LibreOffice and the art of overreacting • Hacker News Board

Re: LibreOffice and the art of overreacting

#51

Post by fluoridation » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 1:16 PM UTC

asdewqqwer wrote: post #42

fluoridation wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about the rest, but surely the race conditions are the fault of whoever designed the concurrency part. An email client does not inherently have race conditions.

> assume it is the single client that will operate that account You are still making wild assumption without actually thinking about what means to writing an email client.

OK? Sure would be nice to hear why having a second email client talk to the remote server introduces race conditions on the local client (EDIT: that is, race conditions that are the local client's responsibility).

Re: LibreOffice and the art of overreacting

#52

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 1:17 PM UTC

shaky-carrousel wrote: post #39

Yep, calling your users entitled and telling them they're overreacting instead of listening to them. That surely isn't going to backfire. It never did.

[deleted]

Re: LibreOffice and the art of overreacting

#53

Post by bee_rider » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 1:18 PM UTC

ForHackernews wrote: post #41

bee_rider wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyway, most people don’t want to interact with office type documents, right? The only reason I have it installed is to deal with a problem usually generated by some big organization: documents that aren’t available in an accessible format like Tex, markdown, or html. Let the people generating the problem pay for it.

You are in a bubble. Most office workers want Word documents and Excel spreadsheets (or something equivalent) not markdown and numpy.

I don’t think they really want these document formats, usually the requirement is imposed by management.

Re: LibreOffice and the art of overreacting

#54

Post by TheChaplain » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 1:20 PM UTC

Donated just now, worth every coin for what Calc and Impress gives me.

Re: LibreOffice and the art of overreacting

#55

Post by carlosjobim » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 1:22 PM UTC

vntok wrote: post #45

carlosjobim wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there's anybody who should pay for their software, it's enterprise. They should be able to disable the banner by paying a fair price for their office suite.

If Libreoffice, in addition to not have feature parity with MS Office, now has a similar per-seat pricing... what exactly is the value proposition?

I don't know. What value does non-paying enterprise users give to Libreoffice?

Re: LibreOffice and the art of overreacting

#56

Post by forinti » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 1:23 PM UTC

nickserv wrote: post #38

forinti wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. A lot of people aren't even aware of the alternatives; 2. There is a lot of backlash from people afraid to learn new things; 3. Even in IT departments, people who are used to administering MS networks will fight against it; 4. Does LibreOffice have a marketing department? I wholeheartedly agree that governments should not only use Linux/LibreOffice in their bureaucracies, but that they should also finance and prom…

I think OP's point is that certain government agencies have already transitioned or are in the process of transitioning. As such it would make sense for them to fund LibreOffice, given that they now depend on it.

In my country, the government would have to get something in return (support would be the most obvious channel).

LibreOffice has some obvious disadvantages: it does not have an office in my country, it does not offer support, and it does not lobby the government.

Previous efforts to push more OSS into government were obliterated by right-wing governments. You can guess why.

Re: LibreOffice and the art of overreacting

#57

Post by Baguette5242 » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 1:27 PM UTC

Just made a donation. LibreOffice is not going in the direction I would like to, but this software is bringing so much to the community.

Re: LibreOffice and the art of overreacting

#58

Post by GuB-42 » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 1:34 PM UTC

dfox wrote: post #47

GuB-42 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the start page? To me, the start page is mostly just a giant "open" dialog, with huge buttons and not much functionality to it, there is more than enough space for a fundraiser. I don't even use it that much. When I want to open a file, I click on it in the file manager. When I want to create a new file, I launch the appropriate program (ex: LibreOffice Writer), which defaults to a blank document.

The telling part about uselessness of that window is that the most visible difference between StarOffice 5.2 and OpenOffice.org 1.0 was that equivalent of this window was removed. It got reintroduced probably because it makes packaging LibreOffice for macOS easier.

While it may not be essential for experienced users, I think it is very important for beginners.

Imagine you know nothing about LibreOffice, except that it is an office suite. You download the thing, install it and now what? Most people expect to have something called "LibreOffice" that can be launched and does something sensible. That's what the start page is for.

It is also the reason why it is a good spot for a fundraiser. It tells new users that LibreOffice takes donations, but it will not get in the way of experienced users who already know how LibreOffice work as they are likely to skip the start page entirely.

Re: LibreOffice and the art of overreacting

#59

Post by jorvi » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 1:41 PM UTC

ozim wrote: post #19

I disagree with take on Wikipedia or Wikimedia there was a lot of trash talk because they were totally obnoxious with their fundraising. I donated once to Wikipedia and then I was getting Jimmy Wales in my mailbox basically like everyday. That actually drove me away from ever wanting to donate to them. Then there was a lot of talking if they really are so much in need of money but that's different topic. In contrast…

I have this same feeling with donating blood (in most EU countries you don't get paid for this so it is completely charitable).

If you have donated blood, every 2-3 months they will send you an e-mail for a new donation cycle. That's fine. But if you don't respond, they will send another reminder. Then a text. Then they will call you.

Yes, you can just click the "Not this time" button, and click the reason for denying in their web portal, but sometimes you're busy.

I understand that this procedure probably nets them more donations, but the feeling of being lightly hounded never escapes me, and it makes me slightly less agreeable about donating, even if it would never be a reason for me to not donate.

Re: LibreOffice and the art of overreacting

#60

Post by wiseowise » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 1:51 PM UTC

smcleod wrote: post #22

Not related to donations but product wise Libreoffice just feels so clunky and Java-ish to use. I switched to OnlyOffice a year ago and other than its almost complete lack of settings it's been so much nicer to use.

> and other than its almost complete lack of settings

And being made by Russians and used by Russian government.