LibreOffice slams Euro-Office as ‘de facto ally’ of Microsoft

I really don’t get this latest series if tantrums from LibreOffice/The Document Foundation. They are attacking every other up-and-coming open source document project.

Are you mad about people choosing a different project that’s easier to switch from M$? Stay mad I guess, or make your project better. LibreOffice hasn’t had a major UI update in a decade, and it was a decade overdue at the time. The menus are a crowded mess with poorly thought-out hierarchy. Mobile and collaborative editors are a joke. No one cares if LibreOffice technically has the best backend, with the most accurate rendering and niche features, if it is harder for the average mainstream user to learn and use.

You can burn your energy bemoaning the loss of users… or you can be better and win them back. Rarely both.

Last thing, a few facts about the “dreaded” OOXML format they are railing against.

1. It is an open standard since 2006. Stop litigating a debate that ended two decades ago.
2. It is a recognized ISO standard, just like ODF. (ISO/IEC 29500)
3. LibreOffice also supports OOXML and allows users to set it as default.
4. It is already the de-facto standard, just like PDF or MP3 started as proprietary formats but are now open and among the most widely used formats in their respective areas.