5 ms·

I am in (biological) research, and this would be a godsend in the unlikely event it's true. There are a lot of *nix users in research, but paradoxically, MS Wor

by xaa 14y ago

I am in (biological) research, and this would be a godsend in the unlikely event it's true. There are a lot of *nix users in research, but paradoxically, MS Word is a virtual requirement for submitting grants and manuscripts, and MS Excel is very commonly used to pass around datasets. Libreoffice is unacceptably broken in a thousand small ways. The best compromise we have come up with is to edit internal documents with Google Docs until they are almost finished, then polish them in Word.

crdoconnor 14y ago
There's crossover office.
- danieldk 14y ago
  Have you tried CrossOver with the latest Office version. I tried when considering if I should buy a Lenovo laptop to run Linux or a new MacBook. Even the most basic functionality did not work smoothly. Office 2000 ran great on CrossOver Office. I've used it for years. But Office 2000 is very old now.
  - crdoconnor 14y ago
    I'm running it with office 2007. It works perfectly fine.
    - 5555624 14y ago
      Office 2007 is not the latest version, though. There have been two versions since then, 2010 and 2013.
malandrew 14y ago
You can't submit PDFs generated via LaTeX?
- taneliv 14y ago
  That depends on the field (and publication), maybe it is less typical in biology? And all the research funding instruments I've used require (or at least very strongly hint) you to use Word for submitting applications. If LibreOffice docx export does not work correctly (or import missed crucial fields / paragraphs) with the funder's templates, you might get rejected. Academic funding is already so fickle that I wouldn't even try. (Personally, that's always a major hassle, as I have to find a computer with correct version of Word installed and borrow that for some time.)
- xaa 14y ago
  Many journals allow this; less commonly funding agencies. But most of my collaborators are not programmers and do not know LaTeX, and for a non-programmer it is very difficult to learn. Besides, I don't love LaTeX. It is a very heavyweight markup and seemingly takes forever to get things "just right".
snogglethorpe 14y ago
> Libreoffice is unacceptably broken in a thousand small ways Of course, based on my painful experience, MS Word is also broken in a thousand small ways. Whether this breakage qualifies as "unacceptable" I dunno; I guess people are used to it and so have learned to avoid much of it. Yay? ><
- fab13n 14y ago
  In this context, where MS-Word is a de facto standard for various administration, "broken" means "not behaving like MS-Word". Which is perhaps the only test which MS-Word passes with flying colors.
  - Roboprog 14y ago
    Alas, the post-"Vista-fication" version of MS Office doesn't even behave like MS Office. Amusing anecdote: I have 2 teenage daughters. They used to complain about having to use Open/Libre Office at home. Then the school "upgraded" Office to the newer Vista/7 compatible version. "See, kids, it does suck, just like Dad said" (I got the "upgrade" at work about the same time). After which, the version at school was so different, anyway, that they just kinda got over it and went "whatever".
- oblio 14y ago
  I think the difference between your broken and his broken is that his are actual bugs & crashes and yours are actually more like personal preferences and interface differences. MS Office products are generally rock solid, while OpenOffice/LibreOffice have crashed on me too many times to count. Plus buggy functionality, etc. I might be wrong, some examples from both sides wouldn't hurt :)
raverbashing 14y ago
Best solution so far for me -> VirtualBox + Windows XP (or 7) + your favorite office Or just use Mac OS X
- australis 14y ago
  I use PlayOnLinux, which works quite seamlessly. http://www.playonlinux.com/en/supported_apps-3-0.html http://www.playonlinux.com/en/supported_apps-3-0.html However, an increasing amount of my documents are in Google Docs/Drive these days. It's only for really intensive spreadsheets I bust out Excel. I can't stand LibreOffice Calc. Even the name (in a dashboard 'calc' clashes with 'calculator' ... duh, I just type 'gcalc' now). Perhaps I'm just too used to Excel, having used it for so long now.
aerique 14y ago
Why not just run Office in a VM? Make a specific Vagrant box and distribute it around the office. Easy peasy.
- joelthelion 14y ago
  VMs are a pain to use, especially when you have switch between your VM and your native OS all the time. Plus, you have two OSes to maintain.
  - wutbrodo 14y ago
    I agree with the maintenance point but as far as the "switching" point, it's worth noting that even the less-fancy VMs have supported guest-OS applications inside standalone host-OS windows for a long time. This is particularly convenient for the case described in which the guest OS is used for only one or two applications.
randomsearch 14y ago
Completely agree. I feel that we are condemned to use Windows or OS X in academia, until the day that Office is released for Linux. This would be very, very big news for me! RS
- freehunter 14y ago
  I know you're fairly new to HN, but really you don't need to sign your posts. Your username is right above the body of your comment. A signature just adds clutter.
  - randomsearch 14y ago
    Thanks.

by xaa 14y ago

crdoconnor 14y ago

There's crossover office.

danieldk 14y ago
Have you tried CrossOver with the latest Office version. I tried when considering if I should buy a Lenovo laptop to run Linux or a new MacBook. Even the most basic functionality did not work smoothly. Office 2000 ran great on CrossOver Office. I've used it for years. But Office 2000 is very old now.
- crdoconnor 14y ago
  I'm running it with office 2007. It works perfectly fine.
  - 5555624 14y ago
    Office 2007 is not the latest version, though. There have been two versions since then, 2010 and 2013.

malandrew 14y ago

You can't submit PDFs generated via LaTeX?

taneliv 14y ago
That depends on the field (and publication), maybe it is less typical in biology? And all the research funding instruments I've used require (or at least very strongly hint) you to use Word for submitting applications. If LibreOffice docx export does not work correctly (or import missed crucial fields / paragraphs) with the funder's templates, you might get rejected. Academic funding is already so fickle that I wouldn't even try. (Personally, that's always a major hassle, as I have to find a computer with correct version of Word installed and borrow that for some time.)
xaa 14y ago
Many journals allow this; less commonly funding agencies. But most of my collaborators are not programmers and do not know LaTeX, and for a non-programmer it is very difficult to learn. Besides, I don't love LaTeX. It is a very heavyweight markup and seemingly takes forever to get things "just right".

snogglethorpe 14y ago

> Libreoffice is unacceptably broken in a thousand small ways Of course, based on my painful experience, MS Word is also broken in a thousand small ways. Whether this breakage qualifies as "unacceptable" I dunno; I guess people are used to it and so have learned to avoid much of it. Yay? ><

fab13n 14y ago
In this context, where MS-Word is a de facto standard for various administration, "broken" means "not behaving like MS-Word". Which is perhaps the only test which MS-Word passes with flying colors.
- Roboprog 14y ago
  Alas, the post-"Vista-fication" version of MS Office doesn't even behave like MS Office. Amusing anecdote: I have 2 teenage daughters. They used to complain about having to use Open/Libre Office at home. Then the school "upgraded" Office to the newer Vista/7 compatible version. "See, kids, it does suck, just like Dad said" (I got the "upgrade" at work about the same time). After which, the version at school was so different, anyway, that they just kinda got over it and went "whatever".
oblio 14y ago
I think the difference between your broken and his broken is that his are actual bugs & crashes and yours are actually more like personal preferences and interface differences. MS Office products are generally rock solid, while OpenOffice/LibreOffice have crashed on me too many times to count. Plus buggy functionality, etc. I might be wrong, some examples from both sides wouldn't hurt :)

raverbashing 14y ago

Best solution so far for me -> VirtualBox + Windows XP (or 7) + your favorite office Or just use Mac OS X

australis 14y ago
I use PlayOnLinux, which works quite seamlessly. http://www.playonlinux.com/en/supported_apps-3-0.html http://www.playonlinux.com/en/supported_apps-3-0.html However, an increasing amount of my documents are in Google Docs/Drive these days. It's only for really intensive spreadsheets I bust out Excel. I can't stand LibreOffice Calc. Even the name (in a dashboard 'calc' clashes with 'calculator' ... duh, I just type 'gcalc' now). Perhaps I'm just too used to Excel, having used it for so long now.

aerique 14y ago

Why not just run Office in a VM? Make a specific Vagrant box and distribute it around the office. Easy peasy.

joelthelion 14y ago
VMs are a pain to use, especially when you have switch between your VM and your native OS all the time. Plus, you have two OSes to maintain.
- wutbrodo 14y ago
  I agree with the maintenance point but as far as the "switching" point, it's worth noting that even the less-fancy VMs have supported guest-OS applications inside standalone host-OS windows for a long time. This is particularly convenient for the case described in which the guest OS is used for only one or two applications.

randomsearch 14y ago

Completely agree. I feel that we are condemned to use Windows or OS X in academia, until the day that Office is released for Linux. This would be very, very big news for me! RS

freehunter 14y ago
I know you're fairly new to HN, but really you don't need to sign your posts. Your username is right above the body of your comment. A signature just adds clutter.
- randomsearch 14y ago
  Thanks.