LibreOffice, the OpenOffice fork, is a very popular open-source office suite. But, while it has great support from Linux distributors, like openSUSE and Ubuntu, LibreOffice has never had a major corporate backer on the Windows side… until now. Intel is now offering LibreOffice to Windows users via its AppUp application store. I wonder how Microsoft feels about this.

According to The Document Foundation (TDF), the newly incorporated group behind LibreOffice, “LibreOffice for Windows from SUSE is available in Intel AppUp Center as a special, five-language version featuring English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. As a validated Intel AppUp Center app, LibreOffice for Windows from SUSE features a new, smooth, silent installation flow and improved un-installation cleanup.” This version of LibreOffice for Windows is now available from the Intel AppUp store.

Of course, LibreOffice has long been available on Windows, as well as Linux and Mac OS X. What’s different about this is that Intel, Microsoft’s long time ally, is now actively supporting Microsoft Office’s most active rival. Certainly, on the cloud, Google Docs is Office’s biggest enemy but on the good old PC desktop, LibreOffice is Microsoft’s Office main competition.

Intel distributes LibreOffice, can Microsoft be pleased? More >