Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

LibreOffice tells businesses: Get off Community version, you are hurting devs

zdnet.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 100 posts

Re: LibreOffice tells businesses: Get off Community version, you are hurting devs

#51

Post by dazc »

Closi wrote: post #38
nprateem wrote: post #20

Well it's hardly surprising given the design of their web site. I've used libreoffice for years and have never noticed the 'for business' link before. Add to that that if you go to download Libre Office and end up on some site trying to flog you something like collabra or whatever, it sounds like you've gone to the wrong place. Even if you get past that barrier, the most obvious button is 'try collabra office' which…

Absolutely - the collabora office site is terrible! They seem to have some sort of cloud version too but then don’t mention the price of it at all. The whole site looks sketchy and unofficial. No support as standard, without paying thousands of pounds a year (Microsoft offers great SMB support in my experience). Maybe they should look introspectively at why nobody wants to sign up rather than blaming the users. Users…

Sadly, for Libre Office, the value is 'free'. And, the competition in the 'free' space nowadays is pretty good enough.

Re: LibreOffice tells businesses: Get off Community version, you are hurting devs

#52

Post by TAForObvReasons »

indymike wrote: post #45
SloopJon wrote: post #24

I looked for ZDNet's source to see where it was getting such tone-deaf and counter-productive messaging. It's from the actual release announcement discussed earlier this week! https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2021/02/03/libreoff... Open source sustainability is a real problem, but spending the first seven paragraphs of a release announcement berating a bunch of your users as freeloaders is a really bad look.

A couple of thoughts: Many enterprises are moving away from thick client office software and moving to browser based office software with cloud backends. Google apps, Zoho, OnlyOffice, Bitrix, and Microsoft all have very usable cloud offerings. Collabora is trying to build an LibreOffice based cloud offering, but LibreOfice remains old-style "thick client" software. Apache OpenOffice is still available and free. Libr…

Given the sheer number of companies still using Office 2010 or 2007 or older, thick clients aren't the problem.

A huge part of the LibreOffice value proposition is price. And choosing free LibreOffice over paid Office is a lot easier than choosing a paid option. Once you open the conversation about paying, Office is a no-brainer and you need a compelling reason to switch to something else.

Re: LibreOffice tells businesses: Get off Community version, you are hurting devs

#53

Post by dsr_ »

ksec wrote: post #49
indymike wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple of thoughts: Many enterprises are moving away from thick client office software and moving to browser based office software with cloud backends. Google apps, Zoho, OnlyOffice, Bitrix, and Microsoft all have very usable cloud offerings. Collabora is trying to build an LibreOffice based cloud offering, but LibreOfice remains old-style "thick client" software. Apache OpenOffice is still available and free. Libr…

>Apache Foundation I can understand Oracle, but why Apache?

I don't think that there's a problem trusting the Apache Foundation. I think that under the Apache Foundation's supervision, OpenOffice did nearly nothing in the last five years, while LibreOffice fixed bugs and added features.

Re: LibreOffice tells businesses: Get off Community version, you are hurting devs

#54

Post by johannes1234321 »

dsr_ wrote: post #53
ksec wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Apache Foundation I can understand Oracle, but why Apache?

I don't think that there's a problem trusting the Apache Foundation. I think that under the Apache Foundation's supervision, OpenOffice did nearly nothing in the last five years, while LibreOffice fixed bugs and added features.

Libre office was actually created earlier, while Sun was still at the helm. When Oracle took over it got more mindshare only a short bit later Oracle "donated" it to the ASF.

Re: LibreOffice tells businesses: Get off Community version, you are hurting devs

#55

Post by core-questions »

dsr_ wrote: post #53
ksec wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Apache Foundation I can understand Oracle, but why Apache?

I don't think that there's a problem trusting the Apache Foundation. I think that under the Apache Foundation's supervision, OpenOffice did nearly nothing in the last five years, while LibreOffice fixed bugs and added features.

There is a long history of open source projects going to Apache being like sending an old racehorse 'to the farm'.

Re: LibreOffice tells businesses: Get off Community version, you are hurting devs

#57

Post by signal11 »

To me, it’s not surprising that businesses who are reluctant to pay for Office or Google Apps, are also reluctant to pay for commercial support for Libre Office.

Very few businesses stay away from proprietary software because of philosophical disagreements over licensing. Most just don’t want to spend money if they can get away with it.

Of course, we know that most businesses are not like this and do pay for perceived value. But I’m concerned that TDF are chasing a market that’s deeply reluctant to dig into its pockets.

Re: LibreOffice tells businesses: Get off Community version, you are hurting devs

#58

Post by chiefalchemist »

indymike wrote: post #48
chiefalchemist wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised privacy and security isn't more of a concern. Howcan they effectively say, "Do whatever you want. It doesn't matter to HQ."?

Why should it matter to HQ? The result of the work probably matters (i.e. a document), but the software used to create it? Doesn't really matter so long as it can be read. There are so many ways to do IT than the old central control of all the things model from the 90s.

Because...Security? That's not an issue? Imagine one unintend breach and poof! customer data splattered across the (dark) web.

I can't imagine how security and privacy are of no concern. Has that been cleared by legal? Or is it laziness and/or negligence?

Re: LibreOffice tells businesses: Get off Community version, you are hurting devs

#59

Post by buovjaga »

2Gkashmiri wrote: post #2

This was bound to happen and I feel sad. I contributed my inputs to the discussion threat that raised the issue of "community" branding. What I said was: keep the current libreoffice as is because that is what it is. Additionally, go and create another "business office" or whatever you care about but leave libreoffice as is. The businesses behind this move, collabora et al see libreoffice as another "market" they nee…

> During this time, I learned that all the "donations" to tdf are used for "conferences and shit"

I am paid by TDF to onboard new contributors. I think it is going rather well, with many FOSS outsiders being lured in.

Conference expenses are a small part of the budget. A software project is much more than pure development.

Re: LibreOffice tells businesses: Get off Community version, you are hurting devs

#60

Post by MikusR »

buovjaga wrote: post #59
2Gkashmiri wrote: post #2

This was bound to happen and I feel sad. I contributed my inputs to the discussion threat that raised the issue of "community" branding. What I said was: keep the current libreoffice as is because that is what it is. Additionally, go and create another "business office" or whatever you care about but leave libreoffice as is. The businesses behind this move, collabora et al see libreoffice as another "market" they nee…

> During this time, I learned that all the "donations" to tdf are used for "conferences and shit" I am paid by TDF to onboard new contributors. I think it is going rather well, with many FOSS outsiders being lured in. Conference expenses are a small part of the budget. A software project is much more than pure development.

So you are paid to lure people to do free work for commercial companies?
Post reply on HN