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The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

495 points by timpera 25d ago

pseudosavant 25d ago
Is that what it is using to render and manipulate MS Office documents? That'd explain the poor rendering of some of my files. Bundling all of LibreOffice seems like a pretty huge dependency.
- nomel 25d ago
  > Bundling all of LibreOffice seems like a pretty huge dependency What's the alternative library you see?
  - verdverm 25d ago
    Why not computer use or using the tools the user prefers instead? The primary office suites have APIs/CLIs now
    - tyre 25d ago
      Computer use is slow and can take control of the application focus. I’ll be doing things while Claude runs in the background. Suddenly it decides to open the app and try to do something + screenshot it.
      - verdverm 25d ago
        That's where the CLIs come in for me, I'm not going to waste tokens on screenshots and input device manipulation https://devblogs.microsoft.com/microsoft365dev/getting-started-office365-cli-powershell/ https://devblogs.microsoft.com/microsoft365dev/getting-start... https://github.com/googleworkspace/cli https://github.com/googleworkspace/cli
      - ChickeNES 25d ago
        I don't know how many times I've had to yell at codex or claude to use/implement headless versions of whatever it's doing at the time, interrupts me trying to multitask and play Battlefield or Factorio while they work :P
        verdverm 25d ago
        don't try Dyson sphere project (/s, its acrually really great), but maybe try x4 foundations, I'm contemplating how I might have my agent help manage my empire
        1718627440 24d ago
        Can't you run this under a different user or in the same, but with another instance of the desktop server?
        rcxdude 24d ago
        Another good reason to sandbox them into a VM :P
      - cjav_dev 24d ago
        Runs in the background now https://x.com/ClaudeDevs/status/2095226982644830648 https://x.com/ClaudeDevs/status/2095226982644830648
    - deleted 25d ago
      [deleted]
    - johnsmith1840 25d ago
      If you've ever actually gone down this route you will try exactly this realize how much of a cluster f these products are and just use libre. I did the exact same thing in my AI system. Spent an ENOURMOUS amount of time trying everything I could and in the end libre was the only thing even somewhat functional. Easily 2 months of my life lost to these god forsaken systems. APIs and CLIs sound reasonable until you actually attempt anything in this space. Computer use is exactly the same thing. Go try this: go to a google doc and dev tools check out the dom and now do the same for a word doc. Eye gouging pain of trying to get anything to work.
  - simongg 25d ago
    Apache POI
    - what_hn 25d ago
      [dead]
    - nomel 25d ago
      I don't think that's anywhere near equivalent. That's for reading and writing Microsoft Office docs. It has no office functionality. LibreOffice has a full API, for example to run calculations on spreadsheets [1]. The goal of bringing in dependencies is so you don't have to duplicate the functionality, in this case, crafted over decades of effort. [1] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/SDKGuide/Calc_API_Overview https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/SDKGuide/C...
      - waysa 25d ago
        POI can run calculations. [1] That doesn't make it a full office suite but it does a lot. [1] https://poi.apache.org/components/spreadsheet/formula.html https://poi.apache.org/components/spreadsheet/formula.html
  - MikeTheGreat 25d ago
    pandoc
  - edemdogbe 25d ago
    [flagged]
  - deleted 24d ago
    [deleted]
  - nmatej1 20d ago
    https://github.com/eigenpal/docx-editor https://github.com/eigenpal/docx-editor
- JLO64 25d ago
  For a docker image of mine I was bundling the full version of LibreOffice as well but I managed to get some space savings by bundling just the no-gui version.
  - zamadatix 25d ago
    Seems to match the screenshot in the blogpost but libreoffice-headless still shows as 429.7 MB.
- deleted 25d ago
  [deleted]
- OutOfHere 25d ago
  Just the headless version looks to be bundled. The title as posted might be incorrect.
- tiahura 25d ago
  Yes. If you have word you can instruct to use word via com or AppleScript.
- telotortium 25d ago
  I have a skill that instructs ChatGPT/Codex to verify the rendering using the Mac versions of Microsoft Office. Even without registering, you still can open files read-only, which is enough. Apparently Office refuses to open some Open Office XML documents that LibreOffice is fine with, so that's another reason to use this. After a few times, Codex ended up storing some memories to stop producing broken files in the first place. I generated the skill originally for ChatGPT 5.5, so some of these may not strictly be necessary anymore with later models. But posting here in case others find it useful: https://gist.github.com/telotortium/844386f762c4b3bab49999ba99f72f5b https://gist.github.com/telotortium/844386f762c4b3bab49999ba...
- bs7280 25d ago
  What's ironic about this is, afaik there's no programmatic way to get a screenshot of a PowerPoint on windows other than opening up PowerPoint and screenshotting it. I only discovered this when I first tried out Anthropics official PowerPoint skill when it came out this winter. If anything happens from this, I hope it forces Microsoft to address some of its long standing hostile to power users issues so they can stay relevant in the world of AI tooling.
  - pseudosavant 25d ago
    This can absolutely be done programmatically. I just added the ability to do that using PowerPoint for Windows yesterday in my uv/python tool `markdown-pptx`. Codex added the functionality in less than 5 minutes. https://github.com/pseudosavant/markdown-pptx/ https://github.com/pseudosavant/markdown-pptx/
    - bs7280 24d ago
      Thanks for sharing, now im wondering if they did in fact grant my wish since I messed with this in January. Im lucky my job does not require me to make any pptx presentations.
    - pseudosavant 24d ago
      For those that are interested, this inspired me to create a tool just for exporting images and PDFs of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Check out the repo below, or if you have uv installed just run `uvx office-export skill install` or `uvx office-export --help` to check it out. It uses Office for Windows, so it is Windows only. I don't currently have access to a Mac machine, so I can't build in Mac support yet. https://github.com/pseudosavant/office-export https://github.com/pseudosavant/office-export
  - artpar 24d ago
    I have made puppt cli for this, it includes high dpi rendering per-slide/all-slides and in place editing https://github.com/artpar/puppt https://github.com/artpar/puppt it allows your llms to see the ppt files structurally apart from just rendering it
- Dmitry-kov 20d ago
  [flagged]
cpursley 25d ago
I still don’t understand why with all their cash these companies dont redo their apps in Rust or native. They are all so heavy and dog slow. There are already some very fast cross platform (wasm too!) libraries that can do what poppler does as well as parse and produce various office file formats. Because 2gb is crazy town, these things could be around 100mb, just throw some tokens at the problem.
- sudo_cowsay 25d ago
  Not that easy. Also, they have "priorities." Although their priorities are different than the users'.
  - cpursley 25d ago
    Just throw some tokens at the problem. I’ve vibed up a Rust Crux hybrid app that runs well on macOS, iPad and wasm and does some pretty complex xml manipulation and other document work. Absolutely smokes electron and you get native UI. Ref: https://redbadger.github.io/crux/ https://redbadger.github.io/crux/
    - verdverm 25d ago
      one does not just "throw tokens" at a problem, Ai is not that capable, and we are talking about MS Office file format, likely a NP hard problem
      - sigbottle 25d ago
        I mean, aside from all the NP Hard sub problems (I might not be reading your satire though), the real hard problem is that a "product" is not just software, but an ecosystem and a promise of maintenance of the abstract user experience & quality of it.
      - vb-8448 25d ago
        But in case they succeed the return on image will be astonishing.
simonw 25d ago
(This is more of a tweet than a blog post, it really wasn't written with Hacker News in mind.)
- MattDamonSpace 25d ago
  frankly how dare you
  - mrob 25d ago
    How is simonw to blame for somebody else submitting it to HN?
    - embedding-shape 25d ago
      True, I feel like the entire HN community is to blame for this, particularly pg and dang.
      - TZubiri 25d ago
        Thanks Obama
    - justsomehnguy 25d ago
      I have a feeling you should learn about Poe's law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law
      - switchbak 25d ago
        Anyone quoting Poe's Law is clearly just a Nazi. ... For those that can't see the sarcasm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law
        justsomehnguy 24d ago
        I have a feeling you should learn about... OH SHI~
dvrp 25d ago
And wait till you find out about @oai/walnut
- bcanzanella 25d ago
  do tell!
  - djriley 25d ago
    Walnut is the .NET and OpenXML backend. I think the point parent was trying to make it that it shouldn't be surprising Codex bundles runtimes for damn near everything.
alex-moon 25d ago
Someone may need to explain to me what is wrong with this sorry. Is it because it bloats the app with functionality that some users will never use? I feel like that is fairly usual for productivity/business apps generally.
- simonw 25d ago
  I don't see anything wrong with it, I just think it's interesting.
  - winstonp 25d ago
    I think it's overbloating my computer
  - nialse 25d ago
    It does, however, introduce a potentially enormous attack surface into ChatGPT, along with creative opportunities for less security conscious individuals and LLMs.
  - alex-moon 25d ago
    Oh right, yeah I agree. It's the kind of thing I can imagine the harness downloading in the background anyway (or instructing the user to do) at some point so I can see the sense in just skipping that bit. Kind of comforting they just do it the same way the rest of us do - if it ain't broke and so on.
  - 2sk21 24d ago
    You aren't worried about the provenance of the installed apps?
    - simonw 24d ago
      How do you mean? I trust OpenAI to have installed apps that at least work well enough for their intended purposes.
      - 24d ago
lgl 25d ago
Does that really mean that it's bundling those apps from the start or did it just download and install them at some point to do some local work on some prompt or job you ask it to? I don't see it making much sense to bundle it. I'm sure a LOT of LLM prompts are related with docs, excels, powerpoints etc, etc but don't really see it worth it for it to be bundled on the codex app from the get go, because otherwise, why not also install dozens of other apps?
- simonw 25d ago
  I'm not sure. Someone who hasn't installed the ChatGPT (or Codex) apps yet could confirm this by installing the apps, seeing if that ~/.cache directory exists, then try running a prompt that needs Python or Node.js or LibreOffice and see if it downloads them when needed.
  - zatkin 25d ago
    I've never installed the ChatGPT app on my Mac until today. I ran the app, signed in, and I see the same. % ls ~/.cache/codex-runtimes/codex-primary-runtime/dependencies/native/libreoffice-headless libreoffice manifest.json
    - embedding-shape 25d ago
      On a Windows installation I see this: PS C:\Users\user> ls C:\Users\user\.cache\codex-runtimes\codex-primary-runtime\dependencies\native\ Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- d----- 8/27/2026 10:09 AM git d----- 6/16/2026 9:18 PM jxrlib d----- 8/26/2026 7:37 PM libheif d----- 6/17/2026 5:32 AM poppler d----- 8/27/2026 10:09 AM powershell So doesn't seem bundled with all installs at least.
      - dofm 25d ago
        Is this perhaps because the aim is to read Office documents and there are (maybe, I don't know for sure) default components within Windows that can do that?
quotemstr 25d ago
There's no security benefit to doing this versus demand-downloading hashed-locked components on need.
- TZubiri 25d ago
  Ok, it's probably not a security decision. It's a common pattern with both storage and memory management to push most reservations to initialization, in order to cluster resource insufficiency errors to a specific install-time when the user or admin can do something about it. An excessive just-in-time approach in both storage and memory would cause OOM and Disk exhaustion to occur at many different times.
trentor 25d ago
I don't see the problem?
- iAMkenough 25d ago
  Who said it was a problem? This looks like an observation to me, not an accusation.
jrflo 25d ago
I've noticed that when I have codex read/modify word files the live reasoning snippets often allude to LibreOffice, so that makes sense. I think it was a quick and dirty way for them to interface with docx and xlsx files?
esperent 25d ago
I actually bundle LibreOffice with my app too and the reason is reading files, especially old xls files. Since I'm bundling it I'm now using it for everything docs related but the specific reason is those old files. I couldn't find anything else that I could just drop it and feel confident it'll just read anything I give it.
- deleted 25d ago
  [deleted]
- skinfaxi 25d ago
  [flagged]
  - Bridged7756 25d ago
    [flagged]
  - stackghost 25d ago
    >How much money have you contributed back to this seemingly indispensable project? Perhaps it's time for you to become familiar with the terms of the Mozilla Public License, under which Libre Office is released. There is no requirement for monetary compensation.
    - dnautics 25d ago
      No requirement doesn't mean "don't be a mensch"
      - rdbl27 25d ago
        You believe you know better than the authors themselves about how they ought to be treated? They chose -- explicitly, voluntarily, knowingly -- to give the thing away for free. That's their right for their own creation. Your preferences don't supersede theirs.
        25d ago
vb-8448 25d ago
Curiously, I didn't find any reference in the Open source licences section of the codex app. Is this a MPL 2.0 violation?
- thesdev 25d ago
  Copyright violation is the last thing one could accuse ChatGPT of.
  - vb-8448 25d ago
    Well, this one is particularly obvious, other one are more fuzzy.
  - throwaway613746 25d ago
    [dead]
- zamadatix 25d ago
  Despite the title, I'm not sure it's actually bundled. Some of the skills plugins will download it on the first run. So it depends where they are grabbing it from rather than the presence of the binary on the system, but I haven't checked that deep into where they actually grab it.
  - TZubiri 25d ago
    The license itself may be present in the cache folder. Alternatively, ChatGPT might happily disclose authorship and licensing if asked. I'm not convinced of the argument that the fact that it is not bundled at download or even at install-time, would free them of the GPL responsibilities. And at this point. I'm also not sure HOW the devs bundled libreoffice, whether they just mentioned in a prompt (use libreoffice), or whether they hardcoded a command (like apt install libreoffice), more likely the former, considering the recursive vibecoding nature of this software. Whole lotta words to say that I don't know whether this is a GPL violation, but interested in the answer. If it is a violation, the likely fix will probably be yet another prompt that says something like "comply with licensing", which probably already exists, so a more specific "provide attribution (in a way that doesn't bother the user)"
m3kw9 25d ago
probably uses it extensively to convert between LLM working on a doc and exporting it out to excel, word etc
dvduval 25d ago
My agent did it? I didn’t do it.
petilon 25d ago
There is a serious threat to Microsoft here, if everyone starts using AI for generating and updating Office docs. At some point Office will become just a viewer.
- trueno 25d ago
  im stoked for that outcome, standard document tooling should not live behind subscription models anymore. i dont care that microsoft spent zillions bankrolling education systems and companies to fall into this cultural lock in over the decades whether they like it or not spreadsheets word docs etc are just ubiquitous parts of existing in society at this point you're gonna need to reach for these tools eventually just to apply for jobs or do homework
  - watwut 25d ago
    You assume tokens will be free after these get their monopoly positions? Actual libre office is actual open source running on weak hardware. Truly free. And I suspect we will look back at MS with nostalgia once Altman and Musk get their ai imperiums.
  - tcfhgj 15d ago
    Need is a bit strong, you can absolutely apply and do homework without, e.g. using Typst or Latex or whatever else is out there
- dist-epoch 25d ago
  Don't worry, they are ahead of this. Satya said some time ago that they expect soon to have more agents using Microsoft software than humans, and are working on transitioning their focus from serving humans to serving agents. https://www.news18.com/business/satya-nadella-announces-microsofts-move-to-ai-agent-pricing-model-ws-l-9722868.html https://www.news18.com/business/satya-nadella-announces-micr...
  - petilon 25d ago
    So they will switch to per-agent pricing instead of per-user. Fine, but that doesn't change the fact that Microsoft Office will become a just bunch of viewers as far as human usage is concerned. As far as generating Office documents, you can do that without using any Microsoft code.
mirzap 25d ago
I wonder why they didn't try to discover if the user already has those binaries and use them before downloading.
- LtWorf 25d ago
  Because they vibe coded it.
- duskdozer 25d ago
  Why would they? Storage [they don't have to pay for] is cheap! And just bundling it saves them time.
- NostraDavid 24d ago
  Preventing potential version/feature issues?
paaloeye 25d ago
First Claude installed 10GB VM [0] without asking, but OpenAI ships LibreOffice. What's next? Somebody ship their monorepo verbatim? Honestly, not sure it's worth having those app on your localhost at all. I ended up uninstalling all frontier labs bloated apps and start using Google AI Mode + Antigravity CLI / Claude Code sometimes. [0] https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/22543 https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/22543
- newbie001 24d ago
  I already have a copy of LibreOffice on my mac. It weights around 3GB. That extra copy is not appreciated
zitterbewegung 25d ago
It might be for their new Work product which can produce docx, pdf and pox files.
isityettime 25d ago
The new app is an unbelievable mess. Settings are senselessly organized, too. The whole thing has this aesthetic slickness and then underneath it's like the people who make it have never even used it. It's not surprising that it's pulled in absolutely massive dependencies, although I'm not sure it's the wrong call on some operating systems. LibreOffice is pretty tried and true.
- yeutterg 25d ago
  Personally, I like the 3-pane organization (sidebar, chat, browser). I turned ChatGPT into my bookkeeper and social post writing/kanban space, and it works well for these script+browser workflows on desktop. However, all of this is confusing: - the ChatGPT/Codex split on desktop - Chat/Work split on mobile - how you remotely access each chat from your phone (some of my most valuable chats are buried in Remote) - which chats propagate from device to device, and which remain on that device
  - nobody_r_knows 25d ago
    [dead]
  - pests 25d ago
    > - the ChatGPT/Codex split on desktop Do tell, cause I run the "ChatGPT" program on Windows to use both the normal Chat and Codex (side menu items). I think its a more recent change.
    - yeutterg 24d ago
      This is from a recent update, and I'm on macOS. I had to re-download it, not just update from within the app. This new version has tabs for ChatGPT and Codex. The ChatGPT tab seems way less powerful; Codex is basically a coding agent with a UI and browser built in. Pretty sure this is the old Codex app with the ChatGPT tab bolted on. It's great in some ways, but needs work in others.
- jbird99 25d ago
lennart-rth 25d ago
I suspect that it’s used in headless clip mode to reliably convert file formats back and forth.
topaztee 25d ago
spinning up an entire copy of libreoffice sounds super heavy?, if someone here is actually using chatgpt to edit docx documents then they can feel free to use us. vespper.com
- woadwarrior01 25d ago
  You want something heavier? They were trashing people's SSDs a few months ago. IDK if it's been resolved, yet. https://x.com/bdsqlsz/status/2067964486615810369 https://x.com/bdsqlsz/status/2067964486615810369
  - joquarky 25d ago
    DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN
wilg 25d ago
Presumably this is for ChatGPT Work? https://simonwillison.net/2026/Aug/30/understanding-chatgpt-work/ https://simonwillison.net/2026/Aug/30/understanding-chatgpt-...
soupspaces 25d ago
[dead]
monneyboi 25d ago
Imagine the enormous complexity of office file formats if your business is literally building coding models/agents and still you choose to bundle LibreOffice.
gfalcao 25d ago
Are they at least respecting the licenses (.i.e.: providing a verbatim copy of each license?)
Lucasoato 25d ago
Also in the newest app I think the transcription feature is unusable. Ok, I can have a shortcut to start and stop recording. Wow, cool! Ok, but where did the transcription go? In my clipboard? To my cursor? Hey? :(
FailMore 25d ago
(I made a similar comment in a different post by Simon Willison yesterday about GPT Work) I am unsure the direction that AI assisted document creation work will go in. I am opinionated and building something in the space. In this reply I discuss my view + what I have been building. My opinion is: We now have AI, this new amazing flexible tool. We can throw it at any problem. But in terms of document creation we have a choice between old fashioned siloed document formats (.pptx, .pdf, .xlsx, .docx, etc.) and a freshly rendered - slightly randomly styled - html site with some basic javascript within it. I think these combinations are odd and do not maximise the powers of AI. I've been building something called SmallDocs [0][1] which is a new take on work documents. It's all Markdown, but it always renders (100% privately) on the SmallDocs site. This means the SmallDocs renderer can convert recognised Markdown combinations into powerful traditional document formats [2]. For example, we convert a ```cells block into an in-line spreadsheet you can export to Excel. This gives an agent the ability to express itself with a great deal of depth and flexibility. For example, your agent can produce a single data analysis "SmallDoc" with text, charts, spreadsheets, etc. [3] I find that combining formats quickens the speed I can understand a topic. SmallDocs also have standardised and pretty boring styling. This means you spend less time understanding the layout of a flashy HTML page and more time on the content. I also believe a pre-determined rendering engine has a lot of advantages over a freslhy built HTML artifact. It allows you to build in lot's of useful defaults that the agent doesn't have to code from scratch. These can be small things, for example, every time your agent renders a Markdown table in SmallDocs you can instantly copy it as a CSV or a PNG. And these can be bigger things, such as a rich slides DSL with solid styling defaults, which saves your agents a lot of tokens and results in consistently attractive HTML slides [4]. (Slides can also be automatically exported to .pdf and .pptx.) I've been at it for a few months, and am still working on the project. I am looking for feedback and open source collaborators. Thanks for reading! [0] https://smalldocs.org https://smalldocs.org [1] https://github.com/espressoplease/smalldocs https://github.com/espressoplease/smalldocs [2] https://smalldocs.org/blogs/what-is-a-smalldoc https://smalldocs.org/blogs/what-is-a-smalldoc [3] https://smalldocs.org/s/46fWiAyF77T9c7tqYwAQqp#k=j78ZEOOrgo8fFAuHnxYiJi9MycoAhg7yFV2XqqweEgE https://smalldocs.org/s/46fWiAyF77T9c7tqYwAQqp#k=j78ZEOOrgo8... [4] https://smalldocs.org/s/QrmeWMsULGS871nXQYOacB#k=ubOHH9QtTWpJunRK86Z_dapXV4_WilXam6Z7Yx3xbQw https://smalldocs.org/s/QrmeWMsULGS871nXQYOacB#k=ubOHH9QtTWp... (And something totally different, your agent can also use SmallDocs to walk you through code files: https://smalldocs.org/s/JsI_-tWSH0UpSd_YXxVLPm#k=G5jLCYA4JUXo9wGsBCIy3CqVC2HUpkzhWo0tEgBwg0M https://smalldocs.org/s/JsI_-tWSH0UpSd_YXxVLPm#k=G5jLCYA4JUX...)
devy 25d ago
Now someone please use ChatGPT/Codex or Claude Code to rewrite the entire LibreOffice source into a single Rust binary already! Just like Jarred Sumner did for Bun [1] or Carmine Paolino did for Fastpotify [2] - granted there are some rough edges for sure, but the slim diet trimmed down and performance gains were wrothy. [1] https://bun.com/blog/bun-in-rust https://bun.com/blog/bun-in-rust [2] https://fastpotify.rocks/ https://fastpotify.rocks/
- what 25d ago
  > rewrite the entire LibreOffice source into a single Rust binary already! Why?
  - dustypotato 23d ago
    Java
robomartin 25d ago
Last time I used the Windows version it pegged all my cores at 100% usage for some reason. The machine became unusable. Instead I used Codex with JetBrains Rider (doing a C# project) and it worked flawlessly.
basil_io 25d ago
[dead]
throwaway613746 25d ago
[dead]
chemael 25d ago
[flagged]
xvilka 25d ago
Would be nice if they donate to LibreOffice then, to improve the support of various MS Office features in files, as well as comparison/diffing features. Win-win to everyone.
- pocksuppet 25d ago
  [flagged]
  - dumberquestions 25d ago
    Good thing that "would be nice" doesn't entail that they have to.
    - YetAnotherNick 25d ago
      What does donation does for open source? Surely it wont come close to pay talented developers who create it. For cloud cost, there are few companies already giving generous free tier for open source. The only thing that donation could pay for is marketing e.g. events and meetups.
      - mksaunders2 25d ago
        That's not true at all. Donations are the biggest source of income for The Document Foundation, the non-profit behind LibreOffice, and have been used to pay developers who've joined the team in recent years: * Michael Weghorn (accessibility) * Jonathan Clark (language and scripting support) * Neil Roberts (scripting improvements) * Dan Williams (macOS support and general UI improvements)
        YetAnotherNick 25d ago
        How much do they pay them?
        Maken 25d ago
luciana1u 25d ago
[flagged]
nicman23 25d ago
having had to manually save some xls files by editing their xml, yeah it makes sense
kwhitlock 25d ago
Reminds me of pulling in an entire JS framework just for a single button. The bundle size must be something else.
- 4thguy 24d ago
  Reminds me of this joke https://medium.com/s/silicon-satire/i-peeked-into-my-node-modules-directory-and-you-wont-believe-what-happened-next-b89f63d21558 https://medium.com/s/silicon-satire/i-peeked-into-my-node-mo...
hexley19 25d ago
Bundling LibreOffice with a chatbot app feels like peak software bloat. My hard drive just let out an audible sigh.
runtime_lens 24d ago
[dead]
onion2k 24d ago
I wonder if this says anything about the capabilities of AI. If it's better to bundle an entire headless office suite than ask your AI to build support for relatively well documented formats (or even to extract the file support parts it needs from Libra Office), that seems to suggest AI isn't as good as human devs just yet.
- aeon_ai 24d ago
  Or, it's dumb as hell to have an AI re-write Word every time it wants to output or present a document. But let's focus on how this validates the belief that "AI bad."
  - psjs 24d ago
    perhaps onion2k meant that openAI could’ve reimplemented it once in-house on their side for the codex app?
- artyomsv 24d ago
  [dead]
deleted 24d ago
[deleted]

495 points by timpera 25d ago

Is that what it is using to render and manipulate MS Office documents? That'd explain the poor rendering of some of my files. Bundling all of LibreOffice seems like a pretty huge dependency.

nomel 25d ago
> Bundling all of LibreOffice seems like a pretty huge dependency What's the alternative library you see?
- verdverm 25d ago
  Why not computer use or using the tools the user prefers instead? The primary office suites have APIs/CLIs now
  - tyre 25d ago
    Computer use is slow and can take control of the application focus. I’ll be doing things while Claude runs in the background. Suddenly it decides to open the app and try to do something + screenshot it.
    - verdverm 25d ago
      That's where the CLIs come in for me, I'm not going to waste tokens on screenshots and input device manipulation https://devblogs.microsoft.com/microsoft365dev/getting-started-office365-cli-powershell/ https://devblogs.microsoft.com/microsoft365dev/getting-start... https://github.com/googleworkspace/cli https://github.com/googleworkspace/cli
    - ChickeNES 25d ago
      I don't know how many times I've had to yell at codex or claude to use/implement headless versions of whatever it's doing at the time, interrupts me trying to multitask and play Battlefield or Factorio while they work :P
      - verdverm 25d ago
        don't try Dyson sphere project (/s, its acrually really great), but maybe try x4 foundations, I'm contemplating how I might have my agent help manage my empire
      - 1718627440 24d ago
        Can't you run this under a different user or in the same, but with another instance of the desktop server?
      - rcxdude 24d ago
        Another good reason to sandbox them into a VM :P
    - cjav_dev 24d ago
      Runs in the background now https://x.com/ClaudeDevs/status/2095226982644830648 https://x.com/ClaudeDevs/status/2095226982644830648
  - deleted 25d ago
    [deleted]
  - johnsmith1840 25d ago
    If you've ever actually gone down this route you will try exactly this realize how much of a cluster f these products are and just use libre. I did the exact same thing in my AI system. Spent an ENOURMOUS amount of time trying everything I could and in the end libre was the only thing even somewhat functional. Easily 2 months of my life lost to these god forsaken systems. APIs and CLIs sound reasonable until you actually attempt anything in this space. Computer use is exactly the same thing. Go try this: go to a google doc and dev tools check out the dom and now do the same for a word doc. Eye gouging pain of trying to get anything to work.
- simongg 25d ago
  Apache POI
  - what_hn 25d ago
    [dead]
  - nomel 25d ago
    I don't think that's anywhere near equivalent. That's for reading and writing Microsoft Office docs. It has no office functionality. LibreOffice has a full API, for example to run calculations on spreadsheets [1]. The goal of bringing in dependencies is so you don't have to duplicate the functionality, in this case, crafted over decades of effort. [1] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/SDKGuide/Calc_API_Overview https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/SDKGuide/C...
    - waysa 25d ago
      POI can run calculations. [1] That doesn't make it a full office suite but it does a lot. [1] https://poi.apache.org/components/spreadsheet/formula.html https://poi.apache.org/components/spreadsheet/formula.html
- MikeTheGreat 25d ago
  pandoc
- edemdogbe 25d ago
  [flagged]
- deleted 24d ago
  [deleted]
- nmatej1 20d ago
  https://github.com/eigenpal/docx-editor https://github.com/eigenpal/docx-editor
JLO64 25d ago
For a docker image of mine I was bundling the full version of LibreOffice as well but I managed to get some space savings by bundling just the no-gui version.
- zamadatix 25d ago
  Seems to match the screenshot in the blogpost but libreoffice-headless still shows as 429.7 MB.
deleted 25d ago
[deleted]
OutOfHere 25d ago
Just the headless version looks to be bundled. The title as posted might be incorrect.
tiahura 25d ago
Yes. If you have word you can instruct to use word via com or AppleScript.
telotortium 25d ago
I have a skill that instructs ChatGPT/Codex to verify the rendering using the Mac versions of Microsoft Office. Even without registering, you still can open files read-only, which is enough. Apparently Office refuses to open some Open Office XML documents that LibreOffice is fine with, so that's another reason to use this. After a few times, Codex ended up storing some memories to stop producing broken files in the first place. I generated the skill originally for ChatGPT 5.5, so some of these may not strictly be necessary anymore with later models. But posting here in case others find it useful: https://gist.github.com/telotortium/844386f762c4b3bab49999ba99f72f5b https://gist.github.com/telotortium/844386f762c4b3bab49999ba...
bs7280 25d ago
What's ironic about this is, afaik there's no programmatic way to get a screenshot of a PowerPoint on windows other than opening up PowerPoint and screenshotting it. I only discovered this when I first tried out Anthropics official PowerPoint skill when it came out this winter. If anything happens from this, I hope it forces Microsoft to address some of its long standing hostile to power users issues so they can stay relevant in the world of AI tooling.
- pseudosavant 25d ago
  This can absolutely be done programmatically. I just added the ability to do that using PowerPoint for Windows yesterday in my uv/python tool `markdown-pptx`. Codex added the functionality in less than 5 minutes. https://github.com/pseudosavant/markdown-pptx/ https://github.com/pseudosavant/markdown-pptx/
  - bs7280 24d ago
    Thanks for sharing, now im wondering if they did in fact grant my wish since I messed with this in January. Im lucky my job does not require me to make any pptx presentations.
  - pseudosavant 24d ago
    For those that are interested, this inspired me to create a tool just for exporting images and PDFs of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Check out the repo below, or if you have uv installed just run `uvx office-export skill install` or `uvx office-export --help` to check it out. It uses Office for Windows, so it is Windows only. I don't currently have access to a Mac machine, so I can't build in Mac support yet. https://github.com/pseudosavant/office-export https://github.com/pseudosavant/office-export
- artpar 24d ago
  I have made puppt cli for this, it includes high dpi rendering per-slide/all-slides and in place editing https://github.com/artpar/puppt https://github.com/artpar/puppt it allows your llms to see the ppt files structurally apart from just rendering it
Dmitry-kov 20d ago
[flagged]

cpursley 25d ago

I still don’t understand why with all their cash these companies dont redo their apps in Rust or native. They are all so heavy and dog slow. There are already some very fast cross platform (wasm too!) libraries that can do what poppler does as well as parse and produce various office file formats. Because 2gb is crazy town, these things could be around 100mb, just throw some tokens at the problem.

sudo_cowsay 25d ago
Not that easy. Also, they have "priorities." Although their priorities are different than the users'.
- cpursley 25d ago
  Just throw some tokens at the problem. I’ve vibed up a Rust Crux hybrid app that runs well on macOS, iPad and wasm and does some pretty complex xml manipulation and other document work. Absolutely smokes electron and you get native UI. Ref: https://redbadger.github.io/crux/ https://redbadger.github.io/crux/
  - verdverm 25d ago
    one does not just "throw tokens" at a problem, Ai is not that capable, and we are talking about MS Office file format, likely a NP hard problem
    - sigbottle 25d ago
      I mean, aside from all the NP Hard sub problems (I might not be reading your satire though), the real hard problem is that a "product" is not just software, but an ecosystem and a promise of maintenance of the abstract user experience & quality of it.
    - vb-8448 25d ago
      But in case they succeed the return on image will be astonishing.

simonw 25d ago

(This is more of a tweet than a blog post, it really wasn't written with Hacker News in mind.)

MattDamonSpace 25d ago
frankly how dare you
- mrob 25d ago
  How is simonw to blame for somebody else submitting it to HN?
  - embedding-shape 25d ago
    True, I feel like the entire HN community is to blame for this, particularly pg and dang.
    - TZubiri 25d ago
      Thanks Obama
  - justsomehnguy 25d ago
    I have a feeling you should learn about Poe's law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law
    - switchbak 25d ago
      Anyone quoting Poe's Law is clearly just a Nazi. ... For those that can't see the sarcasm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law
      - justsomehnguy 24d ago
        I have a feeling you should learn about... OH SHI~

dvrp 25d ago

And wait till you find out about @oai/walnut

bcanzanella 25d ago
do tell!
- djriley 25d ago
  Walnut is the .NET and OpenXML backend. I think the point parent was trying to make it that it shouldn't be surprising Codex bundles runtimes for damn near everything.

alex-moon 25d ago

Someone may need to explain to me what is wrong with this sorry. Is it because it bloats the app with functionality that some users will never use? I feel like that is fairly usual for productivity/business apps generally.

simonw 25d ago
I don't see anything wrong with it, I just think it's interesting.
- winstonp 25d ago
  I think it's overbloating my computer
- nialse 25d ago
  It does, however, introduce a potentially enormous attack surface into ChatGPT, along with creative opportunities for less security conscious individuals and LLMs.
- alex-moon 25d ago
  Oh right, yeah I agree. It's the kind of thing I can imagine the harness downloading in the background anyway (or instructing the user to do) at some point so I can see the sense in just skipping that bit. Kind of comforting they just do it the same way the rest of us do - if it ain't broke and so on.
- 2sk21 24d ago
  You aren't worried about the provenance of the installed apps?
  - simonw 24d ago
    How do you mean? I trust OpenAI to have installed apps that at least work well enough for their intended purposes.
    - 24d ago

lgl 25d ago

Does that really mean that it's bundling those apps from the start or did it just download and install them at some point to do some local work on some prompt or job you ask it to? I don't see it making much sense to bundle it. I'm sure a LOT of LLM prompts are related with docs, excels, powerpoints etc, etc but don't really see it worth it for it to be bundled on the codex app from the get go, because otherwise, why not also install dozens of other apps?

simonw 25d ago
I'm not sure. Someone who hasn't installed the ChatGPT (or Codex) apps yet could confirm this by installing the apps, seeing if that ~/.cache directory exists, then try running a prompt that needs Python or Node.js or LibreOffice and see if it downloads them when needed.
- zatkin 25d ago
  I've never installed the ChatGPT app on my Mac until today. I ran the app, signed in, and I see the same. % ls ~/.cache/codex-runtimes/codex-primary-runtime/dependencies/native/libreoffice-headless libreoffice manifest.json
  - embedding-shape 25d ago
    On a Windows installation I see this: PS C:\Users\user> ls C:\Users\user\.cache\codex-runtimes\codex-primary-runtime\dependencies\native\ Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- d----- 8/27/2026 10:09 AM git d----- 6/16/2026 9:18 PM jxrlib d----- 8/26/2026 7:37 PM libheif d----- 6/17/2026 5:32 AM poppler d----- 8/27/2026 10:09 AM powershell So doesn't seem bundled with all installs at least.
    - dofm 25d ago
      Is this perhaps because the aim is to read Office documents and there are (maybe, I don't know for sure) default components within Windows that can do that?

quotemstr 25d ago

There's no security benefit to doing this versus demand-downloading hashed-locked components on need.

TZubiri 25d ago
Ok, it's probably not a security decision. It's a common pattern with both storage and memory management to push most reservations to initialization, in order to cluster resource insufficiency errors to a specific install-time when the user or admin can do something about it. An excessive just-in-time approach in both storage and memory would cause OOM and Disk exhaustion to occur at many different times.

trentor 25d ago

I don't see the problem?

iAMkenough 25d ago
Who said it was a problem? This looks like an observation to me, not an accusation.

jrflo 25d ago

I've noticed that when I have codex read/modify word files the live reasoning snippets often allude to LibreOffice, so that makes sense. I think it was a quick and dirty way for them to interface with docx and xlsx files?

esperent 25d ago

I actually bundle LibreOffice with my app too and the reason is reading files, especially old xls files. Since I'm bundling it I'm now using it for everything docs related but the specific reason is those old files. I couldn't find anything else that I could just drop it and feel confident it'll just read anything I give it.

deleted 25d ago
[deleted]
skinfaxi 25d ago
[flagged]
- Bridged7756 25d ago
  [flagged]
- stackghost 25d ago
  >How much money have you contributed back to this seemingly indispensable project? Perhaps it's time for you to become familiar with the terms of the Mozilla Public License, under which Libre Office is released. There is no requirement for monetary compensation.
  - dnautics 25d ago
    No requirement doesn't mean "don't be a mensch"
    - rdbl27 25d ago
      You believe you know better than the authors themselves about how they ought to be treated? They chose -- explicitly, voluntarily, knowingly -- to give the thing away for free. That's their right for their own creation. Your preferences don't supersede theirs.
      - 25d ago

vb-8448 25d ago

Curiously, I didn't find any reference in the Open source licences section of the codex app. Is this a MPL 2.0 violation?

thesdev 25d ago
Copyright violation is the last thing one could accuse ChatGPT of.
- vb-8448 25d ago
  Well, this one is particularly obvious, other one are more fuzzy.
- throwaway613746 25d ago
  [dead]
zamadatix 25d ago
Despite the title, I'm not sure it's actually bundled. Some of the skills plugins will download it on the first run. So it depends where they are grabbing it from rather than the presence of the binary on the system, but I haven't checked that deep into where they actually grab it.
- TZubiri 25d ago
  The license itself may be present in the cache folder. Alternatively, ChatGPT might happily disclose authorship and licensing if asked. I'm not convinced of the argument that the fact that it is not bundled at download or even at install-time, would free them of the GPL responsibilities. And at this point. I'm also not sure HOW the devs bundled libreoffice, whether they just mentioned in a prompt (use libreoffice), or whether they hardcoded a command (like apt install libreoffice), more likely the former, considering the recursive vibecoding nature of this software. Whole lotta words to say that I don't know whether this is a GPL violation, but interested in the answer. If it is a violation, the likely fix will probably be yet another prompt that says something like "comply with licensing", which probably already exists, so a more specific "provide attribution (in a way that doesn't bother the user)"

m3kw9 25d ago

probably uses it extensively to convert between LLM working on a doc and exporting it out to excel, word etc

dvduval 25d ago

My agent did it? I didn’t do it.

petilon 25d ago

There is a serious threat to Microsoft here, if everyone starts using AI for generating and updating Office docs. At some point Office will become just a viewer.

trueno 25d ago
im stoked for that outcome, standard document tooling should not live behind subscription models anymore. i dont care that microsoft spent zillions bankrolling education systems and companies to fall into this cultural lock in over the decades whether they like it or not spreadsheets word docs etc are just ubiquitous parts of existing in society at this point you're gonna need to reach for these tools eventually just to apply for jobs or do homework
- watwut 25d ago
  You assume tokens will be free after these get their monopoly positions? Actual libre office is actual open source running on weak hardware. Truly free. And I suspect we will look back at MS with nostalgia once Altman and Musk get their ai imperiums.
- tcfhgj 15d ago
  Need is a bit strong, you can absolutely apply and do homework without, e.g. using Typst or Latex or whatever else is out there
dist-epoch 25d ago
Don't worry, they are ahead of this. Satya said some time ago that they expect soon to have more agents using Microsoft software than humans, and are working on transitioning their focus from serving humans to serving agents. https://www.news18.com/business/satya-nadella-announces-microsofts-move-to-ai-agent-pricing-model-ws-l-9722868.html https://www.news18.com/business/satya-nadella-announces-micr...
- petilon 25d ago
  So they will switch to per-agent pricing instead of per-user. Fine, but that doesn't change the fact that Microsoft Office will become a just bunch of viewers as far as human usage is concerned. As far as generating Office documents, you can do that without using any Microsoft code.

mirzap 25d ago

I wonder why they didn't try to discover if the user already has those binaries and use them before downloading.

LtWorf 25d ago
Because they vibe coded it.
duskdozer 25d ago
Why would they? Storage [they don't have to pay for] is cheap! And just bundling it saves them time.
NostraDavid 24d ago
Preventing potential version/feature issues?

paaloeye 25d ago

First Claude installed 10GB VM [0] without asking, but OpenAI ships LibreOffice. What's next? Somebody ship their monorepo verbatim? Honestly, not sure it's worth having those app on your localhost at all. I ended up uninstalling all frontier labs bloated apps and start using Google AI Mode + Antigravity CLI / Claude Code sometimes. [0] https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/22543 https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/22543

newbie001 24d ago
I already have a copy of LibreOffice on my mac. It weights around 3GB. That extra copy is not appreciated

zitterbewegung 25d ago

It might be for their new Work product which can produce docx, pdf and pox files.

isityettime 25d ago

The new app is an unbelievable mess. Settings are senselessly organized, too. The whole thing has this aesthetic slickness and then underneath it's like the people who make it have never even used it. It's not surprising that it's pulled in absolutely massive dependencies, although I'm not sure it's the wrong call on some operating systems. LibreOffice is pretty tried and true.

yeutterg 25d ago
Personally, I like the 3-pane organization (sidebar, chat, browser). I turned ChatGPT into my bookkeeper and social post writing/kanban space, and it works well for these script+browser workflows on desktop. However, all of this is confusing: - the ChatGPT/Codex split on desktop - Chat/Work split on mobile - how you remotely access each chat from your phone (some of my most valuable chats are buried in Remote) - which chats propagate from device to device, and which remain on that device
- nobody_r_knows 25d ago
  [dead]
- pests 25d ago
  > - the ChatGPT/Codex split on desktop Do tell, cause I run the "ChatGPT" program on Windows to use both the normal Chat and Codex (side menu items). I think its a more recent change.
  - yeutterg 24d ago
    This is from a recent update, and I'm on macOS. I had to re-download it, not just update from within the app. This new version has tabs for ChatGPT and Codex. The ChatGPT tab seems way less powerful; Codex is basically a coding agent with a UI and browser built in. Pretty sure this is the old Codex app with the ChatGPT tab bolted on. It's great in some ways, but needs work in others.
jbird99 25d ago

lennart-rth 25d ago

I suspect that it’s used in headless clip mode to reliably convert file formats back and forth.

topaztee 25d ago

spinning up an entire copy of libreoffice sounds super heavy?, if someone here is actually using chatgpt to edit docx documents then they can feel free to use us. vespper.com

woadwarrior01 25d ago
You want something heavier? They were trashing people's SSDs a few months ago. IDK if it's been resolved, yet. https://x.com/bdsqlsz/status/2067964486615810369 https://x.com/bdsqlsz/status/2067964486615810369
- joquarky 25d ago
  DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

wilg 25d ago

Presumably this is for ChatGPT Work? https://simonwillison.net/2026/Aug/30/understanding-chatgpt-work/ https://simonwillison.net/2026/Aug/30/understanding-chatgpt-...

soupspaces 25d ago

[dead]

monneyboi 25d ago

Imagine the enormous complexity of office file formats if your business is literally building coding models/agents and still you choose to bundle LibreOffice.

gfalcao 25d ago

Are they at least respecting the licenses (.i.e.: providing a verbatim copy of each license?)

Lucasoato 25d ago

Also in the newest app I think the transcription feature is unusable. Ok, I can have a shortcut to start and stop recording. Wow, cool! Ok, but where did the transcription go? In my clipboard? To my cursor? Hey? :(

FailMore 25d ago

(I made a similar comment in a different post by Simon Willison yesterday about GPT Work) I am unsure the direction that AI assisted document creation work will go in. I am opinionated and building something in the space. In this reply I discuss my view + what I have been building. My opinion is: We now have AI, this new amazing flexible tool. We can throw it at any problem. But in terms of document creation we have a choice between old fashioned siloed document formats (.pptx, .pdf, .xlsx, .docx, etc.) and a freshly rendered - slightly randomly styled - html site with some basic javascript within it. I think these combinations are odd and do not maximise the powers of AI. I've been building something called SmallDocs [0][1] which is a new take on work documents. It's all Markdown, but it always renders (100% privately) on the SmallDocs site. This means the SmallDocs renderer can convert recognised Markdown combinations into powerful traditional document formats [2]. For example, we convert a ```cells block into an in-line spreadsheet you can export to Excel. This gives an agent the ability to express itself with a great deal of depth and flexibility. For example, your agent can produce a single data analysis "SmallDoc" with text, charts, spreadsheets, etc. [3] I find that combining formats quickens the speed I can understand a topic. SmallDocs also have standardised and pretty boring styling. This means you spend less time understanding the layout of a flashy HTML page and more time on the content. I also believe a pre-determined rendering engine has a lot of advantages over a freslhy built HTML artifact. It allows you to build in lot's of useful defaults that the agent doesn't have to code from scratch. These can be small things, for example, every time your agent renders a Markdown table in SmallDocs you can instantly copy it as a CSV or a PNG. And these can be bigger things, such as a rich slides DSL with solid styling defaults, which saves your agents a lot of tokens and results in consistently attractive HTML slides [4]. (Slides can also be automatically exported to .pdf and .pptx.) I've been at it for a few months, and am still working on the project. I am looking for feedback and open source collaborators. Thanks for reading! [0] https://smalldocs.org https://smalldocs.org [1] https://github.com/espressoplease/smalldocs https://github.com/espressoplease/smalldocs [2] https://smalldocs.org/blogs/what-is-a-smalldoc https://smalldocs.org/blogs/what-is-a-smalldoc [3] https://smalldocs.org/s/46fWiAyF77T9c7tqYwAQqp#k=j78ZEOOrgo8fFAuHnxYiJi9MycoAhg7yFV2XqqweEgE https://smalldocs.org/s/46fWiAyF77T9c7tqYwAQqp#k=j78ZEOOrgo8... [4] https://smalldocs.org/s/QrmeWMsULGS871nXQYOacB#k=ubOHH9QtTWpJunRK86Z_dapXV4_WilXam6Z7Yx3xbQw https://smalldocs.org/s/QrmeWMsULGS871nXQYOacB#k=ubOHH9QtTWp... (And something totally different, your agent can also use SmallDocs to walk you through code files: https://smalldocs.org/s/JsI_-tWSH0UpSd_YXxVLPm#k=G5jLCYA4JUXo9wGsBCIy3CqVC2HUpkzhWo0tEgBwg0M https://smalldocs.org/s/JsI_-tWSH0UpSd_YXxVLPm#k=G5jLCYA4JUX...)

devy 25d ago

Now someone please use ChatGPT/Codex or Claude Code to rewrite the entire LibreOffice source into a single Rust binary already! Just like Jarred Sumner did for Bun [1] or Carmine Paolino did for Fastpotify [2] - granted there are some rough edges for sure, but the slim diet trimmed down and performance gains were wrothy. [1] https://bun.com/blog/bun-in-rust https://bun.com/blog/bun-in-rust [2] https://fastpotify.rocks/ https://fastpotify.rocks/

what 25d ago
> rewrite the entire LibreOffice source into a single Rust binary already! Why?
- dustypotato 23d ago
  Java

robomartin 25d ago

Last time I used the Windows version it pegged all my cores at 100% usage for some reason. The machine became unusable. Instead I used Codex with JetBrains Rider (doing a C# project) and it worked flawlessly.

basil_io 25d ago

[dead]

throwaway613746 25d ago

[dead]

chemael 25d ago

[flagged]

xvilka 25d ago

Would be nice if they donate to LibreOffice then, to improve the support of various MS Office features in files, as well as comparison/diffing features. Win-win to everyone.

pocksuppet 25d ago
[flagged]
- dumberquestions 25d ago
  Good thing that "would be nice" doesn't entail that they have to.
  - YetAnotherNick 25d ago
    What does donation does for open source? Surely it wont come close to pay talented developers who create it. For cloud cost, there are few companies already giving generous free tier for open source. The only thing that donation could pay for is marketing e.g. events and meetups.
    - mksaunders2 25d ago
      That's not true at all. Donations are the biggest source of income for The Document Foundation, the non-profit behind LibreOffice, and have been used to pay developers who've joined the team in recent years: * Michael Weghorn (accessibility) * Jonathan Clark (language and scripting support) * Neil Roberts (scripting improvements) * Dan Williams (macOS support and general UI improvements)
      - YetAnotherNick 25d ago
        How much do they pay them?
        Maken 25d ago

luciana1u 25d ago

[flagged]

nicman23 25d ago

having had to manually save some xls files by editing their xml, yeah it makes sense

kwhitlock 25d ago

Reminds me of pulling in an entire JS framework just for a single button. The bundle size must be something else.

4thguy 24d ago
Reminds me of this joke https://medium.com/s/silicon-satire/i-peeked-into-my-node-modules-directory-and-you-wont-believe-what-happened-next-b89f63d21558 https://medium.com/s/silicon-satire/i-peeked-into-my-node-mo...

hexley19 25d ago

Bundling LibreOffice with a chatbot app feels like peak software bloat. My hard drive just let out an audible sigh.

runtime_lens 24d ago

[dead]

onion2k 24d ago

I wonder if this says anything about the capabilities of AI. If it's better to bundle an entire headless office suite than ask your AI to build support for relatively well documented formats (or even to extract the file support parts it needs from Libra Office), that seems to suggest AI isn't as good as human devs just yet.

aeon_ai 24d ago
Or, it's dumb as hell to have an AI re-write Word every time it wants to output or present a document. But let's focus on how this validates the belief that "AI bad."
- psjs 24d ago
  perhaps onion2k meant that openAI could’ve reimplemented it once in-house on their side for the codex app?
artyomsv 24d ago
[dead]

deleted 24d ago

[deleted]