4 ms·

LibreOffice? Is this still....a thing? Is the OSS community still trying to beat MS at this meaningless game? What's wrong with Google Docs? First thing I do in

LibreOffice? Is this still....a thing? Is the OSS community still trying to beat MS at this meaningless game? What's wrong with Google Docs? First thing I do in Ubuntu is uninstall this cruft. A fat client office suite, how quaint and 1997-like.

pcwalton 12y ago
A native app that opens .doc/.xls/.ppt files is a useful thing for a large number of people.
- jmhain 12y ago
  Can LibreOffice edit MS Office files non-destructively now? I'm impressed with the improvements lately, but I'm still too scared edit shared .docx files at work based on bad experiences with OpenOffice in the past.
  - _delirium 12y ago
    I wrote a paper recently with some colleagues who use MS Word (common in some fields), mailing around .docx files in the usual manner, and it seemed to work ok. Obviously not a detailed test, but we exercised a reasonable number of features without breakage: a two-column document with stylesheet, a number of figures, several equations, and a reference section with auto-updated numerical references.
    - taeric 12y ago
      More pertinently, it does work better than using google docs. Assuming, of course, you can't get folks to agree to lose features and just move completely to google docs.
      - _delirium 12y ago
        Yeah, in my experience Google Docs is mainly useful if you treat it as an editor for lightly formatted (RTF-style) documents, not as a Word-compatible editor. If I really needed Word-on-the-cloud I'd probably use Microsoft's "Word Online", which is a lot more compatible than Google Docs (and also free).
  - davidgerard 12y ago
    Pretty much. Preserving stuff LO doesn't understand, for roundtripping, is also a thing as of the last couple of years (the Interop GrabBag). If you have a failure and a reproducible test case, file a bug - there's significant improvements in OOXML support every release, and LO really does dive on these bugs and kill them.
allan_s 12y ago
It is * In country where google doc is blocked * In country/places where your connection speed is too slow * In places where you have no connection at all * For documents too big * For people that are used to it * For people that care about freedom etc. (regardless of your opinion on it) etc. etc.
- fafner 12y ago
  For people who don't trust outside companies (known to work with governments) with their confidential and/or expensive data.
- smnrchrds 12y ago
  * For people and businesses who don't want their data in Google's hands subject to US laws.
barrkel 12y ago
I sometimes have to open customer documents - CSV and Excel - containing confidential details. Nothing may leave the company.
kaoD 12y ago
If you think Google Docs is a real alternative to LibreOffice, you haven't even tried 1% of LibreOffice features. You probably don't need the other 99%, but some people do.
rdtsc 12y ago
> What's wrong with Google Docs? The Google part.
davexunit 12y ago
>What's wrong with Google Docs? It's proprietary SaaSS.
ben0x539 12y ago
I used google docs today because I thought I would be writing a quick, loose thing that's not worth digging out libreoffice (or god forbid, tex) for, and I'd made good experiences with google spreadsheets. In retrospect I should have switched to a real program the first time it happened, but every time I "printed" (saved to pdf) a draft, the page break in my two-page document would be off by a line or two compared to what the web app was showing me, so I had to rejiggle stuff to make it fit. (Forced page break didn't really help because it was orphaning entries in a short list.)

pcwalton 12y ago

A native app that opens .doc/.xls/.ppt files is a useful thing for a large number of people.

jmhain 12y ago
Can LibreOffice edit MS Office files non-destructively now? I'm impressed with the improvements lately, but I'm still too scared edit shared .docx files at work based on bad experiences with OpenOffice in the past.
- _delirium 12y ago
  I wrote a paper recently with some colleagues who use MS Word (common in some fields), mailing around .docx files in the usual manner, and it seemed to work ok. Obviously not a detailed test, but we exercised a reasonable number of features without breakage: a two-column document with stylesheet, a number of figures, several equations, and a reference section with auto-updated numerical references.
  - taeric 12y ago
    More pertinently, it does work better than using google docs. Assuming, of course, you can't get folks to agree to lose features and just move completely to google docs.
    - _delirium 12y ago
      Yeah, in my experience Google Docs is mainly useful if you treat it as an editor for lightly formatted (RTF-style) documents, not as a Word-compatible editor. If I really needed Word-on-the-cloud I'd probably use Microsoft's "Word Online", which is a lot more compatible than Google Docs (and also free).
- davidgerard 12y ago
  Pretty much. Preserving stuff LO doesn't understand, for roundtripping, is also a thing as of the last couple of years (the Interop GrabBag). If you have a failure and a reproducible test case, file a bug - there's significant improvements in OOXML support every release, and LO really does dive on these bugs and kill them.

allan_s 12y ago

It is * In country where google doc is blocked * In country/places where your connection speed is too slow * In places where you have no connection at all * For documents too big * For people that are used to it * For people that care about freedom etc. (regardless of your opinion on it) etc. etc.

fafner 12y ago
For people who don't trust outside companies (known to work with governments) with their confidential and/or expensive data.
smnrchrds 12y ago
* For people and businesses who don't want their data in Google's hands subject to US laws.

barrkel 12y ago

I sometimes have to open customer documents - CSV and Excel - containing confidential details. Nothing may leave the company.

kaoD 12y ago

If you think Google Docs is a real alternative to LibreOffice, you haven't even tried 1% of LibreOffice features. You probably don't need the other 99%, but some people do.

rdtsc 12y ago

> What's wrong with Google Docs? The Google part.

davexunit 12y ago

>What's wrong with Google Docs? It's proprietary SaaSS.

ben0x539 12y ago

I used google docs today because I thought I would be writing a quick, loose thing that's not worth digging out libreoffice (or god forbid, tex) for, and I'd made good experiences with google spreadsheets. In retrospect I should have switched to a real program the first time it happened, but every time I "printed" (saved to pdf) a draft, the page break in my two-page document would be off by a line or two compared to what the web app was showing me, so I had to rejiggle stuff to make it fit. (Forced page break didn't really help because it was orphaning entries in a short list.)