LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs
www.computerworld.com
The free open-source Microsoft Office alternative is being downloaded by nearly 1 million users a week.

Interest in LibreOffice, the open-source alternative to Microsoft Office, is on the rise, with weekly downloads of its software package close to 1 million a week. That’s the highest download number since 2023.

“We estimate around 200 million [LibreOffice] users, but it’s important to note that we respect users’ privacy and don’t track them, so we can’t say for sure,” said Mike Saunders, an open-source advocate and a deputy to the board of directors at The Document Foundation.

LibreOffice users typically want a straightforward interface, Saunders said. “They don’t want subscriptions, and they don’t want AI being ‘helpful’ by poking its nose into their work — it reminds them of Clippy from the bad old days,” he said.

There are genuine use cases for generative AI tools, but many users prefer to opt-in to it and choose when and where to enable it. “We have zero plans to put AI into LibreOffice. But we understand the value of some AI tools and are encouraging developers to create … extensions that use AI in a responsible way,” Saunders said.

    • Lfrith@lemmy.caEnglish
      4·
      26 days ago

      Syncthing has been so helpful in making me move away from cloud based options. And to think only reason I found out about it and gave it a shot was because I was trying to figure out how to easily sync my non Steam game save files between my Desktop and my Steam Deck. It’s been invaluable since then.

        • Condiment2085@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          26 days ago

          I’m hoping to set one up later this year. I have an old laptop that has good enough specs to run it from my research - I just need to get everything off of it and swamp windows for Linux! Never did a Linux install so I’m excited.

          • gruhuken@slrpnk.netEnglish
            0·
            26 days ago

            I switched for the first time a few weeks ago!! I didn’t realise until I booted my Windows partition earlier for work that I hadn’t used it one single time since I did that because it was still open on the download page and forced a hundred updates on me 😅 it’s really fun and freeing, I’ve tried a few and settled on Pop!_OS because I love the simplicity, the pretty desktop environment and the window tiling

            • Condiment2085@lemm.eeEnglish
              0·
              26 days ago

              So cool! So you basically kept windows in one part of your machine and ran pop os on the rest? Really cool idea!

                • Condiment2085@lemm.eeEnglish
                  0·
                  25 days ago

                  I was reading about this solution. My main laptop is a MacBook Air with M2 so I don’t think I can run any version of Linux on it. I have an old windows laptop I’m thinking about trying it on.

                  Would Linux still run fine on an older laptop?

    • ripcord@lemmy.worldEnglish
      01·
      26 days ago

      OnlyOffice is also good - my preferred for the basic Word/Excel type stuff I do.

      • tantalizer@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        25 days ago

        Yeah! To me LibreOffice just looks dated and, to be honest, shit. OnlyOffice has a much cleaner interface.

        • ripcord@lemmy.worldEnglish
          01·
          25 days ago

          It also isn’t still carrying around 30 years of Java baggage from when it was Sun StarOffice, and everything inbetween.

  • poopkins@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    25 days ago

    Obligatory comment that endorses pirating software. We need to make sure this stereotype about Lemmy remains accurate.

  • takis@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    26 days ago

    I must be one of them. In the last couple of weeks I’m transitioning my apps and services to open source and EU based. I switched from Windows to CachyOS, switched my emails, switched browser, degoogled my phone, deleted FB and X and many more.

    It feels so refreshing and free.

  • hornedfiend@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    1·
    25 days ago

    I managed to get my father in law to fully switch to libreoffice, which is in itself a great achievement, as he’s almost 70 and he used to be an msoffice user for most of his adult professional life.

    Libreoffice is just great and Europe should start backing and using more open source, non greedy corporate backed projects.

  • e$tGyr#J2pqM8v@feddit.nlEnglish
    1·
    25 days ago

    FOSS software will win eventually. It may take time, but if good FOSS software is being built by enthusiasts then a time will come where proprietary software fucks up. And when it does, FOSS is ready to take it’s place. And as soon as FOSS has become a standard in some field, why would there ever be a need to go back to proprietary?

    • futatorius@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      23 days ago

      if good FOSS software is being built by enthusiasts

      LibreOffice is forked long ago from the extremely corporate OpenOffice effort, which in turn originated from the non-open-source Star Office. Not all FOSS comes from enthusiasts.

  • Sentient Loom@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    26 days ago

    Nice. Maybe now Microsoft will respond by offering non-subscription options inventing a new proprietary industry-standard file format so their bloated ransomware remains mandatory.

    • cactopuses@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      26 days ago

      Fortunately platforms like docs are providing sufficient competition that I don’t think they’d be able to lock it down as effectively as they once could.

  • Peffse@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    26 days ago

    I’m afraid to find out how many people are still downloading OpenOffice, thinking it’s the same software they heard about back in 2010.

    • ngwoo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      25 days ago

      Excel is maybe the one place I can see AI being useful because lots of people can describe what they want a spreadsheet to do but not actually do it.

      I just wouldn’t trust it to do it right

    • Alaknár@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      25 days ago

      I can just imaging an AI tool going in the messing one little thing up, and it being near impossible to find the error.

      It doesn’t put formulas into the cells. It will write the formula for you, but you have to put it in yourself.

      Also, there’s versioning in Office, so your spreadsheet blowing up for whatever reason isn’t a problem at all - just roll back to the previous version of the file.