2 ms·

This is an opportunity to mention that LibreOffice constitutes a solid and worthy alternative to MS Office, which does not require you to be chained to Microsof

This is an opportunity to mention that LibreOffice constitutes a solid and worthy alternative to MS Office, which does not require you to be chained to Microsoft or any sort of licensing. It will also _not_ send your data silently to MS or the US government or any other third party. For online versions, Collabora (a commercial company) offers a FOSS online office suite based on LibreOffice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collabora_Online https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collabora_Online and if anyone wants to integrate AI use in an office suite, those are the most interesting avenues. Perhaps together with free LLMs. Caveat: I ain't seeing that the LO code is very pretty, mind you (they like ABI stability so many things aren't allowed to break.)

devjab 3y ago
I wish we’d see more adoption of alternatives, but I work in non-tech enterprise where it’s not even called “spreadsheets” but rather “excels”. I’m not sure the value is really there in the office platform if it wasn’t because it’s what every new hire is used to. This is very anecdotal but I’m really not a very good consumer of IT, to the point where I often stun people with my profession because I really suck at using digital devices for most things, and I never had a hard time using one of the office alternatives. The tie in with Teams and OneDrive/Sharepoint is nice and all, but it’s also often sort of terrible. I don’t expect things to change though.
- einpoklum 3y ago
  > because it’s what every new hire is used to. LibreOffice and MS Office are quite similar. Unless you're a VBA programmer, you will get used to it very quickly. In fact, you can even change the UI to be similar to MS Office' ribbons: https://hexus.net/tech/news/software/127301-libreoffice-62-notebookbar-now-available/ https://hexus.net/tech/news/software/127301-libreoffice-62-n... But there also lies the rub, because MS Office' ribbon mechanism has, in my experience, reduced typical users' proficiency with the application, and they are less likely to be aware of more advanced functionality.

devjab 3y ago

I wish we’d see more adoption of alternatives, but I work in non-tech enterprise where it’s not even called “spreadsheets” but rather “excels”. I’m not sure the value is really there in the office platform if it wasn’t because it’s what every new hire is used to. This is very anecdotal but I’m really not a very good consumer of IT, to the point where I often stun people with my profession because I really suck at using digital devices for most things, and I never had a hard time using one of the office alternatives. The tie in with Teams and OneDrive/Sharepoint is nice and all, but it’s also often sort of terrible. I don’t expect things to change though.

einpoklum 3y ago
> because it’s what every new hire is used to. LibreOffice and MS Office are quite similar. Unless you're a VBA programmer, you will get used to it very quickly. In fact, you can even change the UI to be similar to MS Office' ribbons: https://hexus.net/tech/news/software/127301-libreoffice-62-notebookbar-now-available/ https://hexus.net/tech/news/software/127301-libreoffice-62-n... But there also lies the rub, because MS Office' ribbon mechanism has, in my experience, reduced typical users' proficiency with the application, and they are less likely to be aware of more advanced functionality.