cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27426660
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.
This whole situation has made me realize how much I used American goods and services as a Canadian. I used to see them as near equal when buying products, but now that I know they can be used to attack me I am going with non-US for everything and diversifying my tech. Lots of other great choices out there. I use obsidian for note taking and was delighted to find out they are Canadian owned.
Really eye opening. I moved my cloud from office365 to sync.com, my email from Gmail to tuta mail, my domain registration from namecheap to whc.ca. IPTV instead of subscriptions for TV, cancelled adobe and use gimp. I was able to get rid of all my US-subscription services and apps that tracked me. European or Canadian companies are just as good, I just haven’t given them an opportunity.
I still have to use Facebook for some things unfortunately , but there is no way around that as the community is there.