Back to the Future Initiative

April Fools

"As this interface will be based on the latest versions of the available software libraries, the next releases of Apache OpenOffice will unfortunately not support the following architectures:

    Linux x86,
    Windows 32-bit,

but the following architectures will be supported instead:

    MS-DOS 6.22 on dual-core ARM CPU's,
    Windows 3.11 (only on 64-bit systems),
    OS/2 on PowerPC.
"

The Apache OpenOffice Development Team is proud to announce that the next releases will introduce an important change: a text-only user interface.

We all know that today's applications are shifting from local systems (desktops, workstations etc.) to the cloud and to browser-centric user interfaces. This process does not always increase the overall usability: web browsers and related technologies (HTML, Javascript, etc.) still cannot achieve the performances of stand-alone applications written in C++ or Java, and different browsers often introduce quirks and small problems that developers are chasing every day.

Apache OpenOffice is stepping ahead of this process, offering an user interface that is actually simpler, and will surely work smoothly on any computer.