In July, Manjaro Linux decided to abandon the popular LibreOffice office suite in favor of Softmaker 's FreeOffice . This decision drew considerable criticism from those who prefer open-source software.
The Manjaro team listened to its community and reversed its decision to include FreeOffice as the default office suite. Starting with the next release, users will be able to choose between installing FreeOffice or LibreOffice from the Manjaro installer.
FreeOffice is a free office suite, but it's not open source. It's a limited version of Softmaker 's premium office suite , famous for its full compatibility with Microsoft Office. Both versions are available for Linux, but you need to pay to use the premium version.
The Manjaro team has clarified that there was no exchange of money in the decision to include FreeOffice as the default office suite in their system.
On the other hand, Softmaker has announced that users can now save files in specific Microsoft Office formats such as DOC, XLS, PPT, and ODT . This feature was added as part of the agreement with Manjaro.
There are few distributions that are committed to including only open-source software, and Manjaro is not one of them. Manjaro is more focused on enabling its regular users to perform their tasks without having to delve into too much detail.
Ultimately, the best decision is to give the user options; those who fervently support open-source software will use LibreOffice, while those who want proprietary software, but more stable in theory, can choose FreeOffice.