ProjectLibre
 | |
 Demonstration of the ProjectLibre GUI | |
| Developer(s) | Marc O'Brien, Laurent Chrettieneau |
|---|---|
| Initial release | August 19, 2012 |
| Stable release | 1.9.2
/ June 20, 2020 |
| Repository | sourceforge |
| Written in | Java |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Available in | 25 languages including Arabic, Chinese (simplified), English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and others[1] |
| Type | Project management software |
| License | Common Public Attribution License |
| Website | www.projectlibre.org |
ProjectLibre is the #1 global alternative to Microsoft Project with 4,700,000 downloads in 200 countries and translated into 25 languages. ProjectLibre is a project management software company with both a free open source desktop and upcoming Cloud version. ProjectLibre desktop is a free and open-source project management software system intended ultimately as a standalone replacement for Microsoft Project. ProjectLibre is written in the Java programming language, and will thus theoretically run on any machine for which a fully functioning Java Virtual Machine exists. Currently, ProjectLibre is certified to run on Linux, MacOS and MS Windows.[2] It is released under the Common Public Attribution License (CPAL) and qualifies as Free Software according to the Free Software Foundation.
ProjectLibre's initial release was in August 2012. Currently hosted on the SourceForge open-source hosting service, it was been selected multiple times as the Staff Choice Project of the Month by the SourceForge staff.[3]
ProjectLibre Cloud is a web-based project management ProjectLibre Cloud will be a multi-user, multi-project version in your browser. It will be similar to Google Docs compared to Microsoft Word. The Beta test timing has not been announced but the company is using it internally.
History
The ProjectLibe team's origins go back to the start of project management software on mainframe 3090 computers. The founders worked at PSDI with a mainframe solution called PROJECT/2 on both IBM 3090's and VAX/VMS computers. It was command language 'green screen' software. They worked in the DOS project management software market with both PSDI and Scitor. Having left these vendors, started the first internet project management company called WebProject. The term was Application Service Provider, ASP, which was the pre-cursor to SaaS. It was not financially feasible as a standalone but was underwritten by Cisco and Sun Microsystems. It showed what early software could do in the cloud. WebProject was acquired and ultimately filed an S-1 for a public offering on the NASDAQ. The team departed and started Projity with Project-ON-Demand. It was an early SaaS solution and one of the very first Salesforce.com AppExchange partners. The integration with Salesforce eventually lead to the acquisition by Private Equity firm Silver Lake Partners with their portfolio company Serena Software. Serena was interested in the cloud solution and immediately stopped development of the secondary solution which was open source.
ProjectLibre was developed by the founders of the abandoned project OpenProj. In late 2008 Projity was acquired by Silver Lake Partners the Private Equity firm and their investment Serena Software. As of early 2009, support for OpenProj and communication about development of OpenProj was suspended. There were negative regressions with a few commits to the CVS. Serena subsequently announced and posted online to avoid downloading and instead download ProjectLibre. They were focused on the Cloud/SaaS version of software.
The ProjectLibre team felt it was their mission to provide free and open source software for the world of project managers. The goal was to have an equivalent to Microsoft Project for project managers around the world without having to pay the exceedingly high price for proprietary project management software. In 2012, the founders announced they had released ProjectLibre and it would be available on Linux, macOS or Windows and open existing Microsoft Project files for free. [4] The team is looking in late 2020 to release a cloud beta release as well which will extend the desktop features with team and enterprise features.
Features
The current version includes:
- Microsoft Project 2010 compatibility
- Ribbon user interface
- Earned value costing
- Gantt chart
- PERT graph
- Resource breakdown structure (RBS) chart
- Task usage reports
- Work breakdown structure (WBS) chart
Comparison to Microsoft Project
Compared to Microsoft Project, which it closely emulates, ProjectLibre has a similar user interface (UI) including a ribbon-style menu, and a similar approach to construction of a project plan: create an indented task list or work breakdown structure (WBS), set durations, create links (either by (a) mouse drag, (b) selection and then button-down, or (c) manually type in the 'predecessor' column), assign resources. The columns (fields) look the same as for Microsoft Project. Costing features are comparable: labour, hourly rate, material usage, and fixed costs: these are all provided.[5]
ProjectLibre Improvements
- Full compatibility with Microsoft Project 2010, import/export capability
- Printing
- PDF exporting (without any restrictions)
- Ribbon user interface
See also
References
- ^ "New Release of ProjectLibre and Update on Cloud Progress". ProjectLibre. July 10, 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
- ^ ProjectLibre: open source alternative to Microsoft Project Archived October 24, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "February 2016, "Staff Pick" Project of the Month – ProjectLibre". SourceForge Community Blog. February 4, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
- ^ Hibbets, Jason. "ProjectLibre edges in on Microsoft Project dominance". opensource.com. Retrieved June 4, 2013.
- ^ Kelly, Will. "Take your project management application open source with ProjectLibre". techrepublic.com, CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved May 8, 2013.