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The community dedicated to boycotting the US until they stop fascism, restore full democracy and start following international law.

Americans have a moral obligation to resist Donald Trump and project 2025 at every turn.

America is a flawed democracy currently being ruled by oligarchs. Stop the backslide! Dont let America become the next Hungary.

America needs to challenge the court rulings of citizens united v. fec and shelby county v. holder, protect the media, implement independent district drawing, and the single transferable vote so they don't end up having people stay home in life-changing elections because they cannot vote for their favourite candidate.

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LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs | The free open-source Microsoft Office alternative is being downloaded by nearly 1 million users a week (www.computerworld.com)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] namingthingsiseasy 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

In my opinion, it's most important for kids to learn to use these tools above all. Schools need to take the charge on using products like these instead of corporate offerings. Once that takes place, I think (hope) the floodgates will open and that we'll finally start breaking free of the shackles of these kinds of corporate software.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's a silly, self-reinforcing cycle, isn't it? Admins see MS Office in the workplace and think it's important for kids to learn it.

[–] namingthingsiseasy 2 points 2 days ago

You're right! But I see this as a perversion of education. Education should not be a job training programme. It should teach you how to think and learn. It should be a place where you "learn how to learn" to put it more accurately.

So if you learn how to use LibreOffice in schools, you should be able to adapt when you arrive in the workplace and use MS Office instead - especially if you are still young.

And in my opinion, having experience with two office suites makes you more productive in the end anyway. I think it helps teach you how to translate capabilities from one product to another and makes you more knowledgeable about how each of them works. At least that's what happens to me in my experience when I learn two analogous pieces of software.