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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Microsoft 🍆 Open Source
Well, yeah, but not like that!
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.
WAS your friend? Bitch, I’m still yo friend! ;)
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?
Microsoft and anticompetitiveness, an iconic duo
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@CurlyWurlies4All @Babalugats Congrats and enjoy getting the grips with it.
It’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.
All the more reason to get LibreOffice
and OnlyOffice!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] and presents itself in the Russian market as a Russian company[23]. For this reason some Ukrainian businesses have moved away from OnlyOffice[24].
Ok, but why are you a dev of an open source tool but use an M$ service?
Naivity:
I develop open-source code. But that never made me one of the “I hate proprietary software or IT giant corporations” 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.
I always saw the nice things that Microsoft offered to its users
I’d understand this perspective in 2005, but 2025?
✍︎ arscyni.cc: modernity ∝ nature.
