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 5 days 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] 22 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Microsoft Office is adding in AI? Spreadsheets can take a lot of work to create, I can just imaging an AI tool going in the messing one little thing up, and it being near impossible to find the error. Or not even know your calculations aren't being done the way you want.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Excel is maybe the one place I can see AI being useful because lots of people can describe what they want a spreadsheet to do but not actually do it.

I just wouldn't trust it to do it right

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Which means you have to check each and every formula and we all now how difficult it is to read and understand excel formulas we didn't write ourselves....

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

I find the ones I write myself hard enough to parse after 15 minutes of writing them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Exactly.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I can just imaging an AI tool going in the messing one little thing up, and it being near impossible to find the error.

It doesn't put formulas into the cells. It will write the formula for you, but you have to put it in yourself.

Also, there's versioning in Office, so your spreadsheet blowing up for whatever reason isn't a problem at all - just roll back to the previous version of the file.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I just find it better, to do a little research on formulas, and figuring it out yourself. You'll become better at spreadsheets. I'd have to try it though, it would depend on the actual implementation of it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

You’ll become better at spreadsheets

Great! Thing is: a day only has 24 hours and right now I need to get better at managing IT infrastructure and business processes, not spreadshets.

If you have the time to research Excel - go for it! Absolutely nobody is forcing you to use Copilot.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I’m not jazzed about AI in document editors and spreadsheet software because I’m dyslexic enough that I have trouble finding some big errors.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Copilot can design a table, and even fill out some data, but it won't input any formulas. It will write them for you and tell you where to put them, but you have to copy-paste them on your own.

Also, with versioning, even if it did and caused a problem, you could always just roll back to a previous version of the file. Not really an issue.