Open Source Collaboration: Productivity Suites

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There are many open source options when looking for a productivity suite. Unlike Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, many of these options lack any collaboration options. While you could share files through a project management tool, this method is not ideal when multiple users will be editing files due to the lack of real-time updates. To avoid this pitfall, I will only be covering productivity suites with integrated collaboration tools.


Apache OpenOffice

OpenOffice has a similar visual style to older versions of Microsoft Office


OpenOffice is a full featured office suite which includes Writer (Word), Calc (Excel), Impress (PowerPoint), and other software. OpenOffice is available for Windows, OS X, and Linux. The current version, OpenOffice 3, has the ability to open and edit current and legacy Microsoft Office formats. While OpenOffice is unable to save files in the current Office format (docx, xlsx, pptx), Office is able to read and edit the Open Document Format used by OpenOffice. OpenOffice allows multiple contributors to edit files for each program, but only Calc allows multiple authors to edit the file at the same time. Due to this, team members would need to carefully coordinate changes to files. In today's collaborative workspace this is a huge downside to OpenOffice.

 

LibreOffice

LibreOffice shares the same visual style as OpenOffice with a few tweaks to icons

LibreOffice is an offshoot of OpenOffice that is updated more frequently and includes additional features to help modernize the software and bug fixes. Each piece of software in the LibreOffice productivity suite uses the same name from OpenOffice. LibreOffice includes a larger variety of templates and also supports the most recent Microsoft Office file formats. For users with limited hard drive space, it is work noting these extra features nearly double the install size from 346 MB to 690 MB. While it isn't a big deal to most users, the open source license for LibreOffice allows it to include any code from OpenOffice, but the reverse is not true. Like OpenOffice, only Calc currently allows multiple users to edit files at the same time. The other software only lets a single user edit a file at any time. Fortunately, the more frequent update schedule for LibreOffice means adding collaborative editing to the whole productivity suite is currently being developed. There is also a web-based version of LibreOffice, but it requires the user to host their own server and has seen very little development. If your company has the resources to implement LibreOffice Online it could be a great option for office collaboration but for most, it should just be ignored.

 

OnlyOffice 

OnlyOffice looks and feels similar to the current versions of Microsoft Office   

 

If you love Microsoft Office but wish it was open source, OnlyOffice is the best choice for you. OnlyOffice offers desktop, mobile, and web-based versions of the software so you can work no matter where you are. There is also full collaborative editing so you'll never have to worry about missing any edits or working on an outdated version of a file. All these features come at a price. OnlyOffice is the only open source productivity suite I have covered that isn't available for free. An individual license will cost you $149 and allows up to 10 users, while a commercial server is $1200 and allows up to 50 users. The upside to the pricing structure is you own the license, no "renting" here like Office that will cost you $100 a year for up to 6 users. OnlyOffice also offers a cloud storage and project management add on which starts at $5 a month per user if your business requires those options. 


Conclusion

When it comes to open source productivity suites the collaboration features are a mixed bag. Some products like OpenOffice and LibreOffice allow some collaboration, but not enough to be a serious replacement for Microsoft Office or Google Workspace. Others like OnlyOffice give you all the collaborative benefits of Microsoft and Google, but you'll have to pay for the features. Ultimately, it's likely Office or Workspace will be a better choice for you, but if you feel like open source is the way to go there are options available for you.


https://www.openoffice.org/

https://www.libreoffice.org/

https://www.onlyoffice.com/

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