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.
Haven't used ms products in a decade.
My Microsoft boycott was longer -
And then something doesn't work during installation or you have to postpone it, you have to abort the installation, run into the MMOK error that blocks you from installing ANY UEFI Linux...just happend to me. I REALLY like the idea of Linux but man, if such things still happen :/.
Blame UEFI problems to all the shit M$ makes. It's their fault.
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If you've installed fresh Windows off a usb then process is the same for Linux, and you don't really need to mess with terminal by just using the Microsoft Store equivalent on the Linux distro you choose. I didn't find it too different from using Windows or MacOS. I was able to download all my usual programs like Steam and Firefox off the Linux appstore.
But if I had to install a program outside of the Linux store they usually came as a sh or deb file.
If it was deb I'd open terminal where the deb file was and type in
sudo dpkg -i filename.debAnd if sh I'd open terminal where the sh file was and type in
sh ./name_of_file.shThat's pretty much the only terminal commands I've needed to know to get started.
When it came to drivers I was lucky enough to have it be pretty much handle everything for me on my old laptop out the box. Main reason I had tried Linux was because Windows ran slow on it, and also an old scanner I had didn't have drivers that supported it anymore. But, on Linux the scanner just worked.
And in some desktops you can click on the deb file and it asks you if you want to install it.
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I guess dual boot could be a solution
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LaTeX is great for documents, mediocre for slides, questionable for spreadsheets, useless for mail and calendar.
Awesome, it does great at what it was designed to do. And it even does mediocre at things it was not designed to do. It even does incompetently things that aren't anywhere in its code? Amazing piece of tech.
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You won’t regret it.
I did. It was mostly ... confusing. The scenes were uninnovative, boring, and ?too-american.
Yeah, I didn't like it either
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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 -
Woo! Don't hesitate to ask for help, Linux users usually don't bite.
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https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/13/libreoffice_wasm_zetaoffice/
Native Realtime collaboration on documents and spreadsheets is the last feature holding us back from switching in business environments.
Collabora office
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You can dual boot on pretty much whatever you have, though I recommend buying a separate drive for Linux for minimum headaches.
But yeah, I get it. Linux will be there when you're ready.
Please don't suggest newcomers to dual boot. It's very technical and requires a lot of knowledge and effort to troubleshoot when windows eventually fights back with new shenanigans. It provides a skewed impression of what using Linux is like.
Just suggest to try the distros as a live USB. It gets them 90% of the way into an install, and it's perfectly safe and reversible.
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For me it was docx. Oo couldn't get the formatting right but libre could. This was back when docx was new and i was in school ao the teachers didn't take off for strange lines or bad formatting.
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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.
In the usa its just texting
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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.
This is a great news! I hope more people would use open-source software like Libreoffice.
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Don't forget to seed the torrents to help the servers.
And donate if you can
what version(s) are best to help out? Windows 64 bit?
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Blame UEFI problems to all the shit M$ makes. It's their fault.
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The biggest issue people face when switching to Linux is finding Linux alternatives to their apps.
At this point it's much easier than it was in the 90s
That said, games can still cause issues.
When I switched to Linux I found out that the Linux alternative to most of my apps was just running my windows apps through proton or wine and they work fine. There are only one or two programs that I couldn't replace and I really don't care about them so
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Very few people will actually know how to do that.
Yes, but millenials have been doing it since we were kids. It's not that hard, just embrace the joy of naughty computing.
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what version(s) are best to help out? Windows 64 bit?
Probably, yes. You would assume the influx of users was mostly windows users.
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Pretty much what everyone said, especially better import/export of microsoft document formats - but one of the things they didn’t mention is that LibreOffice can be easily downloaded and installed from repositories. If I do a fresh linux install it’s just a command line or some other software package installer away. Super easy. I find LibreOffice runs smoother. Only downside is that sometimes it takes a while to load.
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Yeah I love LibreOffice’s customisability including sidebar etc, but OnlyOffice just performs a lot better and handles the most common formats better for me
Heck yeah, OnlyOffice gang
