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More than 70% of the world population are poor or have a low income. For many, commercial software is often seen as a luxury good. End-user facing open-source software, like Apache OpenOffice, brings high-quality software to those who would otherwise have no other affordable options.

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There are over 6,000 languages in the world, but unless the language is associated with a G20 economic superpower, commercial vendors tend to ignore it. The OpenOffice community has a long-standing tradition of supporting a large number of numerous languages, including ones used by smaller populations, minority languages, endangered languages, etc. For example, South Africa has 10 official languages other than English. OpenOffice has been translated to all of them. By supporting these languages that would not otherwise be supported we help reduce "digital exclusion" and promote development, local education and administration. It is not easy to keep the translation up-to-date for all languages but with the help of volunteers we can reach this goal.

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Community-led development "The Apache Way"

Our project is driven by a community of volunteers dedicated to maintaining, improving and supporting this great software product and the infrastructure that supports it. We are not guided by commercial interests, but by "The Apache Way" of community and software development. Our permissive Open-Source license is people and business friendly and is another part of our continued success.

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