# LibreOffice 345 Hacker News commenters recommended LibreOffice and 188 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 13 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 20 years (11 owners). **Verdict:** A free office suite that handles everyday documents, spreadsheets and even dissertations, with a choice of ribbon or classic menus, though formatting often breaks when exchanging files with Microsoft Office. ## Why people recommend it - Free, realistic Microsoft Office replacement (6 comments): "switching away from office is significantly more realistic than migrating away from windows altogether, and something that every business can and should absolutely consider doing soon" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47547276)) "If people want the freedom to use their own fonts in their own presentation, and don't want to pay handsomely for the privilege, LibreOffice is freely downloadable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47420605)) "While LibreOffice may not have complete excel functionality, the vast majority of functionality can be replicated in web apps/libreoffice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47716248)) - Handles everyday and academic writing (4 comments): "I finished a whole dissertation, do all my regular spreadsheet work (that isn't done via R), and have created plenty of visual mockups with LibreOffice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47894168)) "She loves it. Her needs aren't fancy, though, and she can create her own or open others' documents and spreadsheets just fine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46894520)) "I've never used anything but OpenOffice / LibreOffice for writing academic texts in the humanities and never missed anything." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46181926)) - Choice of ribbon or classic menus (4 comments): "LibreOffice did a great job of transitioning to an alternative UX and went further to implement not just ribbons but different combinations classic menu with ribbons." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48204690)) "LibreOffice is way easier to understand as a child, since all the functionality is available and discoverable as a menu/tree structure" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45870079)) "offers me the choice of a ribbon or not and many other choices rather than enforcing a single opinionated interface" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47099553)) - Scriptable CLI for document conversion (4 comments): "LibreOffice cli is the go to method for doing office documents -> pdf -> image rendering for agent doc rendering feedback" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49611888)) "For heavy lifting, like getting an md file into our Corporate Design, I still use libreoffice combned with our template." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48587007)) "I couldn't find anything else that I could just drop it and feel confident it'll just read anything I give it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49527945)) ## What people warn about - Breaks Microsoft Office formatting (6 comments): "Libre is generally ok, but they deal with lots of documents from different ppl/orgs that just need to have similar rendering" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49595409)) "I don't know the current state of compatibility between MS Office and LibreOffice, but I recall layouts breaking regularly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46090485)) "Having poor MS Office compatibility isn't just a footnote, it's a showstopper issue that will make these people's jobs harder every single day." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45866579)) - Clunky, dated interface (4 comments): "I'll admit I don't like the UI in LibreOffice, but I didn't like it very much when I first tried using it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47100711)) "I like OnlyOffice a lot better and switched away from LibreOffice. I like that it just looks more like a modern program and overall feels less clunky." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47630373)) "The productivity with LibreOffice is ruined at the very moment you have to do anything but typing a text or spreadsheet cell content." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48135024)) - Document Foundation governance turmoil (3 comments): "The Document Foundation, now ~controlled by its non-programmer staff just ejected its main core code contributors based on complicated and apparently contrived reasons." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47604297)) "LibreOffice suffers from an extreme inferiority complex, which is why they overreact and get overly defensive about _everything_." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47529945)) "whether it's a zombie on life support after the professional community management class kicked all the actual developers out" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49757164)) - Buggy or unreliable behavior (3 comments): "the self upgrade option just didn't work well (large download, wouldn't complete or something, would end up reinstalling instead)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46427215)) "seems to be missing a lot of content; I suspect this is a LibreOffice problem or even a my-installation-of-LibreOffice problem" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49070803)) "LibreOffice is catastrophically bad. It is slow, buggy, and everything it does is either pointlessly emulating a bad product" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46893142)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Microsoft Office](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-office.md): 256 recommend - [Microsoft 365](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-365.md): 151 recommend - [Google Workspace](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-workspace.md): 107 recommend - [OnlyOffice](https://hackerapproved.com/p/onlyoffice.md): 58 recommend - [La Suite numérique](https://hackerapproved.com/p/la-suite-num-rique.md): 25 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "LibreOffice", https://hackerapproved.com/p/libreoffice/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).