this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2025
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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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[–] Lfrith@lemmy.ca 76 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Syncthing has been so helpful in making me move away from cloud based options. And to think only reason I found out about it and gave it a shot was because I was trying to figure out how to easily sync my non Steam game save files between my Desktop and my Steam Deck. It's been invaluable since then.

[–] baltakatei@sopuli.xyz 46 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Donate if you regularly use Syncthing. Help close the causal loop.

[–] thesystemisdown@lemmy.world 44 points 5 days ago (1 children)

LibreOffice too for that matter. Kick 'em a few bucks if you can spare it.

https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/

[–] SexDwarf@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

Thanks for the reminder! Donated 5 euros (I'm unemployed so can't spare more right now)

[–] Lightor@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] swab148@lemm.ee 2 points 5 days ago

You hit me in the cup

[–] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 20 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Syncthing

That is a very cool project that I'd never heard of. Thanks for sharing!

[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Welcome to the biggest rabbit hole of your life. Syncthing itself isn’t huge, but the capacity to divest from the big cloud providers is. I say it’s a rabbit hole because you’ll quickly be finding new ways to use it.

[–] azalty@jlai.lu 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

How does that differ from something like Nextcloud?

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Nextcloud is, as the name says, a dedicated server used as a cloud. Syncthing only syncronises fders between devices. You dont need a dedicated server for this that stores all the data.

[–] azalty@jlai.lu 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

Oh nice! I felt like website did a bad job at explaining what it is and how it works

Like, it doesn’t say if it uses one of their servers or if the two devices should be up at the same time. If so, that’s really unfortunate

The devices need to be running at the same time, which isn't that much of a problem, if you e. G. only want to sync your PC to your mobile.

[–] bufalo1973@lemm.ee 4 points 5 days ago

I think the "normal" usage is having an always on computer as a server and link all other devices to that one for updates.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

it doesn’t say if it uses one of their servers

It does not.

if the two devices should be up at the same time

You can't sync 2 devices when they have no way to connect to each other, so no.

I would recommend getting a server. And by "server" I mean literally any computer with Syncthing installed and left on. Could even be an old phone or something (with sufficient storage). That way there's always 1 device to sync to.