LibreOffice Writer
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 5 of 14 word processors by recommenders
Free word processor people use for everyday documents; opens and saves Word files well. Critics say formatting is fiddly and Markdown support limited.
Free word processor people use for everyday documents; opens and saves Word files well. Critics say formatting is fiddly and Markdown support limited.
35 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 28
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 80%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 28 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Markdown export keeps headings and bold
“being able to open typical .doc files and re-save as .md w/ a reasonable approximation of formatting is huge”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “LibreOffice Writer now supports Markdown” “save as Markdown to nicely preserve things like headings, bold, etc.”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “LibreOffice Writer now supports Markdown” “open the file in LibreOffice Writer 26.2, and save as Markdown”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “LibreOffice Writer now supports Markdown” - Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “LibreOffice Writer now supports Markdown”
Works fine for basic word processing
“My parents use mail, firefox and libreoffice writer. That's about all they need and it works fine”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “30 Years of ReactOS” “running something like lubuntu and libreoffice writer as a basic word processor”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Professor denounces mass AI fraud on an exam at Brown University” “I use it all the time. I don't try to make it do more than it does.”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “LibreOffice Writer now supports Markdown” Opens typical Word files well
“being able to open typical .doc files and re-save as .md w/ a reasonable approximation of formatting is huge”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “LibreOffice Writer now supports Markdown” “Most docx open and let themselves edit quite well in LibreOffice Writer, and they look right.”
Comment from 22 Dec 2025 on Hacker News “Writer is decent compatibility with MS”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “The New Collabora Office for Desktop” Preferred over Microsoft Word
“I actually prefer LibreOffice Write to MS Word”
Comment from 17 Jan 2026 in “PCs refuse to shut down after Microsoft patch” “I like Writer even more than MS Word”
Comment from 31 May 2026 in “Microsoft degrades functionality of perpetually-licensed offline products”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Markdown support is limited
“Markdown import and export features.”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “LibreOffice Writer now supports Markdown” “It seem they only support Commonmark”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “LibreOffice Writer now supports Markdown”
Other word processors people recommend
The four most recommended other word processors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Docs | 144 | 137 | 51% | 13 | 11 yrs4 owners | — |
| Microsoft Word | 129 | 234 | 36% | 12 | 20 yrs5 owners | — |
| Apple Pages | 39 | 27 | 59% | 11 | — | — |
| WordPerfect | 36 | 7 | 84% | 9 | — | Approved |
| LibreOffice WriterThis page | 28 | 7 | 80% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
30 of the 37 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“My experience with LibreOffice Writer and Calc has been excellent.”
“running something like lubuntu and libreoffice writer as a basic word processor”
“I like Writer even more than MS Word”
“There is also the trivial headless Linux remote desktop cloud hosting with 100% identical functionality.”
“LO has only improved in the past few years.”
“They should not have to suffer with CoPilot and MS spying on you all the time.”
“Writer, which is still good abut a bit more klunky as you are fighting the formatting of the writer document layer”
“open the file in LibreOffice Writer 26.2, and save as Markdown”
“save as Markdown to nicely preserve things like headings, bold, etc.”
“It seem they only support Commonmark”
“That's super useful to me.”
“I use it all the time. I don't try to make it do more than it does.”
“It would be faster than most electron based editors”
“Oh, this is actually very helpful for me!”
“They make no sense since decades, not just for producing TERRIBLE print documents”
“one of the slowest Markdown editors out there”
“Markdown import and export features.”
“having that in LibreOffice would still be a welcome and obvious convenience”
“use its Markdown export feature”
“being able to open typical .doc files and re-save as .md w/ a reasonable approximation of formatting is huge”
“being able to use that instead of reaching for a different tool would be killer”
“Writer is decent compatibility with MS”
“Standard LibreOffice Writer doesn't have the issue for me either”
“what LibreOffice Writer could have been”
“My parents use mail, firefox and libreoffice writer. That's about all they need and it works fine”
“I actually prefer LibreOffice Write to MS Word”
“Most docx open and let themselves edit quite well in LibreOffice Writer, and they look right.”
“Writing a novel in Writer is a pleasure.”
“I'm not sure about Writer”
“I can access all the features I want quickly and efficiently”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.