April 1, 2026
Forks out, pitchforks out
OnlyOffice kills Nextcloud partnership for forking its project without approval
Open‑source soap opera: “Unforkable” claims, logo drama, and a Euro‑Office rebellion
TLDR: ONLYOFFICE cut ties with Nextcloud after a Euro‑Office fork it calls a license breach, igniting a brawl over what “open source” really allows. Commenters are split between calling ONLYOFFICE’s branding rules a freedom killer and claiming Euro‑Office crossed the line, with memes and “unforkable” jokes flying.
Cue the split-screen drama: ONLYOFFICE just froze its 8‑year partnership with Nextcloud after a Euro‑Office coalition forked the ONLYOFFICE code—sparking a comment‑section riot. The company says the fork violated its license and stripped branding it requires, while promising existing customers won’t feel a thing. But the community? They’re yelling “open source means you can fork”, pointing to the AGPL v3 license that’s supposed to allow exactly that.
Biggest hot take: users accuse ONLYOFFICE of being “unforkable”—open in name, closed in vibe—because of logo and attribution demands. One commenter even spotted that ONLYOFFICE’s posted license text swaps HTTPS links for HTTP, calling it “interesting.” Meanwhile, Nextcloud sympathizers say they forked due to lack of transparency, slow merges, and a vague cloud of geopolitics around a Russian‑origin project—without proof, but plenty of anxiety.
The memes wrote themselves: “logo police,” “Euro‑Office vs Only‑One‑Office,” and “forking without approval” being roasted as not how open source works. LibreOffice and Collabora fans showed up with popcorn, chanting “told you so” over ONLYOFFICE’s default love for Microsoft formats instead of open standards. Defenders argue branding is theirs to protect; critics say if you need permission to fork, that’s not freedom. Verdict from the crowd? This is the messiest document editor breakup since WordArt went out of style.
Key Points
- •ONLYOFFICE suspended its eight-year partnership with Nextcloud after the Euro-Office coalition forked the ONLYOFFICE repository.
- •ONLYOFFICE alleges Euro-Office violates the AGPLv3 license by using technology derived from ONLYOFFICE editors without required branding and attribution.
- •The Euro-Office project was launched by Nextcloud, IONOS, and other European companies as a sovereign open-source alternative to Microsoft Office.
- •ONLYOFFICE cited prior issues with Nextcloud, including alleged employee poaching and influencing customers, and said the fork was the final breach of trust.
- •ONLYOFFICE’s Galina Goduhina said existing partners and clients would not be affected; Nextcloud’s team cited concerns about ONLYOFFICE’s origins and transparency as reasons for forking.