Isaac Barona1d ago
LibreOffice

Euro-Office: sovereign in name only, or in reality too?

The announcement of the Euro-Office is welcome news. The coalition is credible, the governance is sound and the timing is perfect. Europe needs office software, and we are delighted to see such significant players allocating resources to make it happen.
However, we have a question. It is not meant to be hostile, but it is the only question that matters.

What is the native document format of Euro-Office?

https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/04/01/euro-office/

Apr 1 at 8:37amWeb
Show threadkravietz 🦇1d ago

@libreoffice

Regarding this argument:

OOXML is a format designed, controlled and managed solely by Microsoft

OOXML is registered as ISO/IEC 29500 since 2008, the same as ODF which is ISO/IEC 26300. I’m not supporter of Microsoft in any form and I’m aware of their lobbying going well beyond standardisation, but let’s stick to the facts.

Show threadlxskllr1d ago

@kravietz @libreoffice

Is LO's statement incorrect? Does anyone but MS design, manage, and control OOXML? Pretty sure nobody but MS cares about OOXML. It's only supported by programs other than MSOffice because their software became the defacto standard.

I'm not a programmer, but it's my understanding ODF is much simpler to implement. "Standards" aren't equal, and some only are due to fraud. The best standard should be default and required. Formats beyond that are user convenience only.

Show threadkravietz 🦇1d ago

@lxskllr

The whole point of international standard like ISO is that you give away control of the standard to an international body, relieved of patents, licenses and… full control of the standard, typical for proprietary formats.

In the latter, you just change the format, update you product and you’re obliged to tell noone. However if MS wants to update OOXML post 2008, they must follow the ISO path, which in theory everyone else can use to influence the standard, and then all changes must be documented and published. Granted the painful path all products attempting to process the old DOC format went through, this is a huge change already.

That’s why I disagree with this “managed solely by Microsoft” because this would imply there’s no legal difference between the before-ISO and after-ISO standard, which is obviously not true.

@libreoffice

Show threadAdsooi1d ago

@kravietz
LibreOffice has a whole blog post on the issues of OOXML as a "standard" (https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/02/06/why-ooxml-is-not-a-standard-format-for-office-documents/).

The ISO approval process was one of (if not *the*) most controversial in the history of the org:
- introduction of a fast tracking process for an absurdly long standard https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/02/29/BRM-narrative
@libreoffice

Why OOXML is not a standard format for office documents - TDF Community Blog

Unfortunately, I keep reading about open-source software advocates who happily use Microsoft’s proprietary DOCX, XLSX and PPTX formats for their documents and therefore prefer proprietary software such as OnlyOffice to LibreOffice. Others write outrageous things such as: “OOXML is a standard format, and we have to accept it.” I would therefore like to take this opportunity to clarify, once and for all, why OOXML has never been, is not, and will never be a standard format unless Microsoft decides to completely redesign its office applications. I consider this impossible in light of past decisions, such as Excel’s inability to handle elements of the human genome properly. This forced the scientific community to change the names of these elements due to Microsoft’s refusal to fix an obvious Excel bug. In other words, because of Microsoft, all of us citizens of the world have been affected by the change of the names of some elements of our genome, with all that this entails for scientific research and, consequently, for the treatment of genetic diseases. This is an enormously important fact that has not received sufficient publicity in the media, but it illustrates how willing Microsoft is to overlook everything for its own

TDF Community Blog
Show threadAdsooi1d ago

-accusation of vote buying https://consortiuminfo.org/opendocument-and-ooxml/the-ooxml-vote-how-bad-can-it-get-keep-counting/
- causing several national bodies to either resign https://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2008/10/norwegian-standards-body-implodes-over-ooxml-controversy/
- appeal the process https://www.crn.com/news/applications-os/208401261/brazil-and-india-appeal-microsofts-ooxml-standard
- or get sued https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/u-k-standards-body-taken-to-court-over-ooxml/

To say "it's a standard so that's that" is to ignore the deeply controversial aspect of the approval process, and why many do not consider it legitimate -- just the result of a corrupt process Microsoft likes to tout to get more sales with gov agenvies.
@libreoffice @kravietz

The OOXML Vote: How Bad Can it Get? (Keep Counting) | ConsortiumInfo.org

Show threadlesbian propaganda (211695-343)1d ago

@kravietz @libreoffice the facts are that they put money to get that approved as standard, the facts are that the 6000 (around that) pages of the implementation were not to be implemented, the facts are that they keep almost everything of their format out of their standard with propietary extensions in every release of MSOffice, the facts are that MSOffice does not use OOXML by default and you have to choose to save as it, and the document would break in most cases after exporting if you include images, tables and things and when you open it and save it again, it will override to the non-OOXML version with same extension.

Those are the facts too.

Show threadOle-André Rodlie1d ago

@libreoffice Yeah... The reality for governments and organizations is that OOXML compatibility is a non-negotiable baseline. They sit on decades of legacy data that must remain accessible and editable without formatting loss.

If a suite can’t handle OOXML properly, the conversation about ODF (or whatever alternative) never even starts.

This is the reason OnlyOffice is gaining ground in the public and private sectors.

Show threadticho1d ago
@rodlie @libreoffice And the linked article agrees with you. The question is more about what will be the default, native format, not what will be supported.
Show threadMr. Lance E Sloan (IRL) 👤1d ago
@libreoffice
#altText4All!
Show threadOmnivore1d ago

@libreoffice

#alttext

ODF is open and royalty-free.
No vendor controls your documents.
(document icon) ODF

Show threadlesbian propaganda (211695-343)1d ago
@libreoffice please, in pro of accesibility include ALT text in the pictures of your posts.