Collabora Clashes With LibreOffice Over Move To Revive LibreOffice Online (neowin.net) 30
Slashdot reader darwinmac writes: The Document Foundation (TDF), the organization behind LibreOffice, has decided to bring back its LibreOffice Online project which been inactive since 2022. Collabora, a company that was a major contributor to the original LibreOffice Online, is not pleased with this development. After the original project went dormant, Collabora forked the code and created its own product, Collabora Online.
Collaboras Michael Meeks, who also sits on the TDF board, reacted to the TDFs decision by saying that a fully supported, free online version already exists in the form of Collabora Online, and that resurrecting a dead repository makes little sense when an active, open community around the online suite already exists.
For now, The Document Foundation plans to reopen the old repository for new contributions. The organization has issued a warning that the code is not ready for live deployment and users should wait until the development team confirms it is stable.
Collaboras Michael Meeks, who also sits on the TDF board, reacted to the TDFs decision by saying that a fully supported, free online version already exists in the form of Collabora Online, and that resurrecting a dead repository makes little sense when an active, open community around the online suite already exists.
For now, The Document Foundation plans to reopen the old repository for new contributions. The organization has issued a warning that the code is not ready for live deployment and users should wait until the development team confirms it is stable.
I don't trust them (Score:4, Interesting)
Perhaps I'm being mildly alarmist, but I don't trust entities that seem to push for their fork of an open source project to dominate the project it was derived from. Looking at the development-chart based on StarOffice derivatives [wikipedia.org], that major version-jump that Libre had was steered by Collabora. It then makes me question if they had a hand in closing down the Libre online version specifically to steer users to their own system.
Re:I don't trust them (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not sure that is what they are saying here. They have a fork, they have been developing it, and now ODF has made another fork for some reason, ignoring all their work. On the fact of it, it makes little sense to ignore their work and create yet another open source project doing the same thing, splitting what limited resources are available.
I'm sure ODF has some reason, ideological or practical. Or maybe they just want their name on it. Anyone know? Of course I didn't read TFA.
Re: (Score:2)
it makes little sense to ignore their work and create yet another open source project doing the same thing, splitting what limited resources are available.
i'd rather they focus on maintenance and invest any free resources in new projects (and online work is a significant value) than in feature creep in the main application or worse, replicating dubious features or design decisions by the competition simply to chase a wider audience. that doesn't end well (see firefox for an egregious example).
also, the reverse is also true: why did collabora fork in the first place, splitting resources, instead of investing in the main line? because they focus on enterprise f
Re:I don't trust them (Score:5, Interesting)
From the public discussion thread, it appears the new Leader wants to take/own the Online solution away from Collabora... in the name of FOSS or something unfounded other nonsense.
IMHO, Libre is trying to undo their past decisions but doing it all wrong. In other words, replaced ineffective leadership with other ineffective leadership. Sigh.
Re: (Score:2)
Of course they're not saying that TWX said, TWX was speculating on why Collabora would be so anti- LOO in reality, not reading their press release.
And I must admit, I think TWX is probably right. We've seen a large number of groups that create office-friendly open source projects whose long term aim is to close the system and sell licenses. Zimbra is one example, which doesn't even have an offering suitable for small groups now, let alone an open source offering.
I know there'll be much gnashing of teeth if
Re: (Score:3)
Collabora was the main contributor to LOO.
Re:I don't trust them (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess that the question I'd have is "Do we really need yet another online office suite"?
Most of the world uses Office 365 and Google Workspace. Apple fans have their own iCloud alternatives, and we already have Collabora if you want an open source alternative.
Who is this software for, exactly?
Re:I don't trust them (Score:5, Insightful)
USA services can not be trusted.
Re: (Score:1)
The software is for human beings, who decide not to support US tech and Trumpism.
slam over the Collaboras Online code base (Score:1)
A dual at dawn (Score:2)
In future non-cooperation news ... (Score:3)
One of the warring factions renames their online product UnCollabora. :-)
What's the point? (Score:2, Flamebait)
Why do I need to have an internet connection to edit a document or spreadsheet and why does someone have to run a server to let me do that?
LibreOffice (fully) installed only takes up 721 MB and works great even on my crappy old flipbook.
Re: What's the point? (Score:3)
Collaboration.
Re: (Score:3)
It's useful for documents to be edited simultaneously or at anytime convenient, by a group of people spread over time zones.
There are certain documents which are best edited one person at a time (holding a lock on the file), for example re-reading and perfecting an academic publication along many weeks, each person reading it from top to bottom before sending it by e-mail to the next. But there are other occasions where everyone in the team should be able to contribute at the same time, for example a report
Re: (Score:2)
Or you could do it properly and use a text based format plus git.
Re: What's the point? (Score:2)
Because they want to? (Score:3)
Some may ask, why would The Document Foundation do this when Collabra already exists. Maybe because...they want to?
Why are there multiple Linux distros? Shouldn't one be enough and put all the development resources into that one? Because different developers and programmers wanted to!
Isn't that one of the reasons OSS exists, because users or programmers want to scratch an itch?
So what if TDF wants to resume an online collaboration environment. Isn't "because we want to" sufficient reason?
So where's the downloads? (Score:3)
I went to collabora.com and collaboraonline.com and I don't see where I can download their sources.
Since I don't seem to be able to do that, I want LibreOffice Online to come back. I have a use case for it.
Re:So where's the downloads? (Score:4, Informative)
https://www.collaboraonline.co... [collaboraonline.com] --> "Community" --> "Collabora Online Github" --> https://github.com/CollaboraOn... [github.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks. I had javascript turned off and most of their site worked, but not that menu.
Re: So where's the downloads? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Going round claiming people are nefariously hiding the sources
Webpages that aren't webpages don't deserve simps.
Paid devs (Score:2)
TDF enjoy wasting resources now (Score:2)
That would be a monumental waste of resource. We're using Collabora Online with nextcloud, it's well integrated and works well for quick edit, viewing, and some collaborative edits. Over the time it got serious performances and usability improvements. And all this without deviating much from the "original" idea of being LibreOffice (like) online.
At this point, why not either direct people to this existing, alive, useful project? Worst case scenario Collabora turns evil and decides to close it, in which c
Re: (Score:2)
Do you have direct experience with O365 or Google? How does Collabara compare? Is it a drop in replacement, or yet another 'not there yet, maybe in 5 years'?
Re: (Score:2)
I never touched 0365, but if your organization is already using nextcloud extensively, Collabora Online is trivial to setup and is available seamlessly from the files view, with collaborative editing built-in.
Because of the way it is designed (handling the file on a remote webdav with some permissions in the way) it might be possible to integrate with other solutions, but I never had to look into that either.
First! (Score:2)
This seems like the first I've ever heard of Collabra Online. Why have I not heard of it before? So I decided to find out more about it and see if it was worth testing , or just another piece of worthless shit.
Ooh, there's a paper comparing it to O365 and another comparing it with Google Docs, both of which I am familiar with. Oops, it's hidden behind a lead magnet. You have to submit an email address and they email the "paper" to you? FUCK THAT NONSENSE! Email me at SuckADick@collabora.com
I guess that thei