Euro-Office: Controversial open source project receives desktop app
The European open source project Euro-Office is taking the next step. A new desktop application is intended to compete with Microsoft 365. Despite technical advances and offline functionality, the software remains controversial because of its origins.
Launch of the new desktop app
More and more European authorities and institutions want to become more independent of American IT companies and are banning software such as Microsoft Office. Instead, they rely on open source alternatives. For this reason, Nextcloud, in collaboration with Ionos and other companies, announced Euro-Office – an independent European alternative to Word, abd Excel. Now the companies involved have announced that a dedicated desktop application for Windows, MacOS and Linux will be launched in the coming weeks. Until now, Euro-Office could only be used in the web browser. The new program now allows users to edit text documents, tables and presentations locally. An internet connection is not required. In addition to offline capability, the updated version should also offer higher working speeds as well as improved filter functions and document previews.
Further improvements
The new application is part of a larger update to the collaboration platform. According to their own statements, the developers have expanded the software in close cooperation with users and public administrations. In the future, the system will provide project groups with dedicated and shared work areas for files and tasks.
Other tools are now also receiving useful enhancements through cooperation with partners. The table application will support relational columns in the future, the room search in the calendar has been improved and an integrated assistant will now offer local text recognition for images and documents.
Controversial origin
Despite its European orientation, the project is controversial. The basis is the source code from OnlyOffice, a project with roots in Russia. How Nextcloud explained in its release announcement, it still sees itself as a sovereign solution. Nevertheless, analyzes show that large parts of the code come from developers in Russian time zones. There have also been licensing disputes in the past. The Euro-Office project originally started as an initiative to build a data protection-compliant infrastructure for European authorities and schools.
By providing the desktop clients, the developers are closing a gap compared to proprietary offerings, but they still have to deal with allegations about the origins of the program. However, users should soon be able to download the installation files for the respective operating systems via the provider’s platform and set them up locally.
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