Bug 99054 - Distribution on Windows Store using "Project Centennial"
Summary: Distribution on Windows Store using "Project Centennial"
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Installation (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All Windows (All)
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2016-04-03 00:55 UTC by William Kent
Modified: 2020-10-26 20:43 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

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Description William Kent 2016-04-03 00:55:03 UTC
Greetings LibreOffice development team.

On March 30, 2016 Microsoft announced the pending open beta of its "Project Centennial" technology to enable the porting of traditional desktop software, such as LibreOffice, to the Windows "AppX" installation model, so that it can be distributed on the Windows Store. (This in no way requires charging money for the program; many apps on the Store are free of charge.)

I am willing to volunteer time and development effort towards making LibreOffice compatible with the Windows Store via "Project Centennial". I was planning to do this on my own initiative with a fork of the LibreOffice codebase; however, I wanted to submit my idea here to open the possibility of actually submitting LO to the Windows Store, with the permission of The Document Foundation, once the development has been completed. (I can use my own personal Windows Store developer account to do so, or the Foundation can create its own if desired.)

Please note that I will be unable to begin work on the porting of LO to AppX until Microsoft releases the beta of the technology, which is slated for an unspecified time in early April. I will post a follow-up here when I am ready to begin.
Comment 1 raal 2016-04-03 16:22:38 UTC
Hello William,
thanks for your interest. If you need help getting started, contact development team:

    via IRC #libreoffice-dev connect via webchat on Freenode
    via email to the mailing list
 

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development
Comment 2 Daniel 2018-02-06 19:15:12 UTC
Anyone still on this? I believe it would be very useful for easy installation and automatic updates. It could also attract new users.
Comment 3 Claudius Ellsel 2020-10-23 11:52:46 UTC
There is apparently a version now on the Store: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-from-microsoft-and-mac-app-stores/

Unfortunately that is not from The Document Foundation and paid. Not really what I expected and rather frustrating.

I hope there can be an official free version soon!
Comment 4 Adolfo Jayme Barrientos 2020-10-26 13:46:22 UTC
The “LibreOffice Vanilla” builds that you see in Microsoft Store and macOS’ App Store are official LibreOffice builds and identical to the ones you can download from The Document Foundation websites.

Since Collabora and CIB provided the (non-trivial) work needed to build and publish these, we believe it’s fair that they are paid in exchange for the automatic update functionality and the convenience it provides to users (similar to the paint.net model). Collabora and CIB are companies that play an important part in our development ecosystem, and they employ the people that develop LibreOffice, so buying LibreOffice Vanilla is a way to support the LibreOffice project.

This is the reason why we don’t plan to make those builds gratis. Of course, you can always download LibreOffice for free at our website.
Comment 5 Claudius Ellsel 2020-10-26 20:43:01 UTC
Thanks for updating this issue.

Unfortunately I don't share your viewpoints on this topic.

While the work might have been "non-trivial", it is most likely not too hard, either.

The "automatic update functionality and the convenience it provides to users" is mainly provided by Microsoft's ecosystem, not Collabora or CIB by the way. Using that as an argument is thus a bit flawed.

Also note that there is a long-standing bug report about making the auto update on Windows work again: https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=68274

I don't like having to rely on third companies for continued support of this software. It does not look convincing to me that the support is split in between companies for different platforms, either. If at least all infrastructure and resources needed for building and publishing would be at the hands of the document foundation that would ensure some trust.

This current situation is rather frustrating for me, though.