Fucking heroes 👏

Microsoft Office is a parasite holding people hostage with extortionate subscription fees

  • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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    1 day ago

    I love them!! LibreOffice rules so much. I’m so happy it exists! Thank you to these heroes of FOSS. 🫡

    I used to consider LibreOffice Calc an “alternative” to excel and Google sheets, because I just had so much experience using them.

    So while I liked LibreOffice, it was more on an ideological level. I used the other spreadsheet software much more often at work.

    But then I just “forced” myself to use Calc exclusively and pretty quickly got used to how it works, until there was no friction at all.

    Didn’t really think much of it until someone at work sent me a link to an online excel spreadsheet and it felt clunky as hell compared to what I was used to. I couldn’t figure out how to do the simplest thing, had to look everything up, and just felt frustrated by the whole experience.

    Anyway, it’s funny how my old alternative became now my main. Kind of reminds me of my journey from Windows to Linux, really.

    • mobyduck648@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Second this, of all the very worthy free software contributors out there these people are surely doing some of the most practical work for day-to-day software freedom for many users.

  • Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I can vouch for libre office. It’s so much better than it was I now don’t miss PowerPoint or word, and I really don’t miss Microsoft

    • 4am@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      As some one who lives in Excel, IMHO Calc is 80% of the way there - and that’s no easy task! Excel has been the primary tool of capitalism for decades now, it’s one of the most polished pieces of software ever (and yes I’m aware how annoying it can be sometimes lol)

      • DontRedditMyLemmy@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Controversial take: that missing 20% is a deal breaker for my use cases. I’m still in awe of the volunteer developer network, but Calc has fallen short of being an Excel replacement for me.

    • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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      2 days ago

      I was just using LibreOffice Calc to build some spreadsheets with formulas and everything. I’ve got no complaints.

      These people are heroes

    • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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      2 days ago

      Not to mention: This software must be as boring for most coders to work on as it is essential for all of us to have. Let’s be honest it’s not the sexiest kind of project.

      I’m glad we have a volunteer community that can get excited about maintaining and improving office software for people around the globe. There’s a rare intersection of discipline, passion, and skill at play there. :)

    • NCSK@fedia.io
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      2 days ago

      I’m honestly surprised you use lemmy, but never heard about LibreOffice. There are so many cool softwares that are probably waiting for you to find them out.

      • PenguinVII@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        Oh if that helps, I joined Lemmy just recently about 2 weeks ago. I’m surely finding interesting and unique things on here!

        • BeatL@pawb.social
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          2 days ago

          welcome and it is good news that lemmy cather to everyone :)

          If you want to find alternative tools i can recommend using https://alternativeto.net/ it recommend tools that are alternative to other.

          you can sort by paid, free, proprietary, etc

          As some tools can be quite ubiquitous and/or you can have different use case, please check different alternatives.

          Whatever your need, you will be surprised how many tools exist.

          a nice one is firefox instead of chrome,edge, opera or safari. It is open source, do not collect your data, is light on ressource and if you add the extension “ublock origin” you have a truly ad free web browsing experience. (adblocker do not work anymore on browser and adblock have been bought by a marketing giant)

  • hash@slrpnk.net
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    2 days ago

    Building alternatives can feel like hurling pebbles at goliath, but it is truly a substastial contribution that hacks at the roots of billionaire control.

  • 33550336@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Fortunately, their work is appreciated and used around the world. I like libreoffice very much, there is no looking back.

    • Theoriginalthon@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      My only bad experience with this software is users moaning that it’s not excel and word. And users using word/writer as a layout tool, without using the layout tools in that software: tab tab tab space space space space align left: why does nothing line up 😔

    • newbeni@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      My struggle, which is admittedly my own and I just need to practice, is that my hands have reflexive memory on how to get the the end of a column, how to freeze the top row, how to sort…I just do that all by the keyboard and I haven’t been successful is re-training my hands. I 100% love these people though, they should have a shrine or something