Office.eu launches as Europe's sovereign office platform • Hacker News Board

Re: Office.eu launches as Europe's sovereign office platform

#161

Post by StudyAnimal » Mon, Mar 16, 2026, 2:24 PM UTC

graypegg wrote: post #83

glenstein wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, the charitable interpretation is that office is very close to a default term for the category of the software. Open Office, Libre Office, WPS Office, Only Office, Polaris Office. One thing that may contribute to Europe's and the world's independence from Office is the notion that it's no longer a term distinctly associated with a Microsoft product. I don't entirely disagree though because they could have atta…

I think they could've worked a little harder to at least find a noun you could futz with so it has some commonality between european languages. "Office" is probably well known, but it doesn't "feel" very european to use a noun that's different from most other EU languages translation. Could be "Productiv" or something. It feels like the federal government here in Canada has a team of language nerds ready to smash tog…

bEUro

Re: Office.eu launches as Europe's sovereign office platform

#162

Post by graypegg » Mon, Mar 16, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

surgical_fire wrote: post #120

graypegg wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they could've worked a little harder to at least find a noun you could futz with so it has some commonality between european languages. "Office" is probably well known, but it doesn't "feel" very european to use a noun that's different from most other EU languages translation. Could be "Productiv" or something. It feels like the federal government here in Canada has a team of language nerds ready to smash tog…

Ireland is in EU. English is the primary language there (even though it is not the original language). Also, English does work as a sort of Lingua Franca across EU countries. Nothing wrong with it.

I know, that's what I meant by "most other EU language translations". But to me at least, this is a brandable name. Why not do something "unifying" across many european languages, not just something that works in a singular one?

It's more of a plea for creativity rather than pragmatism... but I'm arguing for creativity from a government agency... so I might be a bit off base here haha

Re: Office.eu launches as Europe's sovereign office platform

#163

Post by graypegg » Mon, Mar 16, 2026, 4:59 PM UTC

StudyAnimal wrote: post #161

graypegg wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they could've worked a little harder to at least find a noun you could futz with so it has some commonality between european languages. "Office" is probably well known, but it doesn't "feel" very european to use a noun that's different from most other EU languages translation. Could be "Productiv" or something. It feels like the federal government here in Canada has a team of language nerds ready to smash tog…

bEUro

I already love it like, 10x more than "office.eu"

Re: Office.eu launches as Europe's sovereign office platform

#164

Post by soco » Mon, Mar 16, 2026, 5:25 PM UTC

StudyAnimal wrote: post #161

graypegg wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they could've worked a little harder to at least find a noun you could futz with so it has some commonality between european languages. "Office" is probably well known, but it doesn't "feel" very european to use a noun that's different from most other EU languages translation. Could be "Productiv" or something. It feels like the federal government here in Canada has a team of language nerds ready to smash tog…

bEUro

I love the proposal, although in my ears it sounds like a drunk German trying their best.

Re: Office.eu launches as Europe's sovereign office platform

#165

Post by surgical_fire » Mon, Mar 16, 2026, 5:36 PM UTC

graypegg wrote: post #162

surgical_fire wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ireland is in EU. English is the primary language there (even though it is not the original language). Also, English does work as a sort of Lingua Franca across EU countries. Nothing wrong with it.

I know, that's what I meant by "most other EU language translations". But to me at least, this is a brandable name. Why not do something "unifying" across many european languages, not just something that works in a singular one? It's more of a plea for creativity rather than pragmatism... but I'm arguing for creativity from a government agency... so I might be a bit off base here haha

To be frank, any European language is a minority within the continent as a whole. English at least makes it marketable anywhere.

If I was the one to suggest a catchy name I would pick something in Latin or Greek.

Oficium has a nice ring to it.

Too bad ".um" TLD is tied to USA. ofici.um would be a sick URL/name.

Re: Office.eu launches as Europe's sovereign office platform

#166

Post by graypegg » Mon, Mar 16, 2026, 6:47 PM UTC

surgical_fire wrote: post #165

graypegg wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know, that's what I meant by "most other EU language translations". But to me at least, this is a brandable name. Why not do something "unifying" across many european languages, not just something that works in a singular one? It's more of a plea for creativity rather than pragmatism... but I'm arguing for creativity from a government agency... so I might be a bit off base here haha

To be frank, any European language is a minority within the continent as a whole. English at least makes it marketable anywhere. If I was the one to suggest a catchy name I would pick something in Latin or Greek. Oficium has a nice ring to it. Too bad ".um" TLD is tied to USA. ofici.um would be a sick URL/name.

Fair point! Yeah I guess I should sorta reframe my thinking as “something more creatively European”… It doesn’t have to be cross-lingual. (if that’s a word)

Oficium goes hard. I would absolutely push for that if I had any sort of involvement in this project.

Re: Office.eu launches as Europe's sovereign office platform

#167

Post by port11 » Mon, Mar 16, 2026, 10:03 PM UTC

Kudos for bringing more competition to the space, regardless of being a rebranding and etc.

Minor gripe: cookie notice despite using only required first-party cookies. You’re from here, come on, go read the GDPR!

Re: Office.eu launches as Europe's sovereign office platform

#168

Post by gettingoverit » Tue, Mar 17, 2026, 12:22 PM UTC

sgt wrote: post #10

> Office EU is a complete cloud-based office suite Issue is.. if you are a traditional MS Office "poweruser", the last thing you want to do is spend your days in a web browser. These apps should also be available as native apps, similar to MS Word, Excel, Pages, Keynote, etc.

I would rather say that lack of VBA support is an issue, and that it's an insurmountable task for alternative Offices to solve. Yes, and absurd one too.

As a "poweruser", I'd rather prefer to have all software available in the browser, open source, and hackable, than a native-based COM-ridden turd that only became more bloated and slow over the last couple of decades. (Yeah, and don't forget Ribbon UI!)

Unfortunately, Office EU is about politics, and not about hackable open-source software available with a single click.

Re: Office.eu launches as Europe's sovereign office platform

#169

Post by welzel » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 5:43 AM UTC

The much more interesting projects from Europe are created by https://schwarz-digits.de/en

3 Reasons: - a significant investment from the Schwarz Group - not just a marketing stunt, but a company with a long term vision to compete with big US tech - clearly targeted at B2B with strong ties into EU politics

Re: Office.eu launches as Europe's sovereign office platform

#170

Post by simonebrunozzi » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 9:42 AM UTC

I have used Nextcloud. If feels about 30-35 years behind the current state of product quality for Google Docs or Microsoft Office. Good luck Europe (that's us).