Dear community,
the team has worked on a report of the in-person team meeting we had in June in Munich, and attached is the document with which want to invite you to discuss here on the projects forum.
I send this to you on behalf of the team, and would like to thank everyone who worked on the document, and especially to the board for granting the budget to make that team meeting possible.
Thanks a lot,
Florian
munich-meeting-2023-1-aug.pdf (319,1 KB)
in the current form, LibreOffice is only a desktop-only application, but the community wants more than that … mobile …
I want to push back on this statement. Why is an office suite at all necessary on a mobile phone? I would claim that is, at best, something for a small niche among users, and at worst completely useless. To the extent that people write documents on their mobile - these are simple, e.g. a textual note. Certainly not indexed, structured, carefully-styled texts; nor tables with formulas and sheets and complex functions, nor presentations etc.
Now, that is not to say an Android port is useless, because Android is simply a version of Linux with some libraries and frameworks - and there are Android laptops one can get (see this review for example). But - not mobile LO.
LibreOffice has to be present on different platforms to remain
relevant.
Web-based - perhaps, although I’m not so sure. Mobile - certainly not. So just one platform.
There were further discussions about future of LibreOffice
I was slightly disappointed not to see discussion of the prospects for internal API breakage and deep rewrites, to leave behind legacy code from the 1990s…
The new website is currently online for testing purpose on newdesign2.libreoffice.org
Not really, i.e. I get a 403 Forbidden.
Hi Eyal,
Why is an office suite at all necessary on a mobile phone? I would claim that is, at best, something for a small niche among users, and at worst completely useless.
We get lots of questions about why we don’t have an Android version, so there is some demand for it. Yes, very few people are editing complex documents on such devices, but there are people who want to quickly view a doc on the move (hence the LibreOffice Viewer), or make a very quick fix/change to a doc. So it has some uses, but pretty small compared to the desktop app, sure.
Not really, i.e. I get a 403 Forbidden.
The new site design was working until at least a couple of days ago, so let me check with infra…
Cheers,
Mike
I can’t make an educated guess on the technical implementation, e.g. whether you have something web-based that works on all devices.
On the use case:
For mobile, reading ODT attachments from e-mails is a good use case, or e.g. managing your shopping list. Tablets might be a better form factor indeed. Think of classrooms that use tablets, or mobile workers. Tablets gained lots of functionality these days, and you can work on them like on a laptop. I’m not sure if the same UI would fit, but a LibreOffice that runs on Android and iOS, with at least certain editing functionality, would find lots of users and contributors.
Tablets can address both the younger generation, who is not so much into computers yet, but also the older generation for whom the learning curve to a full PC is too high, but who get up to speed with modern tablets. They would suddenly get access to digital productivity tools without vendor lock-in.
Eyal, looks like the link in our report was missing something – apologies! This should work:
For mobile, reading ODT attachments from e-mails is a good use case,
So, that would be a viewer rather than a full-blown LO. That, I agree, has more usage potential.
or e.g. managing your shopping list.
Actually, that’s a poor use case. There are task list apps which are much lighter, much faster, and most importantly - much easier to use than managing an ODS shopping list. … for which we reason we don’t see office suites or spreadsheet apps as popular Android downloads.
Tablets gained lots of functionality these days, and you can work on them like on a laptop
For this kind of use, you don’t really need an “Android version”, you just need to tweak the Linux version to build on Android. We could probably even use Qt as the VCL… An “Android version” means something you use on your phone with a touchscreen; maybe a tablet. IMNSHO.
(Please tell me if I’m being too spammy with my comments)
Marketing … The discussion was around the idea and the focusing marketing messages on the LibreOffice technology. TDF (via LibreOffice technology) provides the technological basis that empowers other companies to provide other product and services.
TBH - that’s barely true. I mean, it empowers a small number of small companies to develop variants of LibreOffice. That doesn’t count. I mean, you can say whatever you want, but - if you ask me, it will be perceived as vapid marketing rhetoric.
ODF, however, is a valid thing to tout on its own: “LO is good because it adheres to the ODF - a free, open and well-specified document format”. But - I would really refrain from calling it “LibreOffice Technology”, because that suggests it is app-specific - like OOXML. It exists independently (well, somewhat) and that’s probably for the best.
LibreOffice on Windows … app stores … The status and number of downloads for each platform was discussed … In Microsoft App Store, the usage rate is about 80% of the installs,
Usage rate of what? Installs of what?
The crash rate is in the lower 50% percentile, and the retention rate (for the productivity category) is in the higher 50% percentile.
What crashes? Retention of what/whom through what change?
In Microsoft App Store,
What about chocolatey? Do you follow statistics there? I’m not sure how large it is relative to MS’ app store, but I know LO has lots of downloads there. Plus, what fraction of LO Windows users do we believe uses any app store at all, as opposed to “just downloading LO”?
The new website is currently online for testing
I hope there’s an arrangement for it to be easily translated into other languages, rather than people having to set up identical translated copies of the site.
A viewer is very helpful indeed, I guess. People read their mails from phone or tablet, and want to read attached documents and spreadsheets.
I guess it would require a proper UI. Having the normal desktop UI on a tablet could turn out to be tricky - too cluttered, at least for small screens.
I know several different use cases of people collecting data on phones or tablets before processing them on a computer later. For example roadmenders in some cities in France, or the nurses who work in the dispensaries in the bush in some countries in Africa.
Their should be more I’m not aware of, but to my point of view, we should take into account that Android is the most used over the world and tablets are far less expensive than a computer, could be used without internet connections and so on.
Android is widely used, but it isn’t, and won’t be, widely used to edit complex documents, prepare presentations etc. Even the use case you provided: A lightweight table editor which saves its output in CSV, ODS or XLSX format would be more appropriate than an office suite. Moreover, it is a niche use case, not something masses of people would use, which one can describe as one of the two prongs of the “future of LibreOffice”.
When it comes to tablets, be it Android or iOS, I am not so sure. Not only in classrooms I see an increased adaption where people actually do use this e.g. as a word processor.
I am not so sure. Not only in classrooms I see an increased adaption where people actually do use this e.g. as a word processor.
Well, in France it is largely used in also. They don’t edit large or complex text or spreadsheet, but during Covid-19 lot of distance learning material for primary school have been developed. It’s in French but the variety of apps that have been created show that it’s largely still in use:
or
https://tablettes.etab.ac-lille.fr/
There is a large study about technology in education done by UNESCO this year, there are some parts on tablets and mobiles too, but it also give a lot of information on how those technologies should be use in education. A bit out of topic here, but not so much 
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000385723
Well, in France it is largely used in also.
I didn’t suggest tablets aren’t in use; indeed they are, but
They don’t edit large or complex text or spreadsheet
… and that’s why I don’t see LO is being attractive on mobiles/tablets; only a viewer would be AFAICT. And that’s a contrast to presenting mobile use as key to the future of LO.
What I tried to show you is a set of applications that can be used on tablets to help pupils and students access to knowledge and education. For me this is a high goal of the foundation. Maybe this example will talk to you:
https://lirecouleur.arkaline.fr/
If you have a look to the report I mentioned, there is a lot of creativity to adapt tools to the need of students depending on their environment or handicap. Writer is not only used for large or complex sheet but also to learn how to read in the example above. Calc for example is used at Diderot University to file and correct tests (multiple choice questions) very quickly. There are lot of applications that can be created and the more OS we cover the better to give access to education for as many people as possible.