this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2025

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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)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Does it have the same shorcuts as microsoft excel?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

Not sure but it's free to download and try out

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I replaced MS Office with libreoffice on my dad's PC and he didnt even noticed for months. Libreoffice is just better.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Don't forget to seed the torrents to help the servers. And donate if you can ✊🏻

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Very few people will actually know how to do that.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you're going to download it, try the torrent option! That way, you can give back to the community that gives you LibreOffice.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

If you're a nerd, also check out Typst and LaTeX. Being able to format your documents with pure code is awesome, and you can also define functions for different things, import libraries to generate graphs, and write comments that don't show up in the document.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

I have used latex a lot with overleaf, but I’d like to try using an offline version. Do you have any tips?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Just to throw in some other options: you can easily convert basically anything to latex (and ultimately to Pdf) using pandoc. For instance, if you use Zettlr as your markdown editor, you can also use a citation software (eg., Zotero) and quickly invoke it using the @ character. Then, you can write your documents in Markdown and inline Latex and create Latex-powered Pdfs via pandoc. I use this approach to write scientific papers and it works pretty well.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I just don't understand how they jumped from version 7 to 24 ...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

x 3 + 3 obviously.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Not x 4 - 4

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 weeks ago

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?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago

I love Libre so much

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

And if you monitor Slickdeals, you can often get a copy for under $40.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I really like LibreOffice but I still need Excel. It’s a good 20 years ahead of the OSS software. It works find if your doing light work though

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Makes me wonder, what exactly are you missing on LibreOffice Sheet?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Easiest thing I can think of off the top of my head is dealing with pivot tables. UI is terrible in OpenOffice also integrations with PowerBI does not exist along with XLookup not existing last I checked

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

OpenOffice?? That thing is dead. I thought we're talking about LibreOffice.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago

For me biggest missing I've found is web/external queries. Excel has a system to log in to an API, retrieve that data and format it before it lands on your sheet.

Libre functionality here is lacking/non existent.

My workaround was to write a python query, add it as a cron job, write that data to a csv then call that csv from my sheet with a timed refresh. Not something the average user can or wants to do.