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 1 week 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 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah is that completely safe? I'm really tempted to try out Mint and I have an old M2 from my previous machine I could format and use for it. The PC is my work/editing station though so can't afford any risk. I can't really make the switch since I'm still dependent on LR+PS (Adobe...) but most of my other software should work, and I've just always wanted to get into Linux but not sure if it'll actually benefit me and my work or if it's just gonna cause me even more hassle than windows currently does.

I'm familiar with messing around in the BIOS, changing boot priority and formatting stuff and whatnot.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

As long as you're confident in being able to distinguish between the two drives (i.e. they have different capacities), you're good.

The main issue people run into w/ a dual boot setup is Windows clobbering the Linux boot loader (the thing that lets you pick whether to boot into Windows or Linux) and users not knowing how to reinstall it. It will only do that on the drive it's installed to, so if Linux is on a separate drive altogether, you'll be fine. I recommend going into the BIOS settings and switching the default boot to your Linux drive, and Linux should detect the Windows installation and give you the option to boot into either one.

LR+PS (Adobe…)

This is probably going to be an issue for you, since neither has a direct replacement on Linux. However, in the worst case scenario (you hate Linux and want to nuke it from orbit), you just need to switch the boot order back in your BIOS.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Right that sounds reasonable then. Switching boot order is a piece of cake and the Linux drive would be the only 128gb one in the whole array (I have a lot of drives, including a setup with stablebit drivepool, will that work?). After I'm done with this current gig in a couple days I should have a small window of free time, maybe I'll finally get to it!