Heavy drama in the open-source world of...

...Office Document Software.

Nextcloud, originally a fork of ownCloud, has launched Euro-Office, a fork of OnlyOffice (pissing off OnlyOffice). Collabora is weighing in and issuing comments against both OnlyOffice and Euro-Office while, itself, forking Collabora Office Desktop from the Document Foundation's LibreOffice. Document Foundation has now resumed LibreOffice Online which competes against Euro-Office and OnlyOffice.

(I think I've got all that right 😅 Correct me if I haven't! 😂)

❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 I unironically love this!!!! ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Document software may appear boring on its face, but Microsoft Office is a big reason why folks still stay with Microsoft OS and don't (can't...) move to Linux. MS Office 365 is often used as a bridge to allow folks to move to Linux while still using Microsoft products in the browser but that solution still keeps them tied to closed source solutions.

Development of Free and Open Sourced Software (FOSS) office products, both desktop apps and online web apps, is a core and key element to allowing FOSS solutions to thrive - both for individuals and organizations.

This level of drama and fighting is indicative of a lot of effort and attention being thrown into this arena. I'm confident over time it'll settle and different projects will merge back together or at the very least borrow and build upon each's efforts.

Read and get your fill of the drama here: https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/02/eurooffice_forks_onlyoffice/

#FOSS #digitalSovereignty #installParty #Linux #diDay

The POTUS' war on Iran is already bringing rationing of fuel and major disruptions in many countries, and it's going to get a lot worse soon as the final shipments that made it thru the Strait start to arrive this week, the NYT reports. I admire (but do not share) this story's optimism of the potential for the Iran war to hasten more global adoption of renewables.

"Sri Lanka and Myanmar are rationing fuel. The Philippines has instituted four-day workweeks to conserve gasoline and electricity. Bangladesh briefly closed its universities to reserve power for homes and businesses. Across India, families and restaurants are cooking over wood fires for want of gas. Airlines are canceling flights."

"As painful as the first phase of the energy crisis set off by the war with Iran has been, what comes next will be worse. This week, the final deliveries of oil and liquefied natural gas to Asia that passed through the Strait of Hormuz before it was closed are expected to arrive. The last tanker shipments to Europe should land by mid-April. After that, many countries’ reserves of gasoline, diesel, liquid petroleum gas and natural gas will dwindle. The price of oil could soar as high as $200 a barrel if the war drags on."

Meanwhile, China -- which leads the world in battery technology production -- stands to massively gain from all this oil shock.

"As the Philippines declared a national energy emergency on March 24, car shoppers in Manila were crowding into showrooms of the Chinese carmaker BYD and purchasing E.V.s ."

Of course, here in the US we've largely said that we're just gonna keep making gas guzzlers and forget about all those pledges we made to invest in electric vehicles. Consumers in the US would be flocking to those BYD cars too if import duties didn't make them prohibitively expensive. Most of the big car makers in the US are hopelessly focused on people who don't bat an eyelash spending $60,000 (base price) for a new car or truck.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/opinion/oil-crisis-iran-electric-solar.html