https://www.collaboraoffice.com/code/<p>The only thing keeping me with google is gdocs. But I'd rather not keep my private data with them. Libre office online does not appear in google search an an alternative and hn has mostly ignored it. Is it not ready for prime time?
Surprised noone has mentioned OnlyOffice here: <a href="https://www.onlyoffice.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.onlyoffice.com/</a>.<p>We use it via the integration I wrote for Alfresco: <a href="https://github.com/cetra3/onlyoffice-alfresco" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/cetra3/onlyoffice-alfresco</a>
LibreOffice Online is a viable alternative in my opinion. It integrates with NextCloud and allows you to easily share and collaborate. You can even get a "share link" for your documents like in Google Docs.
There are some caveats though. Latency is unacceptable. Google Docs renders documents client side allowing characters that you type to immediately echo to the screen. LibreOffice renders documents server side with a noticeable lag.
LibreOffice has the benefit of better interoperability with MS Word than Google Docs has.<p>I would also recommend trying OnlyOffice as some have recommended.
Apparently google search is also what's tying you to google. I say that to say google will have measures to stifle competition (no matter what they say otherwise). Also, what's the issue with just running LibreOffice on your computer? They also have portable versions which you can just put on your thumb drive
A full suite of SaaS open source tools there : <a href="https://framasoft.org/" rel="nofollow">https://framasoft.org/</a>
Other options include Zoho Writer, Apple Pages (has web-based version), MS Word Online. I seem to remember an OSS effort to make one (other than libreoffice online) but can't remember what it was.
One specifically negative thing about gdocs ... well ... gsheets ... is that if you create a document with many (e.g. > 5 or so) charts on a single page ... it will slow waaaaaaayyyyy down. Multi second latency/response times for things like scrolling, cell interaction, etc. It becomes effectively unusable.<p>Gdocs as a whole are ok, though you are giving Google the right to read your docs as I remember (in their terms of service).
For Google Docs-like tasks I prefer a combination of Org and git.<p>Org is a powerful-but-easy-to-learn document structuring language. You ca write it in any editor, but in an Org-aware editor your document really comes alive. The oldest, most feature-complete implementation is in Emacs. Org documents can be exported to virtually any final format.<p>I don't specifically recommend git so much as any distributed VCS, to share changes with collaborators in a controlled and structured way. I find it much easier to catch up on other's work when it comes as a self-contained, clearly labeled commit in the correct branch rather than a jumble of tiny edits here and there.<p>If you are working with lazy people who don't want to learn stuff, you may want to consider whether you'd be okay with keeping your private data with GitHub instead. If your Org document lives in a repo there, anyone with commit access can edit it in the GitHub web editor, with a formatted preview available.
Softmaker Office is pretty good. And works on all platforms (including Linux).
<a href="http://www.softmaker.com/en/softmaker-office" rel="nofollow">http://www.softmaker.com/en/softmaker-office</a>
No. GDocs is one of the best pieces of software in existence. Each component is very capable on its own. The sharing turbo charges it past all others. You’d have to really be a google hater to choose not to use it.
Not sure if anybody mentioned Zoho Writer (<a href="https://writer.zoho.com" rel="nofollow">https://writer.zoho.com</a>)<p>I find it has more formatting features than Google Docs. Best of all: no Ads and document reading bullshit.
Discussed in <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11563009" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11563009</a>
LibreOffice is one of the software I like the least.<p>It's super-ugly, doesn't have hidpi support on Linux, it's slow, it has a confusing UI.<p>Google Docs is about 100 times better.