Microsoft Office suite is obviously superior to its concurrents. If it were available on linux I’d use it, despite being about FOSS ideology. Sometimes, non-FOSS can be better alternatives. However, OnlyOffice is still neat and gets the job done.
It’s a battle they are going to lose in the long run. When you write closed sourge code, you make a bet that you’re better than all available FOSS developers in the field.
Didn’t Excel make a big fuss about python integration when Libreoofice has had that for years?
I loathe Ms Access but have to admit there is no peer that even comes close.
Vs code is relatively reliable, cross platform and gets the job done. When there are a lot of people “one way that works for all” is a quality as well.
That said, I wish open offices were better. Even Apple numbers isn’t a realistic excel alt yet (though it is super decent). And I agree there are plenty of editors that work in many situations.
Ohh can you do Exel-Style arithmetics in Word tables? You can in LibreOffice.
Maybe it’s just so widely used no one really knows other Office programs are basically on par with MS Office or even better.
I disagree. I actually like the LibreOffice, non-tabbed, UI. It’s a UI/UX that I’m used to from Office 2003 and honestly prefer. The 2007+ ribbon interface makes things harder for me to find.
Like I’m used to GIMP and can’t do shit in photoshop. That doesn’t mean the UX is good though, just that you got used to it and are not willing to change.
Ok but most people only use very basic features of Excel and would be fine with a version from the early 2000’s. The spreadsheet market has caught up and they’d be fine with basically any product at this point. The only thing propping up Microsoft Office is the subtle incompatibilities they’ve slipped into their file formats, that people don’t want to deal with. That and the fact most people get to use their Office free one way or another, and “it’s what I’m used to”.
I don’t think I’ve touched actual desktop Office in more than a decade now. Even in a corporate environment it’s mostly their online version that gets used 90% of time by 90% of people.
Offline use is a good point. I wouldn’t want to try and use google sheets in some kind of sandboxed scenario.
If google would release a local server I could run of google apps I’d love it. But any desktop version of the same I wouldn’t trust. I’d still want to access them via browser.
Not because of bad actors but just because of bugs in deployment of two different architectures for the same app.
The issue I have with online spreadsheet is that browsers are generally not allowed to access the local filesystem through scripts. For good reasons no doubt, but when that’s what I need to do, then it just won’t work.
Kind of the conclusion I’d come to.
Would you use excel if it were on Linux? It’s one of the other few Microsoft products I think is actually pretty good.
Obviously not foss but still
Microsoft Office suite is obviously superior to its concurrents. If it were available on linux I’d use it, despite being about FOSS ideology. Sometimes, non-FOSS can be better alternatives. However, OnlyOffice is still neat and gets the job done.
It’s a battle they are going to lose in the long run. When you write closed sourge code, you make a bet that you’re better than all available FOSS developers in the field.
Didn’t Excel make a big fuss about python integration when Libreoofice has had that for years?
No, and it never was. There are/were always equal alternatives. It has always been their marketing power that made them (seemingly) win.
Whoops
Excel is def the mkt leader for a reason
I loathe Ms Access but have to admit there is no peer that even comes close.
Vs code is relatively reliable, cross platform and gets the job done. When there are a lot of people “one way that works for all” is a quality as well.
That said, I wish open offices were better. Even Apple numbers isn’t a realistic excel alt yet (though it is super decent). And I agree there are plenty of editors that work in many situations.
Ohh can you do Exel-Style arithmetics in Word tables? You can in LibreOffice. Maybe it’s just so widely used no one really knows other Office programs are basically on par with MS Office or even better.
LibreOffice UI is really… well… old. UX is really bad : it’s on par with GIMP’s ideology of “make it as hard as possible to get things done”
I disagree. I actually like the LibreOffice, non-tabbed, UI. It’s a UI/UX that I’m used to from Office 2003 and honestly prefer. The 2007+ ribbon interface makes things harder for me to find.
Like I’m used to GIMP and can’t do shit in photoshop. That doesn’t mean the UX is good though, just that you got used to it and are not willing to change.
You know there are like 7 different layouts built in and you can create custom ones. You can even make it look like world if you like.
I would use Markdown editors for literally all office tasks if I could.
Ok but most people only use very basic features of Excel and would be fine with a version from the early 2000’s. The spreadsheet market has caught up and they’d be fine with basically any product at this point. The only thing propping up Microsoft Office is the subtle incompatibilities they’ve slipped into their file formats, that people don’t want to deal with. That and the fact most people get to use their Office free one way or another, and “it’s what I’m used to”.
I don’t think I’ve touched actual desktop Office in more than a decade now. Even in a corporate environment it’s mostly their online version that gets used 90% of time by 90% of people.
Everybody needs just a small subset of that excel does, but everybody needs a different subset.
If you do not have all the features, most of your users will be missing something that is critical to their use case.
That may be but it doesn’t mean those subsets put together amount to more than just basic functionality.
What basic functionality does Excel have that can’t you can’t find in other spreadsheet products?
I prefer google docs because it’s accessible through a browser wherever I want.
You can use cryptdrive, it’s on par with google docs spreadsheet.
Is it better than google docs spreadsheet?
Try it, it is free. It is the online implementation of OnlyOffice
MS Office 365 is also fully functional in a browser these days.
Personally I prefer the offline version for various reasons.
Offline use is a good point. I wouldn’t want to try and use google sheets in some kind of sandboxed scenario.
If google would release a local server I could run of google apps I’d love it. But any desktop version of the same I wouldn’t trust. I’d still want to access them via browser.
Not because of bad actors but just because of bugs in deployment of two different architectures for the same app.
The issue I have with online spreadsheet is that browsers are generally not allowed to access the local filesystem through scripts. For good reasons no doubt, but when that’s what I need to do, then it just won’t work.