New alternative to Microsoft Office - perhaps
Discussion
Coming soon to whoever wants it: EU Office Suite.
https://office.eu/
The EU suggested they wanted an alternative to Windows and MS Office where security of information is prime, GPDR is built-in, no US jurisdiction and data storage is in EU-owned data centres. They've had a press conference where they've 'launched' an open-sourced EU office suite, complete with email and video conferencing. Free to individuals, although it seems it will be 'cost-effective', which means what?, for SMEs.
It's taken some time as there was a promise of soon more than soon ago.
And it's not available yet. But soon. Looks promising though.
Not sign of EU-12.
https://office.eu/
The EU suggested they wanted an alternative to Windows and MS Office where security of information is prime, GPDR is built-in, no US jurisdiction and data storage is in EU-owned data centres. They've had a press conference where they've 'launched' an open-sourced EU office suite, complete with email and video conferencing. Free to individuals, although it seems it will be 'cost-effective', which means what?, for SMEs.
It's taken some time as there was a promise of soon more than soon ago.
And it's not available yet. But soon. Looks promising though.
Not sign of EU-12.
Interesting. Seems to be a joint venture between Nextcloud, the cloud application creator and vendor, and IONOS, the cloud hosting giant, so some decent clout and experience behind it.
The office suite appears to come from Onlyoffice, which i've been using for 6 months now, and as a free application (for indivudual users at least) its very very good. However it appears they've been shut out of any discussions and this new Office.eu venture has used their sourcecode without licensing and/or acknowledging them.
There does seem to be a bit of an anti US tech "deGoogle", "deMicrosoft" movement growing, at least online, so will be interesting to see how this takes off. Of course its hard to tell if these commentators and social media pages are just echo chambers so probably impossible to gauge the actual interest in this from a consumer point of view, although i'd imagine they'll do pretty well with governments and other public organisations, particularly if they offer easy migration services and can undercut the Americans, especially with the whole "digital sovereignty" thing behind it.
The office suite appears to come from Onlyoffice, which i've been using for 6 months now, and as a free application (for indivudual users at least) its very very good. However it appears they've been shut out of any discussions and this new Office.eu venture has used their sourcecode without licensing and/or acknowledging them.
There does seem to be a bit of an anti US tech "deGoogle", "deMicrosoft" movement growing, at least online, so will be interesting to see how this takes off. Of course its hard to tell if these commentators and social media pages are just echo chambers so probably impossible to gauge the actual interest in this from a consumer point of view, although i'd imagine they'll do pretty well with governments and other public organisations, particularly if they offer easy migration services and can undercut the Americans, especially with the whole "digital sovereignty" thing behind it.
Maybe just someone overselling an instance of nextcloud?
https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/s/MpuvPeDBUZ
https://tweakers.net/reviews/14562/nextcloud-met-e...
https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/s/MpuvPeDBUZ
https://tweakers.net/reviews/14562/nextcloud-met-e...
Edited by LordGrover on Tuesday 31st March 14:41
Looks interesting.
With Trumps unpredictable behaviour it is understandable that the pennies are dropping across the EU just how reliant we are in US tech and cloud services, not least Google, IBM, Microsoft, Apple.
Ive been increasingly curious as to why we don’t have any real prominent Euro competitor in the tech space. Perhaps times are a changing?
With Trumps unpredictable behaviour it is understandable that the pennies are dropping across the EU just how reliant we are in US tech and cloud services, not least Google, IBM, Microsoft, Apple.
Ive been increasingly curious as to why we don’t have any real prominent Euro competitor in the tech space. Perhaps times are a changing?
Cloudy147 said:
Ive been increasingly curious as to why we don t have any real prominent Euro competitor in the tech space. Perhaps times are a changing?
A lot is down the risk appetite of investors and the Silicon Valley centric commercial computing/tech industry. Europe has got lots of very clever scientists and coders but has found it much harder to turn those ideas into profitable companies at home, whereas in the US investors are much happier to throw money at lots of projects and if some fail then so be it. In Europe investors have been more cautious, holding back our tech industries through lack of capital.
That said, there is a lot of effort now going in to creating European/EU competitors to most US products, everything from Office software to cloud providers to payment systems which are not VISA or Mastercard.
See this list here
https://wire.com/en/blog/best-european-alternative...
Edited by Condi on Wednesday 1st April 10:16
In addition the big US tech firms are acquisitive and have extremely deep pockets
There is a fairly long list of European firms that have been subsumed over the years.
Not only do they have a different appetite for risk, they also have the most money.
I think it would be justified if a lot more barriers to such acquisitions were in place, but that is a tricky balancing act.
There is a fairly long list of European firms that have been subsumed over the years.
Not only do they have a different appetite for risk, they also have the most money.
I think it would be justified if a lot more barriers to such acquisitions were in place, but that is a tricky balancing act.
The EU, in pushing security of data, realised there was no way the Americans would agree with restrictions in the GDPR. There was Safe Harbour, but that was nothing more than a fig leaf. With Trump's wholesale raiding of data everyone made out they believed secure there is a massive legislative pressure to enforce anyone dealing wit the EU to use secure servers, and American ain’t got none.
By saying EU, I assume it will include all of Europe, the Antipodes and other like-minded countries, such as Canada. The Trump effect has given a significant impetuous to making going it alone financially viable.
By saying EU, I assume it will include all of Europe, the Antipodes and other like-minded countries, such as Canada. The Trump effect has given a significant impetuous to making going it alone financially viable.
...and another one.
https://proton.me/business/drive/workspace
No affinity etc. I haven't even used it, but coincidentally received an email about it just before I saw this.
https://proton.me/business/drive/workspace
No affinity etc. I haven't even used it, but coincidentally received an email about it just before I saw this.
Bluesky for Word Docs.
All the tech innovation is in America, so whether you like it or not, your choice is the good American stuff or severely limited setups that will hold you back even more than all the other EU nonsense has.
If you think NextCloud is an alternative to M365 or Google's platform then you don't understand what those platforms are. I've used NextCloud and I wouldn't trust it running on my own server with my personal files, let alone putting my business stuff on someone else's server. It is not reliable to put it mildly.
You can use Microsoft 365 and not have any data leave the EU anyway if that's what you want.
All the tech innovation is in America, so whether you like it or not, your choice is the good American stuff or severely limited setups that will hold you back even more than all the other EU nonsense has.
If you think NextCloud is an alternative to M365 or Google's platform then you don't understand what those platforms are. I've used NextCloud and I wouldn't trust it running on my own server with my personal files, let alone putting my business stuff on someone else's server. It is not reliable to put it mildly.
You can use Microsoft 365 and not have any data leave the EU anyway if that's what you want.
paulrockliffe said:
Bluesky for Word Docs.
All the tech innovation is in America, so whether you like it or not, your choice is the good American stuff or severely limited setups that will hold you back even more than all the other EU nonsense has.
If you think NextCloud is an alternative to M365 or Google's platform then you don't understand what those platforms are. I've used NextCloud and I wouldn't trust it running on my own server with my personal files, let alone putting my business stuff on someone else's server. It is not reliable to put it mildly.
You can use Microsoft 365 and not have any data leave the EU anyway if that's what you want.
It's not about data - well not for me. Giving them $$$ is now the issue.All the tech innovation is in America, so whether you like it or not, your choice is the good American stuff or severely limited setups that will hold you back even more than all the other EU nonsense has.
If you think NextCloud is an alternative to M365 or Google's platform then you don't understand what those platforms are. I've used NextCloud and I wouldn't trust it running on my own server with my personal files, let alone putting my business stuff on someone else's server. It is not reliable to put it mildly.
You can use Microsoft 365 and not have any data leave the EU anyway if that's what you want.
sideways sid said:
...and another one.
https://proton.me/business/drive/workspace
No affinity etc. I haven't even used it, but coincidentally received an email about it just before I saw this.
I use Proton and they're fine. Supposed to be very secure. https://proton.me/business/drive/workspace
No affinity etc. I haven't even used it, but coincidentally received an email about it just before I saw this.
As for the cloud services, just buy a NAS and have full control of your own data without any subscriptions.
eps said:
It's not about data - well not for me. Giving them $$$ is now the issue.
What are you gonna do when you find out that not only is your NextCloud tenant down because it is absolute garbage, but also 70% of your fee is going straight to Amazon because the whole thing is running on AWS?paulrockliffe said:
eps said:
It's not about data - well not for me. Giving them $$$ is now the issue.
What are you gonna do when you find out that not only is your NextCloud tenant down because it is absolute garbage, but also 70% of your fee is going straight to Amazon because the whole thing is running on AWS?eps said:
The main issue for me in switching away from Office is the lack of a decent alternative to Outlook. If they could come up with that then I could switch the family away from Office and when I say me I mainly mean swmbo!! Just to keep it all simple and non-techy..
I use Mozilla Thunderbird instead of Outlook, works great for me.732NM said:
eps said:
The main issue for me in switching away from Office is the lack of a decent alternative to Outlook. If they could come up with that then I could switch the family away from Office and when I say me I mainly mean swmbo!! Just to keep it all simple and non-techy..
I use Mozilla Thunderbird instead of Outlook, works great for me.ARH said:
732NM said:
eps said:
The main issue for me in switching away from Office is the lack of a decent alternative to Outlook. If they could come up with that then I could switch the family away from Office and when I say me I mainly mean swmbo!! Just to keep it all simple and non-techy..
I use Mozilla Thunderbird instead of Outlook, works great for me.Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff