Some 2000 donors from all over the world contributed the funds, which will serve as the capital stock necessary to set up the Document Foundation as a legal entity in Germany.

"We still can't believe it," said steering committee member Florian Effenberger. "It happened in such a short period of time and was beyond our wildest expectations."

The funds raised will serve as frozen assets for the foundation, however, which will be able to access just the annual interest they generate. From now through March 21, the group seeks to bankroll costs "for things such as marketing, hardware, infrastructure, attending trade shows, initial financing of merchandising material and, of course, developing new and exciting ideas," it explained.

Canonical Lends a Hand

Also this week, the Document Foundation publicly welcomed the participation of maker Canonical in LibreOffice development.