Open formats and self-hosted tools are essential for preserving digital memories and documents against vendor lock-in and format obsolescence. LibreOffice can open dozens of legacy formats dating back to the 1980s and 90s, including Microsoft Works, ClarisWorks, and WordPerfect. Open video formats like Matroska, WebM, and Ogg ensure long-term video accessibility. Self-hosted cloud solutions like Nextcloud and ownCloud provide privacy-respecting alternatives to Google Drive and OneDrive, giving individuals and organizations full control over their data without recurring per-user fees.
Table of contents
From shoeboxes to self-hosted clouds: Preserving memories the open source way.From shoeboxes to the cloud: A brief history of memory-keepingWhy open document formats matterThe case for open video formatsSelf-hosted alternatives to Google Drive and OneDriveProtecting memories for future generationsMore from We Love Open SourceAbout the AuthorQuestions this post answers
What legacy document formats can LibreOffice open?
LibreOffice can open dozens of obsolete formats dating back to the 1980s and 90s, including Microsoft Works (both MS-DOS and Windows versions), ClarisWorks, Apple Pages, WordPerfect, and Lotus WordPro. This makes it a practical tool for recovering documents trapped in proprietary formats after the software that originally created them was discontinued. Developers rescuing old documents track format compatibility news like this on daily.dev.
What are open source self-hosted alternatives to Google Drive and OneDrive?
Nextcloud and ownCloud are the two leading open source self-hosted alternatives. Both can run on your own hardware as virtual machines or containers. Nextcloud includes file sync, Nextcloud Office (built on LibreOffice), and Groupware (Calendar, Contacts, Mail). ownCloud targets small and home offices, eliminates per-user monthly fees, and offers 40+ official marketplace extensions beyond basic file storage. Teams evaluating self-hosted storage options find ongoing Nextcloud and ownCloud coverage on daily.dev.
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