Liz,

2018-03-22 5:51 GMT+08:00 Miss Lizzy <lizbeth...@gmail.com>:

> I'm about to get a new laptop as my current one is not in compliance with
> the new General Data Protection Regulations (it's just over 10years old
> with Windows 7 so no longer supported by Microsoft regarding patches).
>
> It has been suggested I use LibreOffice rather than Microsoft Word, Excel
> etc.
>
> I've read a few articles on Libre, but what I would like to know is - you
> say Libre is an 'open
> Source software', and input/ patches is by anyone, that's the way I've
> digested it. So my concern is, do you actually mean 'anyone' or are the
> patches development by your own team of software developers?  You can
> obviously see where I'm going with this.
>
> I also noticed the software package name has changed over a relatively
> short period of time. Is it just in name or do folk have to keep down
> loading new packages?
>
> Would appreciate your comments as soon as you can please.
>
>
A (good) open source project is managed the same way as a good proprietary
software. In the sense that when new code is written, it gets reviews
according to predefined project governance, and then accepted or rejected.
That's the difference (in the open source world) between the contributors
(people who write code, patches, or even documentations, or participate in
driving community activities...) and the committers, who are the people who
can accept new contributions into the code base.

So when somebody writes a patch for a bug (you can, too, if you want, and
have the skills) and contributes it, it gets fully reviewed and (possibly)
approved and committed.

This happens for patches correcting issues, as well as all new code
bringing new functionality. This ensures that the project also keeps on
track with what the project strategy team is looking for.

Does it mean that no bugs get missed? No, of course. But that's the same as
for any software project. What it means is that there is the same type of
quality control mechanisms as for proprietary projects... but many many
more eyes looking at the code for bugs. So in average (COVERITY 2014
report) open source code tends to actually be higher quality than
proprietary with a density of 0.61 bugs per thousand lines of code for open
source versus 0.76 for proprietary (page 6 of the report available here :
http://go.coverity.com/rs/157-LQW-289/images/2014-Coverity-Scan-Report.pdf).

Note that in the paragraphs above, I didn't mention what project this
applies to. It's because it applies to ALL software projects (open source
or not, LibreOffice or others). :)

Enjoy the great software LibreOffice from The Documentation Foundation !

Gilles
-- 
*Gilles Gravier*  - gil...@gravier.org
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