TDF ejects its core developers
by janvdberg on 4/3/2026, 11:53:32 AM
https://meeksfamily.uk/~michael/blog/2026-04-02-tdf-ejects-core-devs.html
Comments
by: phkahler
How about a different take: This isn't really about two open source organizations fighting. It's a psyop from the powers that want to stop the digital sovereignty initiatives going on around the world by amplifying some friction that already existed. People won't want to use products with so much drama and uncertainty.<p>TDF needs to eject the members who pulled the strings hardest on this - they are plants.<p>Damn I didn't know I had that much of a tinfoil hat.
4/3/2026, 2:21:34 PM
by: cap11235
Fix the title. No one seems to recognize "TDF" (The Document Foundation) despite their daily dramatics, myself included.
4/3/2026, 1:05:24 PM
by: trelane
Thread on the Collabora post he authored: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47599305">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47599305</a><p>TDF's response got posted but did not gain traction here (so far): <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47609108">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47609108</a>
4/3/2026, 12:59:02 PM
by: cge
I do not know enough about this particular drama to have any opinion on the merits of the sides involved. However, I cannot help but notice the parallels with the infancy of TDF and the separation of LibreOffice from OpenOffice.org. In 2010, Oracle demanded the resignation of every TDF member from the OOo Community Council that was nominally its governance board; this constituted the removal of every community member (ie, non Oracle employee) from the council [1]; I don't know the full details of what happened after the meeting [2], but it seems like the TDF members refused to resign and that they were removed. The justification was quite similar to the justification here [3]: that the TDF members had a conflict of interest by virtue of being TDF members, and that they could continue to be involved if they left TDF.<p>[1]: <a href="https://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/10/oracle-wants-libreoffice-members-to-leave-ooo-council.ars" rel="nofollow">https://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/10/oracle-want...</a> [2]: <a href="https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Community_Council_Log_20101014" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Community_Council_Log_20101...</a> [3]: <a href="https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/04/01/comment-about-collabora-blog-post/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/04/01/comment-...</a>
4/3/2026, 2:30:10 PM
by: elric
TDF apparently refers to The Document Foundation, the foundation behind things like LibreOffice.
4/3/2026, 12:57:20 PM
by: duskdozer
I might not be the target audience here but reading this I'm having trouble understanding what actually happened and why.
4/3/2026, 1:59:04 PM
by: pmontra
TDF is <a href="https://www.documentfoundation.org" rel="nofollow">https://www.documentfoundation.org</a>
4/3/2026, 12:54:21 PM
by: clcaev
Why do these open source foundations (like Mozilla) have direct products anyway? Why not a certification? Who should the users be and why? Who are the collaborators and competitors? These are hard questions.<p>At least with free software licenses we can separate the copyrights from the trademarks, and exercise the right to fork if a trademark owner is captured and misbehaves.
4/3/2026, 2:19:30 PM
by: mikkupikku
What are the plausible motivations for the TDF board members here? Do they pay themselves with org funds, or is it just a fight for turf and clout? I think identifying factors like this might be helpful, because if these factors could be eliminated or reduced it might save future orgs from infestations of the sort of people who seek out boards to sit on, as they'd find a better opportunity for parasitism in some other org.
4/3/2026, 1:15:51 PM
by: khalic
So, basically, TDF doesn’t want Collabora (a company) people on their board. The technical vs non-technical framing seems contrived at best. The excuse by TDF seems… suspicious.
4/3/2026, 1:06:55 PM
by: c-c-c-c-c
seems like a lot of drama in the open source document space, this seems unrelated to the OnlyOffice fork [1]. Interesting future ahead!<p>[1] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47601168">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47601168</a>
4/3/2026, 1:45:49 PM
by: sgbeal
Please help me understand where the missing comma is supposed to be in:<p>> their Membership Committee has decided to eject from membership all Collabora staff and partners over thirty people who ...<p>Is it:<p>1) "eject from membership all Collabora staff and partners, over thirty people ..."<p>2) "eject from membership all Collabora staff and partners over thirty, people who ..."<p>:-?<p>Edit: that's from the article this post leads to: <<a href="https://www.collaboraonline.com/blog/tdf-ejects-its-core-developers/" rel="nofollow">https://www.collaboraonline.com/blog/tdf-ejects-its-core-dev...</a>><p>(Downvoted for asking for legitimate clarification? Seriously? Age discrimination _is_ a real thing, so there's no way of knowing, for lack of a comma, which interpretation was intended.)
4/3/2026, 2:13:18 PM
by: PaulHoule
It's the "tyranny of structure"
4/3/2026, 1:06:32 PM
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4/3/2026, 2:18:33 PM
by: bakugo
Why does an open source project, apparently developed by a handful of core developers, have a "board", a "membership committee", "elections" etc? And why do these include people who do not contribute directly to development at all?<p>Let me guess, these same people also pushed to introduce a "code of conduct" to the project?
4/3/2026, 1:14:56 PM
by: yuumei
Wow that list of commits is brutal. Libre Office is dead. Just another corporate take over of an open source project.
4/3/2026, 1:09:03 PM