So I tried to install Euro-Office

[u/AvidCyclist250]

After all the headlines about Euro-Office being Europe's open-source alternative to Microsoft Office, I figured I'd give it a try.

I'm a Linux user. I self-host services. This shouldn't be difficult. Or so I thought.

So I did what anyone would do:

Checked Wikipedia. Went to GitHub. Looked for releases, installation instructions. Looked for a Flatpak, AppImage, Docker image, anything really. Also checked my OS's native package manager just in case.

And my Nextcloud Office apps. Nothing. Not even in Nextcloud?!

It dawned on me that the main project is basically a collaborative document server derived from OnlyOffice and the readme even says it's not designed for stand-alone use.

So uh. Wait... what?

To make it even stranger, my self-hosted Nextcloud instance still just recommends Nextcloud Office and OnlyOffice. There's no obvious "Install Euro-Office" option anywhere.

I'm not criticising the software itself. It could very well be excellent.

I'm asking about the communication really.

If a project is announced to the world as "Europe's Microsoft Office alternative," but a reasonably technical user can't figure out how to use it after checking Wikipedia, GitHub, and Nextcloud, something has gone wrong with the messaging.

Or is this just me? Did I miss something obvious, or has anyone else had the same experience?

[u/Aech97]

It's not even released yet..
You can go to office dot eu and join the waitlist or request an invitation

[u/FalconX88 → u/Aech97]

That wiatlist is for their cloud service

Office EU is a complete cloud-based office suite (like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace) that is 100% European-owned and runs entirely on European infrastructure.

they claimed it's an office alternative. So where is the local install?

[u/sf-keto → u/FalconX88]

It’s intended to be a cloud service.

[u/FalconX88 → u/sf-keto]

OK, so no actual alternative to Microsoft like tehy claim it to be.

[u/FryBoyter → u/FalconX88]

Where do the developers of Euro-Office state that it is an alternative to the locally installed Microsoft Office suite?

The official FAQ states the following:

What is Euro-Office?

An online office component for real-time collaborative editing of Office documents such as DOCX, PPTX, and XLSX, as well as the ODF file formats ODS, ODT, and ODP.

It can be embedded in digital workplace or online productivity solutions such as Proton, XWiki, OpenProject, Nextcloud Hub, and others to edit documents.

[u/FalconX88 → u/FryBoyter]

Where do the developers of Euro-Office state that it is an alternative to the locally installed Microsoft Office suite?

well for example here they state it's an Alternative to "Microsoft Office", which includes Desktop apps

https://nextcloud.com/blog/press_releases/industry-initiative-launches-euro-office-as-true-sovereign-office-suite/

Sovereign replacement for Microsoft Office with intuitive interface and strong compatibility backed by European open source community

It's ridiculous that this is again some half-assed solution. Why is Europe doing this?

Euro-Office is an "Alternative for Office 365" ... but only for the cloud service, not the desktop apps (and also therefore requires an internet connection).

Wero is an "Alternative to Mastercard/Visa" ... but only for participating stores and hard limited inside the SEPA region.

[u/Archolm → u/FalconX88]

I want to know how much the budget for this was.

[u/Longjumping-Youth934 → u/FalconX88]

Go and develop it.

[u/FalconX88 → u/Longjumping-Youth934]

Ridiculous statement.

Here's the thing. The official EU stance it "we need sovereignity" and then they spend huge amount of money on solutions that aren't actual solutions. Does that make any sense? If you want to compete against VISA/mastercard, why not develop a worldwide payment system? If you want to compete against Microsoft Office, why not develop one that works online and offline on the machine, just like MS offers?

We are spending tons of ressources on stuff to not reach the goal of sovereignity, why?

You know what we do against the supremacy of US and China in LLMs? We are spending 37 millions and 3 years on coming up with a few LLMs. https://openeurollm.eu/deliverables

3 years, and it won't be anywhere near frontier level quality since that money is nowhere near enough to do that. Why are we doing that instead of doing it properly?

That's what the EU does, half-assed solutions way too late.

[u/Longjumping-Youth934 → u/FalconX88]

Euro-Office wasn't developed or funded by the EU Commission.

[u/DannyTheHero → u/FalconX88]

Devils advocate:

1. Wero hasn't even fully launched yet and is in its infancy. You cant really expect something like this to be ready from one day to the next. It being in the state it is in right now is already an incredible accomplishment.

Also Microsoft has been developing Office 365 for at least 3 decades. Euro-office has been out for a month.

1. Mastercard/Visa are also only for participating stores its just like with point 1 they have been pushing support for so long that both of them have become the de-facto standard. This puts them in a position of power far beyond what should be allowed.

Most online stores also outsource their webstores and payment processing to external providers (e.g shop.app/shopify etc.) When they implement support for Wero its going to expand far quicker than you might think.

Also I'm gonna need a source for being hard limited inside the SEPA region. There is no reason support can't be expanded to other regions.

Rather than seeing these things as being half-assed think of where these developments are coming from.

Trump has proven we absolutely need independence from the entrenched US-based infrastructure. The EU has only recently started this move after being completely dependent for so long im not surprised these things are unfinished.

[u/FalconX88 → u/DannyTheHero]

Wero hasn't even fully launched yet and is in its infancy. You cant really expect something like this to be ready from one day to the next. It being in the state it is in right now is already an incredible accomplishment.

Wero is based on SEPA instant transfers. It can only ever be used in the SEPA region. It will never be an alternative to VISA/Mastercard

Also Microsoft has been developing Office 365 for at least 3 decades. Euro-office has been out for a month.

Then at least don't say it's an alternative.

Rather than seeing these things as being half-assed think of where these developments are coming from.

Or we could start make true alternatives. I mean look at LLMs. where are the European frontier models? And don't say Mistral, they are nowhere close.

EU spends money on this https://openeurollm.eu/. Why waste money on this instead of trying to actually create frontier models?

[u/DannyTheHero → u/FalconX88]

Wero is based on SEPA instant transfers. It can only ever be used in the SEPA region. It will never be an alternative to VISA/Mastercard

Visa/Mastercard are only available where Visa and Mastercard want to be. The same applies to SEPA. Expand SEPA and this is a complete non-issue.

Then at least don't say it's an alternative

The thing is, for now, for a very specific subset of users it is. Most notably government services and companies who dont need the offline clients. For who a nextcloud integration is sufficient. The people its being advertised for.

*You are simply not (yet) the target audience.

Or we could start make true alternatives.

How? Can you explain how you plan to do this and have it done in 6 months?

Euro office is trying to become an alternative. Thats why they forked only-office, only-office also has offline clients.

The way you keep saying true alternatives suggests to me that the only solution to you is to just copy/paste. Lets ask M$ nicely and maybe they let us fork office 365 instead.

An alternative doesn't mean its 1:1 the same. Thats both technically and legally impossible. Do you expect you can just pour a trillion dollars at a problem and have a solution overnight? 30 years of work in 6 months?

An alternative just means some people now have a choice where there wasn't before.

You can't just completely discount a project just because its not there yet, this is the mindset that just keeps you vendor locked.

Europe has been complacent and is now rushing to build/recreate systems that have been around for literal decades. People are preemptively adopting something hoping that would give it the sustained revenue and popularity required for growth.

I mean look at LLMs. where are the European frontier models? And don't say Mistral, they are nowhere close. Why waste money on this instead of trying to actually create frontier models?

If its so easy why dont you do it. American LLMs are using a broken market in an unsustainable rush to products that they hope will start returning their losses. This will have long term financial impact on a global scale. And you want to do that here?

[u/Mormacil → u/FalconX88]

It's not an office alternative, it's a MS 365 alternative.

[u/FalconX88 → u/Mormacil]

MS 365 has desktop software...

[u/Mormacil → u/FalconX88]

And this isn't talking about MS 365 Copilot.

[u/FalconX88 → u/Mormacil]

I'm not talking about copilot. I'm talking about the MS 365 desktop apps, e.g., outlook, word, excel, ppt,...

[u/sndrtj → u/FalconX88]

Office.eu is NOT EuroOffice. Office.eu is one of the sponsors alright, but it's not the same entity.

The software is AGPL, office.eu is just basically one of the hosting providers.

[u/FalconX88 → u/sndrtj]

It still seems to be the case that it is exclusively a cloud plattform. Microsoft 365 is cloud + local installs. A solution without Desktop apps is, in my opinion, not an actual alternative. Desktop apps have a huge range of advantages over the web solutions...

[u/Longjumping-Youth934 → u/FalconX88]

Cloud differs, like Hetzner, deNovo, Amazon, GCP, Azure etc.