LibreOffice hits Microsoft Office file lock-in

The Document Foundation, the organization behind LibreOffice, says Microsoft’s Office file formats are creating unnecessary vendor lock-in by making it harder for people and organizations to switch software.

In a blog post, Italo Vignoli singled out XML-based formats such as DOCX and XLSX, introduced in 2007 as successors to DOC and XLS. He argued that although these formats are technically accessible to other software, they function like proprietary formats in practice because files opened in tools such as LibreOffice can behave differently or suffer formatting problems.

According to the foundation, items including fonts, bullets, headings, and tables may change depending on the software used, producing documents that are inconsistent or even inaccessible. Vignoli described that as:

“a silent and persistent friction that makes any work outside the Microsoft ecosystem seem slightly off, slightly unreliable, slightly unprofessional”

He said the effect might be a minor inconvenience for consumers, but a much bigger issue for organizations such as legal firms and hospitals trying to move away from Microsoft’s software.

The foundation also warned about long-term risks. If only a small number of companies fully implement these formats, and support changes over time, some documents could become unreadable in a decade or two, creating potential compliance and regulatory problems.

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As governments and businesses, especially in Europe, push for greater digital sovereignty and consider local or open-source alternatives, Vignoli pointed to the Open Document Format (ODF) as a better option. He said ODF’s specifications are published, freely implementable, and managed independently of any single vendor.

His argument is not that sovereignty means blocking Microsoft or favoring LibreOffice, but that users should be free to choose the software they want without artificial barriers.