Today, we are celebrating sixteen years of LibreOffice's independence and commitment to supporting free software, open standards and digital sovereignty

On 28 September 2010, a group of OpenOffice.org community members announced the launch of the LibreOffice project and the foundation that would support it: The Document Foundation. The announcement sparked some confusion and scepticism, as well as enormous enthusiasm amongst those in the community who believe in free and open-source software. 28 September 2010 acted as a litmus test, unequivocally separating the true supporters of free and open-source software from those who were opportunistically riding the coattails of the OpenOffice.org project, or waiting for the right moment to stamp their own proprietary mark on it. Sixteen years on, LibreOffice has been independent for longer than OpenOffice.org ever was under Sun Microsystems. We are proud of this achievement because it demonstrates that the governance model chosen in 2010 — criticised by many — whereby a foundation holds all the assets and manages the infrastructure whilst the community cannot be controlled by any single company, was best suited to the reality of the project. Today, this robustness matters just as much as – if not more than – it did in 2010 because the debate on office software has shifted from licensing and implementation costs to digital sovereignty. It is a concept