Apache OpenOffice 4.1.13 Released For Those Not On The LibreOffice Train

It's been nearly 12 years since LibreOffice forked from OpenOffice.org following Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems and then the subsequent creation of Apache OpenOffice in 2011. While LibreOffice has become the dominant open-source office suite, Apache OpenOffice continues limping along and today marks its v4.1.13 release.

Apache OpenOffice 4.1.13 is out today as a bug-fix release and to deliver security fixes and minor enhancements to users. With this release there also is a change to the master password encoding so users are encouraged to back-up existing OpenOffice profiles before upgrading.

Apache OpenOffice 4.1.13 brings some visual enhancements to its Print Preview mode, fixes inconsistent labeling of unsaved documents, and fixes opening of ODF documents from LibreOffice 7. There are also other routine bug fixes.

It's hardly an exciting update with there being very little significant work to Apache OpenOffice over the past decade while LibreOffice continues rolling on with their strong half-year feature releases. Apache OpenOffice also continues to rely on Java 8 32-bit in 2022. The Apache OpenOffice 4.1 series was first introduced back in 2014. The Apache Software Foundation achieves a lot and oversees many great projects, but I have a hard time seeing why it's still being maintained in 2022 and would be better for the open-source ecosystem at large if they collaborated with LibreOffice or focused on their other great and successful efforts.

Those wishing to learn more about Apache OpenOffice 4.1.13 or to download it, visit the Apache.org blog.