The Document Foundation has ejected core developers from The Document Foundation in a major shakeup that signals a strategic pivot for the open-source office suite project. The departing developers, led by Collabora Office, plan to create a new, streamlined office product with a smaller code-base, no Java dependencies, and a web-based toolkit. This move represents a significant fork in the LibreOffice ecosystem.

The developers cite ongoing governance issues and exclusion from decision-making processes as key factors in their departure. They plan to maintain their existing branch of the core software while developing their new product in parallel. The split affects years of collaborative work on the codebase and raises questions about the future direction of both LibreOffice and the new Collabora Office variant.

This development marks a return to the organizational challenges that plagued the project 15 years ago, according to the departing team. While The Document Foundation continues to hire developers and sell LibreOffice, the split suggests a fundamental disagreement about the project's governance structure and development priorities. The move could accelerate innovation in the office suite space but may also fragment the user base and development resources.