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> if I could only use 1 piece of software forever, it’s probably Excel “And thus we see that people with prolonged exposure to nonfree software need special he

> if I could only use 1 piece of software forever, it’s probably Excel “And thus we see that people with prolonged exposure to nonfree software need special help.” *Commits sin against the Church of Emacs with proprietary DuckDuckGo JavaScript* Emacs has ~10 spreadsheet modes, including one for free-form calculation and one for reading Excel files (https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/SpreadSheet https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/SpreadSheet).

ineedasername 6y ago
Emacs also has a user interface that has a much steeper learning curve than Excel.
- boogies 6y ago
  That seems pretty irrelevant to the specific quote I was addressing, but in general it’s unfortunate there’s no tech-illiterate focused distro AFAIK, because it seems like CUA-mode would get you far enough to appeal to a lot of pretty mild power users (eg. there are stories of non-technical secretaries learning to program without realizing it by learning Emacs macros).
  - ineedasername 6y ago
    The specific quote exists as part of a broader context in this thread in which the accessibility of any proposed alternative to excel is relevant. Making it relevant to point out that while emacs might be a valid alternative for some, it is not for most users.
    - boogies 6y ago
      > The specific quote exists as part of a broader context in this thread in which the accessibility of any proposed alternative to excel is relevant. Right, which is why I tried to address the next claim: > while emacs might be a valid alternative for some, it is not for most users I think a distro like Spacemacs but with cua-mode / UX targeting Office users instead of with evil-mode / UX targeting vi users could make it fairly viable for many or even most users, it seems that it already is for many users, like the secretaries I mentioned in my other comment, who considered themselves non-programmers if not non-power users (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=emacs%20secretaries&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...).
      - ineedasername 6y ago
        Well I guess we're splitting hairs at this point. No need to go another few rounds, I'll just thank you for pointing out Spacemacs, which looks pretty interesting.

ineedasername 6y ago

Emacs also has a user interface that has a much steeper learning curve than Excel.

boogies 6y ago
That seems pretty irrelevant to the specific quote I was addressing, but in general it’s unfortunate there’s no tech-illiterate focused distro AFAIK, because it seems like CUA-mode would get you far enough to appeal to a lot of pretty mild power users (eg. there are stories of non-technical secretaries learning to program without realizing it by learning Emacs macros).
- ineedasername 6y ago
  The specific quote exists as part of a broader context in this thread in which the accessibility of any proposed alternative to excel is relevant. Making it relevant to point out that while emacs might be a valid alternative for some, it is not for most users.
  - boogies 6y ago
    > The specific quote exists as part of a broader context in this thread in which the accessibility of any proposed alternative to excel is relevant. Right, which is why I tried to address the next claim: > while emacs might be a valid alternative for some, it is not for most users I think a distro like Spacemacs but with cua-mode / UX targeting Office users instead of with evil-mode / UX targeting vi users could make it fairly viable for many or even most users, it seems that it already is for many users, like the secretaries I mentioned in my other comment, who considered themselves non-programmers if not non-power users (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=emacs%20secretaries&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...).
    - ineedasername 6y ago
      Well I guess we're splitting hairs at this point. No need to go another few rounds, I'll just thank you for pointing out Spacemacs, which looks pretty interesting.