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Ask HN: Has anyone successfully used LibreOffice for their business?

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Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully used LibreOffice for their business?

#91

Post by dmd »

dmd wrote: post #73
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Colleges offer entire degree programs in using Microsoft Office software. You can get an Associate's degree just in that alone. I've never been to a college that didn't require one Office course for all graduates.

I think maybe people are talking at cross purposes here and using the word 'college' differently, because I (in the USA) never even heard of a college that offers such a course, much less requires it.

I guess I’m talking about 4 year liberal arts colleges when I say or think “college”.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully used LibreOffice for their business?

#92

Post by pizzachan »

zinekeller wrote: post #80
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #46

I have. Been using OpenOffice.org / LibreOffice since 2005, started business in 2007, never ever had a copy of MS office. I LAUGH at silly FUD like "you can't run a business without MSOffice", "You can't read documents ", "format compatibility problems!!", because that all is just FUD. If I ever (rarely, maybe 4 times total) receive a price file or spec that is unreadable by LibreOffice, I just ask to resend it to me…

> I LAUGH at silly FUD like "you can't run a business without MSOffice", "You can't read documents ", "format compatibility problems!!", because that all is just FUD. Not really a FUD if you're dealing with Excel spreadsheets from other companies, especially those that uses integrations with Excel. However PowerPoint/Present compat is a hit-or-miss bother but not world-shuttering like with Excel though, and Word comp…

When I used to work on publishing government reports we used to run into strange formatting issues if we didn’t stick with the Windows version of Office 365. Could we have worked around them with multiple versions or LibreOffice etc? Sure, but it would take time and at at $150-$350 and hour per contractor its not worth it. Just provision the licenses and be done with it.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully used LibreOffice for their business?

#93

Post by kayodelycaon »

NonNefarious wrote: post #86
kayodelycaon wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The review ribbon has been very convenient. I use it constantly as an author. Flipping between landscape and portrait and changing margins isn’t buried in an obscure dialog box. (I do this often to make signs.)

OK, I could see how review controls would be useful. Could they not be added to the toolbar before? With due respect to your opinion, I don't think sign-making is a major use case for a word processor. I would think that a vector-art program would be far better suited to that, even a free one like Inkscape.

The ribbon interface is more than just buttons on a toolbar. It adds discoverability to many features I didn’t even know existed and I’ve used Word since Office 95. I find the differing visual layout to be a lot easier to read than a lot of similarly sized buttons.

Any place where people work will end up having signs. I’ve seen Word (and Google docs) used to make simple text signs and more complex ones using clip art. What I don’t see is a lot of signs being made. Not nearly enough to justify learning Inkscape.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully used LibreOffice for their business?

#94

Post by ma2rten »

freedomben wrote: post #79
kbelder wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only in a very small, insular bubble.

I don't know, I've worked with tiny startups and bigger companies like Red Hat, and huge banks, and GSuite is very widely used. The biggest corps don't seem to use it, but I definitely don't think it's only used in a small insular bubble

According to my Google Research Google Workspace has 19.2% marketshare and Office 365 65%.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully used LibreOffice for their business?

#95

Post by kingofpandora »

ma2rten wrote: post #94
freedomben wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, I've worked with tiny startups and bigger companies like Red Hat, and huge banks, and GSuite is very widely used. The biggest corps don't seem to use it, but I definitely don't think it's only used in a small insular bubble

According to my Google Research Google Workspace has 19.2% marketshare and Office 365 65%.

I wouldn't call 20% "a small insular bubble".

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully used LibreOffice for their business?

#98

Post by Spooky23 »

technofiend wrote: post #89
Spooky23 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I don’t think that’s true anymore. Microsoft runs so many different release channels between Windows. Office, Office 365 and Mac wtf knows when new features arrive.

Not sure which part you don't think is true any more? So I'm switching from a Windows virtual desktop to a Macbook and the experience I'm talking about is as of the last few weeks. Hopefully MS will eventually catch up and gain feature parity everywhere, but as stated above, there's at least one disincentive for doing so; namely it'll impact Windows revenue.

I don’t think MacOS is really a second class citizen anymore. Excel lags a bit but is greatly improved from a few years ago. I’d argue Mac Outlook is a better product.

Microsoft’s revenue is driven by subscriptions and business users. Commercial customers have to pay Microsoft for Windows even if they run Macs. For individuals, losing the $60 in Windows revenue and getting a Office subscription on Mac is a win - Mac users spend more.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone successfully used LibreOffice for their business?

#100

Post by xbmcuser »

ma2rten wrote: post #94
freedomben wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, I've worked with tiny startups and bigger companies like Red Hat, and huge banks, and GSuite is very widely used. The biggest corps don't seem to use it, but I definitely don't think it's only used in a small insular bubble

According to my Google Research Google Workspace has 19.2% marketshare and Office 365 65%.

As the the children using it in schools grow up the percentage will probably change in Googles favour. Cheap Chromebooks and G-suite for schools was the entry to try breaking Microsoft monopoly on an Office suite we will find out if they succeeded in the next decade.
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