‘Open source should rest on transparency, not deception’: Euro-Office ‘sovereignty’ claims questioned in scathing open letter by LibreOffice maintainers

Euro-Office launched with a mind to shake up the productivity software space by giving European enterprises a “sovereign alternative” to products such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

But it’s had a rocky start since launching this week, with critics lambasting the productivity suite as a “de facto ally of Microsoft”.

An open letter from The Document Foundation, the maintainers behind LibreOffice, detailed a series of gripes with Euro-Office. First and foremost, it claims the coalition responsible for development has deceptively marketed the product as the first open source productivity suite built in Europe.

That title, TDF noted, belongs to OpenOffice.org, which was launched in 2001 and based on StarOffice source code, and subsequently followed by LibreOffice in 2010.

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“We feel compelled – reluctantly, since open source should rest on transparency, not deception – to correct this claim,” the open letter reads. “These are two genuine open-source office suites, built from source code that originated in Europe.”

Euro-Office document format slammed

Adding insult to injury, TDF claims that the OOXML (Office Open XML) document format used by Euro-Office makes it a “de facto ally of Microsoft”.

OOXML is a proprietary document format developed and controlled by Microsoft, and is used in the tech giant’s various document, spreadsheet, and presentation products.

The use of this format, TDF suggests, is a red flag for users aiming to shore up sovereignty practices by virtue of the fact control remains “firmly in Redmond and far from Europe”.

“Document formats are a subject still rife with misinformation. This is understandable on the part of Microsoft, which developed and controls the horrible proprietary OOXML format, designed precisely to prevent Digital Sovereignty by maintaining content lock-in,” the open letter reads.

“It is far less understandable on the part of companies that claim to advocate open source, such as those promoting Euro-Office.”

OpenDocument Format the 'pillar of digital sovereignty'

According to TDF, use of the ISO-standardized OpenDocument Format (ODF) should be used as a baseline for what constitutes a truly ‘sovereign’ productivity suite.

Italo Vignoli, a founding member of TDF and author of the open letter, describes this as the “pillar of Digital Sovereignty” and fired a broadside at companies promoting so-called sovereign products.

“It is worth remembering that many of those who champion Digital Sovereignty today were silent back in 2006, when the open ISO/IEC ODF standard — the pillar of Digital Sovereignty — was announced: not only did they not listen to us during all these years, but in some cases they greeted us with a condescending smile,” the open letter reads.

A spokesperson for Nextcloud told ITPro the company agrees that proprietary file formats are a “serious hindrance to digital sovereignty”, adding that the company intends to improve ODF support.

“We thus need to free users who are stuck using these formats, and enable them to work with an open office platform. This will allow organizations to transition to open document formats like ODF,” the spokesperson said.

“For this reason, as we stated before in our blog about our roadmap, Euro-Office will focus development efforts on improving ODF support. Ultimately, ODF should be the standard - not OOXM, and we will work towards that.”

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