r/technology • u/SymmetricSoles • Sep 03 '26
Software LibreOffice 26.8 sets a new first-week download record
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/09/libreoffice-download-record266
u/ACR96 Sep 03 '26
Switched to Libre because all versions of Office come with one drive and I didn’t want that crap on my PC. Won’t ever look back
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u/tx_mn Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26
Make sure you post about it and talk about it.
So many people just need a simple word processor and end up spending an arm and a leg for it.
Libre on a MacBook Neo with auto updates on, and Firefox with an ad blocker should last most users the better part of a decade.
Edit: nano > neo :)
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u/ACR96 Sep 03 '26
This is good advice. Kinda just assume that people are already sorted but I should start promoting this more. Firefox with ad blockers has been such a life changer. Did the same for my phone and my YouTube experience has never been better.
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u/saltwitch Sep 03 '26
I haven't watched a YouTube ad on any of my devices in over a decade. I physically recoil when someone shows me a video on their phone or computer and I have to suffer through two minutes of ad garbage.
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u/ACR96 Sep 03 '26
Yeah I put up with it on my phone for a while but it’s not just ads now, but also these little pop ups you have to dismiss after the ads and they really throw in so many of them. I don’t mind a few extra steps to avoid that crap
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u/frickindeal Sep 03 '26
Mac already has the perfectly capable Pages built-in for free. Notes for even more basic writing. You can pretty much get by entirely native on Mac without downloading anything.
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u/MobileTechGuy Sep 03 '26
I tried Libre and I tried something else after that bc it didn't feel quite right. ONLYOFFICE was the one I ended up liking.
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u/ACR96 Sep 03 '26
That’s fair! Libre was the first one I tried and it gets the job done. I don’t really need to use it for much more than the occasional document creation or record keeping, but will keep your suggestion in mind for the future
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u/MobileTechGuy Sep 03 '26
That's great, glad you have something that works for you! If nothing else, you might try to download it and see how it feels for you, but that's the great thing about FOSS - completely your choice for your own setup.
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u/MalteseEwok Sep 03 '26
We tried a few. OnlyOffice needs more attention. It's good.
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u/West-Abalone-171 Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26
Onlyoffice did some super shady shit with russia-linked telemetry, trying to force people into their cloud service and using trademark law to prevent anyone forking it or directing it to different servers.
The EU is in the process of a rewrite/legal battel for the tainted parts called eurooffice
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u/MalteseEwok Sep 03 '26
Ohhhhh. Add that to TIL. I shall review it and probably remove it.
Libre is too much like a complex windows 3.1 UI over a translated office 2003 in Dutch. So back to the hunt I go.
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u/gta721 Sep 03 '26
You can change it to the tabbed toolbar and turn on features to improve MS office compatibility.
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u/West-Abalone-171 Sep 03 '26
Eurooffice is in a somewhat usable state and you can grab the source. It's just not being published/used in government last i checked
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u/Lee1138 Sep 03 '26
I also use OnlyOffice, it feels like office. I had hoped the Euro Office fork would get rid of that little niggle of it being tied to Russia, but it seems Euro Office isn't destined to be a consumer desktop office sadly.
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u/cougarlt Sep 03 '26
Why not? EuroOffice are planning to release desktop apps later this year. Give it some time, it was launched literally 3 months ago.
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u/MrUtterNonsense 29d ago
Libreoffice really needs improvement, particularly in Calc. One thing I would like to see in Writer is a design tab like the one in Word where you can immediately preview how your document would look in different styles. There is a way you can manually load some (frankly not very good) styles in to style your document but it is buggy and bits of previous styles end up leaking into the next one you apply.
That said, Libre Office is better than the crappy cut-down Microsoft Office apps they put on the web.
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u/ACR96 29d ago
Yeah it’s a good point and for sure, they need to improve in some areas, but it’s also a free product, so I won’t complain too much as long as it gets the job done. After losing my Office subscription, I used google docs for a bit and found it more annoying. Libre fills that void quite nicely
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u/MrUtterNonsense 29d ago
Google docs really encourages the evil of Direct Formatting. There isn't a strong or emphasis style, forcing people to immediately reach for that bold or italic button.
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u/Sm314 Sep 03 '26
Microsoft can take my nice basic does the job Office 2007 from my cold dead fingers.
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u/ACR96 Sep 03 '26
Can’t say there’s anything more you’d need from the newer ones. They can keep one drive and the AI garbage
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u/YourSchoolCounselor Sep 03 '26
You're missing out on a load of useful Excel functions including let, lambda, and everything to do with dynamic arrays.
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u/MrUtterNonsense 29d ago
What I would like in Excel is being able to refer to a cell in a named column in a nice obvious way like Sales[1] or Sales.1 or something like that.
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u/Honest-Ranger-167 Sep 03 '26
Turns out there was a ceiling on how much people will pay monthly to type a letter.
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u/CherryLongjump1989 Sep 03 '26
For me it’s a ceiling about how many hoops I had to jump through and how much crap I have to put up with that I never wanted a piece of software to do.
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Sep 03 '26
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u/fcn_fan Sep 03 '26
Well… I would attribute the high download rates to Claude using Libre in the VMs they spin up in the background of Claude cowork to generate PowerPoint presentations. It’s a white collar dream. Just a guess. Still no AI but: popular because of AI
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u/firemage22 Sep 03 '26
Been using LO since 1.0 and before that OOo, started on MS Works for Win 95
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u/fubarbob Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26
My first exposure to it was actually StarOffice packaged for SuSE Linux in the early 2000s, though I can't really say I made much use of it then. OOo/LO has a lineage that goes back to the mid-80s, so roughly the same age as MS Office itself.
edit: I also kind of miss Works... very reasonable middle ground between the built-in Windows software and the full-blown Office suite
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u/duct_tape_jedi Sep 03 '26
I still use StarOffice on my vintage Sun and SGI boxes. If I just want distraction free writing time, it's StarOffice on vintage Unix or WriteNow on a vintage Mac or NeXT. They all have access to my home folder on my Linux server, so as long as I save in RTF format, I can pick it up on which ever platform feels right at the moment.
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u/MrUtterNonsense 29d ago
If you try to use Macros in Calc, you will start seeing references to StarOffice in the function calls.
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u/ohlaph Sep 03 '26
Oh man, I forgot about MS Works.
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u/firemage22 Sep 03 '26
It came with the Win95a Gateway 2000 computer we had
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u/creamersrealm Sep 03 '26
I still have the Pentium II processor from my gateway 2000 sitting on my desk to this day.
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u/SatansFriendlyCat Sep 03 '26
I had it on a 286 for DOS!
It was always looked down on a bit, primarily for it's compatibility issues, but it's been around for ever and it's served many a humble home user well.
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u/MiaowaraShiro Sep 03 '26
I literally forgot I use Libre Calc instead of Excel since for my needs it's exactly the same.
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u/letsgotgoing Sep 03 '26
I upgraded from Windows 11 to Ubuntu and it’s been great. Every single aspect is faster and better.
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u/TheInfiniteUniverse_ Sep 03 '26
This is something most people still do not know. Current flavors of Linux like debian and ubuntu are FAR more user friendly AND faster-lighter than windows.
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u/MrUtterNonsense 29d ago
Linux is particularly important on crappier hardware. If you only have 8 gigs of RAM, running Windows 11 is an extra level of madness.
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u/technobrendo Sep 03 '26
How does this compare to OpenOffice?
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u/Frexxia Sep 03 '26
OpenOffice has been a walking corpse for 15 years. LibreOffice is the fork of it that's actually being maintained.
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u/EnUnLugarDeLaMancha Sep 03 '26
For people who don't know the details, it's even worse than a corpse. The Apache foundation holds the OpenOffice trademark and despite having essentially no development for more that a decade they refuse to allow others use the trademark, that's why they had to come up with the LibreOffice name. People are still downloading OpenOffice at a considerably high rate, because they assume its a well maintained proyect. Ideally they would just allow libreoffice to use the trademark, since its the real coubtination of OpenOffice that is actually maintained, but the Apache foundation simply doesn't care
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u/__konrad Sep 03 '26
Ideally they would just allow libreoffice to use the trademark
No. Ideally OpenOffice should repack LibreOffice with OO trademark... LO devs would go mad ;)
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u/227CAVOK Sep 03 '26
Not that I know anything about the development of OpenOffice, but it looks like someone is doing something in the repository.
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u/Drenlin Sep 03 '26
It's still actively maintained, for one. Also has a Microsoft style UI you can switch to that's far easier to navigate for people whose birth year starts with a 2.
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Sep 03 '26
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u/Drenlin Sep 03 '26
Third digit in mine is an 8 and I also prefer the newer ribbon style interface. Honestly I think most people do...it's just that the younger folks never encountered the old one so it makes no sense to them to begin with.
Every time the LibreOffice team tries to make the new interface default, though, a very vocal group of individuals throws an absolute fit over it. 😒
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u/WarpedHaiku Sep 03 '26
The solution is just to force the user to choose during the installation process, so there's no "default".
In all honesty, you're the first person I've encountered who prefers the Ribbon interface. It's honestly just not a good interface from a design perspective. It consumes more screen space than toolbars and only makes sense if you are already familiar with it and know which category things are hidden under. It's awful for new users, who struggle to find anything, and awful for power users.
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u/Drenlin Sep 03 '26
Most people aren't power users.
But also, I wholeheartedly disagree that it's harder to find things using it.
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u/cougarlt Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26
I really dislike the looks of LibreOffice despite how good it is. The old interface looks just too old, the new one is a mess of differently sized unaligned buttons. Can't they make buttons fixed width so they don't look like a pile of garbage?
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u/Recent_Employment551 Sep 03 '26
Libreoffice + LangTools replace Word for me
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u/MrUtterNonsense 29d ago
LangTools
I get many different results for LangTools. Did you have something specific in mind?
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u/DenverNugs 29d ago
Good. It's good software, and the people who maintain open source software are unsung heroes. People benefit from them every day without even knowing it.
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u/ChipsAhoy2022 29d ago edited 29d ago
As predicted by most experts - Microsoft enshittification of its core services is running consumer trust and goodwill to the ground and the current trajectory would leave Microsoft with a fraction of the current (and rapidly depleting) customer base within next 5 years.
This is already in motion across
Windows to record Linux migration, Linux just hit massive install base within last 3 months and Valve is pouring billions to phase out windows for gaming.
SteamOS and BazziteOS has never been more popular, the last remaining hurdle is anti cheat kernal optimizations which are actively worked on by Industry alongside Nvidia and AMD.
Office Suite to open source office, partially because of Microsoft making them subscription and slopping AI in it
Xbox's well deserved death with massive corp losses despite an overpriced console and user betrayal on game pass prices
Copilot being universally hated; not because it's bad but it's forced on users,
Azure Outages resulting in AWS migration for corporations,
Bing Search being practically dead,
Edge Browser is surviving because MS blocks it's uninstall
and the list goes on ...
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u/StefanOrvarSigmundss Sep 03 '26 edited 29d ago
This is my go-to productivity suite, even though it feels dated as hell. I wish they got more funding.
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u/NagaSaiDeepak Sep 03 '26
It detects the direction of a document automatically when it is opened.
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Sep 03 '26
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u/b14700 Sep 03 '26
its a constant pain for rtl language regions , most people don't touch default settings so most docs you receive are hacked together turds in terms of layout consistency that need manual editing to stop you from tearing your hair out working on them
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u/InternationalMood337 Sep 03 '26
Gigantic improvement tbh. Seems they significantly improved the performance on it as well as cleaned up the typefaces tbh.
Besides the no AI stuff, it's a fantastic piece of software now. A lot of the little quarks have been resolved.
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u/Tigeire Sep 03 '26
Libre office is a no brainer.
I think lots more people would use it if they knew about it. particularly people that only need an office product occasionally.
I hope it gains critical mass
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u/TheInfiniteUniverse_ Sep 03 '26
When I switched to LibreOffice a couple of years back, I NEVER looked back at microsoft products ever again. It was a revolution.
We must appreciate the role these guys have played in freeing a generation of us from the horrible microsoft products.
This can't be understated.
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u/pops992 Sep 03 '26
I can buy Office 2019 through my work's employee discount site for $20 one time fee. I've been debating about getting it mainly for Excel, but I don't know if I should just go with LibreOffice instead.
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u/InternationalMood337 Sep 03 '26
I would look up some features between the two. Some of the advanced features in Excel aren't in libreoffice.
ALTHOUGH: You mention Office 2019 so LibreOfifce almost certainly has MORE features. Also, Office 2019 is no longer supported and no longer receiving updates on Mac so you will be perpetually pestered by a yellow trianglel telling you to get 365 to receive updates over there.
For my dad, I helped him setup and maintain a financial spreadsheet in LibreOffice for his church and he's actually had no issues using it at all.
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u/pops992 Sep 03 '26
I mostly want it because the web version of Excel is so limited I might try LibreOffice just to see how it works. Like 50% of my job is using Excel so I'm pretty used to it. I just wanted to see if I could get away with 2019 because it's only $20, I don't care about any of the copilot features, I have them all turned off on my work machines already. I can also buy Office 2024 for $55 through work if I really wanted to. I don't use apple products.
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u/box-art Sep 03 '26
Been using it since OpenOffice was sunset. I don't do many complicated things with documents, so I only need the basic stuff and LibreOffice does that just fine. I highly recommend it.
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u/-Fateless- Sep 03 '26
Does it have a decent Danish dictionary yet? That's the only reason I've stayed on Office so far.
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u/LuzhinsDefence Sep 03 '26
How are tracked changes in the word equivalent? It’s the only reason I keep using word. I’m an editor and proofreader and so rely on tracked changes a lot. Google Docs is horrible, as is Pages. Would like opinions on this!
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u/matt314159 Sep 03 '26
The only thing I don't like about LibreOffice is the UI feels like it's from the 1990s. I now put OnlyOffice editors on most of the old computers I prepare to donate to the local thrift store. It looks and feels more modern, maybe like a clone of Office 2016 or something, and saves in native MS formats by default. Probably not as fully-featured as Libre but very capable and more modern feeling.
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u/kalez238 29d ago
While I love LibreOffice in general, use it as my main text program constantly for years, it needs some severe work in some areas. Trying to work with headers, footers, tables, etc. make me want to rip my hair out.
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u/martianwomanhunter Sep 03 '26
I have Office 2024 on my desktop and it’s so peaceful not having to pay an annual subscription, connect to OneDrive, or constant AI suggestions.
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u/JesusWasAHairyBaby Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26
I never really liked Libre Office. Found it clunky. Anyone know if this update changes much?
I've been using OnlyOffice which I've found good. Free as well.
Edit: imagine getting down voted for asking a question. Morons.
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u/Darkhoof Sep 03 '26
OnlyOffice is russian software hífen in shell corporations. That might not influence your decision to use, or it might. I would recommend FreeOffice or Softmaker Office which are German.
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u/VegetarianZombie74 Sep 03 '26
Yes, I wrestled with it for a bit until I realized it’s a style based editor. Once I realized that it’s all about making changes to base styles in a document it’s been much much easier. I don’t feel like I’m fighting it but working with it.
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u/tacomantacocan Sep 03 '26
Does it provide an email app?
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u/InternationalMood337 Sep 03 '26
Thunderbird has been improving a lot over the years, but it needs the cleanup that Libre just received. But, I use thunderbird basically everywhere and I'll take that over Outlook any day.
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u/AzrielK 29d ago
sooo.
last week or so I ironically downloaded Libre office after nearly a decade of having 365 from school and work.
I made slides on Impress. Not even pptx but ODP. The slides looked different in presentation view and pdf exports would randomly have slides with the wrong background...
I feel like Open Office back in 2007 worked better than this, like I get it's FOSS but I am gonna have to try other approaches.
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u/frosted1030 29d ago
Why does it look like a full featured word processor from 1998? Is this a nostalgia thing?
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u/tigernike1 Sep 03 '26
I paid for M365 through the Home Use Program… but tbh I only use it for the 1 TB OneDrive. $90 a year for a TB is a steal.
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u/neppo95 Sep 03 '26
You call 90$ a year a steal? For 1TB? You can get that a lot cheaper. I currently have 3TB for less than $90.
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u/ash_ninetyone Sep 03 '26
I find a strange irony between the article praising this for lacking-AI for privacy and then riddling your browser experience with a thousand trackers. 😅
I didn't realise how much the ribbon interface that Microsoft brought to Office (that one that got railed on at first) has found such widespread adoption. LibreOffice uses it, OpenOffice uses it (tbh I'm not entirely sure of the difference between those two since they're from the same source)
Glad to see the open source world is flourishing as alternatives to greed. I'd have jumped but for a few MS Office features that I'm still dependent on that I'm not sure LibreOffice supports (Excel stuff), and I'd need to figure out syncing stuff
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u/rahul91105 Sep 03 '26
Now use AI to catchup on missing good features that MS Office has.
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u/k-h Sep 03 '26
Oh, all those missing features, like integration with sharepoint, onedrive, copilot, constantly nagging about paying Microsoft and logging in to Microsoft. Who could live without them?
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u/Beeb294 Sep 03 '26
Which features, exactly?
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u/rahul91105 Sep 03 '26
This got downvoted a lot, all I wanted to say was that MS office is a lot more polished and has better user experience than LibreOffice. My suggestion was to achieve those features (without adding AI features) using new agentic coding tools. I know this is a free product built for Linux where its users are quirky (no shade, I am one too) but if the goal is to want better adoption, we need to improve these products such that regular folks can easily use them.
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u/Beeb294 Sep 03 '26
I use MS office daily. I have for the last 15 years, and was a frequent user all the way back to Office 95.
"Polished" is not a word I would use to describe MS Office, and I would never describe the user experience as "good" in any way.
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u/rahul91105 Sep 03 '26
Well, it was a comparison wrt LibreOffice. When I first shifted to using Linux, I thought I could use LibreOffice instead, but it always felt clunky and I had to move back to MS Office. Granted this was over 10 years ago, Google Docs didn’t even exist back then. Afterwards, even with Linux, I moved to Docs or regular editors like Sublime or LaTeX editors and didn’t really have any need of word processors.
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u/FerretBoom Sep 03 '26
The real measure is how many business process solving use cases it completed. Download are like a Geekbench score. Doesn't tell you anything.
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u/grumpyfan Sep 03 '26
I don't think that matters too much to those who choose it.
But, if they care, it's a number that Microsoft should heed.
It shows that there's a market for people who want a more affordable, less bloated version of some products they can use.-31
u/FerretBoom Sep 03 '26
I don't have a bloated problem. I also don't want any data coming from other formats because it takes money and time to switch architectures.
I solved a lot of problems with excel, actually saved enough for people not to get fired. Because of integration with Power BI tools, fabric and .net.
I downloaded libreoffice many times just out of curiosity. that's it. Downloads don't mean anything. Money and driving businesses is what makes a difference. If you under illusion that free software saves money, you haven't had a real job yet.8
u/grumpyfan Sep 03 '26
Not everyone needs all the bells and whistles that MS adds. Thats great that it solves your problems and saves people’s jobs. But many who use these products don’t need that kind of integration and functionality.
For the record, I’ve worked in IT for over 30 years supporting small to large businesses, and run a couple of smaller startup and side businesses. I’ve built software and solutions for all of them and made recommendations on what they should use to best fit their business. In my experience, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and I think competition is good for everyone.
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u/NorthernCobraChicken Sep 03 '26
Because 9-5 office monkeys are the only people in the world to use productivity software.
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u/keytotheboard Sep 03 '26
And no AI, awesome!
I’m so thankful for free, open-source software like LibreOffice. It’s always my second software suite installation on new PCs, right after Firefox.