this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2026
1523 points (99.7% liked)

pics

29571 readers
2118 users here now

Rules:

1.. Please mark original photos with [OC] in the title if you're the photographer

2..Pictures containing a politician from any country or planet are prohibited, this is a community voted on rule.

3.. Image must be a photograph, no AI or digital art.

4.. No NSFW/Cosplay/Spam/Trolling images.

5.. Be civil. No racism or bigotry.

Photo of the Week Rule(s):

1.. On Fridays, the most upvoted original, marked [OC], photo posted between Friday and Thursday will be the next week's banner and featured photo.

2.. The weekly photos will be saved for an end of the year run off.

Weeks 2023

Instance-wide rules always apply. https://mastodon.world/about

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Alchemy@lemmy.world
netburnr@lemmy.world
Theprogressivist@lemmy.world
pwalker@discuss.tchncs.de
1523
These wonderful people are behind LibreOffice, offering a free alternative to Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Remarkably, most of them contribute on a completely unpaid volunteer basis (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by Vindoua@lemmy.world to c/pics@lemmy.world
73 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Fucking heroes πŸ‘

Microsoft Office is a parasite holding people hostage with extortionate subscription fees

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] vogi@piefed.social 1 points 2 hours ago

Just the other day I was reading their RSS feed where they often post pictures of their meetups and thought the same thing! Even thought about posting something like this myself.

Maybe also because just before that I was using an unconfigured edge browser with all the tabloid media on the new tab still activated. Its full with all the latest drama and gossip from celebrities and I was like "who TF cares?!?!?". This is so much better, just humans being really cool!

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 6 points 4 hours ago

I love them!! LibreOffice rules so much. I'm so happy it exists! Thank you to these heroes of FOSS. 🫑

I used to consider LibreOffice Calc an "alternative" to excel and Google sheets, because I just had so much experience using them.

So while I liked LibreOffice, it was more on an ideological level. I used the other spreadsheet software much more often at work.

But then I just "forced" myself to use Calc exclusively and pretty quickly got used to how it works, until there was no friction at all.

Didn't really think much of it until someone at work sent me a link to an online excel spreadsheet and it felt clunky as hell compared to what I was used to. I couldn't figure out how to do the simplest thing, had to look everything up, and just felt frustrated by the whole experience.

Anyway, it's funny how my old alternative became now my main. Kind of reminds me of my journey from Windows to Linux, really.

[–] JustDorky@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago

Salute to all the men and women fighting greed and totalitarianism!

[–] FundMECFS@quokk.au 5 points 7 hours ago

❀️

[–] sensation@sh.itjust.works 14 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

In case a dev of LibreOffice reads this: I love you. Heroes <3

[–] mobyduck648@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago

Second this, of all the very worthy free software contributors out there these people are surely doing some of the most practical work for day-to-day software freedom for many users.

[–] BigBoyShuanzee@aussie.zone 4 points 10 hours ago

Thankyou, I shall spend some time with it. Thankyou for the information!

[–] raef@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago

Put the women in the front!
just being a little snarky. I appreciate all they do.

[–] BigBoyShuanzee@aussie.zone 5 points 14 hours ago (5 children)

The greatest people I'm on W10 LtSC IoT with Libre Office, Firefox and VLC.

I'm eager to move to Linux but I've been with windows since 1993. I don't know how to move on.

I know there's Linux distros that are perfect for me out there and I want to leave Windows because regular W10 and W11 are trash.

I just need a nice Linux distro where I don't have to spend any time coding to install software.. I don't want to type in code to install things but I also don't want to move to Windows 11.

[–] late_pessimistic@slrpnk.net 7 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I want to leave Windows because regular W10 and W11 are trash.

You are really going to like Linux Mint Cinnamon then. It's basically Windows but isn't annoying or hates it's users

[–] Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

In my experience it's also faster - at least compared to my work laptop's W11 (upgrading was a mistake)

[–] kalkulat@lemmy.world 12 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (2 children)

Consider joining the tens of thousands of people who've moved on to Linux Mint Cinnamon in the past year.

I've used Mint since for a dozen years, and have -never- learned to compile a program. Mint's software manager will display the thousands of wares (by category) and install (and even start) them for you. The updates manager makes sure you get all you need ... when you feel like it.

P.S. I built my first computer in 1978. I use Linux by choice.

[–] BigBoyShuanzee@aussie.zone 6 points 10 hours ago

Brilliant, Thankyou! I shall investigate based on your comment and another comment.

Thankyou for the information!

[–] Kjell@lemmy.world 9 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

+1 on Linux Mint. Some people don't like that it is based on Ubuntu, but I think Mint is a good repo for someone moving from Windows. I help my parents to install Mint on their computer when Windows 10 reached EoL and they have not complained yet.

I would also like to add that it is a good idea to create a live boot in order to check that speakers, wifi, printers etc. works on your computer before installing it. Note that it will be slower since it is running from the USB stick.

[–] kalkulat@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago

Oh yeah, a live boot from a USB is a very good test ... so they can try it out before making the leap. Better still, install it on a second partition ... then they still have access to their Win install.

[–] mohammed_alibi@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

Kubuntu may be a good distro for you. Linux Mint is also great.

Once you download and write the image to a USB drive, you can live boot into the drive without modifying your existing Windows installation. So you can test drive it without committing to switch to it.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] 33550336@lemmy.world 9 points 16 hours ago

Fortunately, their work is appreciated and used around the world. I like libreoffice very much, there is no looking back.

[–] knomie@feddit.org 6 points 16 hours ago

It is amazing to see a picture of these amazing people.

Is there any more information on when, where, why this picture was taken? Community meeting of developers/contributors probably? (If the people are ok with sharing that information)

[–] oyzmo@lemmy.world 8 points 17 hours ago

LibreOffice is the best! It just does what it is suppose to :)

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 54 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Bless these people. Donate to LibreOffice if you use it and can afford it.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 7 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Not to mention: This software must be as boring for most coders to work on as it is essential for all of us to have. Let's be honest it's not the sexiest kind of project.

I'm glad we have a volunteer community that can get excited about maintaining and improving office software for people around the globe. There's a rare intersection of discipline, passion, and skill at play there. :)

[–] Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world 93 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I can vouch for libre office. It's so much better than it was I now don't miss PowerPoint or word, and I really don't miss Microsoft

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 41 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

As some one who lives in Excel, IMHO Calc is 80% of the way there - and that’s no easy task! Excel has been the primary tool of capitalism for decades now, it’s one of the most polished pieces of software ever (and yes I’m aware how annoying it can be sometimes lol)

[–] DontRedditMyLemmy@lemmy.world 12 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Controversial take: that missing 20% is a deal breaker for my use cases. I'm still in awe of the volunteer developer network, but Calc has fallen short of being an Excel replacement for me.

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 2 points 5 hours ago

The lack of Tables support is rough, for one.

[–] f1error@lemmy.world 12 points 20 hours ago

I feel you, but I always find a way to make Calc work. I might spend a day or five searching for an answer. But there is always a way.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 17 points 23 hours ago

I was just using LibreOffice Calc to build some spreadsheets with formulas and everything. I've got no complaints.

These people are heroes

[–] hash@slrpnk.net 24 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Building alternatives can feel like hurling pebbles at goliath, but it is truly a substastial contribution that hacks at the roots of billionaire control.

[–] GolfFoxtrotLima@sh.itjust.works 7 points 19 hours ago

Yeah, but David killed Goliath with a slingshot and a pebble

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 61 points 1 day ago

Thank you for making it possible to do my school work Windows-free, LibreOffice team πŸ™

[–] BigTurkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 1 day ago

Real life heros and model citizens of the world I wanna live in.

[–] PenguinVII@lemmy.zip 47 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wow I've never heard about LibreOffice before. This is great!

[–] NCSK@fedia.io 62 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm honestly surprised you use lemmy, but never heard about LibreOffice. There are so many cool softwares that are probably waiting for you to find them out.

[–] PenguinVII@lemmy.zip 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh if that helps, I joined Lemmy just recently about 2 weeks ago. I'm surely finding interesting and unique things on here!

[–] BeatL@pawb.social 18 points 1 day ago

welcome and it is good news that lemmy cather to everyone :)

If you want to find alternative tools i can recommend using https://alternativeto.net/ it recommend tools that are alternative to other.

you can sort by paid, free, proprietary, etc

As some tools can be quite ubiquitous and/or you can have different use case, please check different alternatives.

Whatever your need, you will be surprised how many tools exist.

a nice one is firefox instead of chrome,edge, opera or safari. It is open source, do not collect your data, is light on ressource and if you add the extension "ublock origin" you have a truly ad free web browsing experience. (adblocker do not work anymore on browser and adblock have been bought by a marketing giant)

[–] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 1 points 12 hours ago

Microsoft gonna have this picture in the wall and start crossing them off one by one

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 2 points 14 hours ago

i ditched MS Office decades ago, before that I had used Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect under DOS, went to Open Office and been on Libre office for years now. Thank you team

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 9 points 21 hours ago

Been using it for years. I don't do much with it, mostly using Calc, but it's great to have.

[–] mechoman444@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago

I think I downloaded open office like 20 years ago. It hasn't changed much and only just now started getting updates again.

I should probably switch to libreoffice but I'm too old and set in my ways. That and I don't really use it for much more than the most basic of word processing and spreadsheet.

[–] Impromptu2599@lemmy.world 34 points 1 day ago

Such a great app and great group of people. Thank you for sharing.

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Never had a bad experience with this software

[–] Theoriginalthon@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago

My only bad experience with this software is users moaning that it's not excel and word. And users using word/writer as a layout tool, without using the layout tools in that software: tab tab tab space space space space align left: why does nothing line up πŸ˜”

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next β€Ί