Surely we have heard of LibreOffice. The office suite The Document Foundation It was born as a fork of the OpenOffice project in order to offer users an open source, totally free, and free alternative to Microsoft Office. Currently, this suite is one of the largest projects within the OpenSource field, and a piece of software that, of course, has changed the world of software, both in Windows and Linux. However, despite the fact that it has always been a free program, today we can find a paid version. Specifically from 4.59 euros. What happened?
First of all, we have nothing to worry about. LibreOffice will remain free for all users, and has no intention of changing anytime soon. However, just as other free projects have done (such as Krita), the company has found a good marketing strategy in the Microsoft Store. In this way, The Document Foundation will be able to get donations to continue improving the office suite without sacrificing the free version of the program.
Since yesterday, LibreOffice is already in the Microsoft Store for a price of 4.59 euros, single payment. The purchase of this version is completely optional, since users who want to continue using LibreOffice as they have always been able to continue downloading the program from the developers’ website, at no cost.
The version that we find in the Microsoft Store is designed, above all, for companies, since it is a version that has support and help, and focuses its development on stability and performance rather than always being up to date. bringing the new functions only when they are 100% tested. Purchasing this program from the Microsoft Store not only helps The Document Foundation to continue working, but it also gives us some improvements such as:
- Always have the latest version available, updated automatically.
- Advantages of UWP applications.
- Isolation within the system, preventing viruses from wreaking havoc on the PC.
- Reinstall from the Store.
Which LibreOffice should I download?
The Community edition of LibreOffice is the free edition that we always download. This is maintained by the community, and support comes directly from this community, leaving The Document Foundation aside. It is the edition designed both for home use and for educational environments, but, due to lack of support, it is not recommended for companies.
Companies have their own more stable editions with specialized support, in addition to other types of services, such as LibreOffice in the cloud, or more business projects such as Collaborate Office. But many companies, generally due to ignorance, also tend to download the free edition of the community.
Thanks to this new “paid” LibreOffice, companies will be able to support the development of the program through the Microsoft Store itself for a modest price that will not mean much to anyone. Even if we want, we can buy this edition ourselves and take advantage of the advantages offered by the Microsoft Store itself.
