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
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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.
It's not just the subscription they want to avoid. Office has been steadily enshitified to the point nobody I know likes using it anymore.
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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.
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 -
Dropped the Word suite and used openoffice, then switched to libreoffice. Definitely a slightly clunkier feel to it, but avoiding yet more subscription, cloud based, internet connection needed, account needed software is becoming more and more important.
Been using openoffice for 15+ years, what made you switch to libreoffice?
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Does anyone know how to get endnote or a similar citation manager to work in Libre Office?
I've been using Zotero since I converted a few weeks back. It has some really useful plugins, so I would recommend adding this one first- it's like a store where you can easily browse and add them :))
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If you ever figure it out I'd love to know, too. I relied entirely on Libre Office as an undergrad but missed this feature of MS Word. I currently use a combination of Scribbr and Purdue Owl but would prefer an offline and open source solution.
Copying my response from above for u!
I've been using Zotero since I converted a few weeks back. It has some really useful plugins, so I would recommend adding this one first- it's like a store where you can easily browse and add them :))
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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.
I ditched MS office for Libre long time ago, all I need it for is to open and view the occasional document anyways. For creating or editing documents I like Googles office suite better though
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It's not just the subscription they want to avoid. Office has been steadily enshitified to the point nobody I know likes using it anymore.
Teams has decided it won't recognise like 50% of word docs anymore. So you can no longer edit them within teams and have to download them. If you simply read and scroll down it, the scroll glitches so bad for no reason. Ugh
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Dude. The Expanse was dope! Watch it. You won't regret it. I've heard the books were better, but I lack the time to go through them right now : /
You won’t regret it.
I did. It was mostly ... confusing. The scenes were uninnovative, boring, and ?too-american.
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I’ve used Libre Office, but unpopular opinion, the formatting sucks. I just pirated word, never paying for that again
and word is better at formatting?
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I've been using LibreOffice for years and it is fantastic -- although I have always had problems importing PowerPoints. Xcel and Word documents are fine, but PowerPoint is always a mess.
PowerPoints suffer from lack of smart objects, and in the case of using Linux, font conversion. But it's just that we've got to persevere with it.
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Been using openoffice for 15+ years, what made you switch to libreoffice?
Open office isn't getting much in the way of updates these days and is considered dormant and maintained by the Apache foundation. Libre-office is the office suite maintained by the document foundation and is where the bulk of developers moved over to.
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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.
Is this better than Apache open office?
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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.
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 leaks ground my laptop to a halt.
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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Is this better than Apache open office?
In my opinion, yes. I use it almost daily at work and I have it on my PC just in case.
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The formatting... The formatting that you can easily modify. Sigh. It takes two minutes, my friend.
Anyway, you do you.
I mean, you’re likely right and I probably didn’t give it a good enough shot. I just haven’t had the smoothest experience with it. It took me twice as long to make an ugly Resume on libre than the time it took for me to make a decent one on “free” word
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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 leaks ground my laptop to a halt.
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.
I didn't even know this existed until a few days ago. Downloaded an AppImage to try it out and was able to make a decent pdf with minimal hassle.
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I still use it sometimes.
I would recommend switching to LibreOffice, it is definitely more performant and modern.
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We should all get Signal as well. If you don't have it you'll probably be surprised how many of your contacts do.
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I like my personal cloud.
When I get another job lined up that's my goal. A job and these bills. And that car loan. And maybe a house... Man. Maybe two jobs.
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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.
