LibreOffice Online dragged out of the attic, dusted off for another go
- Reference: 1772443813
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/03/02/libreoffice_online_deatticized/
- Source link:
[1]LibreOffice Online (LOOL) is the cloud-based version of LibreOffice. You could be forgiven if you haven't heard of it. Its development has been [2]largely dormant since 2020. That will soon change. Earlier this week, TDF announced that LOOL is getting a [3]fresh start .
The news follows a Document Foundation [4]community vote earlier this month. Back in 2020, the [5]organization decided to freeze development of LOOL, and despite an [6]open letter calling for its revival in 2022, in TDF's attic it has remained.
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What makes the decision a little stranger than it may seem, though, is that there already is an existing online browser-based flavor of LibreOffice. It's called [8]Collabora Online , or COOL for short. It was [9]announced in 2015 and has been updated regularly since: it's very much still around, and the current version is [10]COOL 25.04 .
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Collabora, [13]founded in 2005 , is a for-profit company based in Cambridge, UK, and as The Register [14]reported six years ago it provides the majority of the full-time paid developers working on the LibreOffice codebase. As we [15]reported from the FOSDEM conference in 2025 , it is still actively working on both the local, standalone version of LibreOffice, as well as on its own collaborative online edition.
As well as the paid-for COOL suite, Collabora offers a free edition, the [16]Collabora Online Development Edition or CODE for short. Around the time of the last attempt to revive TDF's LOOL, we [17]mentioned CODE 22.05 , and a month later, we [18]looked at its new features .
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We weren't able to run it for ourselves, because although you can download packages and install them, COOL and CODE could only run when hosted on a web server. It's designed to integrate with some form of online file storage such as Nextcloud. What with having a day job and all, The Reg FOSS desk doesn't run its own web server – although [20]we have been looking into it .
We use the past tense because that changed late last year. In November 2025, Collabora [21]released Collabora Office for Desktop . Known as CODA, this runs locally on Windows, Linux or macOS, but like the cloud version, its UI is rendered using web technology – the announcement says it has an…
HTML + JavaScript-based front end, powered by your system's native browser engine (like WebKit, Chromium, etc.)
This is the same way that [22]Ascensio's OnlyOffice suite works. We [23]looked at OnlyOffice 7.3 a few years ago. We may revisit it soon: [24]version 9.3 appeared this week.
As well as details of how they are implemented, both the Collabora suites and OnlyOffice share a modernized UI with a ribbon, much more like Microsoft Office 365 than the more traditional toolbar-and-menus interface found in LibreOffice by default – although LibreOffice also offers a ribbon-based look-and-feel if you want it.
[25]LibreOffice 25.8: Faster, leaner, and finally speaks PDF 2.0
[26]LibreOffice adds voice to 'ditch Windows for Linux' campaign
[27]LibreOffice still kicking at 40, now with browser tricks and real-time collab
[28]LibreOffice 24.8: Handy even if you're happy with Microsoft
Both the LibreOffice and Collabora suites are open source. The key difference is that TDF offers only the free-of-charge LibreOffice, nothing else. Collabora primarily offers paid support and services, although it does also offer free downloads of both the server and local versions.
Although TDF does recommend [29]LibreOffice in business , it does not offer commercial support – for this, it has a [30]Professional Support page. This does include Collabora, but the list appears in a different order every time the page is refreshed.
The demarcation used to be fairly clear. TDF offered only a local version, and Collabora offered a paid-for cloud-based version, with the free CODE edition for evaluation. Since November 2025, though, Collabora now also offers a local version.
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The decision to "de-atticize" LOOL has been controversial. It's hard not to see TDF restarting development of the cloudy LOOL as a tit-for-tat move. Collabora's Michael Meeks voted and commented against the proposal. He told The Register:
It is an extraordinary decision. It is unclear what more we could give to try to help them recognize our value. We contributed around [32]half of the highlighted features in 26.2.
We put this to TDF's public relations and marketing representative, Italo Vignoli, who last year [33]retired from the organization's board of directors. He told us:
While I completely understand Michael Meeks's opposition, the decision of putting the LibreOffice Online repository in the attic was controversial, and many community members did not accept it.
As you know, open source software is not like proprietary software, where you have a single decision maker. The community behind LibreOffice is large, and spread over many continents, and there are people who want to contribute to LibreOffice Online only if the repository is hosted at TDF.
The only decision which has been taken is to de-atticize the repository, and not to develop a product.
We also spoke with Paolo Vecchi and Mike Saunders from TDF's [34]board of directors . Vecchi told us:
LibreOffice Online is not in competition with Collabora. The decision to archive it was a mistake. The vote was wrong, and they fixed it, that's all. They are fixing the governance, and saying let's get the community on a level playing field – and then we'll move forward together.
The decision to revive LibreOffice Online is a bigger deal than it sounds. Although TDF directors do not see it this way, some might interpret it as TDF choosing to go into competition with its biggest commercial development partner, which has been making money from its cloud-hosted versions of LibreOffice for over a decade.
LibreOffice Online is not a product yet, and you can't download it. It may not be for months, or even years. But if you want to help it to become one, the source code [35]is on GitHub . ®
Get our [36]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-online/
[2] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/LibreOffice_Online
[3] https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/02/24/libreoffice-online-a-fresh-start/
[4] https://community.documentfoundation.org/t/vote-revoke-votes-related-to-libreoffice-online-atticiziation-and-freezing-of-repository/13495
[5] https://community.documentfoundation.org/t/vote-libreoffice-online-repository-and-translations/8893
[6] https://community.documentfoundation.org/t/open-letter-for-revive-lool-add-your-1-if-you-agree/9142
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aaVt0RdzBnmiQlgA9oIjeQAAAdI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.collaboraonline.com/collabora-online/
[9] https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/new-document-solution-offers
[10] https://www.collaboraonline.com/collabora-online-25-04-release-notes/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aaVt0RdzBnmiQlgA9oIjeQAAAdI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aaVt0RdzBnmiQlgA9oIjeQAAAdI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://open.endole.co.uk/insight/company/05513718-collabora-limited
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/16/libreoffice_ecosystem_beyond_utterly_broken/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/13/libreoffice_wasm_zetaoffice/
[16] https://www.collaboraonline.com/code/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/13/open_source_office_suites/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/01/collabora_releases_code_2205_webbased/
[19] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aaVt0RdzBnmiQlgA9oIjeQAAAdI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/22/debians_freedombox_blend/
[21] https://www.collaboraonline.com/blog/collabora-online-now-available-on-desktop/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/27/onlyoffice_72_released/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/21/onlyoffice_7_3_and_wps_11/
[24] https://www.onlyoffice.com/blog/2026/02/onlyoffice-desktop-editors-9-3
[25] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/21/libreoffice_258/
[26] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/16/libreoffice_ditch_windows/
[27] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/13/libreoffice_wasm_zetaoffice/
[28] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/23/libreoffice_24_8/
[29] https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/
[30] https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/professional-support/
[31] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aaVt0RdzBnmiQlgA9oIjeQAAAdI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[32] https://www.collaboraonline.com/blog/collabora-productivity-contributions-in-libreoffice-26-2/
[33] https://community.documentfoundation.org/t/i-am-exhausted-this-is-my-resignation-from-the-board-of-directors-of-the-document-foundation/12950
[34] https://www.documentfoundation.org/board/
[35] https://github.com/LibreOffice/online
[36] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: a modernized UI with a ribbon
I don't mind people wanting either. I grew up without one, others grew up with one.
What drives me insane is WE COULD JUST HAVE THE OPTION. Like we did, in fact, used to have!
Rather than fixing something solid and alienating 50% of the userbase... put in an option.
Or better yet go real old-school and program your software to be UI dependent so people can put a UI on top (like, say, a web-first interface!), or they can decide to "theme" it like Office 2000, or run it like Wordstar if that's what they want to do.
Every time, every project, they forget that the ultimate aim of the software is to be USED BY PEOPLE who will naturally have differing tastes.
I moved from Windows when they started telling me where my taskbar had to go, where my icons had to align to, that I can't use folders in the Start Menu but must "search" for everything instead, etc.
Not the functionality or the performance... the UI and UX. And given that programmers appear to be AWFUL at implementing UI/UX, make it modular and let people do what they damn well want with their own computers!
Still don't understand why even Microsoft Word doesn't just have a "Office 97 theme", for example.
"Known as CODA, this runs locally on Windows, Linux or macOS, but like the cloud version, its UI is rendered using web technology"
Why? Just why? There is an existing local alternative that doesn't need this. It sounds neither fish nor file nor good red herring.
I gave OnlyOffice a try a few weeks back. Someone had recommended it to me, suggesting that it might solve a few compatibility issues I was having with xlsx files in Libreoffice.
I wasn't impressed, and its compatibility didn't seem any better.
Apart from the ribbon interface I found it disturbingly sluggish on what is otherwise an adequately performant Core i5 laptop - guess the fact it is pointlessly running through a browser engine answers that question.
I also very much hope that Libreoffice doesn't drop their traditional interface just because Microslop has insisted on fscking up the Office interface since 2007....
Re: Why? Just why?
I can only assume that by pushing the UI into a web/browser technology that the LO UI development can be offloaded on to external browser development projects. This might be driven by a graying and shrinking pool of LO developers. (I don''t know.)
Also might be driven by the declining specs in (real terms) of lower end PCs that are likely to dominate the market for some years. Running the fully local version of LO on the 2026·28 version of the "Netbook" or 4G/Celeron Chromebook might an unpleasant experience.
Or could be an outbreak of the brain liquifying daftness virus from which we appear to be suffering an epidemic.
As I have a local web server for an AL yum repo, I could test whether there is much difference between the local and web versions preferably using the same storage. I have an old, ca 2015, reflashed HP Chromebook (4G/Celeron) that now runs a lightweight Linux distro which might be a decent client side test machine. It ran Win10 like a decrepit tortoise.
Re: Why? Just why?
Having a "web ui" is perfectly fine for a online version, where you have a back end and a front end. Having it on a local version is useless bloating and inefficiency. Like using containers or flatpacks for everything, for example. It's the endless bloating of software caused by the fact that hardware was cheap. It's no more. It's time to rethink software. But no one will do it.
So, why don't we just add AI? I'm sure it will sell better with AI. (sad sarcasm)
COOL CODE? LOOL!
Sorry. Couldn't resist it.
Mine's the one with the dark glasses.
I've used Collabera online on an iPad. If all you want to do is to edit a single cell in a spreadsheet you created using LibreOffice on a Mac and then saved in iCloud then Collabera is just about OK. It wlll still drive you mad and it might take a few goes to select and edit the cell but with perseverance you can make that edit, have a go at saving the file and breathe a huge sigh of relief that it only took ten minutes this time.
a modernized UI with a ribbon
Well that's a deal breaker right there. As long as Libre Office continues to use menus as the great $deity intended, that's where I'll stay.
Funny, four thousand years or so ago the Mesopotamians invented writing, and now we've advanced back to pictograms (which, in spite of all their apologists, are firmly based on shared cultural norms) and indeed, bombing the descendants of those pesky Mesopotamians. That'll teach 'em.