4 ms·
In the majority of cases, LibreOffice is a viable free replacement. There are onky a few missing features that you probably won't need. The onlu time that happe
by jimmaswell 10y ago
In the majority of cases, LibreOffice is a viable free replacement. There are onky a few missing features that you probably won't need. The onlu time that happened to me was trying to do a certain kind of regression curve that was only in Mictosoft Excel, for a physics class.
- gbog 10y agoI would really love to agree because I hate ms so much, but sadly it's false: every time I use libreoffice, it's because I need to open a doc or ppt sent to me, and the layout is messed it's barely readable
- blahi 10y agoIf libre office/google docs fits your needs, you are artificially limiting your needs*. Probably not even realizing it. Unless what you do can be done with a calculator (barebones basic stuff).
- sirtaj 10y agoThis argument extends easily - you're artificially limiting your needs by using Office, when you could be using ScipPy/Jupyter/IPython/Pandas.
- blahi 10y agoSpreadsheets serve different needs than the tools you mentioned.
- sirtaj 10y agoWhat needs are those? Which ones can't be served by the tools I mentioned?
- blahi 10y agoPlanning. Oftentimes all you need is to calculate some columns and play with numbers and see how the calculations change. The same things that make Excel bad for robust statistical modeling, make it good for all sorts of planning activities.
- wolfgke 10y ago> when you could be using ScipPy/Jupyter/IPython/Pandas Who says that the HN audience doesn't?
- sirtaj 10y agoI'm sure there are plenty of people here who use them. I'm responding to the person who claims libreoffice et al are artificially limited. My implicit argument is that the vast majority of people who use spreadsheet programs use them for list-keeping and simple analytics/reporting. For more complex uses, Excel is beaten by dedicated analytics tools.
- jimmaswell 10y agoWhat more features am I supposed to be using when I write essays and plot small line charts?
- agentdrtran 10y agoKey features including a decent UI? I hate using LibreOffice for this reason alone.