688

Recently, we reported on LibreOffice, accusing Microsoft of intentionally using complex file formats as a tactic to lock in users to Microsoft Office, hindering open source alternatives like LibreOffice. Now, Microsoft has banned LibreOffice developer, Mike Kaganski, from using its services, citing an "activity that violates [its] Services Agreement".

According to Mike, this happened last Monday when he tried to send a technical email to the LibreOffice dev mailing list, which is a normal part of his routine, but Thunderbird returned an error saying the message couldn't be sent. His account was blocked upon retry, and he found himself completely logged out of his Microsoft account.....

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] thirdBreakfast@lemmy.world 174 points 1 week ago
[-] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 59 points 1 week ago

Well, yeah, but not like that!

[-] Damage@feddit.it 52 points 1 week ago

Microsoft ๐Ÿ† Open Source

[-] prole 18 points 1 week ago

Are there really people who know what open source means that would see this and actually believe it? Who is that even for?

[-] bilb@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 week ago

Microsoft and other large corporations do love open source. Open source software saves them tons of money.

[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 week ago

I hope thatโ€™s not where the libre code is hosted.

[-] Peter_Arbeitslos@feddit.org 131 points 1 week ago

Aww, is the big, predominant, incontestable and great Microsoft suddenly afraid of some foolish, little competitor who of course isn't fit to hold a candle to them?

[-] RandomStickman@fedia.io 106 points 1 week ago

Microsoft and anticompetitiveness, an iconic duo

[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 89 points 1 week ago
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] blueworld@piefed.world 74 points 1 week ago

This is his blog article. https://mikekaganski.wordpress.com/2025/07/25/microsoft-anybody-home/

Looking at this, it looks more like Microsoft just screwed it's auth system in some way for him then intentionally banned him in particular.

I as an IT guy have seen this before SOHO office accounts as well and entirely agree that MS has entirely lost the ability to do IT infrastructure in any useful way. Even at an enterprise level, Exchange and outlook used to be convoluted to learn and administer before they became cloud based, as regedit was your friend and they always buried the settings. Now, it doesn't require a degree in IT, but rather a pointy hat and a reading of spell books to make things work... Sometimes. Sacrifices of interns might be necessary at the alter of Support, before they'll answer the phone and you realize they have no more knowledge then you to.

[-] regedit@lemmy.zip 33 points 1 week ago

WAS your friend? Bitch, I'm still yo friend! ;)

[-] derpgon@programming.dev 9 points 1 week ago

Heck Microsoft doesn't even allow me to use IMAP, and if I want to use a different client (and not the shitty web one), I have to get permission from my IT administrator.

Funnily enough, the same client (Thubderbid) doesn't need any confirmation on Mac or Windows, only Linux.

[-] rozodru@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

And now the important question: Sir, exactly how many interns have YOU sacrificed to Micorosoft Khorne? how many skulls did you provide for his throne?

[-] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 52 points 1 week ago

Itโ€™s fun to assume this is Microsoft being petty but the most likely scenario is Microsoft has cut their operating costs to such extremes they no longer have usable services or products.

This always happens when business majors are allowed to make decisions.

[-] 30p87@feddit.org 43 points 1 week ago

Ok, but why are you a dev of an open source tool but use an M$ service?

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 65 points 1 week ago

Naivity:

I develop open-source code. But that never made me one of the โ€œI hate proprietary software or IT giant corporationsโ€ types. I always saw the nice things that Microsoft offered to its users; I saw not only downsides in its products. And I also used (and continue to use) things created by it: Windows to start with (and I develop there, being able to debug and address issues specific to the platform that most of our users use); but also its email service for personal mail.

https://mikekaganski.wordpress.com/

[-] Hawke@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago

Well, hopefully heโ€™s learned his lesson, but I doubt it.

[-] arsCynic@beehaw.org 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I always saw the nice things that Microsoft offered to its users

I'd understand this perspective in 2005, but 2025?


โœ๏ธŽ arscyni.cc: modernity โˆ nature.

[-] Restoration@midwest.social 3 points 1 week ago

I'm decidedly NOT a computer expert, but our newest computer, which is always trying to force us to save things to "One Drive," now no longer even lets me open Libre Office files. Is there any way I can fix that? I would think a bunch of people would be suing MS over that, except that in this current political climate, that's probably not even going to go anywhere.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Dettweiler42@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 1 week ago

It's incredibly difficult to get away from Microsoft in the corporate/business space.

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yes, but his private e-mail is affected.

[-] Dettweiler42@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago

True. In his scenario, it would definitely make sense to set up an email on a private domain (or at least self host one).

[-] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

All the more reason to get LibreOffice ~~and OnlyOffice!~~

[-] UnculturedSwine@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 week ago

I ditched the latter

The connection between OnlyOffice and Russia has caused some controversy. The company has moved headquarters and attempted to hide its Russian ties through shell companies[21]. The company develops its product in Russia[22]ย and presents itself in the Russian market as a Russian company[23]. For this reason some Ukrainian businesses have moved away from OnlyOffice[24].

[-] oplkill@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

If it open source who cares

[-] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago

There are more concerns in the world than just โ€œis it open source?โ€

[-] Niquarl@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago

I'mbusing it and I haven't donated to them and probably won't after reading that bit so not sure how they are making money through me? So yeah it's different to paying a subscription for something else

[-] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

You using this thing helps boost metrics and alert search engines and shit. That boosts their visibility. Just using the thing helps the project.

Frankly, if libreoffice made a cleaner looking UI that wasnโ€™t stuck in the 90s more people would take it seriously. Itโ€™s functional, but curb appeal helps to attract people, to convince them to give it a chance.

While it doesn't bring it up to current standards, it does have a tabbed UI that you can enable by going to View --> User Interface

Personally, I don't fully understand why they don't make that the default and keep supporting the toolbar design as they've always done. I can't imagine there would be a big backlash from existing users who prefer the toolbar UI

[-] Spaniard@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Is everything Russian bad? I understand Ukraine not using anything Russian but the rest of the world?

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] phantomwise@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 week ago

It looks more like Microsoft's usual incompetence than a conspiracy against LibreOffice...

[-] kadotux@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 week ago

"never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity"

[-] serenissi@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago

this exact same thing happened to me a while ago. I really doubt some human blocked my account though. after hours of customer support call and emails (from another account) it finally got unblocked but neither yhe support agent nor me had any clue what happened.

I learned the lesson and gradually moved the dev accounts to a proton email instead.

[-] CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net 22 points 1 week ago

Just moved to Linux, can't stomach the upgrade to Win 11. I understand nothing, am totally confused, but I'm excited to learn.

[-] rozodru@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

when I moved to Linux a couple years ago I felt the exact same way. I dont' know how old you are but maybe you remember that feeling logging into win 95 or 98 for the very first time and falling in love with computers and what they could do.

I hadn't felt that way in decades and when I switched to Linux it made me feel like I was a kid again in the late 90s with my very first PC. Switching to Linux made me fall in love with Computers again.

[-] oyzmo@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

This! Exactly:]

[-] Allero@lemmy.today 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's alright - start off easy, do some browsing/text editing/etc, don't jump to complicated stuff. You'll get there!

If you come to Windows merely a few weeks after, you'll feel same discomfort that you feel now. Linux will become more familiar, easy, and predictable.

Just keep on going and enjoy your ride. Oh and - I hope you chose a simple, newbie-friendly distribution. Figuring out technicalities when you didn't yet have basics is no fun.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Wasn't there recently a ban on Distrowatch and certain Linux topics on a bigger social network? And Who was the owner of that network again?

Looks like Big Tech fell out of love with FLOSS after it looked at the GNU manifest and found that their profit interests do not align well any more with a digital civil rights movement. All what they want is people's work for free, to sell it as theirs.

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 1 week ago

Gosh, I canโ€™t imagine why M$ would block competition!

[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago

Ah yes, the Trump approach to dealing with things you donโ€™t like. I see.

Setting an example for the rest of the corporate assholes.

[-] dontbelievethis@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

That sucks but... I mean... It's not really surprising is it?

The most surprising thing about it is that you try to fuck with a company while using their services and expect nothing to happen.

[-] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 60 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

"Fuck with a company" ??

Developing a perfectly legal competing product should not constitute "fucking with a company" and the very fact that it seemingly does is the problem here.

[-] 4am@lemmy.zip 30 points 1 week ago

Not really sure itโ€™s ok for Microsoft to control peopleโ€™s criticism of them.

Itโ€™s not surprising that Microsoft would try, because theyโ€™re assholes. It is really surprising that people just let them get away with it, vote for governments who would let them get away with it, etc

[-] dontbelievethis@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago

Of course it's not okay but so what? People need to stop acting like they are living in some fantasy where moral has worth.

In this reality we live in laws are enforced with violence, in all it's forms. So if you can't enforce the change you want to see in the world, nothing will change. They have the violence, so they will use it. Of course they will use it. And they will never change the system in a way so they lose power because that would mean they lose their access to violence, which means they lose access to the ability to form the world the way they want. Why should anybody give up that power? It would be stupid. Almost as stupid as to expect them to give it up freely because it is better for everybody.

People are not interested in that stuff. Talk with the average person and they don't know what is happening outside of their bubble.

Most people are just tired driftwood getting violated by the raging ocean waves. Their apathy is understandable.

What is not understandable is that someone who builds an alternative to a Microsoft product, knowing what scum they are, is still using their other product instead of alternatives that exist.

This is war. Of course they try to cripple your production.

[-] MudMan@fedia.io 7 points 1 week ago

Hey, just real quick, if you can list a series of restaurants and cafes you visit often I'd have a few calls to make and you'd have a very fun few weeks.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

??? Companies are MEANT to be fucked with. They never have your best interests in mind. They only care about profit, profit, and greed.

Fuck Microsoft. Time to download LibreOffice!

(removed a few other ideas, see below)

[-] Telemachus93@slrpnk.net 12 points 1 week ago

Nah, OpenOffice is close to death since about ten years and has known security issues. Go for only LibreOffice.

[-] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

And OnlyOffice? How about that one?

load more comments
view more: next โ€บ
this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2025
688 points (100.0% liked)

Buy European

6825 readers
236 users here now

Overview:

The community to discuss buying European goods and services.


Matrix Chat of this community


Rules:

  • Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. No direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments.

  • Do not use this community to promote Nationalism/Euronationalism. This community is for discussing European products/services and news related to that. For other topics the following might be of interest:

  • Include a disclaimer at the bottom of the post if you're affiliated with the recommendation.

  • No russian suggestions.

Feddit.uk's instance rules apply:

  • No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia.
  • No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.
  • No harassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users.
  • Do not share intentionally false or misleading information.
  • Do not spam or abuse network features.
  • Alt accounts are permitted, but all accounts must list each other in their bios.
  • No generative AI content.

Useful Websites

Benefits of Buying Local:

local investment, job creation, innovation, increased competition, more redundancy.

European Instances

Lemmy:

Friendica:

Matrix:


Related Communities:

Buy Local:

Continents:

European:

Buying and Selling:

Boycott:

Countries:

Companies:

Stop Publisher Kill Switch in Games Practice:


Banner credits: BYTEAlliance


founded 6 months ago
MODERATORS