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> ...according to TDF [The Document Foundation], there's growing trend among enterprises to choose the Community version, rather than one of the paid-for versio

by cs702 6y ago

> ...according to TDF [The Document Foundation], there's growing trend among enterprises to choose the Community version, rather than one of the paid-for versions provided by TDF's partners, such as Collabora, and support partners, such as Red Hat. The foundation is concerned a lack of enterprise support is threatening the sustainability of the LibreOffice project because it's slowing down development. Linux has been able to get enterprise support -- by becoming a critical piece of underlying infrastructure for new products and services provided by businesses. For example, see https://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/join/members/ https://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/join/members/ The Apache Software Foundation has been able to get enterprise support -- also by becoming a critical piece of underlying infrastructure for new products and services provided by businesses. For example, see https://www.apache.org/foundation/thanks.html https://www.apache.org/foundation/thanks.html The open-source scientific computing stack has been able to get enterprise support -- also by becoming a critical piece of underlying infrastructure for new products and services provided by businesses. For example, see https://numfocus.org/sponsors https://numfocus.org/sponsors Can Libreoffice become a critical piece of underlying infrastructure, atop which businesses can build new products and services?

joemazerino 6y ago
No and that's precisely why a company will opt for the Community version. It seems an open-source product should insert itself in the profit vertical of a company if that product demands the company pay for it.
hakfoo 6y ago
LibreOffice has incidentally asked the question of how much and what kind of support people actually need from an office suite. This information was always hidden in the past-- how much were people paying for MS Office because they wanted to be able to call someone when it crashes, and how much to avoid the BSA Goon Squad knocking in their door? If anything, I'd think there's less enterprise support needed and more direct-to-consumer. Your big organization doesn't need to call Microsoft with every question because they have someone who has been living inside Excel since 1992, knows every nuance, and can untangle you from whatever you've done. But most home/SMB users don't have that, and would pay $10 or $20 every few months for a-la-carte hand-holding and support sessions, buy a $49 streaming video course or book, etc.

by cs702 6y ago

joemazerino 6y ago

No and that's precisely why a company will opt for the Community version. It seems an open-source product should insert itself in the profit vertical of a company if that product demands the company pay for it.

hakfoo 6y ago

LibreOffice has incidentally asked the question of how much and what kind of support people actually need from an office suite. This information was always hidden in the past-- how much were people paying for MS Office because they wanted to be able to call someone when it crashes, and how much to avoid the BSA Goon Squad knocking in their door? If anything, I'd think there's less enterprise support needed and more direct-to-consumer. Your big organization doesn't need to call Microsoft with every question because they have someone who has been living inside Excel since 1992, knows every nuance, and can untangle you from whatever you've done. But most home/SMB users don't have that, and would pay $10 or $20 every few months for a-la-carte hand-holding and support sessions, buy a $49 streaming video course or book, etc.