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An open letter from the Document Foundation warns that Euro-Office, which is being โ€œmarketedโ€ as the first open-source office suite developed in Europe, isn't what it seems - and may reinforce Microsoftโ€™s closed source technology instead.

... Microsoft ... developed and controls the horrible proprietary OOXML format, designed precisely to prevent Digital Sovereignty by maintaining content lock-in. It is far less understandable on the part of companies that claim to advocate open source, such as those promoting Euro-Office.

Euro-Office defaults to the fully proprietary OOXML document format, developed and controlled solely by Microsoft. This makes it a de facto ally of Microsoft in its content lock-in strategy, with control remaining firmly in Redmond and far from Europe.

So, despite what is being written in support of Euro-Office โ€” the latest of the office suites developed in Europe, and not the first โ€” the announcement is not against Microsoft. On the contrary, it strengthens Microsoftโ€™s strategy against European Digital Sovereignty, or, if you prefer, against the freedom of European users to control and manage their own content.

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[โ€“] 2 points 4 months ago

No one has done that because no single person can do that by themselves.

I've participated in technical migrations of large organizations full of non-technical, unmotivated users. It sucks regardless.

And we can't just keep lowering our expectations re: people interacting with technology. Desktop computers, office suites, and file formats are concepts that came into the non-techie consciousness 20 years ago now. The people who refuse to use an extra 5 brain cells to try to understand this stuff should not be the baseline we cater to.

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