Dear office suite users, In recent days you will have read various articles announcing the arrival of Euro-Office, which is being “marketed” as the first open-source office suite developed in Europe. We feel compelled — reluctantly, since open source should rest on transparency, not deception — to correct this claim. The first open-source office suite developed in Europe was OpenOffice.org in 2001, based on StarOffice’s source code, followed by LibreOffice from 2010. These are two genuine open-source office suites, built from source code that originated in Europe. They are not a freeware clone of MS Office whose code provenance is undisclosed, nor a product that has rebranded itself out of pure opportunism to ride today’s wave of Digital Sovereignty. It is worth remembering that many of those who champion Digital Sovereignty today were silent back in 2006, when the open ISO/IEC ODF standard — the pillar of Digital Sovereignty — was announced: not only did they not listen to us during all these years, but in some cases they greeted us with a condescending smile. If we can speak of Digital Sovereignty in Europe today, it is thanks to The Document Foundation and LibreOffice community members at large, who kept
Euro-Office and OnlyOffice don’t “only support” OOXML. Where did you get that idea?
And not every software developed in Russia is “riddled with Russian spyware.” The code is open so where do you suppose all this supposed spyware is hiding? Or is that just fear-mongering?
I’d love for LibreOffice to do a serious modernization to be a viable alternative. But for most users, it feels like a downgrade whether or not it is technically better under the hood. I use OnlyOffice these days even though it has a lot more bugs because the UX is just that much better in spite of it.
Euro-Office and OnlyOffice don’t “only support” OOXML. Where did you get that idea?
And not every software developed in Russia is “riddled with Russian spyware.” The code is open so where do you suppose all this supposed spyware is hiding? Or is that just fear-mongering?
I’d love for LibreOffice to do a serious modernization to be a viable alternative. But for most users, it feels like a downgrade whether or not it is technically better under the hood. I use OnlyOffice these days even though it has a lot more bugs because the UX is just that much better in spite of it.
From the fact ODF “support” is an awkward import/export function. It’s not a first class format.
On their live service. They don’t publish the spyware with the code they choose to open, obviously. 😃