Only in the Mac App Store, as part of FOSS-for-biz strategy Foundation admits may not quickly deliver results
The Document Foundation, the organization that tends the open source productivity suite LibreOffice, has decided to start charging for one version of the software.
LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice and is offered under the free/open source Mozilla Public License Version 2.0.
Yet a Monday missive from the Document Foundation reveals that the org will begin charging €8.99 for the software – but only when sold via Apple’s Mac App Store.
That sum has been styled a « convenience fee … which will be invested to support development of the LibreOffice project. »
The Foundation suggests paying up in the Mac App Store is ideal for « end users who want to get all of their desktop software from Apple’s proprietary sales channel. »
Free downloads of LibreOffice for macOS from the Foundation’s site will remain available and arguably be superior to the App Store offering, because that version will include Java. The Foundation argued that Apple does not permit dependencies in its store, so it cannot include Java in the €8.99 offering.
The version now sold in the App Store supersedes a previous offering provided by open source support outfit Collabora, which charged $10 for a « Vanilla » version of the suite and threw in three years of support.
