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…
OpenSource, not Free/Libre-software
Are there really people who know what open source means that would see this and actually believe it? Who is that even for?
Microsoft and other large corporations do love open source. Open source software saves them tons of money.
i remember saying this was just pr bullshit to redditors and them scoffing at it. good times.
Microsoft and anticompetitiveness, an iconic duo
It’s a shame that show shit the bed so badly in the third season
It’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.
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.
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?
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.
Just moved to Linux, can’t stomach the upgrade to Win 11. I understand nothing, am totally confused, but I’m excited to learn.
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.
This! Exactly:]
This should help with some of the commands
It looks more like Microsoft’s usual incompetence than a conspiracy against LibreOffice…
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.
All the more reason to get LibreOffice
and OnlyOffice!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] and presents itself in the Russian market as a Russian company[23]. For this reason some Ukrainian businesses have moved away from OnlyOffice[24].
Is everything Russian bad? I understand Ukraine not using anything Russian but the rest of the world?
I didn’t say that necessarily. The reason I dropped it is because I don’t trust the developers to protect the software from the Russian government if they’re based out of Russia.
If it open source who cares
There are more concerns in the world than just “is it open source?”
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
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 wasn’t stuck in the 90s more people would take it seriously. It’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
Us OpenSouce/Free-Software fanatics don’t seem so crazy now, dont we
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.
“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.
For it not to become perceived as “fucking with a company” competition should be normal, and it’s normal when the winning side is often enough the new competitor. In other words, if there were a few companies making office suites, compatible between each other, and none of them would hold hegemony.
Because what’s perceived is defined by what those holding power think. When they change often through competition, they hail competition. When they are the same companies for 30 years, then they would publicly flog and hang you for it if they could.
Similar to how in Linux 2.2 days some functionality lacking or some anarchist spirit were normal, and now Linux is almost authoritarian as a community. Because it’s the main thing in its niche.
Or how Apple Computer was a good company when they were competing with Microsoft and others for normal personal computer market, and became crap after they’ve achieved long hegemony for the luxury segment.
Even Microsoft itself - when they feared some competition, it was W2K and XP, and when they stopped, it was the rest since.
People don’t really believe in things they don’t experience. Others’ dignity/freedom/safety is important for a human when their own depends on it.
??? 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)
Nah, OpenOffice is close to death since about ten years and has known security issues. Go for only LibreOffice.
And OnlyOffice? How about that one?
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.
https://www.texaslonghorn.se/restaurang/stpaulsgatan/ I visit often. Do I get free meals now?
Wow, they have that horrible chain in other countries too? Lmao
Oh, I’m sure you’d get some free extras at some point.
Oh boy, oh boy! And I thought people are just trying to fuck each other over all the time.
I’m going right now!
