546
LibreOffice blasts 'fake open source' OnlyOffice for working with Microsoft to lock users in
(blog.documentfoundation.org)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
546 points (95.0% liked)
Technology
81709 readers
3906 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Agreed that there interface looks like the late late 90’s.
I’d recommend Libre more often but it’s a step backwards for most average users in UI. Microsoft has had the ribbon since, what, Office 2007?
I honestly prefer the classic LibreOffice UI. The ribbon thing takes up a lot of screen space and i really didn't like it when it debuted in Office 2007. Then microsoft made the color a fancy bluish hue so it could be more fancy. LibreOffice is the best
LO also has the ribbon interface. But not by default.
The Ribbon interface is terrible, though. The styles selector doesn't fit the entire button, and it also doesn't resize with your window size, remaining super tiny not capable of displaying three full options simultaneously.
Word at least got that right.
My preferred layout is Sidebar, but even there the style is just a regular dropdown. LibreOffice is fantastic, but they need to put some more work into UX.
Good. Those that want it can enable it. I don't. Takes up too much screen space showing a lot of unnecessary icons
IIRC, the last time I used a new install of LO for the first time, it asked me which interface I preferred instead of defaulting to the old one.
True, but it is a purely aesthetic rearrangement of the menus. It doesn't make it any more straightforward to navigate. Plus it doesn't really function correctly on Windows (and it takes up just as much screen space).
It was a good step when they rolled it out about a decade ago, but they still haven't done the work to make it better organized or show appropriate hierarchy.
And what do you think gui is?
As per my previous comment, it should offer reasonable use of screen space, visual hierarchy, and well-reasoned organization. Moving bad menus to a different arrangement on the screen doesn't magically make them into good menus.
As a first step, it was a good move, although it was a decade late when it came out. They still haven't done a major redesign another decade on.