We'd like to continue the production of the 32-bit deb packages

[dreamnext at gmail.com]

Hi! Greetings from the Escuelas Linux team. We are small Linux distribution
that can be downloaded from https://sourceforge.net/projects/escuelaslinux/.
Some more references about our activity can be found by doing an Internet
search, or on own Facebook account, escuelas.linux

We still provide a 32-bit edition of our distro, because among our users
there are a lot of low-income public schools, in which are still in use old
computers with about 512 MB to a 1 GB of RAM. That amount of RAM would make
running a Linux 64-bit system awfully slow, so we have to accommodate to
the needs and possibilities of what is available in poor areas, those in
which even having an old computer is still somehow a luxury.

We perfectly understand that TDF releasing 32-bit Linux LibreOffice
packages was not worth anymore, given the small amount of downloads.
Certainly some of those downloads were made by us, as we only required one
download of a given LibreOffice version to have it installed in our distro
and be used in hundreds of computers. A lot of those computers could not
even be traceable, since there are no Internet connection in poor or remote
schools. But we believe that even if we reported who and where are those
schools, that would be still a small amount to be worth the effort and
resources required to match the bigger amounts of downloads that seems to
be receiving the LibreOffice 32-bit Windows counterpart.

Given that TDF ended the provision of Linux 32-bit distribution neutral
binaries, but not the 32-bit compatibility, we would like to step up to
produce by ourselves the 32-bit distribution neutral deb packages from
LibreOffice 6.3 and up. We are not aware of other distros or volunteers
releasing the most recent LibreOffice version to date (6.3) as 32-bit
distribution independent binaries.

Recently, the official LibreOffice Blog published instructions about how to
compile LibreOffice on Linux. However, we’d like to be able not only to
compile LibreOffice, but we would like to learn how to be able to produce
by ourselves the same set of 32-bit distribution-independent deb packages
that were compressed as a .tar.gz, that is, the LibreOffice binaries
(LibreOffice_?.?.?_Linux_x86-_deb.tar.gz), the translated user interface
(the LibreOffice_?.?.?_Linux_x86-_deb_langpack_??.tar.gz) and the offline
help (LibreOffice_?.?.?_Linux_x86-_deb_helppack_??.tar.gz). As for the user
interface and the offline packages, our main focus would be Spanish
language.

On the download section is always available the following source code
packages:
libreoffice-?.?.?.?.tar.xz
libreoffice-dictionaries-?.?.?.?.tar.xz
libreoffice-help-?.?.?.?.tar.xz
libreoffice-translations-?.?.?.?.tar.xz

But, given our inexperience, we don’t know how to use this source packages
to produce the same set of 32-bit deb packages as were previously provided
by TDF. Since LibreOffice is distributed in a lot of languages, we guess
that the user interface and offline packages are not created manually one
by one by hand, some useful scripts could have been created to automate as
far as possible those tasks.

So, we respectfully ask for some pointers and steps required to reach this
goal. In this way, we might be able to continue the production of the
32-bit deb packages, freeing TDF of that burden as planned but, at the same
time, we could provide those packages for the parties that could be still
interested in them. We could not be able to support rpm-based binaries
though, someone else would have to step up if there's a need for that.

Please let us know if this request of help is feasible for the Developer(s)
that are responsible of the LibreOffice packaging.
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