Discussion

Office.eu officially launches in The Hague as Europe's fully sovereign office platform

PowerElectronix: The EU tech ecosystem is sadder every day

dabedee: I laud the attempt and I think it's important we have more projects that try to replace their American counterparts. I do want to gently note that if your entire pitch is "we are a bold, independent European alternative that liberates you from the hegemony of the established American players," maybe don't name your product the exact same thing as the product you're replacing? "Office." They named it "Office."

rrr_oh_man: Cheap purchased PR slop with fake articles and no product.e.g.:- https://hostingdiscussion.com/news/european-cloud-workspace-...- https://www.jornaldenegocios.pt/empresas/amp/plataforma-offi...And it seems to be repackaged Collabora (~LibreOffice):https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/05/office_eu_suite/

gzread: I need to learn this skill of producing nothing and pretending I have. It seems to be very rewarding, financially speaking.

MattGaiser: Really, just lack shame and sell something you do not have and bet that you can get it before anyone really presses too hard. It's an incredible thing to see.

joe_mamba: You need to know the right people in politics.

sgt: > Office EU is a complete cloud-based office suiteIssue is.. if you are a traditional MS Office "poweruser", the last thing you want to do is spend your days in a web browser. These apps should also be available as native apps, similar to MS Word, Excel, Pages, Keynote, etc.

herbst: This is probably not the target audience. Most people just need to write occasional letters and sign some files.

canyp: Should have gotten an MBA instead of a BS.

storus: LibreOffice came from OpenOffice which was StarOffice which was developed in Germany.

glenstein: For me, the charitable interpretation is that office is very close to a default term for the category of the software. Open Office, Libre Office, WPS Office, Only Office, Polaris Office.One thing that may contribute to Europe's and the world's independence from Office is the notion that it's a term distinctly associated with a Microsoft product.I don't entirely disagree though because they could have attached some distinguishing prefix or suffix. Maybe that's what the .eu is.

nradov: Good luck to them, but without an equivalent to Microsoft Access it's not really a replacement for Microsoft Office for many power users. (Yes, I'm aware that Access has some weaknesses as a database but for quick-and-dirty custom applications it's still the easiest platform out there.)

pavlov: To be fair, Microsoft Office doesn't exist anymore as a separate brand:https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-offi..."Office is now Microsoft 365, the premier productivity suite with innovative productivity apps, intelligent cloud services, and world-class security. Office.com, the Office mobile app, and the Office app for Windows are combined in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app—with a new icon, new look, and even more features."You can count on Microsoft to mess up their marketing message in the craziest ways. Why stick with the best-known productivity software brand on the planet when you can call it "365 Copilot"?

ocdtrekkie: I doubt this will stop the lawsuit. Also Microsoft still absolutely sells Office 365 tiers separately from Microsoft 365 tiers. Their marketing is terrible and confusing but Offie definitely still exits as a brand, and you can bet your bottom dollar the lawyers are going to be having a great day on Monday.

worik: This has been a longtime coming, it is not unique but it is still significantThe enormous momentum of the installed base and occupied headspace of Microsoft systems made them lazy and complacent decades ago. They have been peddling insecure unreliable software for a generation now, and believed their was no viable threat.It took too long, but finally. Trump and his mad bad actions are good for the Europeans like a heart attack is good for your health

himata4113: Has it been hugged this easily? Doesn't load for me.

graypegg: It also possibly sets a false expectation of perfect compatibility… you can imagine bureaucrats trying to figure out if a file needs to be opened in Office or Office (new)

Avicebron: Considering that for the average office worker I know switching from outlook to outlook (new) is a major hurdle within the same ecosystem, I can only imagine what they were thinking coming up with a name.

tiderpenger: Microsoft draws over 3 billion dollars out of Norway yearly. We are many that want this number much, much closer to zero. At it's small steps like this that makes it possible.

cedilla: Microsoft does not have a trademark for "Office", which is clearly a type of product and can't be used as a program name (just like you can't name your oatmeal "Oatmeal" and expect trademark protection).Microsoft does have a figurative trademark for "Office" with the rectangular icon: https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/trademarks/01141355... - office.eu's logo does not bear any resemblance.The only way this would be infringing is if office.eu usage could be confused with Microsoft other's trademarks - like Microsoft Office - but I don't see that.So no, office.eu will have a calm Monday on that front, just like hundreds of other companies offering products with "Office" in their name.(I'm not a lawyer. Talk to a lawyer before deciding to take on a trillion dollar company).

EdNutting: Am I being dumb: they say it's "open-source software" but I can't actually find a link (or links) to the software / source anywhere on the office.eu website??

EdNutting: Oh, there's some reference to NextCloud - so is this just a white-labeled NextCloud? Or a straight-up AI generated rip-off / resell?

bradleybuda: XHR requests to cookiebot.com -> dig cookiebot.com -> 141.193.213.20 -> ipinfo.io -> Austin, TX

flumpcakes: Care to expand further?

lashull: wtf!? I enter my email address for an invitation, receive a link to an est. 2 pages form for answering a shit load of unrelated question, like org name, org country, last summer vacation, first time I got pimples... Is this a request to become the next pope?

Void_: Are we gonna talk about that cookie banner? https://cleanshot.com/share/cDQ5RMkP

F7F7F7: That word is not as loaded as you might think it is anymore. At least not with the next generation of users.With your average 18-24 year old swimming in Google Docs, Notion, Monday, Airtable and a dozen others..."Office" will belong to the EU in no time.

rsynnott: > I doubt this will stop the lawsuit.I mean, I think that ship has probably sailed. Borland Office showed up at about the same time as Microsoft Office, in the late 80s. Then StarOffice, Corel Office, Wordperfect Office, throughout the 90s... If Microsoft had a defensible trademark there, then this would hardly be the first target.

flumpcakes: In 25 years I have never seen anyone use Microsoft Access in earnest. For the overwhelming majority of users I do not think this is an issue. The last time I used it was when studying for CLAiT Plus.

worksonmine: I can't find any info about the people behind it. The branding, mentioning "The Hague" and the rest of the landing page seems to try really hard to fool me into believing this is official from the European Union, I wouldn't trust them with anything, just get Libreoffice.Be careful.

linhns: Outlook New somehow to this day, lacks good feature of Outlook

throw310822: The problem is that every attempt at European alternatives is taken at the government level (of some member country or of the EU) and immediately announced with great fanfare as the European comeback. The pathetic thing about it is that everybody who isn't totally clueless sees how utterly inadequate these attempts are, given the political involvement, the microscopic resources invested, the lack of incentives from competition, and the general hostility of European legislation and bureaucracy. And yet politicians keep making fools of themselves announcing this or that EU answer to American tech.

SlackingOff123: Looks like a reasonable cookie banner to me: Deny (all), Custom selection and Accept all.It even works perfectly with Consent-O-Matic extension.

KellyCriterion: Has anybody tested the Email client? Is it somehow on par with Outlook (Desktop/install version)?

Xylakant: It's a perfectly not reasonable cookie banner. If you click on Details, you can see that they're not using marketing, statistics, or any other kind of cookies apart from the technically necessary. Which is great, but also means that they don't even need a banner. It could just go away.

GavinAnderegg: From the FAQ on the homepage: What is Office EU? Office EU is a European productivity suite for files, email, calendars, documents and calls, built on Nextcloud Hub. It brings Files, Talk, Groupware and Office together in one platform. Looking through the Office EU screenshots, they do look like Nextcloud Groupware/Files/Office with the logo changed.

stavros: Hopefully it is whitelabeled Nextcloud, and all the improvements can go back to the Nextcloud core. That would be a great use of my tax money.

Kuraj: I agree. We don't need to reinvent the wheel.

dlcarrier: Isn't Proton Docs European? Not that any European government would support them, because they don't spy on their users.

gzread: I thought Proton did spy on their users.

pentagrama: About pricing [1]:> What are the pricing plans?> Office EU will offer simple plans for individuals and teams. Pricing will be competitive and designed to be easy to understand. We will publish full plan details closer to launch.> Will there be a free plan?> A free plan is planned after launch. It will be a good way to try Office EU before committing. Exact limits and features will be shared when it is ready.[1] https://office.eu/faq

hmstx: Well that's a pompous headline from the author's PR dept. "Europe" as in, "The European Union", or just some marketing trick based on making you believe it is to give it more weight?I'm european and can still easily confuse the "European Union" and "Europe the general area" when context is lacking, it's not a big stretch of the imagination for me that people _anywhere_ could construe this as "official" as well.All that it looks like is backed by some emanation from the city of The Hague. No mention of the EU proper. It's european owned and backed, sure, but not EU owned and backed.Tsh, marketing. (see Bill Hicks on marketing).

EdNutting: >"Office EU is a European productivity suite for files, email, calendars, documents and calls, built on Nextcloud Hub. It brings Files, Talk, Groupware and Office together in one platform."https://office.eu/faqOf which, Files, Talk, Office and Groupware are all just NextCloud services where they've swapped "Nextcloud" for "EU" in the name.>"Office.EU is a service offered and operated by EUfforic Europe BV, registered with the Dutch chamber of commerce under registration number 98746243 and having its address at Dr. Kuyperstraat 10-A at (2514 BB) The Hague, the Netherlands."I wouldn't personally trust a company that appears to be claiming another company's services as some revolutionary new thing, when it's just reselling them. And it was registered in November 2025 with no other information available - why would anyone gamble all their company data on a company that has appeared as quickly as it might disappear? Who are the owners/founders even?Anyway, this was a waste of time.

oever: Nextcloud does not provide hosting, only 3rd level support. So any commercial hosting of Nextcloud will be done by other companies. There are many companies to choose from.https://nextcloud.com/partners/Personally, I would only choose companies that are listed as a partner because then I can see what level of support they buy from Nextcloud.

toinewx: this whole thing is a bait

gzread: The product they're replacing is called Microsoft Copilot 365 :)More seriously, Office is a great word for what the software package does, and it can't be trademarked. You can have Microsoft Office, Libre Office, and Europa Office.

Confiks: You say "tax money", but this project isn't a government project or using public money at all. As for contributing back to Nextcloud: there is a long list of Nextcloud partners [1] that contractually obligated themselves to contribute back to Nextcloud for every user they onboard. The company in this article has not.[1] https://nextcloud.com/partners/

stavros: Oh what! Wow, that' misleading, although I guess it doesn't explicitly say "public" or "government" everywhere. Hm.

gizajob: Your sovereign wealth fund probably makes 3 billion dollars out of Microsoft yearly.

kivle: The fund owns about 1.26% of Microsoft (data seems to be for 2025), which according to Gemini is about $37.5b in today's value. Stock value of Microsoft changed about 5.23% over the last year, which comes down to about $1.96b over the last year, so you're not far off...https://www.nbim.no/no/investeringene/investeringsoversikt/#...

flumpcakes: The vast majority of office use at my work is in the browsers because the files are stored in Sharepoint. It seems to work well enough for basic needs (no macros and fairly simple formulas in excel etc.)I have a non-technical friend in finance who uses the Desktop versions of Excel for most of their work and they say it crashes nearly every day losing work.

Kwpolska: Every time SharePoint/Teams decides to open a document in the browser, I cry a little. Misalignments in Word, broken basic keyboard movements in Excel, terrible performance across the board.

graypegg: I think they could've worked a little harder to at least find a noun you could futz with so it has some commonality between european languages. "Office" is probably well known, but it doesn't "feel" very european to use a noun that's different from most other EU languages translation. Could be "Productiv" or something. It feels like the federal government here in Canada has a team of language nerds ready to smash together a clever french-english name with two superimposed meanings when needed. ("O-Train", Ottawa Train, Au Train. "Via Rail". "Service Canada". "ArriveCAN". etc)You can't tell me there isn't a few turbo-nerds somewhere in the entire continent of europe that will find the intersection of 6-7 languages to name an EU groupware suite.

sgt: Excel is pretty stable.. I guess it could be those specific sheets doing something odd.

flumpcakes: I think it's a factor of things, but Excel isn't as stable as it once was. My friends spreadsheets include:- Row count ~100k - Column count ~1k - The usual vlookup, etc. formulae. - Oracle extensions that sync tables to databases in the cloud.

crudbug: Some commercial alternatives to MS Office:https://www.wordperfect.com/en/https://www.softmaker.com/en/https://www.infomaniak.com/en/ksuitehttps://www.group-office.com/https://www.icewarp.com/https://www.bitrix24.com/https://fengoffice.com/https://www.hancomdocs.com/en/https://www.larksuite.com/en_sg/https://www.polarisoffice.com/en/

zitterbewegung: I thought of it branded not Office generically but “Office.eu” but maybe I am wrong ?

davidpaulyoung: You can have hosted Nextcloud on Hetzner, with Headscale, email server, Vaultwarden, and Wordpress on European infrastructure (Hetzner) individually installed just for you from Federated Computer today for $19/month unlimited user accounts. I use it every day. Human support, too...!

gzread: Sure you can, you can also pirate Microsoft Office (the versions prior to the shittening). But companies don't want that, they just want to pay a few bucks per user per month to make it someone else's problem. Microsoft offers this service. Google offers this service. FOSS does not.That's also why always-connected SaaS is winning - it makes more things the vendor's problem instead of the customer's problem. Provided that you maintain a good relationship with your vendor. A metal machining company doesn't want to hire an employee to manage a bespoke computer system, or even to replace computer parts or install Ethernet cabling in the building. They might do it, if it's the only good option, but they prefer it to just work without effort, even for more money.

aprilnya: Umm.. this feels like a better suited comment for another part of this thread. Federated Computer appears to offer the exact same service as OfficeEU - a SaaS/managed Nextcloud

niemandhier: I prefer this : https://www.opendesk.eu/What we need to get independent is the public infrastructures.That has nothing to do with current tensions between Europe and the US.It’s just unbecoming of a nation to depend in its core on the good will of another.

davnicwil: To be fair, one interpretation is spending innovation tokens wisely. Just piggy back off an already understood concept/brand, don't try to be too clever on the parts that don't matter.There's a bit of an issue with the overload of 'office' in the political context, this being an EU initiative and domain but other than that I say good call.

rsynnott: > maybe don't name your product the exact same thing as the product you're replacing? "Office." They named it "Office."Surely you mean "Microsoft 365 Copilot"?(I am not making this up. That is what it is called now.)Realistically, though, I think pretty much _all_ office suites have been called [Something] Office, for about the last 30 years. The Google one ("Google Workplace", formerly "Google Apps") is the only exception I can think of, and I wouldn't necessarily take Google's lead in software branding (honestly, until I looked it up for this post, I thought it was still called Google Apps, and I use the damn thing every day).

SllX: Well iWork too. Before that, AppleWorks/ClarisWorks, but yeah, there's things like OpenOffice.org/StarOffice/LibreOffice/NeoOffice which are pretty much all the same lineage (StarOffice and its derivatives). Zoho's is Zoho Office Suite, which at least adds an extra word.

thih9: Is this by some random company that happens to rent an address in Hague? And even that is uncertain because there's no actual address except a vague OSM pin. And no company name either.This seems untrustworthy, double so for a product that claims to prioritize transparency.> Our headquarters are in The Netherlands (The Hague). Contact us to book a meeting or ask any questions.source: https://office.eu/contact

heraldgeezer: Yea the FAQ does not give a good impression."The Premium and Ultimate plans offer EU Talk for larger meetings up to ● users."

gardenhedge: what about it?