3 open source alternatives for Office365 and GoogleDrive

Contributing to the web and all the projects that are online is incredible and convenient, since you only need to have an internet connection and it allows you to work from anywhere and from any device.

But in the case of web-based office suites like Google Drive, Zoho, Office and Office 365, there is a limitation which is that their codes are closed. Your information only exists at the whim of large corporations. You've probably heard numerous stories about Google blocking or closing accounts without any warning. If this happens to you, you will lose your documents and what you should do is resort to open source alternatives. We are going to introduce you to three of them:

Sandstorm Oasis

It is the hosted version of Sandstorm.io, which is advertised as an open source operating system for private and personal clouds. You have the choice of more than 50 applications in categories such as productivity, office, graphics, communication, and developer tools. You will get almost everything you need to work, share and collaborate.

Those apps include EtherPad, EtherCalc, GitLab, WeKan, Rocket Chat, and Draw.io. When you open an application, a separate single instance of the application is created, such as a document or a chat room. These are called grains and can be shared with others through a link.

If you are collaborating on a project, you can share a set of beans as a package using the Collections application. It keeps things neat and nice while you are using Sandstorm Oasis.

Framasoft

It also brings together a set of web applications in one place, like Sandstorm Oasis. However, to differentiate themselves they named each app and gave them a consistent look.

It includes web applications such as Etherpad (called Framapad), GitLab (called Framagit), MatterMost (called Framateam), and EtherCalc (called Framacalc). It also has a “read it later” tool, a vector design program, an RSS reader, a URL shortener, a Kanbam board, and file sharing tools.

To save your files, you have public options or you can log in and keep your data private. If you are interested, get ready to polish your French because most of the applications are in this language and it does not seem that it will change anytime soon.

Open365

I can't imagine someone who doesn't like LibreOffice. Now you can also get it on the web by the name of Open365.

As its name suggests, it is positioned as the rival open source version of Microsoft's Office 365 Suite. The number of applications is limited, but includes the main ones such as Write, Calc and Impress. There is also an email and an online version of the GIMP image editor, and you have space to save files.

But sharing documents and collaborating is not as easy as in other programs. For this you must create a group, then add the members through a CSV file containing the email addresses or by selecting a list of existing Open365 users. In either case, those users must have an Open365 account.

Although it is a bit slow when running, one of its main advantages is that it looks and works exactly like the desktop version of LibreOffice. And to complete, you can install client software on your computer to keep your files in sync.

If you have another favorite alternative, don't be shy and share it with us in the comments.