May 8, 2026
Open Office, Closed-Door Drama
Digging into Drama at the Document Foundation
LibreOffice’s parent group booted members, and the comments section instantly cried coup
TLDR: The Document Foundation removed about 30 Collabora-linked members, and Collabora says it will step back and build a more separate product. Commenters are split between “necessary nonprofit cleanup” and “obvious power grab,” with plenty of jokes about yet another community project collapsing into politics.
The people behind LibreOffice, the free office app many see as the open alternative to Microsoft Office, are suddenly in the middle of a full-blown community food fight. The Document Foundation, the nonprofit that steers the project, revoked membership from around 30 people tied to Collabora, its biggest commercial partner. TDF says this was needed to protect its nonprofit standing. Collabora’s response? It says it will pull back and build a more separate office product of its own. Translation for normal humans: the adults in charge of the shared house are arguing over who gets keys to the front door.
And the comments? Absolutely on fire. One poster sighed that every growing organization eventually turns into a political meltdown, even dropping a Hitchhiker’s Guide joke to say the bureaucrats have basically taken over the spaceship. Another commenter went straight for the money angle, arguing that Europe’s push for “sovereign” homegrown tech means there’s suddenly serious cash and prestige at stake. In other words: this isn’t just about principles, it’s about who gets to steer the future — and maybe the funding.
The spiciest moment came from a trustee who flatly called TDF’s nonprofit explanation “a complete and total lie.” That turned the thread from governance drama into full-on power grab discourse. So while the official story is rules and structure, the crowd is reading betrayal, gatekeeping, and old-school open-source palace intrigue — with a side of meme energy.
Key Points
- •The Document Foundation revoked membership from about 30 people affiliated with Collabora.
- •Collabora responded by planning a new cut-down Collabora Office project and reducing its involvement with LibreOffice.
- •The article says TDF representatives argued the action was necessary to protect the foundation's nonprofit status.
- •TDF membership is separate from contribution to LibreOffice, but it is required to vote or run in foundation governance.
- •Collabora has been the largest corporate contributor to LibreOffice and built multiple LibreOffice-based products, including Collabora Online.