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 2 months 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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[-] vane@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Yeah desktop apps era is back baby. Fuck you cloud.

[-] Lfrith@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months 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.

[-] baltakatei@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 months ago

Donate if you regularly use Syncthing. Help close the causal loop.

[-] thesystemisdown@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

LibreOffice too for that matter. Kick 'em a few bucks if you can spare it.

https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/

[-] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 2 points 2 months ago

Syncthing

That is a very cool project that I'd never heard of. Thanks for sharing!

[-] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Welcome to the biggest rabbit hole of your life. Syncthing itself isn’t huge, but the capacity to divest from the big cloud providers is. I say it’s a rabbit hole because you’ll quickly be finding new ways to use it.

[-] Condiment2085@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago

Woowoo! Cloud has its place and I love it but it's not for literally everything

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months ago

I like my personal cloud.

[-] Condiment2085@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months 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.net 0 points 2 months 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

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[-] takis@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months 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.

[-] MunkysUnkEnz0@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I'm glad to see foss Software taking off. In the past, we had to be a tech enthusiast to Realize it with an option. Now it's pretty well known.

The large tech companies didn't get greedy and try to be so gross with privacy settings. People wouldn't make the move. They only have themselves to blame.

If you're into music, there's a great open source synthesizer.

https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

[-] hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 months 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.

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[-] Peffse@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months 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.

[-] digger@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 months ago

Is it not the same software they heard about in 2010?

[-] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago

Oracle bought (and quickly killed) it. It’s not under active development, and anything that claims otherwise is likely malicious. LibreOffice is a lot of the original OpenOffice devs who got fed up with the way things were going, and jumped ship.

[-] chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

It was discontinued in 2011. Anything that is out there today is outdated at best, and malicious at worst.

[-] Lojcs@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

.. so it is precisely the software they heard about in 2010

[-] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

What happened to Openoffice?

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

Oracle bought and ratfucked it.

[-] sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months ago

I still use it sometimes.

[-] veniasilente@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago

Why would you do that to yourself???

[-] sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

I like the austere layout

[-] ozymandias117@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Oracle happened to it

All the devs went to LibreOffice after that

[-] MetalMachine@feddit.nl 1 points 2 months ago

European countries should adopt linux and these alternatives instead of paying for windows and Microsoft. Much more private too.

[-] 96VXb9ktTjFnRi@feddit.nl 1 points 2 months 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.ee 1 points 2 months 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.

[-] poopkins@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

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

[-] passenger@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Sure, to avoid costs...

They really don't see the connection with the trade war, buy european movement, boycott america movement, trump presidency in general... Really? Or could it be the editor told them not to mention it?

[-] Apocalypteroid@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

As someone who has recently cancelled my Microsoft subscription and switched to libre office I can vouch that it was not the subscription cost that made me switch.

[-] ccguys@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 months ago

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.

[-] Admetus@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 months ago

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. 😅

[-] sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months 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.ee 0 points 2 months 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.

[-] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 months ago

They'll have to settle for "warning" the user if they detect a file that was made by libreoffice.

[-] PanArab@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago

The warning can be disabled from the settings

[-] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It's still enabled by default and acts as FUD for the average user who won't know to disable it and will get spooked by it.

That it can be opted out of doesn't change its propaganda value at all.

[-] PanArab@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

I agree, I would never give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt.

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this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2025

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