Macworld At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros Supports importing a wide range of file formats, including Apple iWork and Microsoft 365 Offers native apps on the most popular platforms, including desktop and mobile Packs numerous, handy templates, some of which are accessible offline Includes a plugin library to extend the app’s functionality Cons Can’t export new files in Apple’s Pages, Numbers, and Keynote formats Our Verdict It’s a Microsoft 365 clone that supports the most popular document formats, packs in the commonly used editing features and it’s completely free, what’s not to like? Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: OnlyOffice for Mac Retailer Price OnlyOffice Free View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Microsoft 365 (formerly Office), Google Docs, and Apple’s free iWork (which includes Pages, Keynote and Numbers) are arguably the three most popular productivity suites for Mac users. Microsoft’s option is perceived as the industry standard by many, and educational institutions tend to rely on its services. Google Docs, albeit web-based, has similarly been adopted by the masses due to its free offering and ease of real-time collaboration. iWork, although not as practical, also provides free and reliable tools for those in the Apple bubble. But what if none of these suites suit you? Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives, including free and open-source software (FOSS) with solid reputations. OnlyOffice is one of them, replicating the Microsoft 365 experience—sans the subscription fees. Is it any good, though? OnlyOffice first impressions OnlyOffice is available for free on macOS, iPadOS, iOS, Windows, Android, and Linux. For this review, I installed version 8.3.2 of the app—the latest at the time of writing—on a MacBook Air M2 running macOS 15 Sequoia 15.4. While some App Store reviews suggest the iPhone and iPad clients suffer from irritating bugs, like random crashes, the Mac experience has generally been very stable on my end. In fact, I struggled to find a single issue with this app. Upon launching OnlyOffice, you’ll be greeted by a clean, ad-free screen showcasing its main sections. You can create a document (.docx), spreadsheet (.xlsx), presentation (.pptx), or PDF file from scratch or pick from the existing templates. Some templates are available for offline use while the rest require an active internet connection to download when creating a new file. These let you quickly compose an invoice, calendar, checklist, proposal, etc. Alternatively, you could launch an existing file stored locally on your computer or one of the supported cloud storage services, such as Nextcloud. Regardless of what you opt for, the app runs fluidly, and I’ve yet to encounter my first serious bug. Foundry Documents In terms of layout and functionality, OnlyOffice’s document editor resembles Microsoft Word. You can adjust the font, colors, formatting, alignment, and more in supported files. You similarly get to insert shapes, tables, equations, symbols, etc. Some of the compatible formats include DOCX, DOC, TXT, HTML, and EPUB. It’s worth noting that you seemingly can’t export a file in Apple’s .pages format unless the original file was created in the Pages app. Nevertheless, you can import, edit, and save these proprietary files in OnlyOffice just fine. Foundry Beyond the fundamentals, you can protect document files, encrypt them, add your signature, view their word count, set the author, and so on. And if you’ve connected a compatible cloud service, you can collaborate remotely with other users to make edits in real time. One of my favorite features is the built-in plugin library that lets you rely on even more functionalities in a document. So, for example, you could add a third-party AI assistant to analyze your file and help you shape its content. Spreadsheets Likewise, OnlyOffice’s spreadsheet editor offers a Microsoft Excel-like experience. You can perform all of the actions you’d expect from such software, including solving formulas, building dynamic charts, analyzing data, and illustrating. You can import XLXS, XLTX, CSV, OTS, and Numbers files, while exporting, as mentioned above, excludes the .numbers format for non-Apple files. Foundry Presentations You guessed it, the presentation editor in OnlyOffice indeed mimics Microsoft PowerPoint. By default, you’ve got multiple slide layouts that let you easily arrange the desired content, be it text or media, on the screen. The app also offers a plethora of animation and transition styles, letting you bring your work to life. Like the known alternatives, you can also set custom backgrounds, insert links, graphs, and photos, and preview the final result. Some of the formats you can import include PPTX, PPT, PPSX, ODP, and Keynote. Foundry PDFs Last but not least, OnlyOffice includes a basic PDF viewer and editor. Unlike Apple’s native Preview app, OnlyOffice lets you actually tweak the content in a PDF document, so you can tweak the text and add shapes, drop-down menus, and fields for viewers to fill in. That’s in addition to the regular annotation tools, such as highlighting and doodling. It’s certainly not as advanced as a dedicated, premium PDF editor. However, since OnlyOffice primarily acts as a free alternative to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, it’s certainly a welcome bonus perk that is reliable for basic PDF manipulation. Take a look to see hoe OnlyOffice compares to other PDF Editors in our round up of the Best PDF editors for Mac. We also evaluate some free PDF editors. Should you switch to OnlyOffice? As we’ve established, OnlyOffice is essentially a free Microsoft 365 clone. If you rely on Microsoft’s office suite and are tired of its recurring fees, then OnlyOffice could act as an excellent alternative. The app typically maintains the document formatting, so the layout should persist even if others view your files using different software. Given that OnlyOffice is free to use, features no ads, supports the most popular document formats, and packs the commonly used editing features, there’s no harm in giving it a shot to check if it can successfully replace your existing productivity suite. Had my personal workflow extended beyond Apple devices, I would have certainly ditched iWork in favor of it.

Dutch universities have found themselves in the grip of American tech giants and are now urging their governing boards to chart a different course.   In an open letter, which has been signed by thousands of staff members, they call for significantly reduced dependence on Microsoft, Google and Amazon within three years.  “As universities, we should manage our own digital infrastructure,” said José van Dijck, a professor of media and digital society at Utrecht University and co-initiator of the campaign together with her colleague and public innovation academic Albert Meijer. “We are the heart of innovation and expertise in the Netherlands. If we don’t maintain control over our digital systems, then who will?”  The call may sound radical, but Van Dijck qualified it: “This isn’t an action against Big Tech, but for digital autonomy. Given recent developments, universities must strive to keep their infrastructure in their own hands. “When you become dependent on a commercial company, you lose the freedom to act autonomously in your research.”  The current situation didn’t develop overnight. “Ten years ago, we were still quite autonomous,” said Van Dijck. “Universities had their own facilities. Each university, for example, had its own computing centre. Fourteen universities, fourteen computing centres. At present, we have only one left.” That single remaining facility is the Snellius supercomputer in Watergraafsmeer, Amsterdam, which, according to Van Dijck, is already “completely full”.  In 2019, the rectors of Dutch universities warned about digital vulnerabilities in the newspaper de Volkskrant, followed by an open letter from cyber security scientists in 2021. But between these two moments, the world changed dramatically due to Covid-19, which Van Dijck identifies as a turning point.  “The pandemic pushed us deep into the Big Tech trap,” Van Dijck said. “There was an acute need to switch to online education en masse. All universities had to arrange this at breakneck speed. This time pressure led us to rely heavily on Big Tech companies because they could provide ready-made solutions immediately.”  While universities – together with SURF, the ICT cooperative for education and research in the Netherlands – were still actively developing their own solutions before the pandemic, such as the Jitsi video conferencing service, the need for speed meant these in-house developments were put on hold. “We simply didn’t have the time and resources to further develop our open source alternatives,” said Van Dijck. Even SURF, which could have served as a buffer, was drawn into this development. The result was that universities became even more deeply entwined with the systems of large tech companies.  The result of this accelerated digitisation is that universities are now often completely dependent on a single supplier. “In Utrecht, we’ve almost become a Microsoft university,” said Van Dijck. “All services are interconnected. Once you’re on Microsoft’s Azure cloud, you’re virtually forced to use their other services as well. This leads to a ‘vendor lock-in’ – we’re increasingly trapped in their ecosystem, with no possibility to switch.”  The situation is becoming ever more urgent due to geopolitical developments. The American Cloud Act gives the US government access to data stored on American clouds, even if physically hosted in Europe. “With the previous administration, I think we still trusted that,” said Van Dijck, “but since Trump took office, it has become crystal clear that he has little respect for existing rules and laws.”  Van Dijck points to developments in the US, where universities are already under pressure. “In recent conversations with American colleagues, it’s become clear that Trump not only wants to influence university funding but also has a direct impact on what can be researched,” she warned. “A climate is emerging where certain research areas are undesirable. Think of climate research, specific health research, and other topics that are now considered forbidden territory.”  The consequences could be directly felt in scientific practice. “Look at climate research,” said Van Dijck. “Scientists worldwide work on this and are strongly interdependent on each other’s data and insights. If American restrictions make certain information inaccessible, it undermines our entire research field. We simply cannot fully carry out our own work.”  The integration of AI technology into everyday software also reinforces dependency. Microsoft’s Co-Pilot and Google’s Gemini are becoming increasingly interwoven with the basic software that universities use. “These AI tools give Big Tech companies even more influence over how we teach and conduct research,” said Van Dijck.  The biggest problem, according to her, is the lack of transparency: “These systems are partly fed with our data, while we gain no insight into how that data is used to train AI models.” This touches on fundamental scientific principles. “There are serious questions about copyright, but also about accuracy, verifiability and replicability – core values in scientific research that are completely lacking in these AI models.”  The academics are not advocating for a radical break with Big Tech, but rather for a pragmatic two-track policy. “We shouldn’t throw everything overboard, but we do need to step out of that vendor lock-in so that we regain real freedom of choice,” added Van Dijck.  In the letter, which was sent to all Dutch university boards, SURF, KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) and NWO (Dutch Research Council), seven concrete steps are proposed:  Inventory and safeguard existing autonomous services. Map critical vulnerabilities and develop exit strategies. Create secure storage havens for research data. Experiment with and strengthen open source alternatives. Prioritise open source learning environments in future contracts. Explore European collaboration opportunities via networks such as Géant. Develop independent identification methods via SURF Conext. “We first need to identify which services can already be offered autonomously and secure and strengthen those,” said Van Dijck. “In addition, it’s essential to map our vulnerabilities and develop exit strategies and emergency scenarios for cloud services.”  In all these steps, one organisation is indispensable according to the initiators: SURF must play a key role by expanding existing services such as SURF Drive, SURF Conext and SURF File Sender and testing new open source alternatives. “Open source solutions are essential for regaining our autonomy,” said Van Dijck. “They offer us transparency, control and the ability to adapt the software to our specific needs.”  SURF has always been a crucial buffer for Dutch universities against complete dependence on commercial services. “SURF has developed various essential services, such as our own identification system via SURF Conext, tools for securely sharing large files, and access to supercomputing facilities,” said Van Dijck. But even SURF has not proven immune to the Big Tech temptation: “They too have gradually outsourced more and more to Microsoft and Google, at the expense of developing and maintaining their own tools.”  With increasing concern, Van Dijck sees how these in-house services are being phased out: “When I now approach the service desk, I hear that SURF Drive is making way for OneDrive. This is alarming, because these in-house services form the backbone of our digital autonomy.”  The Dutch situation contrasts sharply with other European countries. “France and Germany have already invested much more consciously in digital sovereignty,” said Van Dijck. “While the Netherlands placed most data in American clouds without many questions, French institutions have consistently maintained a more autonomous strategy. German universities have also invested more heavily in open source solutions.” An example of this is Nextcloud, an open source alternative to commercial cloud storage, which has already been implemented by fifty German universities.  The loss of autonomy harbours a hidden danger: the disappearance of crucial expertise. “When you give up control of your infrastructure, you also lose the knowledge to manage it,” warned Van Dijck. “Once you’ve outsourced everything, you can’t easily recover that expertise.” This loss of knowledge is particularly problematic for knowledge institutions, according to Van Dijck: “Universities are breeding grounds for innovation. Digital infrastructure is not a peripheral facility but central to our teaching and research.”  The initial reactions from university administrators are hopeful. “Our executive board immediately shared our concerns and recognised the increased urgency,” said Van Dijck. Other universities have also responded positively to the call.  Much is at stake for the Dutch knowledge economy. “We have seen how quickly the geopolitical situation can change,” said Van Dijck. “The question is not whether we should strengthen our digital autonomy, but how quickly we can do it.” Time is pressing for universities to take their digital fate back into their own hands – not against Big Tech, but for academic independence. Read more about Dutch digital independence

Around two years ago, we were contacted by Antoine Richard, a researcher from the University of Luxembourg working on a paper relating to ML vision-based navigation of lunar rovers. As there is no GPS on the moon, rovers require other methods of spatial positioning if they are to be automatically maneuvered. Antoine was interested in a machine-vision approach, which required a set of synthetic training data created from somewhat accurate lunar regolith (moon dirt) textures. He contacted us to propose a collaboration partially sponsored by the University and Spaceport Rostock, where we would fly to their lab in Rostock, Germany, to scan the regolith simulant. Once we were able to cover our own travel costs thanks to support from our Patreon supporters, we had free rein for a week to scan as much as we could in their facility. The Simulation Antoine himself accompanied us to assist in the layout of the material to simulate lunar conditions as much as possible, along with Frank Koch and Lasse Hansen from Spaceport Rostock. This involved careful scattering of the dust with various techniques, using mostly gardening and kitchen tools to attempt to recreate the nature of the moon’s surface. Although the simulated regolith is made in such a way as to copy the substance on the moon as closely as possible – by grinding specific types of rock into extremely fine powder – the moon has no atmosphere, and so the dust behaves rather differently than it does here on earth. Because there is no friction to slow the dust down once it becomes airborne, for example after a meteor impact, the surface is riddled with tiny craters. The Danger Likewise due to the lack of atmosphere, the regolith has little to abrade the sharp edges of the dust particles away. This makes the fine power extremely rough and easily scratches any sensitive camera equipment that it comes into contact with, even in the air. It also makes it carcinogenic, so breathing the dust is dangerous to your health. Dealing with this threat was one of the primary challenges of the trip, as we had to wait for the dust to settle (literally) after each arrangement, which took 1-2 hours, and then be careful not to disturb the surface while we scanned it. We were also required to wear N95 face masks while working near the material, and employed several air quality monitors which notified us when we were being too rigorous with the arrangement of the dust. The Process For normal terrestrial scans, it is typical to walk back and forth across the surface you are scanning to capture a dense grid of images. These images are then fed into a photogrammetry software for mesh reconstruction. But as we could not physically walk across the regolith without disturbing dangerous clouds of dust, we constructed a single axis automated gantry which could suspend our camera and flash and automatically scan a row of images. Then from the sides, we could manually move the rig along the other axis. Each 7×4 meter scan took approximately 2-3 hours to capture this way. On the side, we also captured smaller 40cm macro scans of the regolith, intended to be used for smaller-scale renders or in combination with the larger scans to add detail. The Data Each scan consisted of approximately 1500 photos, totaling 1 million megapixels (or a terapixel if you like) and resulted in reconstructed geometry made of 1.7 billion polygons. A screenshot of one of the surface scans. By the end of the week, we had successfully scanned 20 textures. As part of our promise to Antoine, we are also releasing all the raw data under the public domain (CC0) for any other researchers who wish to take advantage of it, or any photogrammetry artists who want to build their own geometry from the scans. The total dataset is ~800GB, but you can download each scan individually: moon_01 + moon_02 (79 GB) moon_03 + moon_04 (87 GB) moon_dusted_01 (34 GB) moon_dusted_02 (48 GB) moon_dusted_03 (41 GB) moon_dusted_04 (38 GB) moon_dusted_05 (34 GB) moon_flat_macro_01 (35 GB) moon_flat_macro_02 (8.1 GB) moon_footprints_01 + moon_footprints_02 (49 GB) moon_macro_01 (38 GB) moon_meteor_01 + moon_meteor_02 (91 GB) moon_rock_01 (5.1 GB) moon_rock_02 (4.4 GB) moon_rock_03 (4.9 GB) moon_rock_04 (4.8 GB) moon_rock_05 (4.6 GB) moon_rock_06 (4.6 GB) moon_rock_07 (4.5 GB) moon_tracks_01 + moon_tracks_02 (40 GB) moon_tracks_03 + moon_tracks_04 (37 GB) Please do let us know if you do anything interesting with this data, we and the Spaceport Rostock team would love to hear about it. If you have any trouble downloading the files, we also have them on a Nextcloud server that we can share with you. Just get in touch and we’ll give you access freely. Additionally, we scanned 7 regular boring terrestrial rocks coated in the regolith to make them appear more like lunar rocks in order to help visual reconstruction of a simulated lunar environment. For fun, we captured an HDRI in the middle of the regolith pit – a precarious adventure – and lit it using their monstrous halogen bulb meant to simulate the high-contrast low-angle lighting often found on the moon. With the light reflected off the white ceiling you don’t quite get the same effect, but it was interesting to capture nonetheless. The Assets Here is the full collection of assets we created in this project: The Demo As with all of Poly Haven’s other asset collections, we like to showcase what artists can do with our assets by creating a render. James took all of the scans that the team has put together over the last two years and built a beautiful simulation of a lunar environment in Blender. The scene file for this render will be made available soon.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Google reverses course after blocking Nextcloud Files app David Uzondu Neowin · May 17, 2025 07:24 EDT Google has reversed course after effectively crippling the Nextcloud Files app on Android for users who installed it via the Google Play Store, a decision that many, including Nextcloud, felt was an abuse of power. The problem that prevented the app from uploading anything other than media files stemmed from Google revoking the app's crucial "All files access" permission. This permission, which Nextcloud had used since 2016, was denied for an app update in September 2024, with Google citing "security concerns" and advising the company to use "a more privacy-aware replacement" such as the Storage Access Framework (SAF) or the MediaStore API. Nextcloud found this explanation unconvincing, especially since it had appealed the decision since mid-2024 with no productive engagement from Google. So a few days back, Nextcloud went public with a scathing blog post detailing its frustrating battle with the tech giant. The blog post specifically pointed to the EU Commission's recent hefty fines against Apple and Meta for violations of the Digital Markets Act, arguing that Google's actions against its app reeked of similar anti-competitive behavior. The company lamented what it saw as preferential treatment for Big Tech's services, stating: Google, Apple, and Microsoft have been repeatedly fined for abusing their gatekeeper position, hampering competitors like Nextcloud. This is not about security; it is about protecting their own services and advertising revenue. It is a clear example of Big Tech abusing its power to the detriment of users and competition. Just days later, a seemingly embarrassed Google offered to restore the permission. Andy Schertzinger, Director of Engineering at Nextcloud, confirmed this to The Register, saying, "Google has decided to restore the permissions to our Android app so we can bring back the full file syncing functionality." Nextcloud anticipates releasing an updated app with full functionality shortly. The Register also noted that it had asked Google, the "ad slinger" as it put it, for an explanation for the original revocation, querying whether it was an automated error or an overzealous reviewer, but had not received a response by its publication time. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

Longtime Slashdot reader mprindle writes: Nextcloud has been in an ongoing battle with Google over the tech giant revoking the All Files permission from the Nextcloud Android App, which prevents users from managing their files on their server. After a blog post and several tech sites reported on the issue, "Google reached out to us [Nexcloud] and offered to restore the permission, which will give users back the functionality that was lost." Nextcloud is working on an app update and hopes to have it pushed out within a week. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Low-level turbulence “Google wanted that”: Nextcloud decries Android permissions as “gatekeeping” Without full file access, it's kind of hard to use your own cloud. Kevin Purdy – May 13, 2025 5:00 pm | 22 The Android mascot at Google's pavilion during the Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, Spain, on March 5, 2025. Credit: Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images The Android mascot at Google's pavilion during the Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, Spain, on March 5, 2025. Credit: Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Nextcloud is a host-your-own cloud platform that wants to help you "Regain control over your data." It contains products that allow for video chat, file storage, collaborative editing, and other stuff that reads a lot like a DIY Google Workspace replacement. It's hard to offer that kind of full replacement, though, if your Android app can't upload anything other than media files. Since mid-2024, Nextcloud claims, Google has refused to reinstate the access it needs for uploading and syncing other file types. "To make it crystal clear: All of you as users have a worse Nextcloud Files client because Google wanted that," reads a Nextcloud blog post from May 13, attributed to its team. "We understand and share your frustration," but there is nothing we can do." A notice in Nextcloud's Android app regarding file uploads. Credit: Nextcloud A notice in Nextcloud's Android app regarding file uploads. Credit: Nextcloud Ars has reached out to Google for comment and will update this post with any response. A representative for NextCloud told Ars late Tuesday that the company had no update on its Android app. Nextcloud states that it has had read and write access to all file types since its first Android app. In September 2024, a Nextcloud Android update with "All files access" was "refused out of the blue," with a request that the app user "a more privacy aware replacement," Nextcloud claims. The firm states it has provided background and explanations, but received "the same copy-and-paste answers or links to documentation" from Google. Nextcloud's story of confusing communications about file permissions, and ultimately giving up trying to get file access, echoes the story of iA Writer. That Markdown editing app similarly lost access to system file syncing—a crucial aspect of a file-based text editor—and declined to take part in an annual CASA Tier 2 assessment to seek that access again. Nextcloud eventually issued an update of their app that restricts uploads to media files. Downloading and side-loading the Nextcloud app from the F-Droid external store and granting the app necessary permissions restores the ability to upload any files to a Nextcloud instance. The company told The Register that it had more than 800,000 Android users. The company's blog post goes further than pinpointing technical and support hurdles. "It is a clear example of Big Tech gatekeeping smaller software vendors, making the products of their competitors worse or unable to provide the same services as the giants themselves sell," Nextcloud's post states. "Big Tech is scared that small players like Nextcloud will disrupt them, like they once disrupted other companies. So they try to shut the door." Nextcloud is one of the leaders of an antitrust-minded movement against Microsoft's various integrated apps and services, having filed a complaint against the firm in 2021. Kevin Purdy Senior Technology Reporter Kevin Purdy Senior Technology Reporter Kevin is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering open-source software, PC gaming, home automation, repairability, e-bikes, and tech history. He has previously worked at Lifehacker, Wirecutter, iFixit, and Carbon Switch. 22 Comments