this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2025
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LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs | The free open-source Microsoft Office alternative is being downloaded by nearly 1 million users a week (www.computerworld.com)
submitted 6 days ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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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.

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[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 15 points 6 days ago

For me it was about freedom, and not being locked into the Microsoft sphere.

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 14 points 6 days ago

Good. Finally. It's about time.

[–] trashboat@midwest.social 13 points 6 days ago

I’ve gradually been switching over. The UI is somewhat confusing in my experience- but the MSO UX+UI is consistently getting much, much worse as time passes

[–] gargle@lemmy.world 13 points 5 days ago

LibreCalc and python for the win! I just love from bs4 import BeautifulSoup, import json, import re, import urllib.request.

[–] hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz 12 points 5 days ago (4 children)

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.

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[–] PenyihirEmas@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 days ago

Based

[–] wreckingball4good@lemm.ee 11 points 6 days ago

I love Libre so much

[–] 96VXb9ktTjFnRi@feddit.nl 11 points 5 days ago (2 children)

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?

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[–] penpapernovel@lemmy.ca 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

My biggest pet peeve is since it's a suite rather than separate programs, there's only one path for saving files that's saved. So you can't have Writer save to a different location from Calc automatically.

As someone with a lot of files and folders, and a hatred of having to click around too much, this annoys the shit out of me. But I don't think there's any way around it because of how the program was created. It's literally the one thing keeping me from switching.

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[–] scotmartin@feddit.org 10 points 6 days ago

I have to say I'm one of them. Cancelled my office subscription and an trying to avoid making the same mistake again. It was convenient though.

[–] M33@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 5 days ago

See it wasn't that hard:

  • Common sense ? ⛔ IDGAF
  • Freedom ? ⛔ IDGAF
  • Privacy ? ⛔ IDGAF
  • Subscription ? ✅ Let's crack this software or find something free instead
[–] Admetus@sopuli.xyz 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

I used OnlyOffice thinking 'Hey, this is a really similar alternative to MSO!' Then bugs with slide previews and their ordering happened in the middle of presentations and even worse, memory usage ground my laptop to a halt (electron apps open up with close to 1GB of memory, such as obsidian).

Libre office still hasn't crashed and the slide previews are accurate. The interface has always been a bit...unrefined even with the new tabbed layout but I can live with that.

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[–] Brotha_Jaufrey@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago (11 children)

I’ve used Libre Office, but unpopular opinion, the formatting sucks. I just pirated word, never paying for that again

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[–] nul9o9@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

I like LibreOffice, but I prefer Onlyoffice.

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