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France's homegrown open source online office suite

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11–20 of 367 posts

Re: France's homegrown open source online office suite

#11
post #6

What's the value of it being online? Surely being able to run it as a native application would be preferable?

There are definitely some benefits! Installation and updates become trivial. Also, collaboration is generally easier, because all you have to do is send a link.

These are the same reasons Google Docs took off, and they are real advantages.

Re: France's homegrown open source online office suite

#12
post #6

What's the value of it being online? Surely being able to run it as a native application would be preferable?

Managing documents on the back end can be very sensible, depending on your work context. Not having to deal with installations is also a real advantage in a heterogeneous environment with a mix of US-controlled operating systems and unencumbered OSes. It also makes migration between them easier, since you only need a common browser to be supported.

Re: France's homegrown open source online office suite

#13
post #5

Very nice. You (at least I) would not think of France as having a good Open Source presence, but they do. Over the years I have heard of many good Open Source Projects coming out of France. I sometimes wonder if it is because of French vs English Language were you hardly hear of their projects in English speaking Countries.

I think an unsung hero in making open source broadly known and adopted in France is Framasoft [https://framasoft.org/en/], a non-profit association. They have since many many years an initiative to de-google internet and provide free and hosted alternatives and resources.

Re: France's homegrown open source online office suite

#16

For those unaware, this is likely in response to the current US political crisis in which the US might decide at any point spike the prices or stop offering licenses on Microsoft etc products.

The first version for the "docs" program was released in May 2024

Re: France's homegrown open source online office suite

#17
post #5

Very nice. You (at least I) would not think of France as having a good Open Source presence, but they do. Over the years I have heard of many good Open Source Projects coming out of France. I sometimes wonder if it is because of French vs English Language were you hardly hear of their projects in English speaking Countries.

Two words: Fabrice Bellard

Re: France's homegrown open source online office suite

#18

For those unaware, this is likely in response to the current US political crisis in which the US might decide at any point spike the prices or stop offering licenses on Microsoft etc products.

This already happened when USA sanctioned ICC judge, blocking them from american services. With such special leadership I will not surprised USA to block politicians or citizens with influence from EU that do not align with extreme right views,

Re: France's homegrown open source online office suite

#19
post #5

Very nice. You (at least I) would not think of France as having a good Open Source presence, but they do. Over the years I have heard of many good Open Source Projects coming out of France. I sometimes wonder if it is because of French vs English Language were you hardly hear of their projects in English speaking Countries.

The French have amazing technologists, I worked with many stunningly brilliant French men and women across 3D gaming, film and media production. However, culturally they end up in a little "French pod" when not working in France because they know how to and really enjoy vigorous debate. If one cannot hold their own in their free wheeling intellectualized conversation and debate style, one might end up feeling insulted and stop hanging out with the frogs. There also seems to be a deep cultural understanding of design that is not present in people, generally, from other nations. That creates some interesting perspectives in software interactive design.

Re: France's homegrown open source online office suite

#20
post #7
post #5

Very nice. You (at least I) would not think of France as having a good Open Source presence, but they do. Over the years I have heard of many good Open Source Projects coming out of France. I sometimes wonder if it is because of French vs English Language were you hardly hear of their projects in English speaking Countries.

Isn’t VLC French also?

OCaml and early Prolog are from France:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCaml

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Colmerauer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Institute_for_Research_... (INRIA)

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