Growing Thirst for Free Software, the LibreOffice Edition

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Sep 03, 2026

LibreOffice is in "high demand"

This is the highest number of downloads in the first week of any LibreOffice release! These are just stats from our official downloads page, of course – many Linux users will have acquired the new release via their distribution’s package repositories.

As indicated above, there is growing interest in Free software, but the number above tells us nothing about GNU/Linux because "many Linux users will have acquired the new release via their distribution’s package repositories."

It also says in the official TDF blog: "One week ago, we announced LibreOffice 26.8, our brand new major update."

There was quite a bit of media coverage and they even contacted me in person about it.

To better assess GNU/Linux growth, see analytics.usa.gov where GNU/Linux is measured at 6% (or about 9% if mobile devices are not counted). █

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