I’m just starting to explore open-source software and have seen a couple of recent blog posts at The Document Foundation that give me concern. Their LibreOffice products seem quite good and usable but the tone of their posts, including:
make me wonder if the product, despite assertions of health, is in danger and I should look for alternates instead of spending time exploring and using it. The post does sound like they are people of conviction, properly abiding by rules, and devoted to doing things right, which I appreciate, but haven’t followed them/used LO long enough to know if I can trust their words.
I have heard of something called OpenOffice, but haven’t tried it or researched it to know if it is also properly run. Does anyone have any further insight into the TDF situation or can endorse any other open source office suite?
I’ve been using LibreOffice for years, and appreciate its regular updates (even though I’m not using 90% of what it does).
I just read that page, and it seems to me that it addresses an internal point of contention in a transparent and acceptable way. I find nothing strange about the tone of it. But then, I’m a native German speaker, as may be the author of this page, given that TDF is a German entity, and we express ourselves differently from native English speakers. Maybe that’s putting you off.
LibreOffice was originally a fork of OpenOffice, when that project languished after the Oracle/Sun takeover. By now, OpenOffice is dead, and has been for years.
I’m living in Germany now for nearly 9 years, with most of 6 years earlier on military tours. I’m only B1 level German speaker but rarely does anyone correct me or ask for rephrasing. It does sound like German admin/legal tone for sure!
Sometimes companies put out statements like that when conflicts are there, maybe a recent example is WordPress vs. WPEngine. Sometimes it is an indicator of imminent demise, hostile takeover, or significant problems affecting the product. In this case it does seem like they are sticking to the correct way of doing things and explaining systematically why. Hopefully that’s a sign of confidence in TDF’s future.
Didn’t know OpenOffice was gone. Hm. So it’s pretty much LibreOffice as the leading foss office suite?
My view on using LibreOffice, as a former OpenOffice user, is that since LO is widely adopted, well established, and doesn’t require a purchase or subscription, installing it doesn’t require a lot of thought. As long as one is familiar with using MS Office, it is easy to use. In contrast, though, “Apple Office” users might need to devote some time to learning how to do things (the reverse caused me to not use Apple’s applications when I decided to give up MSO. AO is different enough from MSO that I didn’t want to give up my hard-won Excel skills).
Having spent a large chunk of my career with a very large global company with headquarters in Germany, and having known some people active in European open source development, I can only begin to imagine how challenging it was to write the TDF blog post. I also have experience as a board member of a few non-profit organizations.
I have no insider knowledge of what has been going on at TDF, so any remarks I have on the matter would be little more than speculation or at best, educated guesses.
Based solely on the blog post, I would say that it is not the thing that one wants to have to write, but it also demonstrates a serious interest in observing principles of good governance. It is very easy for well-intentioned people to act in good faith in ways that may conflict with the technical requirements for running a non-profit. It also is easy for well-intentioned people to disagree about where to draw the line between technical compliance with the regulations and non-compliance. On top of that, people who work with or for non-profits often are unusually passionate about their non-profits’ mission, which can increase the intensity of disagreements or disputes. To me, some combination of those things seems to have occured at TDF.
My initial reaction is satisfaction at the tone and content of the post. It seems to be the work of an organization that is grappling with complex issues in a serious way. I have no concerns about using LibreOffice and expect it to be viable for many years into the future.
There is also Softmaker Free Office. I have used it and preferred it to LibreOffice as it handled my MS Office documents better. But I’m back to using MS Office.
Thank you @Halfsmoke ! I will start dabbling in LO and its Open Document Format soon. Am also actively trying to learn how to use Linux, have installed Mint on an Intel MBAir already. The more I look around, the more it seems LO is dominant in this space.