If a read-only file is opened (e.g. in Writer), editing functionality is disabled, and a non-modified copy of the file must be saved before any changes can be made. There is no use case where this makes sense. A user may or may not wish to save a copy AFTER making changes, but the Save dialog takes care of the issue if the proposed destination is not writeable. If the user does wish to save the document after editing, having to save it first, before editing, offers no benefit. If the user does not wish to save the changes (say, fixing something before printing), having to save it first, before editing, offers no benefit. If, for some reason, a copy can't be saved before editing (maybe lack of space), and the document is fundamentally not writeable (say, on a CD), then the user's task is made much more complicated for no reason.
Thank you for writing a bug about this one! I've always thought this as well but never took the time to report (go figure QA not reporting bugs...) ;) Marking as NEW (confirmed) and making it "Highest" as I think this slows down work for a ton of people and isn't expected at all.
(This is an automated message.) LibreOffice development currently prioritizes bugs with the so called MAB (most annoying bugs) -- as this bug has not run through that process (including writing a short rationale for this bug being a candidate and other who are watching the tracker bug silently approving that rationale etc.) its priority is set to high. Note this is effectively no change in the urgency assigned to this bug, as we are currently not making a difference between high and highest and severity is untouched. You can find out more about MABs and how the process works by contacting libreoffice qa on irc: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=libreoffice-qa The QA wiki page also gives you hints on how to get in contact with the team (if IRC fails you, your next best choice is the mailing list): https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA
fixed during LibreOffice 5.0 development cycle and backported to 4.4 - bug 80538. commit c6270de939d5ee51b61dc4ac02c52f1d9b5b1e47 Author: Samuel Mehrbrodt <s.mehrbrodtgmail.com> CommitDate: Fri Aug 29 03:42:38 2014 -0500 fdo#80538 Show an infobar when document is in read-only mode and remove the Edit icon from the toolbar *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 80538 ***