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Open365 Is An Open Source Alternative to Microsoft Office 365 (open365.io)

Posted by msmash on from the foss-news-of-the-day dept.

Martin Brinkmann, writing for Ghacks: Open365 is an open source Office 365 alternative that allows you to edit or create documents online, and to sync files with the cloud. The service is in beta currently but you can sign up for it already on the official website. You may use it using a web browser, download clients for Windows, Mac or Linux desktop machines, or for Android. An iOS client is in the making currently and will be made available as well soon. Open 365 offers two main features that you can make use of. First, it enables you to synchronize files between devices you use and the cloud. Second, it allows you to view, edit and create documents in the cloud using the technology provided by the Open Source Office suite LibreOffice Online for that.

10 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. We don't want web UIs! We want native apps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If there's one thing that should be clear by now, it's that normal users and advanced users don't want to use web-based UIs! They always give an inferior experience to native apps, regardless of the platform.

    Most of mobile's success is because of native apps, not because of web apps. And the native apps that have been implemented as wrappers around locally-running web apps have generally been disliked by users.

    People don't use services like GMail or Google Docs or Office 365 or Dropbox or Facebook because of the web UIs. They use them in spite of the web UIs! They want the unlimited email storage, or the ease of sharing files, or the ease of sharing private/personal info with advertisers.

    This is where the web technology advocates really strike out. Users don't use web apps because they want to; they use them because they want the back-end service, and there's often not a native client provided. When native clients are provided, we typically see users opting to use them instead of the shitty web front ends.

    1. Re:We don't want web UIs! We want native apps! by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Informative

      Just as long as the Web UI loads fast and is easy to use most people are OK with it.
      Microsoft in general sucks major in making Web Apps, they just don't get it. I actually prefer gmail myself and don't bother with a mail client app.

      However if the application doesn't need internet connection we don't necessarily need a web app for it.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:We don't want web UIs! We want native apps! by NotInHere · · Score: 4, Funny

      Says the guy posting to a web discussion site.

  2. Re:What problem does this solve? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Informative

    Alternative to Google Docs and Microsoft Office. These days we use nothing but Google Docs internally, and a select few of us use Microsoft Office to write docs that interface with the outside world.

    If it does multi-person realtime collaboration (which Google Docs does) I'll probably check it out.

  3. Office365 Haiku by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Thin clients are back
    But your browser is bloated
    How does it fit?

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:Office365 Haiku by OzPeter · · Score: 4, Funny

      Thin clients are back
      But your browser is bloated
      How does it fit?

      Burma shave

      --
      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
  4. Software as a Service avoids open source benefits by Eravnrekaree · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Free software foundation has written a recommended piece as to why you should avoid software as a service and that "open source" software as a service in no way protects users freedom or privacy. Online services should only be used when you want to share information with others. When you are working on data for your own use, their is no point in using software as a service, you give up rights when you do so.

    http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.en.html

  5. I've been looking for something like this... by Voyager529 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I do some tech work for a nonprofit. We're Office365, but there are a few documents better kept in-house. I've been looking for a self-hosted collaborative spreadsheet, preferably browser based, but nothing I've tried has materialized correctly...

    FengOffice - doesn't support spreadsheets natively. The hackneyed workaround that does, only supports it in a particular, dated version of FengOffice, and after creating the document, the web app prompts to download the spreadsheet rather than edit it.
    OnlyOffice - eight cores and 8GB of RAM for this VM, and it takes over a minute to load any document.
    ZKSpreadsheet Server - From the hand of Johnny Ives himself comes the most beautiful spreadsheet software ever written. It's fast, it's easy to use, it's effective, it's simple to install, it's resource efficient...and it's $4,000.

    So, if Open365 gets its self-hosted option off the ground, I would love nothing more than for this to solve my problem.

  6. Re:Why do I need cloud for my Office? by SQLGuru · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I pay $99 for 5 instances of all of that and consider it well worth it. 5 installs of Office. 5TB of cloud storage. 5 hours of Skype minutes. etc. I consider it the second best deal in tech....Amazon Prime being the first.

  7. Re:5 terrabytes of cloud storage by somenickname · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They are no longer your photos, music, etc. Now they belong to Microsoft and they can revoke your ability to use them whenever they want and for whatever reason they want. "The cloud" is not a long term storage medium.