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

computerworld.com

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

#201

Post by tombert »

int_19h wrote: post #71
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…

It's a scale. While straight up writing TeX is not for must, there's also stuff like LyX and TeXmacs.

You know, I have really tried to like TeXmacs, and I just can't. It's kind of cool, but it really feels like an amateur product to me. The UI is hard to navigate, everything feels kind of clunky. The documents it produces look nice, so it's not "bad" or anything, but I found it kind of awkward to use.

As it stands, the compromise that I do is write Markdown and render it to LaTeX or XeLaTeX with Pandoc. Not claiming it's the "best" or anything, but the documents look nice to me and Markdown is easy to write.

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

#202

Post by wetpaws »

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…

[dead]

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

#203

Post by joseda-hg »

fumufumufumu wrote: post #101

I don't think I could ever go back to storing my docs locally and not being able to access them from all my devices at all times anywhere in the world, easily.

You can mount your cloud drive, and open those files with LibreOffice or OnlyOffice, I certainly do so with Google Drive

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

#204

Post by Jaxkr »

harvey9 wrote: post #159
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.

Can you explain why you think so? it's not self-evident.

WordPad was a quick and easy way to view/edit simple Word documents. When you double-clicked a .docx, WordPad would let you read it (albeit with some formatting issues).

Now when you click a .docx on a fresh Windows install, you get a generic “what app would you like to open this with?” pop-up.*

This leads the user to google free ways to view Word documents, leading to LibreOffice.

* Site note: I’m very surprised Microsoft doesn’t use this as an opportunity to sell you Office.

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

#205

Post by Jaxkr »

pessimizer wrote: post #188
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…

> 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.

They have completely lost this battle. Google Docs was the standard thru nearly my entire K12 and university education.

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

#206

Post by theandrewbailey »

nilram wrote: post #10

I started using OpenOffice a couple decades ago when I got tired of pirating the market leader. Not wanting to start any religious wars, but I still haven't made the leap to Libre.

When most OpenOffice devs called Oracle's bluff, left, and LibreOffice was released, I switched right away and never regretted it.

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

#207

Post by jwr »

jwr wrote: post #25
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…

> I have no interest in renting my tools. While I appreciate the sentiment, the world where you could use the same software for many years without updates is gone. These days developers have to invest significant time and effort into making sure the software just runs on the constantly updated operating systems and platforms — which costs money on an ongoing basis. Expecting your software to be updated regularly with…

A day later, as I'm reading the responses and looking at the negative points on my comment: I have to learn to avoid commenting in certain topics on HN. It seems that most people here want their software to be FREE, or at least sold for an inexpensive one-time fee, which I can understand. But they also have a certain model of running a software business in their minds, which is simply wrong.

My bet is that none of the commenters in this thread (full of mentions of sustainable development) actually run a full-time software business and make a living on it. I do. Which is why I understand why subscriptions make sense.

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

#209

Post by crossroadsguy »

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…

Would you not say it’s sort of a stretch calling Apple software free, which only works on (anything but free) Apple hardware?

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

#210

Post by mediumsmart »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #209
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…

Would you not say it’s sort of a stretch calling Apple software free, which only works on (anything but free) Apple hardware?

Maybe they meant free of the subscription costs mentioned in the title.
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