I suspect by the time LibreOffice threatens Microsoft, everyone will have moved to Google Docs, or a similar service provided by other companies. I still don't know anyone who uses LibreOffice who isn't a geek.
And remember that thin client/thick client has always been a cycle. A linear prediction toward everyone using services such as Google Docs is probably wrong.
Also, open source software for non-geeks seems to be on the rise as its usability has improved surprisingly in the last 5 years. I wouldn't say it's a direct threat for Microsoft though as their important customers are big enterprises...
(and desktop programs could implement security features such as encryption, and/or use peer-to-peer protocols, preventing third-party privacy issues)
What if MS Office or LibreOffice eventually bake these in to their applications? There's no need for cloud storage for real time collaboration.
Has this ever happened with Google Docs? It doesn't sound unlikely that this will happen eventually, but I don't think it already has.
Google Docs may not be the end all, but I seriously doubt the future swinging back to documents living on a local client.
And as a bonus, LibreOffice has a ``collage'' program in the form of LibreOffice Draw, the vector drawing program. Microsoft Office doesn't have that.
There were of course cases when more complex text documents were required, I had suggested Latex but others were not familiar with it and didn't want to spend as much time on formatting as is necessary for using Latex. They chose Adobe bundle. My central point is, as collaboration tools become more and more advanced, the need for packages like Libre/Open/MS Office will die down and web based tools and much more advanced packages like Adobe's will replace them.
Excel on the other hand, it is still irreplaceable unless people can make a REALLY intuitive UI to something like Matlab.
Boy, would I love to see that. Wasn't their a program out there a while back that, in somewhat that spirit, aimed to provide a Python backend to spreadsheet calculations? (Imagine if you used that Python backing to interface with SAGE ….)
I wish LibreOffice had the slick minimal look and feel of GDocs. (and more akin to Apple's Pages). This would make it a competitor for average consumers who are generally not interested in MSFT's glut.
Why other? Microsoft has "web office" as well.