Comment by vane@lemmy.world on 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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Thanks for the reminder! Donated 5 euros (I’m unemployed so can’t spare more right now)

You hit me in the cup

Syncthing

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

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.

How does that differ from something like Nextcloud?

Nextcloud is, as the name says, a dedicated server used as a cloud. Syncthing only syncronises fders between devices. You dont need a dedicated server for this that stores all the data.

Oh nice! I felt like website did a bad job at explaining what it is and how it works

Like, it doesn’t say if it uses one of their servers or if the two devices should be up at the same time. If so, that’s really unfortunate

The devices need to be running at the same time, which isn’t that much of a problem, if you e. G. only want to sync your PC to your mobile.

I think the “normal” usage is having an always on computer as a server and link all other devices to that one for updates.

it doesn’t say if it uses one of their servers

It does not.

if the two devices should be up at the same time

You can’t sync 2 devices when they have no way to connect to each other, so no.

I would recommend getting a server. And by “server” I mean literally any computer with Syncthing installed and left on. Could even be an old phone or something (with sufficient storage). That way there’s always 1 device to sync to.

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

I like my personal cloud.

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.

Woo! Don’t hesitate to ask for help, Linux users usually don’t bite. 😀

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

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.

you can easily Google for help.

you can easily search the web for help using your favorite engine. :)

True there are other ways to search but I still find that Google surfaces the most relevant answers on the first page. At least when doing technical searches, it’s hit or miss with any other topic.

Yep, I wish I was totally Microsoft free but sadly my work laptop is Win11. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve sat for over an hour on the phone with a level 1 tech going through the check list of non-fixes so they can bump me up to someone who has the authority to actually fix the issue, all the while thinking to myself “if this was Linux I could fix this myself in 10 minutes”.

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

So cool! So you basically kept windows in one part of your machine and ran pop os on the rest? Really cool idea!

It’s a bit easier if you have a separate drive that Linux can own.

Yeah!! I haven’t had any trouble with it yet, my laptop has only one SSD slot which is why I did it on the same one. I just switch when I boot up. I have the Windows one just in case I can’t get a game to run and to access my work’s shared drive (absolutely cannot figure it out on Linux lol)

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.

OnlyOffice is also good - my preferred for the basic Word/Excel type stuff I do.

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

Yeah! To me LibreOffice just looks dated and, to be honest, shit. OnlyOffice has a much cleaner interface.

It also isn’t still carrying around 30 years of Java baggage from when it was Sun StarOffice, and everything inbetween.

Never even qualified for SOLDIER.

And has to cope by pretending he’s literally this other dude. Pathetic.

Not so fast. LibreOffice has a network version.

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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)

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