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In my experience people balk when they realize they’re not using Windows or Office. I’ve literally had someone sit in front of a Linux computer with OpenOffice

In my experience people balk when they realize they’re not using Windows or Office. I’ve literally had someone sit in front of a Linux computer with OpenOffice and work fine on it until they realized “hey the title bar says OpenOffice Calc - it’s not excel! I don’t know how to use this!” Despite the fact they were using it just fine. At this point no amount of convincing made them give it another try - they’d just cross arms until they were put back in front of their known, trusty Windows computer. So I agree they don’t care but there’s also the “I’m not trained for this” fallacy.

hotpotamus 5y ago
I was wondering how much native MS Office matters these days. I've been using OWA and Office 365 via browser for the better part of a decade on a Linux workstation because that's the compromise it took, but the experience was never good. I wonder if native would make much difference.
- kyriakos 5y ago
  For basic usage the browser variants are good enough but Excel application is significantly more powerful. If you are an excel power user there is no non native alternative at the moment.
  - 0des 5y ago
    Kyriakos Grizzly?
    - kyriakos 5y ago
      It's a very common Greek name
      - 0des 5y ago
        Ah OK thanks. I'm still going to assume you have an 800lb deadlift though, because surely it is something in the water there haha. If you haven't heard the name before, you should check him out. Nothing short of a specimen.
gruez 5y ago
>I’ve literally had someone sit in front of a Linux computer with OpenOffice and work fine on it until they realized “hey the title bar says OpenOffice Calc - it’s not excel! I don’t know how to use this!” Despite the fact they were using it just fine. I guarantee that this won't happen with "brenda in accounting" (ie. typical excel jockey). The mismatching shortcuts/formulas/feature set will immediately tip them off. For someone who's viewing a few spreadsheet and/or doing some basic editing (ie. entering cell values), I can imagine it happening.

hotpotamus 5y ago

I was wondering how much native MS Office matters these days. I've been using OWA and Office 365 via browser for the better part of a decade on a Linux workstation because that's the compromise it took, but the experience was never good. I wonder if native would make much difference.

kyriakos 5y ago
For basic usage the browser variants are good enough but Excel application is significantly more powerful. If you are an excel power user there is no non native alternative at the moment.
- 0des 5y ago
  Kyriakos Grizzly?
  - kyriakos 5y ago
    It's a very common Greek name
    - 0des 5y ago
      Ah OK thanks. I'm still going to assume you have an 800lb deadlift though, because surely it is something in the water there haha. If you haven't heard the name before, you should check him out. Nothing short of a specimen.

gruez 5y ago

>I’ve literally had someone sit in front of a Linux computer with OpenOffice and work fine on it until they realized “hey the title bar says OpenOffice Calc - it’s not excel! I don’t know how to use this!” Despite the fact they were using it just fine. I guarantee that this won't happen with "brenda in accounting" (ie. typical excel jockey). The mismatching shortcuts/formulas/feature set will immediately tip them off. For someone who's viewing a few spreadsheet and/or doing some basic editing (ie. entering cell values), I can imagine it happening.