This is Team OpenOffice.org e.V.
There’s only four of them. But they’re ready to get things going.
The year is 2011 AD. The entire world is dominated by Microsoft Office. The entire world? No! An unbending group of convinced IT idealists with a clever and cost-free alternative is refusing to surrender in their fight against the Biggest-And-Strongest market leader.
But who are these stubborn people who just won’t give up? Who continue to defend their belief that there should be good office software that costs nothing and yet is available to everyone?
The association Team OpenOffice.org e.V. and a core group of smart minds have banded together to support and develop the free open office software for everyone:
Martin Hollmichel, Stefan Taxhet, Götz Wohlberg and Thomas Mitzka work together with many committed helpers to keep OOo alive and to improve it. Ensuring that the world has a choice, and people are free to decide what software they have on their computer.
Stefan Taxhet
Stefan and OpenOffice.org are inseparably linked: Stefan is a little like the father of the software. No-one has been working on it longer than him and no-one can pull the wool over his eyes. He knows the OpenOffice.org environment like the back of his hand and is the ideal person to offer advice about all issues involving the project. He pulls the strings and takes a balanced approach when representing the interests of the OOo community: whether they are business partners, volunteers or users. Whatever he’s doing, Stefan always remains calm – even when the going gets tough.
Download Stefan Taxhet’s profile here.
Martin Hollmichel
Martin has also been on board right from the start of OpenOffice.org. He was the one to ensure that the many million lines of the OpenOffice.org source code turned into a usable product: Every one of the over 30 OpenOffice.org releases has gone through his hands. Martin started out as a software developer for StarView. Today he is the source code guru behind OpenOffice.org who sees and decides on the matrix. And he has another skill to offer: listening.
Download Martin Hollmichel’s profile here.
Götz Wohlberg
Götz wears two hats: As the “third man of the very first hour”, he truly believes in OpenOffice.org and the open source concept. However, he’s also well aware how important it is to have a professional approach when it comes to image and business. As the team expert for sales and product marketing at OOo, he deals with the requirements enterprise, public or any other users have for OpenOffice.org. He understands the mind of the user and is constantly on the look-out for new, exciting functions that will make the product even better.
Download Götz Wohlberg’s profile here.
Thomas Mitzka
In recent years, virtually no-one has been as important as Thomas when it comes to explaining OpenOffice.org, training people in the software and helping potential users understand what OOo has to offer them. With resounding success: to date, he helped numerous users migrate from other office applications to OpenOffice.org. His encyclopaedic knowledge about the product is a true treasure chest. And it’s not just the team who like to plunder it. Administrators and end users all over the world rely on his advice, which he is delighted to provide.
Download Thomas Mitzka’s profile here.
OpenOffice.org, the Software
The OOo software has been a true chameleon. It first saw the light of day in 1995 as a highly promising part of StarOffice 3.0. OOo was then released on 13 October 2000, whereupon it quickly became very popular among users thanks to the liberal principles of the open source concept. OOo has meanwhile seen over 30 releases and is now better than ever before: For countless private and business users this little open-source based office software is their preferred solution, as it can be used to write text, calculate, plot and create presentations or PDFs. Test it yourself! Download here!
You can find out more about the history of OpenOffice.org here or at Wikipedia