing, proofreading, updating, and so on.
And I know they have volunteers helping with publicity.
Now, personally, every time I download a new version of Libra Office,
I donate $10 to the Open Document Foundation,
which is the sponsor of all of Libra Office development.
I mean, $10 for a full featured software office suite
has to be the deal of the century, right?
So I encourage everyone else, you know, join me in this.
If you use the software, support the software.
So this is Huka for Hacker Public Radio,
signing off and as always, encourage you to support free software.
Bye-bye.
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