4 ms·

LibreOffice isn't as good as MS Office, especially for anything that ever needs to be touched by MS Office, ever. Sure, writer is great (if you don't expect the

LibreOffice isn't as good as MS Office, especially for anything that ever needs to be touched by MS Office, ever. Sure, writer is great (if you don't expect the exact same formatting in Word), but God forbid you need to use the LibreOffice Powerpoint equivalent to do ANYTHING with a Powerpoint created slideshow. Or Calc to edit a large and complex Excel spreadsheet.

criley 14y ago
LibreOffice is useful in exclusion, or when no other software programs have to be used with it. When everyone who will consume your work will consume it with the same software. Otherwise, pony up for Word so you can be on the standard as most business, or don't and just use a free online option like Google Docs. It'll do everything you actually need, anyway.
nathan_long 14y ago
If the main problem you have with LibreOffice is "it sucks for editing MS Office files", that's a shortcoming of MS Office files. Practically speaking, if you need to interchange files, you'd still need MS Office. But direct your grumbles at MS lock-in, not at LibreOffice.
- rthomas6 14y ago
  What MS lock-in? Nobody's forcing the world to use MS Office. They just already do. And since sometimes people will give me MS Office files, I need programs that can edit them correctly. I don't see how it's MS Office's fault that LibreOffice incorrectly formats Office documents. Microsoft doesn't seem to be taking steps to lock others out from editing Office format files.
  - subsection1h 14y ago
    Microsoft doesn't seem to be taking steps to lock others out from editing Office format files. Microsoft doesn't have to take such steps. It took them six full years (three versions of Office) to get Office to support the strict variant of the Office "Open" XML format that they created.
  - nathan_long 14y ago
    Whether they are actively trying to lock you in, I don't know. But neither are they making great efforts at interoperability. I've had personal files becomes inaccessible before because they were in proprietary formats and the program no longer ran on my OS. That "lock-in" may or may not have been intentional by the software maker, but the effect on me was the same regardless. Now I use explicitly open formats and maintain my ability to change software.

criley 14y ago

LibreOffice is useful in exclusion, or when no other software programs have to be used with it. When everyone who will consume your work will consume it with the same software. Otherwise, pony up for Word so you can be on the standard as most business, or don't and just use a free online option like Google Docs. It'll do everything you actually need, anyway.

nathan_long 14y ago

If the main problem you have with LibreOffice is "it sucks for editing MS Office files", that's a shortcoming of MS Office files. Practically speaking, if you need to interchange files, you'd still need MS Office. But direct your grumbles at MS lock-in, not at LibreOffice.

rthomas6 14y ago
What MS lock-in? Nobody's forcing the world to use MS Office. They just already do. And since sometimes people will give me MS Office files, I need programs that can edit them correctly. I don't see how it's MS Office's fault that LibreOffice incorrectly formats Office documents. Microsoft doesn't seem to be taking steps to lock others out from editing Office format files.
- subsection1h 14y ago
  Microsoft doesn't seem to be taking steps to lock others out from editing Office format files. Microsoft doesn't have to take such steps. It took them six full years (three versions of Office) to get Office to support the strict variant of the Office "Open" XML format that they created.
- nathan_long 14y ago
  Whether they are actively trying to lock you in, I don't know. But neither are they making great efforts at interoperability. I've had personal files becomes inaccessible before because they were in proprietary formats and the program no longer ran on my OS. That "lock-in" may or may not have been intentional by the software maker, but the effect on me was the same regardless. Now I use explicitly open formats and maintain my ability to change software.