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back to article Document Foundation pledges Office 365 and Google Docs challenger

A hosted edition of LibreOffice is planned as a free and open alternative to Office 365 and Google Docs by year's end. The suite would provide online editing and sharing of documents written using the free, open-source suite. The Document Foundation said on Wednesday that LibreOffice contributor Collabora is working with …

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  1. NoneSuch Silver badge
    WTF?

    How are they going to pay for the back-end of all this? Once it takes off there will be millions in expenditure. Where is the income to offset that?

    2 3 Reply
    1. Electron Shepherd
      Reply Icon

      Revenue will be obtained in the usual way

      It's a modern service running "in the cloud", so it'll be splattered with adverts.

      Just imagine the targeting opportunities if you have access to someone's entire document collection...

      2 5 Reply
    2. MrXavia
      Reply Icon

      If its open source, which it sounds like it will be, I'll just host my own server, I already have one for files, DLNA plus numerous other things.

      That is why I like open source cloud products, I can run my own service behind my own firewall, and grant access to people in my family who will connect via a VPN.

      13 0 Reply

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. 420Penguin

    A Hardware Alternative Too?

    It's my own little fantasy, but this would be an excellent foundation for an truly "free-as-in-freedom" Chromebook alternative running Firefox OS on open hardware which included more storage and a real printing sub-system.

    3 0 Reply
    1. getHandle
      Reply Icon

      Re: A Hardware Alternative Too?

      You had me until "Firefox OS"...

      4 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Holmes

      Re: A Hardware Alternative Too?

      My understanding is that Firefox OS is not free as in freedom. Lot of discussion about that over on Phoronix the last couple of years. Seems you have to go with Replicant if you want a truly free as in freedom OS for mobile. It's possible if the hardware were fully open, as you say, then Firefox OS could do away with all binary blobs.

      0 0 Reply
    3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: A Hardware Alternative Too?

      Any free OS would suffice as the basis.

      1 0 Reply
  3. Change can be good
    Happy

    I feel ODF support will be one of its greatest features.

    I already use Office Online and Google Docs, now a 3rd will be added to the mix.

    Very good development.

    Thanks Team LO Online.

    3 0 Reply
  4. wolfetone Silver badge

    Can they fix the compatibility with the Office 2007+ versions of .docx, .xlsx, etc first? I think the wider internet would appreciate that more first than a self hosted/paid for hosted version of LibreOffice.

    0 1 Reply
    1. Phuq Witt
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      @wolfetone

      *"...Can they fix the compatibility with the Office 2007+ versions of .docx, .xlsx, etc first?"*

      To be fair, even Microsoft Office can't always open .docx documents. In fact I've found that LibreOffice tends to manage to open more of them than Microsoft Office itself does.

      15 3 Reply
    2. Dave Lawton
      Reply Icon

      @wolfetone

      Have you logged the problems in the bug tracker ?

      https://bugs.documentfoundation.org//

      2 0 Reply
  5. Necronomnomnomicon

    Can't wait

    I use OwnCloud for my personal stuff, but I have to go back to Google Docs for web-based spreadsheeting because there isn't an OwnCloud module for that. Their Writer equivalent is OK, but not great. LibreOffice as an OwnCloud app would be a real winner.

    2 0 Reply
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nice but...

    What's the benefit over running LibreOffice desktop app and saving your docs in a Dropbox or Drive folder?

    0 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Holmes

      Re: Nice but...

      @AC - "What's the benefit over running LibreOffice desktop app and saving your docs in a Dropbox or Drive folder?"

      A little thing called "mobile", I would imagine.

      0 0 Reply
      1. Dan 55 Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Nice but...

        In other news...

        http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/03/libreoffice-in-the-browser-revealed-in-2011-finally-close-to-reality/

        0 0 Reply
    2. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Nice but...

      Collaboration?

      2 0 Reply
      1. BongoJoe
        Reply Icon

        Re: Nice but...

        Is that with, or without, GCHQ/NSA?

        1 0 Reply
    3. nineworlds
      Reply Icon

      Re: Nice but...

      When you are sharing a Dropbox folder and someone saves their document over yours while you're still editing, you have to work out the differences and merge them. Online app suites like Google Docs or Office 365 avoid this problem with everyone seeing the edits of other collaborators as they're made.

      0 0 Reply

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