LibreOffice cuts off 32-bit support in new release

A new version of LibreOffice, a popular open-source alternative to Microsoft Office, won’t run on 32-bit PCs, or support the Windows 7 or 8 operating systems.

The Document Foundation earlier this month released version 25.8 of the free productivity suite, which was downloaded 642,564 times in its first week, according to a blog entry on the organization’s website.

Most Windows software comes in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and most software vendors offer support for both for backward compatibility.

LibreOffice, which includes apps for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, vector graphics creation, and more, is popular among Linux users and is included in many Linux distributions. A version is also available for macOS.

The base desktop software is free of AI tools and targeted for customers who want an alternative to Office without the frills. A cloud-based paid version of LibreOffice is available at Collabora Online.

But more AI tools are coming to LibreOffice desktop in the form of extensions. Earlier this month, StableDiffusion released an AI image generator for the software. Chatbots and automated writing extensions are also now available for LibreOffice.

The number of LibreOffice adopters remains modest, but some individuals and organizations are giving it a look as cloud and AI security concerns mount around the market-leading office suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Denmark’s Ministry of Digitalization recently announced that it would move half of its employees to LibreOffice from Microsoft 365 this summer, with plans to cut off the Microsoft suite completely by year end.

The next version of LibreOffice is expected to be 26.2, which will be released next year.LibreOffice cuts off 32-bit support in new release – ComputerworldRead More