LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs
www.computerworld.com
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.

  • @Clandestine@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2•3 days ago

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

    • @sudoer777@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3•3 days ago

      Personally I use a Guix template I made (Typst, LaTeX) which downloads necessary software/libraries and the LSP and pins the software versions, and I use the Helix text editor for editing. Not sure what the more common methods are. Also Typst’s package management is weird.

    • @iamkindasomeone@feddit.orgEnglish
      5•3 days 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.

    • @Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      3•3 days ago

      I used TexStudio for my Master’s thesis, it worked fine for me. I haven’t done a full survey of available LaTex distributions and tools though :-)