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.ca
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      9 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.ee
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          9 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.

            • Condiment2085@lemm.ee
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              8 days ago

              Will do! Do you have any specific communities you recommend for asking for help in Linux / self hosting type stuff? :)

          • oppy1984@lemm.ee
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            9 days ago

            As a lifetime Windows user who switched to Linux about ten years ago, I recommend Linux Mint. It’s designed to look and feel like Windows 7 so it’s an easier transition when you first move from Windows. Also Mint is a rock solid distribution and has been my daily driver for about 9 years now. And before I forget, Mint has great documentation and community so when you get stuck on something you can easily Google for help.

        • Jeffool @lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          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.

      • OscarRobin@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        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

  • Peffse@lemmy.world
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    9 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.

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    9 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.

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      9 days ago

      Yeah I’m wondering for how many weeks.

      And then how many millions of ms office users there are? (Or billions…)

      • LandedGentry@lemmy.zip
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        I mean does it matter? Any open source program competing with THE established office suite that literally everyone learns getting that kind of adoption is insane. This is like an open source video game console competing with Sony.

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      And maybe those are only the ones that download it directly. But every Linux user downloads it from other repos.

  • Sentient Loom@sh.itjust.works
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    9 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.ee
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      9 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.

    • FlihpFlorp@lemm.ee
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      So here’s a single data point for you, in a good couple months (for money reasons) I was gonna switch over to Bazzite or another distro if it came preinstalled

      So with a sample size of 1 we know 100% of people you’ve found are switching to linux

        • FlihpFlorp@lemm.ee
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          9 days ago

          Well there’s the small matter of the new computer

          But oh NOW you tell me I don’t need to wire $600 to a random person

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            9 days ago

            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.

            • dustyData@lemmy.world
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              8 days ago

              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.

    • aceshigh@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Linux needs to sound a lot less intimidating for people who don’t really do tech besides the very basics.

      • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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        9 days ago

        people who don’t really do tech besides the very basics

        i’ve been building my own PCs since the 90s and have basic hardware and network certs, and want to try linux, but it seems daunting to me

        • CaptainPedantic@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          I’ve found Linux Mint to be easier to install and use than Windows. (I don’t have to enter the console and allow myself to setup an offline account because no network drivers were working in Linux. Windows 11 did that).

          I’ve never had issues with graphics drivers, despite using Nvidia cards. The only issues with Linux have been because I broke something when I was messing around.

          Get a USB drive, burn a Linux ISO to it, and try it out without installing it.

          • Madcat81@lemm.ee
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            9 days ago

            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 :/.

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                8 days ago

                While true, that unfortunately doesn’t change the reality that many potential new users will run into issues like this

                But hey, the more Linux users there are, the more manufactures will be forced to fix their shit

        • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          It isn’t, really. As @CosmicTurtle0 pointed out in their response, it’s mostly finding alternatives to your apps.

          Apropos: fuck mozilla for enshittifying the last viable open source browser alternative :( It’s the one I have not found an alternative for yet.

          Other than that: Thunderbird is WAY better than Outlook anyways. Gimp is arguably lacking some features that Photoshop people are used to, but works just fine (albeit takes some getting used to) for non graphic designers. LibreOffice is functioning better than Microsoft Office by a long shot in Writer and Calc - and up to par in Impress (presentations.) VLC should already be your media player of choice anyways. Element (Matrix) and Telegram desktop applications come with most distros nowadays. Desktop environment of choice is available, from very comfortable to very rudimentary and blazingly fast.

          Steam works, many many games on steam work (but then again, maybe prefer gog / good old games, as it is not US based).

          PDF readers: okular is probably your best bet, digital signatures work fine but the interface for signing a document could be improved a bit.

          For my system, that’s kind of it - everything else is native Linux stuff anyways :)

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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.deb

          And if sh I’d open terminal where the sh file was and type in sh ./name_of_file.sh

          That’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.

          • bufalo1973@lemm.ee
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            And in some desktops you can click on the deb file and it asks you if you want to install it.

      • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Successful propaganda. As if those people were able to install (or configure) Windows if it didn’t come preinstalled and with autoupdates…

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        I think the biggest factor in that is getting tutorials and such out there that focus on the basics, written by people who mainly do things on Linux using the basics and GUI tools. So much of the Linux content out there is focused on power users and even the tutorials for new users tend to be written by those power users who may have been tech focused before switching and forget or just don’t know how basic they really have to get to not make people feel intimidated. Given the right distro/desktop environment, and there’s plenty of good ones to start with, people can use Linux almost just how they use Windows. They just need someone to show them how without pushing them to do everything in the terminal too fast or going immediately to scripting as a solution to problems.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        9 days ago

        How about this: I’ll offer installation support and free tech support for three months to the first 20 people that ask. Free of charge. I only have three conditions:

        1. You pick from a handful of distros I’m willing to support - Debian, Fedora, openSUSE Leap
        2. You donate any amount of money to any FOSS project or contribute something to a FOSS project
        3. I reserve the right to not help get certain Windows software working, like anything Adobe
      • Condiment2085@lemm.ee
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        9 days ago

        Exactly. I’m really interested in running Linux but it would be more of something interesting to try when I have time rather than an actual OS change.

        The biggest issue for me is I’m a photographer and I depend on Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, etc. I know there are open source alternatives, but from what I’ve seen they are far behind adobe.

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      9 days ago

      I have to wonder what the October end of life for Windows 10 will bring in that regard.

      Computers are expensive. Some people will buy something new, others won’t be able. That crowd has 2 options of finding a new OS or using one that’s no longer supported.

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        Most people will just continue using an out of date operating system because they don’t understand the security risks. It happens every time MS ends support of an OS line.

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        I think you are wildly underestimating the people who will say fuck it and keep rolling with 10. For that matter, how about the people who don’t even realize it’s EOL? Sure, they’ll get warnings, which they’ll promptly ignore.

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          I have some people at a client’s still happily using 8.1 (but hey, at least they’re not using 7!).

          And, to be frank, if they had to stay on Windows I’d prefer they stay on 8.1 anyway. What with 10 requiring the online accounts or adding start menu adds or removing the interfaces of the Control Panel and everything else.

  • MunkysUnkEnz0@lemmy.world
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    9 days 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/

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      The US becoming a questionable country and people realizing how almost every digital service and product is US based also ended up becoming a huge incentive to start seeking out alternatives instead putting all their eggs in one country. If it hadn’t been for that I wouldn’t have been making so many product shifts and seeking out foss alternatives or at the very least nonUS alternatives.

      It’s been very cool seeing lot of people making attempts to try out stuff like Linux too even if they don’t stick with it.

    • orcrist@lemm.ee
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      My friend, FOSS has been readily available for more than a decade. Whether it’s LibreOffice or the GIMP or VLC or whatever, these are very old pieces of software.

      It’s not taking off now. It already did. But now you personally are noticing. :-)

  • Jakob Fel@retrolemmy.com
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    Love to see it. I haven’t used MS Office in well over a decade at this point and I have no plans to go back. LibreOffice is fantastic, suits all my needs, doesn’t pack itself with bloat and it respects my freedom and privacy. What more can I want from an office suite?

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    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.

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        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.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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          OpenOffice’s old branding from Sun times was so nice though. Felt like modernity and magic in the sense of Star Wars prequels, Stargate SG-1, that warm kind of thing.

      • joel_feila@lemmy.world
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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.

  • passenger@lemm.ee
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    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
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      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.

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    The funny thing is you can still buy Office standalone but you have to actively go looking for it and Microsoft doesn’t advertise it because 365 subscriptions make more money.

    Microsoft doesn’t want you buying standalone versions of software, but they still have to sell it because there’s still a market for it.

    • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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      Wow, the way they write “best value” on the offer for 8.50 £/month is just brazen.

      If you use Office Home 2024 for 120£ for just 15 months or more it’s already cheaper.

  • turnip@sh.itjust.works
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    9 days ago

    We should all get Signal as well. If you don’t have it you’ll probably be surprised how many of your contacts do.

  • Clot@lemm.ee
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    I replaced MS Office with libreoffice on my dad’s PC and he didnt even noticed for months. Libreoffice is just better.

    • CafecitoHippo@lemm.ee
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      My only complaint is that tab is not an option to auto complete. It’s infuriating as someone who works in Excel all day for work and then has some things to do at home in a spreadsheet and I type =vlook tab and then it switches to the next column. Let me autocomplete the formula to the next input! And they don’t let you change it either. It’s the most infuriating thing. It’s why I refused to use LibreOffice for a while but the switch to Linux forced my hand. I like Libre Office more than Only Office.