LibreOffice hits record downloads by making 'no AI' a selling point

LibreOffice 26.8, released August 26th, became the suite’s most-downloaded update ever, topping 1 million installer downloads in a single week (excluding Linux repository updates). While typography and writing-system improvements likely appealed to the NGOs, government agencies, and offices that rely on the free Microsoft Office alternative, the surprise draw appears to be the absence of a feature: The Document Foundation’s decision to ship without generative AI baked in.

A day after the record, TDF clarified its stance in a post titled ‘Yes, no AI is now a feature,’ authored by Italo Vignoli. The foundation says it doesn’t reject AI outright but won’t bundle it by default until the technology satisfies a strict set of principles — user-controlled execution, no data leaving the machine without permission, zero telemetry, no single-vendor lock-in, no file-format compromises, and fully optional use. In the meantime, TDF points users toward community plugins for AI integration.

TDF frames its position as less about the technology than about business models, taking a swipe at rivals whose AI assistants conveniently justify subscription price hikes and keeping documents inside vendor infrastructure. The episode is a notable market signal: amid a wave of AI features embedded across nearly every software category since 2023, LibreOffice’s numbers suggest genuine demand for privacy-respecting, AI-free alternatives.