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Well it's hardly surprising given the design of their web site. I've used libreoffice for years and have never noticed the 'for business' link before. Add to th

Well it's hardly surprising given the design of their web site. I've used libreoffice for years and have never noticed the 'for business' link before. Add to that that if you go to download Libre Office and end up on some site trying to flog you something like collabra or whatever, it sounds like you've gone to the wrong place. Even if you get past that barrier, the most obvious button is 'try collabra office' which pops up one of those bullshit contact forms where you just expect the company to try to rinse you for whatever subscription they can get out of you. No thanks.

jrh206 6y ago
Prompted by this comment, I tried to search for the 'for business' link. I couldn't find it. I looked around the blog, the document foundation website, and the LibreOffice website. I eventually search for 'business' on the LibreOffice website, and found this article: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/ https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business... Now I see that this article is linked in the 'Download' menu. Even being on this page, it's not clear what they want me to do (unless I read the whole page, but c'mon). I'm with you, if they want more people to use the Enterprise edition they need to do a better job of educating people that it exists.
- gnfargbl 6y ago
  I read the page, and I'm still not clear what they want me to do. Do they want me to buy something from one of their partners? If so, what do they want me to buy, and why is it better (either for me or the developers) than just using the free LibreOffice? I actually _do_ need a document and spreadsheet suite which works on Linux, and I would pay for one which works well. At the moment I kind of get by between Google Docs (generally reliable, functionality often not quite there) and LibreOffice (lots of functionality, UI feels clunky, sometimes crashes). If LibreOffice are offering me something that makes my life better, I will likely buy it.
Closi 6y ago
Absolutely - the collabora office site is terrible! They seem to have some sort of cloud version too but then don’t mention the price of it at all. The whole site looks sketchy and unofficial. No support as standard, without paying thousands of pounds a year (Microsoft offers great SMB support in my experience). Maybe they should look introspectively at why nobody wants to sign up rather than blaming the users. Users will sign up if there is enough value and it’s clearly communicated.
- dazc 6y ago
  Sadly, for Libre Office, the value is 'free'. And, the competition in the 'free' space nowadays is pretty good enough.
  - Closi 6y ago
    The value could at least be support - this to me would be the minimum expectation for any type of enterprise software, but amazingly it isn't offered in any of their packages (they just state that documentation = support!). Even in smb & enterprise plans it is "pay for a bug fix if you find a bug". It is amazing to me that they expect a paying SMB user, who has discovered a bug in the code, to pay £12,000 for them to fix it! Then they wonder why nobody signs up - what a joke!

jrh206 6y ago

Prompted by this comment, I tried to search for the 'for business' link. I couldn't find it. I looked around the blog, the document foundation website, and the LibreOffice website. I eventually search for 'business' on the LibreOffice website, and found this article: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/ https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business... Now I see that this article is linked in the 'Download' menu. Even being on this page, it's not clear what they want me to do (unless I read the whole page, but c'mon). I'm with you, if they want more people to use the Enterprise edition they need to do a better job of educating people that it exists.

gnfargbl 6y ago
I read the page, and I'm still not clear what they want me to do. Do they want me to buy something from one of their partners? If so, what do they want me to buy, and why is it better (either for me or the developers) than just using the free LibreOffice? I actually _do_ need a document and spreadsheet suite which works on Linux, and I would pay for one which works well. At the moment I kind of get by between Google Docs (generally reliable, functionality often not quite there) and LibreOffice (lots of functionality, UI feels clunky, sometimes crashes). If LibreOffice are offering me something that makes my life better, I will likely buy it.

Closi 6y ago

Absolutely - the collabora office site is terrible! They seem to have some sort of cloud version too but then don’t mention the price of it at all. The whole site looks sketchy and unofficial. No support as standard, without paying thousands of pounds a year (Microsoft offers great SMB support in my experience). Maybe they should look introspectively at why nobody wants to sign up rather than blaming the users. Users will sign up if there is enough value and it’s clearly communicated.

dazc 6y ago
Sadly, for Libre Office, the value is 'free'. And, the competition in the 'free' space nowadays is pretty good enough.
- Closi 6y ago
  The value could at least be support - this to me would be the minimum expectation for any type of enterprise software, but amazingly it isn't offered in any of their packages (they just state that documentation = support!). Even in smb & enterprise plans it is "pay for a bug fix if you find a bug". It is amazing to me that they expect a paying SMB user, who has discovered a bug in the code, to pay £12,000 for them to fix it! Then they wonder why nobody signs up - what a joke!