The launch of TDF in the Mac App Store is a new marketing strategy of the project
The Document Foundation, the organization behind the open source productivity suite LibreOffice, has decided to start charging for a version of the software.
And it is that The Document Foundation announced the start of distribution through the Mac App Store catalog of paid builds of the free LibreOffice office suite for the macOS platform. The cost of downloading LibreOffice from the Mac App Store is 8,99 euros, while builds for macOS can also be downloaded from the project's official website for free.
It is alleged that the funds raised of delivery paid they will be used to support the development of LibreOffice. It is worth mentioning that builds hosted on the Mac App Store are generated by Collabora and they differ from the LibreOffice site builds by the absence of Java in the distribution, as Apple prohibits the placement of external dependencies. Due to the lack of Java, the functionality of LibreOffice Base in paid versions is limited.
The launch of TDF on the Mac App Store is an evolution of the previous situation, reflecting the new marketing strategy of the project: The Document Foundation focuses on the launch of the community version, while the companies in the ecosystem focus on the value long-term addition.
The distinction aims to raise awareness among organizations to support the FOSS project choosing the version of LibreOffice optimized for production deployments and supported by professional services, and not the community version generously supported by volunteers.
"We are grateful to Collabora for supporting LibreOffice in Apple's Mac app stores for quite some time," said Italo Vignoli, the foundation's chief marketing officer. The goal is to better meet the needs of individual users and businesses, although we know that the positive effects of the change will not be visible for some time. Educating companies about free and open source software is no small task and we have only just begun our journey in this direction."
The Document Foundation will continue to provide LibreOffice for macOS for free from the LibreOffice website, which is the recommended source for all users.
LibreOffice packaged for the Mac App Store is based on the same source code, but does not include Java, since external dependencies are not allowed in the App Store, and thus limit the functionality of LibreOffice Base. The software is also supported by volunteers who spend their time helping users.
The version now being sold on the App Store replaces an earlier offering provided by open source support team Collabora, which charged $10 for a "Vanilla" version of the suite and offered three years of support.
The foundation's marketing manager, Italo Vignoli thanked Collabora for their efforts above and explained the change as a 'new marketing strategy'.
When Italo Vignoli said that "educating businesses about free and open source software is not a trivial task and we have only just begun our journey in this direction", some might consider that a bit of an odd statement given the massive adoption of Linux and open source enterprise databases and the huge market share of the open source Chromium browser engine in Chrome and Edge browsers. Mozilla's open source browser, Firefox, can also be found in many companies.
The market for office productivity tools, however, remains entirely dominated by proprietary offerings such as Microsoft's Office suite and associated cloud services, with Google Workspaces falling apart and new market entrants occasionally trying their hand at the market. market.
LibreOffice is a very decent suite, but it lacks the cloud versions offered by Microsoft and Google.
This omission is intentional. The Document Foundation developed a browser-based version of the suite, but decided against moving forward to become a full competitor to Office or Workspaces.
This “would require the selection and integration of other technologies necessary for the implementation: file sharing, authentication, load balancing, etc. – significant growth in scope and not in line with the original mission of the project,” reads the foundation's page describing its browser-based efforts.
But the foundation is open to others who want to create such a service.
“The task is therefore left to the large implementers, ISPs, and open source cloud solution providers, and there are already several options available on the market. TDF would appreciate the provision of a public offering of LibreOffice Online by another charity."
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