Collabora Office Brings Its Online UI to the Desktop on Linux, Windows, and macOS

10 months ago by cm0002 to c/opensource

Collabora Office brings the full Collabora Online interface to Linux, Windows, and macOS as a native desktop app, offering offline editing and strong document compatibility.

Collabora Productivity has announced the release of the first desktop version of its Collabora Office, bringing the full Collabora Online interface to Linux, Windows, and macOS as a native application.

For those who haven’t heard of the app, Collabora Office is an open-source office suite derived from the LibreOffice codebase, offering tools for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and vector graphics.

Until now, its most modern user interface—the one used in Collabora Online (COOL)—was available only in the browser. With this release, that interface is now packaged as a local desktop app running entirely offline.

socphoenix 7 points 10 months ago

I don’t get what the point of this is when libreoffice is already a thing…

save

path: 0 20748192, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 6

nocturne 12 points 10 months ago

Why have choices, right?

save

path: 0 20748192 20749125, hotness: undefined, score: 12, children: 0

Prathas 5 points 10 months ago

Huh? LibreOffice isn't on Android while Collabora is. That's kind of important, no?

save

path: 0 20748192 20756174, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 3

socphoenix 1 point 10 months ago

I’m happy they’re on mobile, it’s better than nothing but I don’t particularly like them or their layout on mobile. Because of that I don’t see why I’d want them on the desktop when I’d frankly usually prefer to rdp into a Remote Desktop over use their mobile app.

save

path: 0 20748192 20756174 20757319, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 2

Prathas 2 points 10 months ago

But what if you don't have a machine turned on at the time, or don't have the means nor willingness for a server setup? That's when a Droid app becomes indispensable, and that's why I personally deal with the downfalls of Collabora to at least have that capability.

save

path: 0 20748192 20756174 20757319 20887434, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1

socphoenix 1 point 10 months ago

Sure and my gripe small as it is is about the DESKTOP app. I don’t see a reason for what feels like libreoffice but worse on the desktop when there are already so many better apps for desktops.

save

path: 0 20748192 20756174 20757319 20887434 20888266, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0

gustofwind 3 points 10 months ago

I’m 99% sure it’s just for looking something like msoffice

save

path: 0 20748192 20748446, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0

lens0021 5 points 10 months ago

I will try this. I rarely open xls files and all the icons on libre Calc look... old. They feel like they're straight out of the year 2000 (which might be true). I tried changing the theme, but none of them suited my taste.

The bad thing is Collabora only provides a single flatpak file for Linux. I wish it would be served on flathub. I was so disappointed enough that I tried OnlyOffice yesterday, but all the UI components of OnlyOffice are too large for my screen and the available scaling factor options are 100%, 125%, and so on while what I really need 75%. There is a feature request for this by the way.

save

path: 0 20748898, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0

HeartyOfGlass 4 points 10 months ago

Anyone with some experience in both LibreOffice and Collabora?

Since Collabora is based off LO, I'm curious why users would prefer one over the other. Any killer features missing from either? Is Collabora just a nice coat of paint?

save

path: 0 20752723, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 2

nocturne 4 points 10 months ago

I use Libre office on my MacBook, I use Collabora office on my iPad.

There is no Libre office for iPad, and until now there was no Collabora office for MacBook. But I will be downloading CO today.

save

path: 0 20752723 20754313, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 0

socphoenix 2 points 10 months ago

Their iOS apps work mostly but have annoying glitches for me. Android they run so slow they’re infuriating to use on a cheap tablet. I haven’t used their web app in a while on nextcloud but it wasn’t great either. Feature wise it seemed about the same when they work right. I guess it’s a nice coat of paint if you like web app type look.

save

path: 0 20752723 20754360, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0