ProjectLibre
 | This article contains promotional content. (March 2015) |
Screenshot  Demonstration of the ProjectLibre GUI | |
| Developer(s) | Marc O'Brien, Laurent Chrettieneau |
|---|---|
| Initial release | August 19, 2012 |
| Stable release | 1.6.2
/ September 7, 2015 |
| Repository | |
| Written in | Java |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Available in | 19 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 an open source, freely available 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 selected as the Staff Choice Project of the Month for February 2016 by the SourceForge staff.[3]
History
ProjectLibre was developed by the founders of the abandoned project OpenProj. In late 2008 Projity was acquired by Serena Software. As of early 2009, support for OpenProj and communication about development of OpenProj was suspended. There were actually negative regressions with a few commits to the CVS.
In 2012, the founders announced that they forked the project and released a new version called ProjectLibre in August 2012. ProjectLibre is in the process of being completely rewritten and thus will technically cease to be a fork in the near future.[4] The team is looking in 2016 to release a cloud version 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 only (not PERT technique)
- 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
- Many bug fixes and correction of issues that OpenProj encounters that are mentioned above
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
- ^ "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.