LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs • Hacker News Board

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#181

Post by dreamcompiler » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 5:01 PM UTC

eddythompson80 wrote: post #54

dreamcompiler wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's what Microsoft won't tell you: If you buy standalone office and it is not allowed to phone home to Microsoft at least once a month, it stops working. This can happen if you use it on a disconnected computer or you just have a reverse firewall rule blocking microsoft domains.

I’m not sure that’s true. Last Office I bought was “Home Edition 2016” and it’s been running on a machine that doesn’t have internet access since 2017 without any issues.

If I block it from accessing Microsoft domains in Little Snitch, it goes into readonly mode after about a month. Opening a hole in the firewall lets it start working again. Previous versions from several years earlier didn't do that.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#182

Post by Lammy » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 5:02 PM UTC

stuaxo wrote: post #177

Lammy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The biggest issue I had migrating as a Photoshop user since 1996 was the key bindings RIP GIMPshop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMPshop

PhotoGIMP is the current thing like that I think?

Neat: https://github.com/Diolinux/PhotoGIMP

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#183

Post by carlosjobim » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 5:05 PM UTC

cf100clunk wrote: post #179

carlosjobim wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the problem in that situation? The consumer has the full privilege to pick the alternative they prefer, for whatever reason. But there has to be a suitable alternative for that to happen. I would assume that the world is big enough to have a bunch of fully fledged office suites.

Current events are motivating people and their stores and governments to not choose U.S. products. The motivation is strong and widespread. I would have to think that sensible marketing folks in the U.S. have to be wargaming the effects upon their bottom line when their product lines are under such suppressing forces: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/f35-blair-trump-1.7484477

If that becomes reality, what would you expect the US companies to do?

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#184

Post by Lammy » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 5:06 PM UTC

InsideOutSanta wrote: post #93

lauritz wrote: post #86

To my surprise, what used to be called iWork has been my main "Office" replacement for years now. It's good enough, and it's free. I have switched over most of the non-technical people in my life to it, and they have no issues using it (except if they email a .pages document to a Windows user). I especially enjoy Numbers and the way you can arrange multiple tables on a page. It's a different paradigm coming from Goog…

I sometimes wish Claris Works 5 was still around. It was small and fast, did everything I actually needed when writing documents or letters and nothing I didn't need, and had a clean, uncluttered UI that made sense.

I wonder what it could have been like if we got the 1990s vision of the future where one could have ClarisWorks 5 anywhere they want as an OpenDoc Part: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/clarisworks-5-opendoc

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#185

Post by Lammy » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 5:10 PM UTC

dreamcompiler wrote: post #181

eddythompson80 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure that’s true. Last Office I bought was “Home Edition 2016” and it’s been running on a machine that doesn’t have internet access since 2017 without any issues.

My standalone copy of Excel (which is the only member of the Office suite I use) is version 16.54 for MacOS "© 2021 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved." If I block it from accessing Microsoft domains in Little Snitch, it goes into readonly mode after about a month. Opening a hole in the firewall lets it start working again. Previous versions from several years earlier didn't do that.

Fuck 'em — pirate that shit with a clean conscience https://massgrave.dev/office_for_mac#office-activation

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#186

Post by freedomben » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 5:12 PM UTC

dharmab wrote: post #154

goosedragons wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't personally used it much, except for a very simple cut but I have heard very good things about KDENLive too.

I've used KDENLive and it's about as comparable to Resolve or Lightworks as Windows Movie Maker is to Premiere.

I think you need to distinguish between classes of users, e.g. home consumers needing some basic editing features vs. a hollywood studio, and the spectrum in between.

I use KDENLive a lot and I find it to be an excellent product. Not perfect, but well thought out and powerful. Documentation I give a C grade too. It's awesome that some exists, but it tends to be outdated and frequently omits details about the specific thing needed. On Linux I do recommend using the App Image or Flatpak though as I have run into dependency issues (mainly codecs) when using system packages such as Fedora's.

For a typical user/consumer who just needs a video editor that can do more than just trivial cuts, I think it's an excellent option and it's the one I use and recommend to others. Unless you're looking to do advanced or highly complex products, it can do it all and in a fairly intuitive way. There are also youtube videos and such that demonstrate nearly everything you might need to do so there are plenty of available resources.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#187

Post by tombert » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 5:13 PM UTC

pickledoyster wrote: post #50

tombert wrote: post #42

I am one of those annoying LaTeX people now, so my “word processor” ends up being tmux, NeoVim, and Nix, but I understand that that’s not for most people. LibreOffice is honestly fine nowadays. I feel like Excel is probably a bit better than Calc, but Calc is still capable enough for most tasks. The documents look decent enough, it’s easy to use, it’s reasonably fast, and you can’t really beat the price. I have to ad…

>I wish I could get import OpenOffices icons into LibreOffice. I haven't tried it, but I think it's quite possible: https://documentation.libreoffice.org/assets/Uploads/Documen...

No question, though I don't think I'm anywhere near ambitious enough to do that.

I might compile OpenOffice and see how well that stacks up nowadays.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#188

Post by pessimizer » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 5:41 PM UTC

Jaxkr wrote: post #155

Probably too late to this thread for anyone to read this, but the real reason for this bump is Microsoft removing WordPad from the latest versions of Windows 11.

That would do it. If Windows got rid of their basic document editor, and enough affected muggles got into desperate enough situations to discover Libreoffice, they will tip each other off through social networks quickly.

Strategies taking advantage of the ignorance of users (or voters) are faltering in the age of user-generated content. You can't sell an operating system without a document editor without running the risk of people finding the free one that is nearly as good (or in the case of Wordpad, is far better.)

MS won't like what happens in offices 10 years from now if they let students use Libreoffice for their schoolwork instead of Wordpad (eventually replaced with Word.) They'd better be working hard to get "student" copies of Office into kids' hands, even if they have to pay them to take it.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#189

Post by 2Gkashmiri » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 6:00 PM UTC

I use livreoffice writer for my legal work on a full time basis. Gets the job done.

Have to send PDFs so it works.

I do not have to do collaborative editing like tracking but I suppose that works too.

Calc is.. slowly improving but it works.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#190

Post by atoav » Fri, Mar 28, 2025, 6:11 PM UTC

vunderba wrote: post #2

If I'm evaluating a potential application whose core functionality does not require external resources/servers (Dropbox for example) and they don't at a minimum offer some kind of perpetual fallback license (aka the Jetbrains annual subscription model), then I straight up bounce. Examples of good alternatives - Pixelmator > Photoshop - Davinci Resolve > Premiere - Reaper > Audition I have no interest in renting my to…

Resolve is cool for pro users for others who basically just want to do small edits with straightforward software chrck out kdenlive