An open letter to office suite users, just before the Euro-Office announcement

致办公套件用户的一封公开信：Euro-Office 发布前夕

Dear office suite users, In recent days you will have read various articles announcing the arrival of Euro-Office, which is being “marketed” as the first open-source office suite developed in Europe. We feel compelled — reluctantly, since open source should rest on transparency, not deception — to correct this claim.

亲爱的办公套件用户：最近几天，你们可能读到过各种关于 Euro-Office 即将发布的新闻，它被“营销”为欧洲开发的首款开源办公套件。我们不得不（尽管很不情愿，因为开源应建立在透明而非欺骗的基础上）纠正这一说法。

The first open-source office suite developed in Europe was OpenOffice.org in 2001, based on StarOffice’s source code, followed by LibreOffice from 2010. These are two genuine open-source office suites, built from source code that originated in Europe. They are not a freeware clone of MS Office whose code provenance is undisclosed, nor a product that has rebranded itself out of pure opportunism to ride today’s wave of Digital Sovereignty.

欧洲开发的首款开源办公套件是 2001 年基于 StarOffice 源代码构建的 OpenOffice.org，随后是 2010 年推出的 LibreOffice。这两款才是真正的开源办公套件，其源代码均源自欧洲。它们既不是代码来源不明的 MS Office 免费克隆版，也不是为了蹭当下“数字主权”热度而纯粹出于投机目的进行更名的产品。

It is worth remembering that many of those who champion Digital Sovereignty today were silent back in 2006, when the open ISO/IEC ODF standard — the pillar of Digital Sovereignty — was announced: not only did they not listen to us during all these years, but in some cases they greeted us with a condescending smile.

值得一提的是，今天许多高呼“数字主权”的人，在 2006 年开放的 ISO/IEC ODF 标准（数字主权的基石）发布时却保持沉默：这些年来，他们不仅没有听取我们的建议，甚至在某些情况下还以傲慢的微笑回应我们。

If we can speak of Digital Sovereignty in Europe today, it is thanks to The Document Foundation and LibreOffice community members at large, who kept the flag of open-source office suites flying when everyone was predicting their demise, and who continued to develop the only truly open and standard format that guarantees Digital Sovereignty, as it provides full user control over content.

今天我们之所以能在欧洲谈论“数字主权”，要归功于文档基金会（The Document Foundation）和广大 LibreOffice 社区成员。当所有人都预言开源办公套件将消亡时，是他们高举旗帜，并持续开发出唯一真正开放且标准化的格式，通过赋予用户对内容的完全控制权，从而保障了数字主权。

Document formats are a subject still rife with misinformation. This is understandable on the part of Microsoft, which developed and controls the horrible proprietary OOXML format, designed precisely to prevent Digital Sovereignty by maintaining content lock-in. It is far less understandable on the part of companies that claim to advocate open source, such as those promoting Euro-Office.

文档格式领域至今仍充斥着错误信息。微软这样做是可以理解的，因为它开发并控制着糟糕的专有 OOXML 格式，其设计初衷正是通过内容锁定来阻碍数字主权。但对于那些声称倡导开源的公司（例如推广 Euro-Office 的那些公司）来说，这种行为就令人难以理解了。

Euro-Office defaults to the fully proprietary OOXML document format, developed and controlled solely by Microsoft. This makes it a de facto ally of Microsoft in its content lock-in strategy, with control remaining firmly in Redmond and far from Europe.

Euro-Office 默认使用完全专有的 OOXML 文档格式，该格式由微软独家开发和控制。这使其成为微软内容锁定策略的事实盟友，控制权依然牢牢掌握在雷德蒙德（微软总部所在地），而非欧洲手中。

So, despite what is being written in support of Euro-Office — the latest of the office suites developed in Europe, and not the first — the announcement is not against Microsoft. On the contrary, it strengthens Microsoft’s strategy against European Digital Sovereignty, or, if you prefer, against the freedom of European users to control and manage their own content.

因此，尽管外界撰写了许多支持 Euro-Office 的文章——它是欧洲开发的最新款办公套件，而非首款——但这一发布并非针对微软。恰恰相反，它加强了微软针对欧洲数字主权的战略，或者换句话说，它是在损害欧洲用户自由控制和管理自身内容的权利。