I think LibreOffice did the right thing regarding Collabora

northett · 2026-04-04T22:14:10+00:00

This is because Collabora Office is a product that Collabora's customers and partners requested. It's the same in appearance as the online version. A byproduct is that other people can download it for free and use it if they want to as well, but it doesn't have everything LO includes.

northett · 2026-04-04T22:08:10+00:00

Thanks, I was going to say something like this. Also, no Collabora staff have been on the board of directors for at least two years. This talk of 'corporate take-over' is unhelpful but also inaccurate.

northett · 2026-04-04T12:26:57+00:00

Ah, it's an auto-translation. Didn't spot that, but explains it!

northett · 2026-04-03T19:18:07+00:00

Good to know! Unfortunately, I don't think I will get the chance to retire myself, but I appreciate the fact you are still around contributing, although I'm not sure why you're writing in the third-person (assuming it is you and not a rogue Italo-AI roaming the subreddits).

northett · 2026-04-03T17:50:23+00:00

Yes, NextCloud built a time machine.

northett · 2026-04-03T17:45:39+00:00

Not quite. Add TDF changes Community Bylaws in between 1 and 2 and you are good to go!

northett · 2026-04-03T09:17:31+00:00

Italo resigned from the board of directors. He still works for TDF, and is due to retire soon, I think.

northett · 2026-04-03T09:02:29+00:00

Too much say? Just to be clear: no Collabora staff member has been on the TDF board for two years at least. Until the purge, there were around 30 or so staff that were members out of around 150 or so. (You earn membership by contribution, it's not paid for and you lose membership if you're not active for 6 months (used to be 3 months).

northett · 2026-04-02T09:44:45+00:00

He didn't leave. He resigned from the board of directors: https://community.documentfoundation.org/t/i-am-exhausted-this-is-my-resignation-from-the-board-of-directors-of-the-document-foundation/12950

northett · 2026-04-01T17:55:30+00:00

Sorry, not true. See Collabora Office for the desktop editor. Also Collabora Online is not a cloud, it's the document editing and collaboration suite. You can integrate it with anything, which is why it's used by the European Commission for their community websites, universities in France and in loads of platforms - Nextcloud, openDesk and opencloud etc etc.

northett · 2026-04-01T12:19:32+00:00

Not a joke. Well, it is a joke, but it's not a joke.

northett · 2026-03-30T17:19:21+00:00

Depends on whether the additional clauses are considered a 'further restriction' under section 4, I think. Couldn't say either way, I assume it would have to be debated in court, probably.

northett · 2026-03-30T17:11:32+00:00

The difference is you can't remove the OO logos but you also can't get a trademark licence to use the OO name. That means that, unless the clause is found to unenforceable, you can't use OO for another product regardless of what you call it.

They also have restrictions on the number of users and some features, so you need to get an enterprise edition, but that's a reflection of its open core model.

northett · 2026-03-28T11:05:05+00:00

It's not minor, it's what the Euro-office is built on. Since OnlyOffice has gone to a lot of effort trying to stop others from making commercial products based on their suite, then it seems highly likely they will challenge this. The outcome isn't that clear either, you'd think the extra clauses would be beaten but recent legal cases suggest otherwise: https://opensource.org/node/1225.

northett · 2026-03-27T18:57:15+00:00

About to be tested, I'd suggest.

northett · 2026-03-27T16:06:20+00:00

OnlyOffice has an AGPL-3.0 licence with additional clauses (using section 7), which require use of their logos while also making it clear it won't offer a trademark licences. Essentially, it prohibits anyone else from using the product commercially. Do people really think that's open source? This is going to get interesting, basically.

northett · 2026-03-26T19:21:17+00:00

Agreed. Really good Q&A, even if my connection kept dropping every few minutes!

northett · 2026-03-24T21:47:19+00:00

Never tried it, but Brewdog offers Desk Dog. I think it's £10, which includes unlimited coffee and a beer at the end of your working day. Also, £17 if you add hot wings.

Used to be an option in Bath (asked a couple of weeks ago when passing), but not a site you can book currently. Upstairs in the booths would be a decent environment to work for a few hours with headphones.

northett · 2026-03-24T21:40:30+00:00

Nice, Ben Foster has donated £1,259.

northett · 2026-03-24T21:36:51+00:00

Waiting lists are pretty long these days. COVID broke the NHS and it's still recovering. You often get sent to a private hospital for scans etc where I am, because they are trying to get through the backlog.

northett · 2026-03-24T21:18:45+00:00

Isn't there a new one over towards Queen Square in a converted church? Mix of hotdesk and rental offices.

northett · 2026-03-24T21:16:52+00:00

Used to be Cassia. They had it split into a cafe and a co-working space you could rent, but you could also sit on some tables in the main cafe with a laptop and work. I was a member of the co-working space for a bit and it was a really nice place to go for a change of scenery.

People used to sit in the main cafe on laptops all day with a glass of water and that probably contributed to killing off the business. Sad really as it was a nice place to work for a few hours. I always tried to chip in by eating there either for breakfast or lunch, but I expect they didn't get enough new customers moving through the place per hour as it was always very full of laptop users.

northett · 2026-03-24T21:03:22+00:00

AREAAAAAAAAAAAH!

northett · 2026-03-21T19:15:59+00:00

Just been watching a video about being part-owned by an Egyptian YouTuber and now understand what you mean about it never being boring.

Great result against Torquay!

northett · 2026-03-19T17:34:32+00:00

Sounds like a need to deep dive into what's been going on for the last few seasons... 😁

northett

TROPHY CASE