This is going to be more feedback than asking something, but the only choices I have when I select Feedback from the Get Help dropdown is this Ask forum; filing a bug report; and making an enhancement request. Do actual LibreOffice staff read this forum?
tl;dr – I just had an unpleasant and disruptive upgrade experience, and would like LibreOffice staff to know that I think that some of their choices disrespect me as an intelligent adult.
A month or two ago I updated LibreOffice on a secondary computer. It’s not updated automatically or frequently because:
- It’s running Windows, which I don’t like and don’t use much
- It’s usually offline.
- I’ve traditionally had a very slow internet connection, which is also shared, so updates have to be deliberate and controlled. It’s always more important to keep my primary system updated.
I updated LibreOffice again a couple of days ago, but not by choice. I went to open a document while online, and LibreOffice chose to automatically update, which I’m absolutely sure had been disabled. I was forced to endure about 15 minutes of update messages, which also included the messages blinking and flashing on and off of the screen, before LibreOffice finally opened. When I checked Tools → Options → Online Update, I confirmed that the checkbox in the “Check for updates automatically” section at the top was deselected. However, there was a new section at the bottom labeled “Automatic Update” with a checkbox for “Enable automatic update” selected.
I did some searching and discovered that this “Enable automatic update” setting was introduced in version 24.8 and pre-selected by default. I’m absolutely livid that LibreOffice develoment staff would disrespect my choices as a user in this fashion. I have a faster internet connection now; on my old one that update could have taken up to an hour. Furthermore, the blinking and flashing of the notifications while the update was occuring was disruptive and disturbing.
I’ve used LibreOffice for a very long time – probably as long as this fork from OpenOffice has existed. I’ve recommended it to anyone and everyone who needs an alternative to MS Office. I’m now starting to regret my support, since it seems to me that LibreOffice staff treats their users with the same disregard that Microsoft extends to their userbase.
If any LibreOffice staff has read this far, and even cares, I would ask them to consider not forcing these sorts of options on their users in this manner. If you wish to respond, please do so via email, as I’m unlikely to monitor this post.
Thank you.