LibreOffice calls out EU officials for using Microsoft Excel, ignoring ODF

[Parkinsond]

The Document Foundation (TDF), in a continuation of its near-religious crusade against Microsoft and its OOXML format, has turned its attention to the European Commission (EC), accusing the body of "structural bias" in how it collects public feedback for the new Cyber Resilience Act (CRA).

TDF thinks it is quite contradictory that the very commission drafting these rules has completely failed to follow its own advice. The EC has spent years promoting open source and digital sovereignty while forcing citizens who want to provide feedback on its policies into a corner where they must use Microsoft Excel (.xlsx).

The European Commission is the third major target TDF has called out this year. Before this, the foundation had gone for the throat of OnlyOffice, accusing it of being "fake open source" for heavily marketing compatibility and defaulting to Microsoft's popular Office formats (.xlsx, .docx, and .pptx), instead of ODF.

And if you're one of those people who think that Office is superior to LibreOffice because of its ribbon interface, the TDF thinks you're wrong and that you only tolerate that layout due to a psychological normalization effect forced by Microsoft.

https://www.neowin.net/news/libreoffice-calls-out-the-european-commission-for-using-microsoft-excel-ignoring-odf/

 

[Zero Knowledge]

*SIGH* if you fixed your compatibility and formating issues then maybe everyone would use LibreOffice. reality is different, MS Office still works.

 

[Parkinsond]

MS Office still works

Not just works, it is the "reference standard", every alternative is measured against MS Office.

 

[Zero Knowledge]

Not just works, it is the "reference standard", every alternative is measured against MS Office.

True. Besides with A.i. integration into M365 and MS Office there is no other choice now. For Excel A.I. is a godsend and helps reduce wasted time.

 

[n8chavez]

True. It sucks, but it's true.

 

[Parkinsond]

True. Besides with A.i. integration into M365 and MS Office there is no other choice now. For Excel A.I. is a godsend and helps reduce wasted time.

AI is forced by all alternative suites (WPS and OO), except for LO.

 

[Parkinsond]

True. It sucks, but it's true.

LO wasted the chance by trying to incorporate as much features as they can, without keeping them bug-free.
If they invested in less stable features and a better UI, they would have a better share of users.

 

[Sorrento]

It really does depend how & for what reason we use any Office program, in my case I use office programs occasionally & don't have a 365 subscription anymore, I would imagine MS does all it can to make sure users are locked into its system, that is how things are these days, why would a money making enterprise do anything else?

 

[TairikuOkami]

*SIGH* if you fixed your compatibility and formating issues then maybe everyone would use LibreOffice. reality is different, MS Office still works.

Indeed, a few years ago, our company switched to LibreOffice, but recently our app was updated to import an excel sheet and it had to be done using MS Excel.
IT guy was very unhappy, because he would have to justify buying a licence just for a one simple step, but after a week of trying he gave up and installed MS Office.

 

[ErzCrz]

Just loathed to pay £80+ a year just to use a productivity program. I don't need the OneDrive or , just security updates but yeah, for what I use it for, I'll stick with LibreOffice unless I find a better 100% free alternative or one for a one off payment.

 

[devjitdutta2025]

WPS office is the closest to MS Office for my particular needs

 

[TairikuOkami]

WPS office is the closest to MS Office for my particular needs

But the amount of ADs and promotions, when using a free version, is insane. I used to disable/block them, but I just could not keep up anymore.

 

[Parkinsond]

It really does depend how & for what reason we use any Office program

Even for simple text editing, I get scambled formatting when docx created by any alternative opened by MS Office.

 

[Parkinsond]

WPS office is the closest to MS Office for my particular needs

My first rank of alternaives too, inspite of some unpleasant behavior.

 

[Parkinsond]

But the amount of ADs and promotions, when using a free version, is insane. I used to disable/block them, but I just could not keep up anymore.

Easily blocked by firewall; I did not encounter one ad.

 

[n8chavez]

WPS office is the closest to MS Office for my particular needs

Ashampoo Office / Softmaker Office is very good too, with near perfect compatibility.

 

[Parkinsond]

Softmaker Office

No pdf viewer
Very limited features (you cannot even change docx background color)
UI buttons are very small regardless of Display zooming of Windows

 

[TairikuOkami]

No pdf viewer

Office suites should not mess with PDF, it is like Edge pretending to be PDF reader, it is an entirely different concept. Sumatra for security, PDF-XChange Editor for features.

 

[n8chavez]

No pdf viewer
Very limited features (you cannot even change docx background color)
UI buttons are very small regardless of Display zooming of Windows

You absolutely can change docx backgrounds. In fact there's an entire dark view for all their app. (Not GUI, but dark view that changes all the backgrounds to black and all the text to lighter readable colors.) Look at revisions 1204 and 1208 here.

 

[n8chavez]

Office suites should not mess with PDF, it is like Edge pretending to be PDF reader, it is an entirely different concept. Sumatra for security, PDF-XChange Editor for features.

I agree, somewhat. This is what makes OnlyOffice very cool.