this post was submitted on 29 May 2026
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if only there was a good, actively developed and highly regarded free and open source alternative whose name would be something like "LibreOffice"...
LibreOffice feels like a java app with 40 years of baggage and tech debt going back to Sun Microsystems
Uhh, you realize it's just OnlyOffice, right? Another actively developed, free and open source (but web-first, vs desktop first) software?
While they claim to be open source, OnlyOffice uses their trademark to block forks and derivative work. Which is why this Euro Office was created, along with more control over mobile apps, since that part has issues as well.
Yes, which makes this choice even better since these will be open maintainers under a new name. Looking forward to it.
Why are there so many different open source office suites? Wouldn't it be more effective if they joined forces? Or do they have incompatible visions?
Because before cloud vendor subscription lock-in was considered socially acceptable, there were a lot of big tech companies that wanted to be seen being “open source” in name to court customers while locking you in by other means. “Open”Office is the quintessential example, but it is by no means a unique situation in the “Open” source world.
It happens often enough that there are some people who get very upset with you for not knowing the difference between “Open Source”, “open source”, and “source available”.
The later, most likely. LibreOffice is a desktop native app, while OnlyOffice is a web-first app.
I like and use Libreoffice, but its a local application. This makes it fine for working by yourself and on your own hardware. Google Docs (Gstuite) is an online application with the best collaboration integration I've seen and works on nearly any device you can open a modern browser on. Yes, both products have a word processor and a spreadsheet, but they don't serve all the same use cases.
If this new Euro-office can replicate the Gsuite offerings (that Libreoffice lacks), then Euro-office could be a great addition to the open source community.
An office suite for collaborating ? Great idea ! I brt they would call it something like "Collabora Office" !
It takes more than a name to deliver the result. MS Office365 also claims to be great for collaboration, and its a trainwreck to try to use it in that way.
No I think we should call it ~~Google~~Apache Wave. That would be a super intuitive name right??
Nah this new Euro-Office is literally a OnlyOffice fork according to their GitHub. It's much closer in comparison to LibreOffice than Google docs.
They have worked with NextCloud to make Euro-Office an app/add-on (I forget what NextCloud calls them specifically) from this release (v1.0), so that they can integrate with a platform that already.. Has this feature (with Collabora office), but hey.. The more the merrier.
OnlyOffice is both. They have a fantastic web version that integrates well into NextCloud already. And they have a mobile version too. Assuming all of those get forked with it, we can certainly expect a Gsuite alternative.
Oh right, I didn't know they had a web version I only saw the local edition. Glad to be corrected.
Although straightforward, I appreciate they didn't reinvent the wheel here -- Nextcloud plus OnlyOffice is a solid combo to replace the MS365- and Gsuite-like product lines.
right, thank you for pointing it out.
I remember seeing a post earlier this year about libreoffice doing a web based version.
Yeah, here it is.
You're proving my point. They just started working on it 3 months ago. It will be a long time, if ever, before it is a Gsuite replacement. They even said they tried this a few years ago and abandoned it. There's a risk they'd do it again.
So if there's another open source effort specifically focused on an online product, its a good thing.
LibreOffice still hasn't managed to sort out making the UI scalable on Wayland, so you're stuck with either needing a magnifying glass to see the icons or you have to stand in the next room over and nothing in between. Given how many years they've had to work on that, I feel like the odds of them developing a working web UI in my lifetime are pretty slim.
Yeah, people are going to only office because libre office hasn't sorted out a lot of issues.
Have you tried https://cryptpad.fr/ ?
Is cryptpad able to open existing docx files? Last time I checked I couldn't figure out how to do it. I mostly need to edit word documents that people send me, and send them back the same format.
It can import most file types supported by only office
Where is that option? I'm only getting the option to create a new document for some reason, and to export documents created on cryptpad to docx. I assumed it was because they only figured out the conversion one way but maybe I'm just missing the button?
Pretty sure it uses Collabora, which is literally LibreOffice source code in a web shell.
Edit: just checked, they are using OnlyOffice as a base instead of the already European Collabora. Strange choice but so be it.
OnlyOffice has a decent product owned by a pretty shitty business, so I am glad to see another alternative based on their product.
Isn’t Only Office European too? My memory tells me it’s from Estonia. It’s Europe!
No it's not. The main company is Russian and they try way too hard to hide the fact that they are from Russia. They constantly creating new sub companies in Estonia, Cypher, UK and some more and transfer the HQ there while main Company is still in Russia along with CEO that owns it.
And a bit dumb
https://www.webpronews.com/fsf-slaps-down-onlyoffices-agpl-gambit-fork-freedom-hangs-in-the-balance/
They tried to abuse their trademark to control forks
this seems stupid. maybe this fork could be worth using
it seems to be latvia according to wikipedia
With quite some controversy of ties to Russia
Yeah, fuck them. That shit does not make it onto my system.
Ah, my apologies to the people of both countries. It seems I remember them being Baltic States. Well, Latvia is even closer to Central Europe!
Looks like this is going to be a browser based suite with online collaboration, more like Google docs than Microsoft office.
Would only be interested if there's a local version as well that can turn syncing on or off. A purely web based office suite is unappealing.
Office suites like this are usually more aimed at corporate customers anyway.
Yeah but they are people too. I don't wish this upon them.
OpenOffice?
OpenOffice has been more or less dead for a decade. LibreOffice was its successor.
Yeah I was going for the "if only there was something like LibreOffice" joke.
literally french name