Technology

67987 readers

3687 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related news or articles.
Be excellent to each other!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

2314

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 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

305 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago (9 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] 7 points 3 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 3 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 3 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.

load more comments (7 replies)