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Recently, we reported on LibreOffice, accusing Microsoft of intentionally using complex file formats as a tactic to lock in users to Microsoft Office, hindering open source alternatives like LibreOffice. Now, Microsoft has banned LibreOffice developer, Mike Kaganski, from using its services, citing an "activity that violates [its] Services Agreement".

According to Mike, this happened last Monday when he tried to send a technical email to the LibreOffice dev mailing list, which is a normal part of his routine, but Thunderbird returned an error saying the message couldn't be sent. His account was blocked upon retry, and he found himself completely logged out of his Microsoft account.....

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[-] thirdBreakfast@lemmy.world 181 points 1 year ago
[-] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 63 points 1 year ago

Well, yeah, but not like that!

[-] Damage@feddit.it 54 points 1 year ago

Microsoft ๐Ÿ† Open Source

[-] MITM0@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

OpenSource, not Free/Libre-software

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 1 year ago

Are there really people who know what open source means that would see this and actually believe it? Who is that even for?

[-] bilb@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago

Microsoft and other large corporations do love open source. Open source software saves them tons of money.

[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 year ago

I hope thatโ€™s not where the libre code is hosted.

[-] Peter_Arbeitslos@feddit.org 135 points 1 year ago

Aww, is the big, predominant, incontestable and great Microsoft suddenly afraid of some foolish, little competitor who of course isn't fit to hold a candle to them?

[-] RandomStickman@fedia.io 110 points 1 year ago

Microsoft and anticompetitiveness, an iconic duo

[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 95 points 1 year ago
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[-] blueworld@piefed.world 77 points 1 year ago

This is his blog article. https://mikekaganski.wordpress.com/2025/07/25/microsoft-anybody-home/

Looking at this, it looks more like Microsoft just screwed it's auth system in some way for him then intentionally banned him in particular.

I as an IT guy have seen this before SOHO office accounts as well and entirely agree that MS has entirely lost the ability to do IT infrastructure in any useful way. Even at an enterprise level, Exchange and outlook used to be convoluted to learn and administer before they became cloud based, as regedit was your friend and they always buried the settings. Now, it doesn't require a degree in IT, but rather a pointy hat and a reading of spell books to make things work... Sometimes. Sacrifices of interns might be necessary at the alter of Support, before they'll answer the phone and you realize they have no more knowledge then you to.

[-] regedit@lemmy.zip 34 points 1 year ago

WAS your friend? Bitch, I'm still yo friend! ;)

[-] derpgon@programming.dev 9 points 1 year ago

Heck Microsoft doesn't even allow me to use IMAP, and if I want to use a different client (and not the shitty web one), I have to get permission from my IT administrator.

Funnily enough, the same client (Thubderbid) doesn't need any confirmation on Mac or Windows, only Linux.

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[-] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 54 points 1 year ago

Itโ€™s fun to assume this is Microsoft being petty but the most likely scenario is Microsoft has cut their operating costs to such extremes they no longer have usable services or products.

This always happens when business majors are allowed to make decisions.

[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 10 points 1 year ago

Some real Hanlon's Razor shit.

[-] 30p87@feddit.org 40 points 1 year ago

Ok, but why are you a dev of an open source tool but use an M$ service?

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 64 points 1 year ago

Naivity:

I develop open-source code. But that never made me one of the โ€œI hate proprietary software or IT giant corporationsโ€ types. I always saw the nice things that Microsoft offered to its users; I saw not only downsides in its products. And I also used (and continue to use) things created by it: Windows to start with (and I develop there, being able to debug and address issues specific to the platform that most of our users use); but also its email service for personal mail.

https://mikekaganski.wordpress.com/

[-] Hawke@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

Well, hopefully heโ€™s learned his lesson, but I doubt it.

[-] arsCynic@beehaw.org 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I always saw the nice things that Microsoft offered to its users

I'd understand this perspective in 2005, but 2025?


โœ๏ธŽ arscyni.cc: modernity โˆ nature.

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[-] Dettweiler42@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 1 year ago

It's incredibly difficult to get away from Microsoft in the corporate/business space.

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes, but his private e-mail is affected.

[-] Dettweiler42@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago

True. In his scenario, it would definitely make sense to set up an email on a private domain (or at least self host one).

[-] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

All the more reason to get LibreOffice ~~and OnlyOffice!~~

[-] UnculturedSwine@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 1 year ago

I ditched the latter

The connection between OnlyOffice and Russia has caused some controversy. The company has moved headquarters and attempted to hide its Russian ties through shell companies[21]. The company develops its product in Russia[22]ย and presents itself in the Russian market as a Russian company[23]. For this reason some Ukrainian businesses have moved away from OnlyOffice[24].

[-] Goten@piefed.social 4 points 1 year ago

thx. i hate russia.

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[-] serenissi@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

this exact same thing happened to me a while ago. I really doubt some human blocked my account though. after hours of customer support call and emails (from another account) it finally got unblocked but neither yhe support agent nor me had any clue what happened.

I learned the lesson and gradually moved the dev accounts to a proton email instead.

[-] phantomwise@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 year ago

It looks more like Microsoft's usual incompetence than a conspiracy against LibreOffice...

[-] kadotux@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 year ago

"never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity"

[-] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Wasn't there recently a ban on Distrowatch and certain Linux topics on a bigger social network? And Who was the owner of that network again?

Looks like Big Tech fell out of love with FLOSS after it looked at the GNU manifest and found that their profit interests do not align well any more with a digital civil rights movement. All what they want is people's work for free, to sell it as theirs.

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 1 year ago

Gosh, I canโ€™t imagine why M$ would block competition!

[-] MITM0@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Us OpenSouce/Free-Software fanatics don't seem so crazy now, dont we

[-] phpinjected@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

why work for evil corp microsoft when you can join the fsf without selling your soul to evil corp

[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 year ago

Ah yes, the Trump approach to dealing with things you donโ€™t like. I see.

Setting an example for the rest of the corporate assholes.

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this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2025
718 points (99.4% liked)

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