| ▲ | LibreOffice blasts OnlyOffice for working with Microsoft to lock users in(neowin.net) |
| 74 points by XzetaU8 4 hours ago | 47 comments |
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| ▲ | dizhn 7 minutes ago | parent | next [-] |
| I don't like any of the libreoffice/openoffice behemoths. I only ever used them because there wasn't anything better/comperable, so I will stay away from that discussion. I like OnlyOffice. Their desktop apps are much lighter and better looking. They work fine for my light needs. They also do have a LOT more than just desktop apps. The last time I mentioned them I was informed they are Russian. If that matters to you. It is actual open source software though. Perhaps the EU should fork it. :) https://github.com/ONLYOFFICE/desktop-apps |
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| ▲ | revolvingthrow an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I wish the excel clones were better. LibreOffice’s UI is extremely dated imo, to the point it doesn’t even let you make a damn table, but at least what’s there works correctly.
OnlyOffice is not only missing some pretty basic functionality such as preferences (???), it also inexplicably deleted a single spreadsheet out of a multi-sheet file on two occasions on macOS and generally has some peculiar functionality and ux here and there. |
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| ▲ | TurboSkyline 4 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | I'm only a light user of office programs, both at work and at home. I have access to M365, but for my personal usage I prefer LibreOffice over MS Office, especially when it comes to spreadsheets. I generally don't mind the UI of the MS suite, but I find it's getting increasingly bloated and slow, and sometimes updates move UI elements around for no benefit that I can perceive. I haven't experienced the same with LibreOffice; it's lighter than MS Office I find it easier to find the options I'm looking for, which I know exist but don't always remember _where_ they live, because of the low frequency with which I use them. With Excel in particular, there is something I can't put my finger on that I just don't get along with. It's unintuitive in a way that I can't describe, but which I notice about half the time I use it. Sometimes clicking doesn't do what I expect it to do, clipboard contents are lost all the time, scrolling resets or jumps around for reasons I don't understand. I don't have the same issues with LibreOffice Calc, which is why I choose it for my personal work. In fact, I think Google Sheets is the most pleasant to use of the options I've tried, which is something I thought I'd never say about a web-based alternative to a native app... | |
| ▲ | yummypaint 17 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | I think I've tried every spreadsheet program still being maintained at this point. Try gnumeric, it's a clear cut above everything else. Mandatory Excel rant: Excel can't be trusted with data destined for publication. It's bloated, buggy as hell, user hostile, and has set genetics research back with its utterly braindead autocorrect. The default plot options are the exact polar opposite of how data are presented in science, and almost impossible to make serviceable. Everything Excel touches ends up looking like a hastily thrown together 6th grade science project. Libreoffice is also riddled with serious bugs and also loses data, but hey it's free and not a decades old flagship product from a multi billion dollar tech company. | | |
| ▲ | ekjhgkejhgk 6 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Hey, I'm very interested in this, because LibreOffice annoys me and I can't explain why. It's not the "dated look" that everybody complains about; but I suspect it's related to UX somehow. Could you explain why Gnumeric is better than everything else? |
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| ▲ | SebastianKra 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Link to the actual source: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/02/16/why-odf-... |
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| ▲ | fweimer 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| How does LibreOffice handle ODF standardization? If they want to add a new feature that result in changes how things are formatted visually, write they papers to update the ISO standard for ODF, working with other office suite implementers to achieve interoperability, wait a couple of years for the new standard with the changes getting published, and finally turn on the feature for users? My impression is that this is more or less how ISO standards are supposed to work. Personally, I don't want to work in such an environment. |
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| ▲ | Flavius 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The 'fake open-source' debate is interesting, but OnlyOffice is still the best free alternative for anyone coming from MS Office. LibreOffice has a great mission, but their UI feels dated and the formatting issues with DOCX/XLSX files are still a deal-breaker for me. |
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| ▲ | 2b3a51 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | "...their UI feels dated" How do you define dated in this context? Personally, I quite like being able to use the CUA keyboard shortcuts to access menu items. I like consistency over decades but I appreciate that there are other ways of looking at this. | | |
| ▲ | Flavius 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Take a look at these screenshots: https://libreoffice.en.uptodown.com/mac It looks ancient, worse than office apps from 20 years ago. | | |
| ▲ | yason 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | That looks exactly like an office app should look like. Basic interface patterns, clear distinctive visual areas and borders, all in the tradition of a classical graphical user interface. And yes, classical GUI more or less peaked in the early 2000's and it has generally been a downhill from there because the irresistible need of the industry for offering "something new" every few years. | |
| ▲ | gerdesj 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | "You are running version 7.0" - why not try some screenshots from this decade? I have version 25.8.4.2 running here. It looks rather better and most importantly offers me the choice of a ribbon or not and many other choices rather than enforcing a single "opinionated" interface. | | |
| ▲ | Flavius an hour ago | parent [-] | | What do you mean by version 7.0? I'm running Version: 26.2.0.3 and it still looks dated after I did my best to configure the interface. |
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| ▲ | jamesnorden 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Maybe try installing a current version and seeing for yourself, there's multiple UI styles to chose from now, even one that is meant to mimic the MS "ribbon". | |
| ▲ | barnabee 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Office apps from 20 years ago looked better than office apps now. | | | |
| ▲ | mikkupikku 23 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Looks like a completely normal office application to me. Do you have an example of what you think they should look like? | |
| ▲ | 2b3a51 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Well 'ancient' to me in the context of computer interaction means punched cards (mechanical punches!) and a card reader, upper case only, so these terms are relative I suppose. I think this is a matter of choice and it is nice that there are choices. As other posters in this little sub-tree have suggested, there are people who value continuity over a period of time. | | |
| ▲ | 7bit an hour ago | parent [-] | | > are relative I suppose.
> A matter of choice Congratulations on figuring this out. It's not like the commenter you replied to said, it "feels dated" ... Oh no wait, he did. |
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| ▲ | slyfox125 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | It looks great using Plasma. If the comparison and "problem" is the lack of a "ribbon" menu, etc., then you are missing the whole point of Office alternatives: they are free, open source, but most importantly, they are usable. That is, they do not eschew usability and function for the sake of change, pure aesthetics, or a company's latest foray into some new gimmick. Ultimately, the "classic" approach taken is because many users feel that the classic style is more usable and makes them more productive irrespective of their learned habits of the past 20-30 years. | | |
| ▲ | keyringlight 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | LibreOffice also has a ribbon toolbars mode, it's 5 seconds to switch if you prefer it under View > User interface. | |
| ▲ | gzread an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Microsoft did usability studies on real people to determine the ribbon interface is better. This is back in the days when software companies cared about objectively verifiable results. | |
| ▲ | mft_ 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | It looks awful and undiscoverable on a standard Mint/Cinnamon install. Anyway, the point is surely that if LibreOffice really wants to attract users from Microsoft Office, then it should do everything possible to optimise that transition? Offering the option of a UI mimicking the familiar MS Office layout is not a difficult engineering problem. And if it makes users significantly more likely to switch, it should be a high priority to implement. Honestly, at this stage, thinking of Gimp, FreeCAD, LibreOffice, and Blender, it’s as though there’s a weird group psychology deliberately against offering even decent (let along best-in-class) UIs in the open source world. These are all apps with excellent fundamental underlying engines/tech which are handicapped hugely by their UI/UX. (Yes I know some of these have improved in recent years, but only after far longer without improvements.) | | |
| ▲ | jamesnorden 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | >Offering the option of a UI mimicking the familiar MS Office layout is not a difficult engineering problem. And if it makes users significantly more likely to switch, it should be a high priority to implement. It's already there. It really feels like such criticisms are from people who haven't used it in 10+ years. | | |
| ▲ | AnonymousPlanet 8 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | My experience is less than two years old. I have the impression that those who defend it have a UI taste that is stuck in the 2000s. The same people who also point at UIs that are barely usable and ugly from a modern perspective like Windows 2000 and say "this was the pinnacle of UI". | |
| ▲ | mft_ 14 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | Well, if that's the case, I take (that part of) it back and I'll fire up Mint later to explore. Thanks. It wasn't an obvious option when I tried LibreOffice a few weeks ago, but maybe I should have explored further. |
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| ▲ | Mikhail_K 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > their UI feels dated A big selling point for me. Needless reworking of familiar interfaces plagues
MS Windows ecosystem and I'm glad LibreOffice is displaying healthy conservatism
by not fixing what isn't broken. | |
| ▲ | throwaway270925 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Also free and great at MSOffice file compatibility is FreeOffice from SoftMaker: https://www.freeoffice.com/ | |
| ▲ | xvilka 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | LibreOffice constantly works on improving the import of the DOC/DOCX/XLS/XLSX/etc formats, thus if something doesn't work for you, it's better to file a bug in their bugtracker[1]. [1] https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/enter_bug.cgi?format=gui... | | |
| ▲ | cyber_kinetist 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | The site is making ordinary users (other than developers) shy away from submitting bug reports. Come on, you need to make a whole account in Bugzilla for you to report bugs? The best thing would be to have a "Report bug" window directly in the program that lets the user send complaints without hazzle! | | |
| ▲ | lmz 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | The best thing for users maybe. A special kind of hell for the people investigating. And since there are numerous non paying users vs only so many people who have the skills to fix things... | | |
| ▲ | mikkupikku 21 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | Of course the developers only want to interact with other developers, never those stinky users who don't even know the proper technical jargon for the bugs they're finding. But that doesn't mean we should pander to developer wishes. | | |
| ▲ | lmz 4 minutes ago | parent [-] | | I'm sure if the "stinky users" have a support contract then someone will be happy to look at any kind of report and try to triage or reproduce. Otherwise the least they can do is figure out Bugzilla signup. |
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| ▲ | nickserv 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | It's incredibly useful to know what problems your users are facing. It doesn't necessarily mean fixing any one particular bug, rather should help prioritize future work. |
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| ▲ | user205738 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Creating an account on bugzilla is much easier than on the same github, and it is also used in many projects, so registration makes sense. | |
| ▲ | braiamp 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Interesting that this is a take, because MS Office (and all MS products) don't include such button. | | |
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| ▲ | stop50 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Openoffice had afaik not an big change in years and Libreoffice had quite a lot of changes that improved Msoffice support. | | | |
| ▲ | petepete 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Does Microsoft Office exist now? Looked like they've entirely rebranded it to Microsoft 365 Copilot App (according to office.com) |
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| ▲ | markus_zhang an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Eh, I think as an open source solution you definitely want to grab as many users as possible by using the most popular office file format. And then maybe you can do something different. TBH I don't think de-big-tech will ever succeed in a capitalistic world. |
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| ▲ | manosyja 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| OnlyOffice isn’t a „rival“ to LibreOffice as TFA says, because the former has been dead for a long time. Edit: Further, the ooxml format was heavily criticised ~20 years ago, back when it was introduced. This is old news. |
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| ▲ | Sophira an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Are you thinking of OpenOffice instead of OnlyOffice? | |
| ▲ | LiamPowell 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The last release was only 3 months ago and they have 30 git repos with commits in the last 24 hours. | | |
| ▲ | Jaxan an hour ago | parent [-] | | Maybe they are confused with OpenOffice? | | |
| ▲ | tialaramex 6 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Which, to be fair, isn't technically dead. Apache OpenOffice, the rotting corpse of OpenOffice.org now maintained by Apache, released 4.1.16 just a few months ago. What should have happened was that ten years ago Apache should have "retired" OpenOffice. That's Apache's terminology for projects which are abandoned. But instead it has limped on for all these years, sucking up valuable effort by users with Apache claiming that it'll be fine somehow. |
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| ▲ | ekianjo an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | > dead Surprisingly moving a lot for something dead https://helpcenter.onlyoffice.com/docs/docs-changelog.aspx |
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