For your information:
‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐
On Sunday, April 18, 2021 10:48 AM, Max wrote:
> Dear Document Foundation Directors
>
> I am not used to providing scathing criticisms, but with LibreOffice those
> are in order, with a good cause in mind:
> 1. The only reason why I am using LibreOffice Writer is because it is to me a
> lesser evil than MS Word in terms of costs - this comes at my expense of
> LibreOffice Writer being a greater evil than MS Word in terms of bugs and
> crashes. I believe I shouldn't pay for avoiding a Microsoft licensing fee by
> damnation to a hell with a buggy-crashy LibreOffice.
> 2. If it did not state "Donation" on the LibreOffice download page, in all
> seriousness I would have literally asked the Document Foundation for a refund
> a long time ago.
> 3. Because of LibreOffice's bugs and instability, I seriously do not
> recommend it to any employer I may work for or any colleague I may work with.
> 4. I do not see myself making further donations to the Document Foundation,
> because I don't want my donations spent on supporting Windows and macOS
> versions of your apps. Why would I donate an amount for LibreOffice on
> Windows when I can just buy a MS Office license on Windows?
> 5. Free open source is not worth it for me if it doesn't reliably work when I
> need it to work because I have to do my work on it.
>
> Document Foundation, please fix this on a strategic level.
> Here are my proposals to you, as explained further below:
> I. Discontinue support for Windows and macOS operating systems.
> II. Seek a merger of LibreOffice with KDE's Calligra Office into 'CALIBRE
> OFFICE'.
> III. Harness community power by focusing UX on efficient bug reporting.
> IV. Harness the world wide student power at institutional (university) level.
>
> I. DISCONTINUE SUPPORT FOR WINDOWS AND MACOS OPERATING SYSTEMS!
>
> While I am grateful for all the cross-platform apps out there, developing an
> entire cross-platform office suite may be too ambitious and off limits even
> for some profit-seeking corporations that may gather sufficient resources to
> do so - please review this intention.
>
> But what is more important is that there has to be a mutually beneficial
> relationship between LibreOffice and all Linux distributions, and despite my
> lack of participation I clearly do not consider the current arrangement as
> such, because the Document Foundation is still committed to stretching
> LibreOffice thin on Windows and macOS. Offering LibreOffice on Windows and
> macOS can never be lean and comes at the expense of reliability.
> This stretching LibreOffice thin on Linux, Windows, and macOS is hurting both
> LibreOffice and Linux distributions, because the Linux distributions are
> permanently stuck with a substandard office suite (LibreOffice) that does not
> meet enterprise-level expectations (I don't care what you may say, it does
> not from my personal experience with it), while Windows and macOS enjoy the
> MS Office that in turn ensures that on Windows and macOS such substandard
> office suite as LibreOffice will never replace MS Office - these two trends
> combine to ensure that as many users will remain stuck with BOTH MS Windows
> AND MS Office. If I can't have a reliable office suite on Linux, then I'm
> stuck with MS Windows, but since I'm stuck with MS Windows, then I use the
> reliable office suite on Windows that is MS Office. It's a Catch-22 situation
> that is perpetuated to a large extent by your insistence on cross platform
> implementation of LibreOffice. It's time that the Document Foundation finally
> realize that LibreOffice can only succeed on Linux alone, and stretching
> LibreOffice thin on Windows and macOS defeats both LibreOffice and Linux
> distributions.
> So my recommendation, in order to break out of this Catch-22, for the
> Document Foundation to drop Windows and macOS and publish a manifesto (to
> which it will hold itself publicly accountable) to provide Linux
> distributions with an office suite that consists of free open source software
> and yet such that meets enterprise-grade reliability expectations similarly
> to how MS Office does. That means that the Document Foundation has to gain
> the courage to DISCONTINUE support for Windows and macOS. In other words, the
> Document Foundation should give up its unsustainable ambition of LibreOffice
> as a cross-platform office suite and instead become much more ambitious in
> the area of giving LibreOffice enterprise-grade reliability for all Linux
> users that in turn will boost user adoption for all Linux distributions.
> LibreOffice is a productivity suite, and ther
