New office suite enters beta

Libera Suite, an open-source office suite for Linux, Windows, and macOS, has entered public beta. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet application, presentation software, and a Visio file viewer. It runs locally on the user's computer without needing an account, online services, or telemetry. It supports Microsoft Office and OpenDocument formats and is noted for its quick startup time and lightweight design.

Suite built from Euro-Office components

Libera Suite is built on the components of Euro-Office, a fork of ONLYOFFICE launched in April by a coalition of European companies. The suite has been in public beta since October 1st.

Applications and supported formats

The suite includes four applications: Libera Words, Libera Tables, Libera Slides, and Libera Diagrams. These support various file formats, including .docx, .odt, .rtf, .txt, .md, .xlsx, .ods, .csv, .pptx, and .odp. Shared features include PDF export, printing, spell checking in five languages, and crash recovery.

Command-line conversion tool

A command-line utility, libera --convert, allows converting between supported formats or exporting to PDF. This feature is inspired by Pandoc and can convert a batch of documents to PDF without opening a window.

Installation options across platforms

Installation options are available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. For Linux, a script installs a Flatpak package or the libera command. On macOS, Homebrew or the script can be used. Windows users get an installer that doesn't require administrator rights. Libera Suite is also available on PyPI for Python users.

Technical architecture

Euro-Office provides its editing tools as web components written in JavaScript. Libera Suite, written in Python, displays these components using the system's web rendering engine and delegates format conversions to the Euro-Office converter.

Testing and quality assurance

Nearly 700 automated tests verify the suite's operation, including opening real documents and checking the displayed results. The Euro-Office components are compiled from their sources, with necessary patches published. Defects in the converter for reading and writing OpenDocument files have been addressed.

Licensing and update checks

The host application is licensed under Apache 2.0, while the components from Euro-Office / ONLYOFFICE remain under AGPL 3.0. During installation, Libera Suite connects to download the Euro-Office components. It checks for new versions once a day, and this check can be disabled in the configuration file.

Current limitations

Currently in beta, Libera Suite has some limitations, including an English-only interface, each document opening in its own window, Microsoft Office not recognizing the locks, the Diagrams application being read-only, and the absence of PDF editing and mail merge features. The Windows installer and macOS application are not yet signed.

Developer feedback requested

The developers are seeking testers, particularly for issues related to the layout engine. The most likely causes of bugs are in the build, packaging, and distribution process, or the absence of a font or resource. The most useful feedback is a document displayed incorrectly, along with the output of libera --diagnose, attached to a ticket.