Now, it has shifted its crosshairs to a supposed ally, OnlyOffice, explicitly labeling the rival productivity suite as “fake open-source.” According to TDF, OnlyOffice partners with Microsoft to enforce vendor lock-in by defaulting to Microsoft file formats instead of championing open standards.
Libreoffice, I love you, but this is a really bad look for you if your beef with OnlyOffice is just that it defaults to saving files in Microsoft format and you’re making this much stink about it.
I mean, that’s significant enough to me. Open Source software defaulting, and thereby, promoting proprietary formats? Boo.
We need less proprietary formats, not more.
We need less proprietary formats, not more.
Software is a tool and should not be treated like a religion.
We need more users of open source non-commercial software. If we alienate all of those new users coming from commercial software because of some purity test, then we’ll never get there. If defaulting to a commercial file format for Onlyoffice convinces new users that its a viable alternative to Microsoft because it can save files in formats they are used to and still work with people they send files too that are still using Microsoft, then thats a win.
A more savvy user can choose to change the default saving file format as they progress away from commercial software.
Never a single “normie” that ever tried LibreOffice complained that “it doesn’t save to Microsoft format by default”.
They just say “I can’t find things in this interface” because they have been accostumed to Microsoft’s UI. That’s where OnlyOffice comes in. But it should definitely save new files as OpenDocument files by default. Otherwise, what a shitty move.
I’m trying to move my dad from Windows 10 to Linux and that is precisely what he said. He is used to the Ribbon UI in MS Office and can’t find his way in LibreOffice.
Never a single “normie” that ever tried LibreOffice complained that “it doesn’t save to Microsoft format by default”.
I not sure you deal with many “normies” then. They wouldn’t even form that statement you’re making. “Normies” don’t even know what a default saving format is. I have firsthand experience with multiple “normies” that have had this exact resulting problem with OpenOffice (before the Libreoffice fork). The way it manifested was a situation where they say this:
“I tried OpenOffice and I was able to create my document just fine, but when I sent it to my coworker/friend/teacher they couldn’t open it (because it was an ODF file) or the formatting was all screwed up when they did, so I gave up on the software and went back to Microsoft”
Sure, they could have likely saved their file in an MS format for better compatibility when they sent it but these these weren’t savvy users that even though to change the file format when saving because thats never something they had to do when they used Microsoft Office.
So if you want to get non-savvy users to adopt open source, its not a bad idea to meet them closer to where they are. Am I saying Libreoffice should change default saving format? No. But Libreoffice criticizing another open source product where they chose to is what is the bad look.
