Libre and OnlyOffice don’t really have any special privacy features, no E2EE like CryptPad (other than OnlyOfice with Nextcloud I believe, but Nextcloud is already recommended for document collaboration) or sync like Obsidian (Obsidian isn’t recommended as of the time this post is written, but my point still stands). They’re just local tools that privacy folk happen to use, like GIMP or Vim.
Yeah basically they’re just offline office tools. The thought is since so much office software is non-E2EE and cloud-based these are an improvement. Although they’re really lacking in terms of security and functionality.
Since when are local-only tools not privacy focused? Being offline and local is the gold standard when it comes to privacy.
In the case of Linux, it would be for the same reason we recommend Safari on iOS, to note that switching to alternatives is not ideal.
For example, on Flathub I see WPS Office as a top recommendation for office tools with a quick search, which is closed source, has ads, and provides non-E2EE cloud document capabilities through China.
In cases other than Linux, it’s because they are available on macOS and Windows, and obviously not default on those platforms.
The same logic seems also applicable to AI Chat Section?
Locally run AI chats offers no encryption at all.
In terms of functionality, unless you add projects like Perplexica on top of the client, otherwise cloud based counterparts like ChatGPT / Perplexity are far superior, and much easier to set up (basically no set up required).
Also, to an extent you can use Brave’s Leo or DDG’s Duck.AI to do kinda similar things.
Local LLM clients also prone to malicious LLM models.
Just to be clear, I agree with @jonah on this topic. However, if I understand correctly, I think merging Document Collaboration and Office Suites might be able to achieve what you suggest.
Yeah basically, there’s a lot of room for improvement.
Yeah it’s better than cloud-based non E2EE ones. Just saying there’s a lot of room for improvement. If just being offline is the gold standard then the bar is very low.
If just being offline is the gold standard then the bar is very low.
In fact, Microsoft Office’s non-web version easily fulfills that if you apply some basic group policies. And of course it’s way more popular and compatible with actual real world documents.
Seems that office requires a subscription, so you’d have to make a Microsoft account and give them your payment info correct?
The perpetual ones don’t need subscription, and can even be bought retail. Though activation will still use internet, although maybe phone activation is still an option. The only connection-less activation is KMS, which is for volume licensing. (Or, alternatively, one can sail the high seas.)
It was more of an illustrative example of the low bar though, not necessarily a serious suggestion 
That assumes you trust microsoft 
A better argument could be made for Apples iWork suite of office apps which work offline without any license. They aren’t open source and so don’t meet the current requirements but otherwise they are a solid choice for macOS users.
Not really, MS Office runs background tasks even it is closed, collect and send plenty of telemetries, some license types binds to your account, or requires an eligible corp account to purchase, also many of their plugins are very invasive.
Actually, the current requirements, e.g. cross platform + open source + works offline, is not a low bar at all. The options are limited to basically 2 products, amoung numerous other products in the market.
Recommending a product / project if and only if it outperforms their closed source counterparts does not seem to be realistic / feasible.
I don’t get it at all, as @jonah said, Offline is literally gold standard for privacy (I would of course exclude OpenOffice as it’s outdated and has security vulnerabilities even if it’s offline). And many people use MS Office, Libreoffice or OnlyOffice which are essentially offline document editors, the user can choose to store it on the computer and better if locally encrypted drive or otherwise upload copies to E2EE Cloud Storage like Proton Drive.
What’s wrong with you people here, what happened to the whole offline = good, great in fact? Jesus frick.
Sorry that gets a thumbs down from me, I completely disagree.
Yeah, that’s how updates work.
Not if you configure it to, you know, not do that, as I said in the post you replied to: Use policy settings to manage privacy controls for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise - Microsoft 365 Apps | Microsoft Learn
Do you think enterprises, banks, governments, or militaries would be using Office if this wasn’t controllable?
Only if you log in with an account, normally digital licenses bind to HWID if you aren’t logged in.
I have no idea what you mean by this.
Note that I’m not arguing for including MS Office in the list, just pointing out how it’s just a few group policy defaults away from fulfilling the “offline” low bar.
I don’t think anyone is arguing against offline being good, but rather against whether the category is particularly useful to have at all when that’s effectively the only criteria.
and looking at the criteria it’s not the only one:
Criteria
Please note we are not affiliated with any of the projects we recommend. In addition to our standard criteria, we have developed a clear set of requirements to allow us to provide objective recommendations. We suggest you familiarize yourself with this list before choosing to use a project, and conduct your own research to ensure it’s the right choice for you.
- Must be cross-platform.
- Must be open-source software.
- Must function offline.
- Must support editing documents, spreadsheets, and slideshows.
- Must export files to standard document formats.
The only privacy-relevant one. The rest are just nice to have (open-source), basic functionality (standard formats, editing support), useful to make a list of in general (cross-platform).
In fact literally MS Office fullfills all but the open-source one as it’s even cross-platform with phone apps and Mac support.
Thinking about it a bit, I do see that providing office software guidance to users can be useful, but I’m unsure about the format, since it’s so heavily influenced by the OS(es) you run:
Um, then it does not meet the criteria, otherwise PG should also recommend Synology Office, iWork & enterprise version of MS365 / GSuite, as their TOS / data privacy and security are better than consumer version, which are actually not that bad.
It currently sits under each recommendation category, for example, email clients , since all office suites recommendations are cross platforms (which is one of the criteria) , IMO there is no need to reiterate.
The criteria is also moldable, and the open-source one is a historic one. It used to be on the pw manager and totp pages as well (despite the fact that Raivo OTP was also listed while never being open-source).
The thing about Office suites is that often people don’t get to choose because they need to work with some constraints (such as presentations that actually look presentable when you play them back on PowerPoint).
I don’t think we should be “recommending” any of those, but accommodating them may be warranted, just like how there’s a Windows improvement article.
IMO articles focusing on harm mitigation / improvement is a good idea.
Although not much could be done on corporate devices, it could be quite useful for individual users.
TBH libreoffice falls short even for my light usage. I really miss the performance, stability and feature set offered by MS office Suite.