LibreOffice: Recap, RHEL Changes, and LibreOffice Math Guide is Updated to Release 7.5 (UPDATED)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jun 03, 2023,
updated Jun 05, 2023

• LibreOffice project and community recap: May 2023

  Here's our summary of updates, events and activities in the LibreOffice project in the last four weeks...

• Red Hat Stop Packaging LibreOffice as RPM for RHEL, Fedora

  “The tradeoff is that we are pivoting away from work we had been doing on desktop applications and will cease shipping LibreOffice as part of RHEL starting in a future RHEL version,” Clasen adds.

  LibreOffice will remain maintained and supported in all supported versions of RHEL (and Fedora) with security updates as and when needed.

• LibreOffice Math Guide is Updated to Release 7.5

  The LibreOffice Documentation team is happy to announce the new Math Guide 7.5, for the equation editor of the LibreOffice productivity suite. Anyone who wants to learn how to insert formulas and equations using Math will find this 73-page guide valuable. Formulas can be inserted as objects into Writer, Impress, Draw, and Calc documents.

UPDATE

LWN discussion and original:

• LibreOffice packages

  as you've probably seen, the LibreOffice RPMS have recently been orphaned, and I thought it would be good to explain the reasons behind this.

  The Red Hat Display Systems team (the team behind most of Red Hat’s desktop efforts) has maintained the LibreOffice packages in Fedora for years as part of our work to support LibreOffice for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We are adjusting our engineering priorities for RHEL for Workstations and focusing on gaps in Wayland, building out HDR support, building out what’s needed for color-sensitive work, and a host of other refinements required by Workstation users. This is work that will improve the workstation experience for Fedora as well as RHEL users, and which, we hope, will be positively received by the entire Linux community.

• Red Hat dropping support for LibreOffice [LWN.net]

  Red Hat's Matthias Clasan has let it be known that LibreOffice will be dropped from a future Red Hat Enterprise Linux release, and the future of its support in Fedora is unclear as well.

Now Borisov:

• Red Hat to Cease Shipping LibreOffice in Further RHEL Releases

  Red Hat’s discontinuation of maintenance for LibreOffice will also affect Fedora, with the office suite expected to ship as a Flatpak.

  LibreOffice, born out of the OpenOffice.org project, has gained immense popularity over the years as a free alternative to proprietary office suites.

  Its compatibility with various document formats, robust features, and extensive community support has made it a favored choice for individuals, businesses, and educational institutions.

Slashdot discussion:

• Red Hat is Dropping Its Support for LibreOffice - Slashdot

  The Red Hat Package Managers for LibreOffice "have recently been orphaned," according to a post by Red Hat manager Matthias Clasen on the "LibreOffice packages" mailing list, "and I thought it would be good to explain the reasons behind this."

Two more takes on this:

• The IBM Effect: Red Hat and Fedora ditching LibreOffice

  IBM's continued war on Desktop Linux has new casualties

• Red Hat says it will drop LibreOffice from RHEL and Fedora

  He said the Red Hat Display System team, which looked after most of the company's desktop efforts, had been maintaining LibreOffice packages for Fedora, as part of its work to support the office suite in RHEL.

  "We are adjusting our engineering priorities for RHEL for Workstations and focusing on gaps in Wayland, building out HDR support, building out what’s needed for colour-sensitive work, and a host of other refinements required by Workstation users," Clasen added.

  {loadposition sam08}"This is work that will improve the workstation experience for Fedora as well as RHEL users, and which, we hope, will be positively received by the entire Linux community."

  However, the downside is that "we are pivoting away from work we had been doing on desktop applications and will cease shipping LibreOffice as part of RHEL starting in a future RHEL version. This also limits our ability to maintain it in future versions of Fedora".