LibreOffice9h ago
Dear Europe: Germany has shown the way forward, by making the Open Document Format (ODF) mandatory within its sovereign digital infrastructure. Now it's time for other countries to do the same! https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/03/23/dear-europe/ #foss #opensource #freesoftware #openstandards
Show threadJonXioN9h ago
@libreoffice I just have one question. What’s the must to use the open document formats instead of the ones from Microsoft, even if you open them in LibreOffice ?
Show threadnicole mikołajczyk8h ago
@jonxion @libreoffice because ODF is the standard that’s actually meant to be implementable by different office suites. So-called OOXML standard is overly complex and favorises Microsoft software by design.
Show threadDavid Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)

@mkljczk @jonxion @libreoffice

It's been many years since I actually read the specifications, but I was not convinced that ODF was particularly good in this regard this when I did.

OOXML had a bunch of things like the infamous 'typeset like Word 97' entry, but they were clearly marked in OOXML as for legacy compatibility (like emoji in Unicode, until the Unicode Consortium went silly). It also has a bunch of things like assuming everyone knows how the Windows GDI drawing model works. It is an objectively terrible standard.

ODF and OOXML were both rushed through standardisation too quickly and both were bad specifications.

ODF was much shorter than OOXML and that was partly because a lot of things were underspecified, people implementing it just did what OpenOffice did and had to use OpenOffice as a reference because it was the only way to know what you needed.

It is uncontroversial to say that OOXML is terrible. But it is a logical fallacy to say 'X is bad, Y is not X, therefore Y is good.

4:56pmWeb
Show thread⠠⠵ avuko2h ago

@david_chisnall @mkljczk @jonxion @libreoffice No "layout before format before content" document type is ever good. But that's besides the point at this stage. Really happy at least one more vendor lock-in tool is off the table.

Now for the rest of Europe to truly adopt this (both odt and ods).