Mastodawn

Microsoft is introducing ads into a free version of Office, which seemingly only lets users save to OneDrive.

In other news, LibreOffice is also free, doesn't have ads, and lets you save your documents wherever you want. I use it every day for my work. It is available here:

https://www.libreoffice.org/

Home | LibreOffice - Free and private office suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible with Microsoft

Free office suite – the evolution of OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx. Updated regularly, community powered.

Russell Phillips Feb 24

@neil similarly, I also use it every day for work, and have done since 2018.

Maria Langer | 📝 🎬 ⚒️🛥️Feb 24

@neil @RPBook It's not "free" if there are ads and you can't save to your own media.

Russell Phillips Feb 24

@mlanger @neil presumably (I haven't used it, so can't say for sure) it's free as in beer? As in, there's no monetary cost to use it?

Maria Langer | 📝 🎬 ⚒️🛥️Feb 24

@RPBook @neil I'm just making (an obviously bad) joke.

@mlanger @RPBook @neil it isn't GNU/FreeBeer, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU+FreeBeer.

Jon Gerdes Feb 25

@mlanger @RPBook @neil

Maria

The free/libre distinction when it comes to computer software is a 30+ year old argument!

I think you are correct in noting that the notion of free has been co-opted, bent, twisted and frankly fucked up by numerous marketing departments. Note how I put additional words in your mouth there 8)

The issue here is not very nuanced: MS (int al) would like you to go all in on their "cloud" - they get you to pay them a monthly subscription to run their software and store your data - regardless of the device you use.

They will also get to read your stuff and use that to generate further profit by selling interesting information to other organisations.

Boring old privacy advocates like me (I do own a Microsoft Silver Partner) don't like that future vision.

Please ask questions here about privacy and how to maintain it. You will probably get a useful answer eventually!

Cheers
Jon

Servelan Feb 24

@neil I would also add that if you decided to stick with an older version of Office for whatever reason, LibreOffice also opens more recent versions of Excel and Word docs.

@servelan
And still you get massive formatting issues, if you work on these documents with MS Office and LibreOffice.
MS Office even destroys The formatting of Open Document files, but does The same with e.g. .docx files or files with Macros like .docm .
I test this regularly and it's a pain.
Just with AutoCAD and converting to free formats and back is a pain.
Sadly.

Personally it's LibreOffice or aonlyOffice for me, but at work it's MS Office, sadly.
@neil

Fancy Pants 🧐🩲Feb 24

@neil Thanks to LibreOffice, and before it OpenOffice, I haven't had to use Microsoft software at all my entire adult life.

(Of course Linux desktops had a large part to play in avoiding MS too.)

Fat_Farang Feb 24

@fancypants @neil I do not understand why people and governments continue to pay for Windows products. Just think of the tech infrastructure poor countries could build with open source software.

China has given 2026 as the date that Windoze is gone from government computers in favor of KylinOS. It will also be made available to other governments and us under their BRI as openKylin. Might be the needed impetuous (and funds) for dumping proprietary software.

calsnoboarder Feb 25

@Fat_Farang @fancypants @neil If the FBI is to be believed, China steals at least 80% of their technology from the West. So even if they move away from Microsoft Products in the future, it's still likely that any innovations China develops will be "inspired" by Microsoft.

Fat_Farang Feb 25

@calsnoboarder @fancypants @neil KylinOS is Debian based using the Linux kernel. It ships with a desktop environment which supposedly looks and acts roughly like Windows 7. It is soon to be replaced by UKUI, a homegrown desktop. I imagine replacement also applies to the servers as well; probably using Debian also.

Laurens 🐐Feb 25

@Fat_Farang @calsnoboarder @fancypants @neil Undoubtedly, China's 'free' OS will be chucked full of spyware and therefore aggressively marketed towards those poor countries you mentioned, in which China has more than a passing interest because of their mineral and fossil fuel wealth.

(Which doesn't mean Western OS marketing is any better, of course, with the practices of Microsoft as a prime example.)

Fat_Farang Feb 25

@ElBeeToots @calsnoboarder @fancypants @neil Spyware is hard to hide in open source, unlike proprietary garbage. How many backdoors have Windoze and AWS built in for US intelligence use? Apple just ceded to the UK government's (5-Eyes) demands to weaken their encryption.

calsnoboarder Feb 26

@Fat_Farang @ElBeeToots @fancypants @neil I am not arguing which platform is safer or more secure...If I were smuggling guns to and from the middle east and keeping records in an Excel spreadsheet on the cloud, I would undoubtedly keep your comment in mind... Until that day, however, I'll stick with what works for me until my clients stop using Office 365 or Google Docs.

Paul Martin Feb 24

@fancypants@toot.kiwi @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk Somewhere I have a StarOffice CD. (The origin of both OpenOffice and LibreOffice.)

Fancy Pants 🧐🩲Feb 24

@nowster Now that's impressive!

Paul Martin Feb 24

@fancypants@toot.kiwi Yes, still got it!

Paul Martin Feb 24

@nowster@fedi.nowster.me.uk @fancypants@toot.kiwi Alt text got mangled.

The CD says it supports Solaris 2.5.1, 2.6, Solaris 7 for SPARC™ and Intel; Linux; OS2 (sic); and Windows 95, 98, NT

The date on the CD is August 1999.

@neil LibreOffice is awesome. I have used it for years. I have used Microsoft office when I was in school and it was free for students. I hated one drive and how hard office pushed to save everything there. I like to keep things local.

calsnoboarder Feb 25

@culper @neil, for what it is worth, I use MS 365 and Google Docs regularly because that's what my clients use. However, regardless of the platform, I have an extra step in my process. I save the document to the cloud, and then, when I am done, I save a copy to my local client folder. I have lost too many cloud-stored files to ignore the value of redundancy.

ch0ccyra1n is leaving fedi soon Feb 24

@neil but how else will I stay up-to-date on the latest ads everyone's complaining about? /s

Stephen Borrill Feb 24

@neil if they're anything like most mobile ads, it'll advertise other office suites with a load of fake gameplay

Christiane Gante Feb 24

@neil I'm team OpenOffice. But just cause I'm used to it since 2000 and, in my age, it's hard to get used to sth new.

joosteto Feb 24

@historiavocis @neil
First release of openoffice was in 2002, the final release in 2011. It has now been obsolete longer than it ever was active.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org - Wikipedia

Christiane Gante Feb 25

@joosteto @neil oh, you're right. Before that, I used StarWriter and co... but as far as I know, OpenOffice was built on that foundation...

Christiane Gante Feb 25

@joosteto @neil Obsolete goes for OpenOffice.org.. It's Apache OpenOffice, now and still exists...

joosteto Feb 25

@historiavocis @neil
Ah, thanks, didn't know that.
I now see they even link to Apache OpenOffice from the https://www.openoffice.org/ website. So confusing!

Apache OpenOffice - Official Site - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

The official home page of the Apache OpenOffice open source project, home of OpenOffice Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw and Base.

Laurens 🐐Feb 25

@joosteto @historiavocis @neil Apache OpenOffice is still obsolescent. It has a number of long-running unfixed security issues.

The only OpenOffice fork that is maintained regularly (and therefore has bugs and issues fixed asap) is LibreOffice.

edit: clarified my response

Christiane Gante Feb 25

@ElBeeToots @joosteto @neil Yes, perhaps I should finally switch to that...

LibreOffice Feb 25

@historiavocis @ElBeeToots @joosteto @neil Apache OpenOffice has multiple, unfixed security issues over a year old, so it's strongly recommended to update to an actively maintained successor project like LibreOffice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_OpenOffice#Security

Apache OpenOffice - Wikipedia

Laurens 🐐Feb 25

@libreoffice That was what I was referring to with that mention of 'obsolescent'. I'll clarify it in my previous response.

@historiavocis @joosteto @neil

Christiane Gante Feb 25

@libreoffice @ElBeeToots @joosteto @neil Thanks,
I've just installed Libre Office 😀

LibreOffice Feb 25

@historiavocis Hope you like it!

Christiane Gante Feb 25

@libreoffice looks quite like what I'm used to from OpenOffice.

Bela Lugosi's Head Feb 24

@neil how does this even work? If you have a file on OneDrive, you can download it in your browser, you can email it somewhere. You can get it off OneDrive.

Andrew Briscoe Feb 24

@jimbob I read the original source. You can just download from OneDrive. There were tons of limitations including Windows only and line spacing, headers, and footers being “premium features.” Not sure if I could even write my current resume with it. I use LibreOffice.

@neil I've been a LibreOffice user for years and will never go back. It's office 2003 without all the garbage.

狐ヴィクシー Feb 24

@neil MS Activation Scripts is also a free download on GitHub 😊

Dave Warnock Feb 24

@neil I'm so happy that since 1998 I haven't had to use Microsoft Office (except to help other people on their computers).
StarOffice, then OpenOffice and for a long time LibreOffice.

Steve Scott Feb 24

@neil I guess that's a sort of a compete with Google docs.

There isn't much of the Microsoft ecosystem I want to be in these days...

@neil LibreOffice can even open ms office documents. Works on both windows and Linux. Very good free product. Includes alternatives to all office products.

Reiner Jung Feb 24

@neil LibreOffice is good enough to power for example the government of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is most likely good enough for everyone else.

@prefec2 @neil the italian military also uses it exclusively

Catharina Bethlehem ☑️ Cath Feb 24

@neil Best to stop using closed Microsoft software at all and switch to #linux

It's not that hard.

#ubuntu #FreeSoftware #OpenSource

DeterioratedStucco Feb 24

@neil
Desperate to train their AI.

Chris Mackay 🇨🇦Feb 24

@neil Apple’s iWork suite (Pages, Numbers, & Keynote) remains free for those with Apple hardware. No ads, no limitations (save where you like), & XML-based file formats (right-click, open package, everything is right there, including text & embedded media — no lock-in).

@tantramar @neil It would be nice if Apple made a version of iWork for Windows and sold it. I’d say the same for Linux, but there’s no way it could compete with LibreOffice there.

Chris Mackay 🇨🇦Feb 25

@freeagent @neil I haven’t tried it, but do the versions of Pages, Numbers, & Keynote on icloud.com work from Windows/Linux? (They don’t work from iOS or iPadOS, but they do from macOS.)

@tantramar @neil I wasn’t aware that there were web app versions of iWork, so I don’t know 😅

@tantramar @neil The lock-in is hardware based.

Chris Mackay 🇨🇦Feb 25

@woe2you @neil Not if it works via iCloud.com (unless by “hardware lock-in” you mean “must have internet-connected hardware”). 🤣

I have been using Open Office/Libre Office in production for over a decade.

It annoys the bejesus out of me when I have to work with the corporate slop documents
(to borrow the term from the AI lovers)

Old Man in the Shoe Feb 24

> slop

don't

@neil the enshitification path sure is well trodden.

Brad Thornborrow Feb 24

@neil Unfortunately, it also looks like it belongs in 1999. There are many other better products out there like WPS and OnlyOffice we could recommend.

@neil I tried to convert a few nonprofits I was at to use LibreOffice, but it was typically Google Drive or Microsoft Office

I did manage to host a few videos and files on my NextCloud when storage was getting slim on the company G Drive account.

@neil Can't wait to hear about malvertising campaigns impersonating Office functionality

Written Tales Feb 24

@neil I moved over to Libre also and canceled Microsoft. I want to support the small guys.

Ned Hamson Feb 24

@neil have been using happily for ten years