3 ms·
Open source... But yeah.. ms won this game
by Bombthecat 11mo ago
Open source... But yeah.. ms won this game
- sneak 11mo agoThere is no foss competitor to Excel.
- ambicapter 11mo agoGoogle Docs works fine for most people though (not FOSS, but most Office customers don't care).
- mc32 11mo agoIt’s about the same price without the AzureAD stuff or AV integration even if substandard. Also Google emasculated its Google sites.
- aerostable_slug 11mo agoMy problem is the knee-jerk "Google will sell/read our data" that suggesting any of their suite seems to engender. It doesn't really matter what Google says in their contracts, too many executives trust them less than MSFT. Agreed that their actual products seem to work fine for almost everyone.
- croes 11mo agoBut for many of Excels use cases
- boh 11mo agoOpen Office, Libre Office, Only Office to start.
- embedding-shape 11mo agoI want to love these, mostly because they're FOSS and Office/Google Spreadsheets seems to get more and more bloated, and subsequently slower. But the UX is just a lot worse, and it isn't easy to go from one application to another because they're slightly different enough that your productivity takes a hit from all the small papercuts. I'm waiting for some FOSS spreadsheet solution that doesn't just try to copy Office, but comes up with something better. Then it'll feel like it's worth it to learn a whole new program and its UX, rather than just suffering through it because you wanna use FOSS.
- boh 11mo agoCheck out Only Office. It's an almost total copy of the 365 aesthetic.
- embedding-shape 11mo agoYeah, that's the opposite of what I want, then I'll just continue using Excel... What I want is for someone to figure out a better UI and better UX, not just copy what's out there.
- therealjumbo 11mo agoMy hot take on a better excel: the two things excel sucks at: version control and syncing. On the backend, separate the data and the logic in the spreadsheet and put each into version control. Then use something like syncthing to share documents with colleagues. You might also need something like bitmessage for initial handshake. Now you have a spreadsheet you can collaborate on in real time over the Internet or LAN without screwing around with a server, a google account, a credit card etc. There's two more things excel is horrible at: choice of extension language and being able to graduate your spreadsheet into a real program. You fix the extension language by using something like web assembly on the back end, and probably bundle one or more compilers to go from $lang to web assembly in order to be user friendly. Lastly you fix the last problem by virtue of doing all of the above. The second two features won't draw in new users much, so they're less important in the short run but make it a lot more sticky. I'm not in a place in life to put much free time into that project, and ideas are cheap ...
- esafak 11mo agoTry https://rows.com/ai https://rows.com/ai
- hoistbypetard 11mo agoHave you tried grist[0]? It's self-hostable (and the community version is FOSS I think), and really useful in a way I find better than just a spreadsheet. It's no good for importing complex excel things, but I've found it very useful for new work. [0](https://www.getgrist.com https://www.getgrist.com)
- stephen_g 11mo agoYes, but take OpenOffice off the list, development has slowed to a glacial pace and it’s close to abandoned in favour of LibreOffice, which is actively maintained. Looks like there was finally a OpenOffice release recently but that was after years of people complaining of security vulnerabilities not fixed in the release version.
- richardlblair 11mo agoOr power point. I had to make some slides for the first time in a decade. I was in Google Slides for 5 minutes, then I tried to import an SVG. That was the moment I booted into windows for the first time in 4 months. I started up Power Point and sure enough SVGs are no problem.
- hoistbypetard 11mo agoFor legacy spreadsheets, you're 100% correct. I'll need to keep a version of Excel around forever. If they price me out of 365 by making me pay for Copilot shit I don't use or want, a perpetual license to Office 2019 runs about $20 and will do that job for me. For new work that I might have otherwise done in Excel, there are good options. Collabora works. Libre Office works. Google sheets works. And Grist is quite good, and self-hostable.
- moepstar 11mo ago> a perpetual license to Office 2019 runs about $20 and will do that job for me. Isn’t that only perpetual as long as the activation servers are up?
- hoistbypetard 11mo agoProbably. I meant "perpetual" as opposed to "subscription" but I agree with your concern.
- nottorp 11mo agoYou just stash a cracked version downloaded off some high seas site just in case.
- sneak 11mo agoNone of the things you listed are suitable replacements for Excel. None. It has nothing to do with existing files/compatibility. Excel is unparalleled.
- chris_wot 11mo agoCan it open Quattro Pro files?
- array_key_first 11mo agoThe solution is actually just not using Excel. If you're essentially using Excel as a LOB backend and database, that should probably not be in Excel. It's fine if you have a few formulas. As soon as you're busting out macros it's time to sunset the workbook and make an application. There's a lot of God Excel workbooks sitting around on share drives with no audibility or quality control.
- adornKey 11mo agoLibre Office Calc is pretty similar to Excel for general use. For importing csv files it has always been superior to Excel. Some niche areas in Calc are also better than Excel. Inflexible users are locked into Excel, but for general purpose use Calc is all you need.
- jimnotgym 11mo agoWhen developers tell me that I could use Calc rather than Excel, I ask them if they would be OK being forced to use Emacs or Vim, whichever is the opposite of what they spent the last decade perfecting.
- trollbridge 11mo agoLibre Office is great for replicating what Excel did 10 years ago. Excel has a lot of things that power users use (like Power Query) that Libre Office simply isn't even trying to replicate.
- breckognize 11mo agoShameless plug: Row Zero has real enterprise traction. AWS uses us. 2B row limit, connected, eliminates the Excel security risk because it's hosted.