4 ms·

> do a little light word processing For the vast majority of people, “a little light word processing” involves Microsoft Word, which instantly rules out Linux

by oefrha 5y ago

> do a little light word processing For the vast majority of people, “a little light word processing” involves Microsoft Word, which instantly rules out Linux for the near computer illiterate.

the_af 5y ago
For the near computer illiterate, the tiny subset of Word they use can be easily replaced by Libre Office or Google Spreadsheets.
- oefrha 5y ago
  Except of course people send .doc/.docx around and expect .doc/.docx to be sent around. Ask the average person to do some word processing and send the result to you, the chance of receiving something else is close to zero. Speaking from experience dealing with near computer illiterates, including my mom. Of course you can argue that it’s easy to learn to export to .doc/.docx.
  - aembleton 5y ago
    Or you can share your Google doc around and let them edit it without creating new files.
    - r_hoods_ghost 5y ago
      Problem with that is that either they have to have a Google account that they are willing to share with you or you have to make it so that anyone with the link can edit the doc, which is a big no no usually.
  - timeon 5y ago
    > Ask the average person to do some word processing and send the result to you, the chance of receiving something else is close to zero. Sometimes even if you just ask for photo.
- nopenopenopeno 5y ago
  This is just not true. It’s a big change. LibreOffice has a lot of problems. It will never be anything close to Word.
  - the_af 5y ago
    It's my impression that for a near illiterate user, they won't be able to notice the differences unless they cannot open the document at all. Those differences crop up once you know enough Word features to notice the difference. Near illiterate users don't use almost any features of Word beyond the bare basics. As an aside, before we moved entirely to Google docs in my job, I used LibreOffice to edit Word documents without major problems.
commoner 5y ago
LibreOffice[1] handles light word processing pretty well. For more complex use cases involving Microsoft Office's "Office Open XML" formats, the proprietary but free-of-charge WPS Office for Linux[2] has great compatibility with Microsoft Office documents. It's available as a Flatpak[3] (which lets you turn off network access for the application if you don't trust it).[4] [1] https://www.libreoffice.org https://www.libreoffice.org [2] https://www.wps.com/office/linux/ https://www.wps.com/office/linux/ [3] https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.wps.Office https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.wps.Office [4] https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.github.tchx84.Flatseal https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.github.tchx84.Flatseal
- npteljes 5y ago
  ONLYOFFICE also has desktop editors, and good compatibility with docx while being open source. https://www.onlyoffice.com/en/download-desktop.aspx https://www.onlyoffice.com/en/download-desktop.aspx
herbst 5y ago
My mum and dad both had zero issues just replacing the whole office stack with libre. I, kinda know both, and by far prefer libre mostly because it's UI doesn't change every other year.

by oefrha 5y ago

> do a little light word processing For the vast majority of people, “a little light word processing” involves Microsoft Word, which instantly rules out Linux for the near computer illiterate.

the_af 5y ago

For the near computer illiterate, the tiny subset of Word they use can be easily replaced by Libre Office or Google Spreadsheets.

oefrha 5y ago
Except of course people send .doc/.docx around and expect .doc/.docx to be sent around. Ask the average person to do some word processing and send the result to you, the chance of receiving something else is close to zero. Speaking from experience dealing with near computer illiterates, including my mom. Of course you can argue that it’s easy to learn to export to .doc/.docx.
- aembleton 5y ago
  Or you can share your Google doc around and let them edit it without creating new files.
  - r_hoods_ghost 5y ago
    Problem with that is that either they have to have a Google account that they are willing to share with you or you have to make it so that anyone with the link can edit the doc, which is a big no no usually.
- timeon 5y ago
  > Ask the average person to do some word processing and send the result to you, the chance of receiving something else is close to zero. Sometimes even if you just ask for photo.
nopenopenopeno 5y ago
This is just not true. It’s a big change. LibreOffice has a lot of problems. It will never be anything close to Word.
- the_af 5y ago
  It's my impression that for a near illiterate user, they won't be able to notice the differences unless they cannot open the document at all. Those differences crop up once you know enough Word features to notice the difference. Near illiterate users don't use almost any features of Word beyond the bare basics. As an aside, before we moved entirely to Google docs in my job, I used LibreOffice to edit Word documents without major problems.

commoner 5y ago

LibreOffice[1] handles light word processing pretty well. For more complex use cases involving Microsoft Office's "Office Open XML" formats, the proprietary but free-of-charge WPS Office for Linux[2] has great compatibility with Microsoft Office documents. It's available as a Flatpak[3] (which lets you turn off network access for the application if you don't trust it).[4] [1] https://www.libreoffice.org https://www.libreoffice.org [2] https://www.wps.com/office/linux/ https://www.wps.com/office/linux/ [3] https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.wps.Office https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.wps.Office [4] https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.github.tchx84.Flatseal https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.github.tchx84.Flatseal

npteljes 5y ago
ONLYOFFICE also has desktop editors, and good compatibility with docx while being open source. https://www.onlyoffice.com/en/download-desktop.aspx https://www.onlyoffice.com/en/download-desktop.aspx

herbst 5y ago

My mum and dad both had zero issues just replacing the whole office stack with libre. I, kinda know both, and by far prefer libre mostly because it's UI doesn't change every other year.