I don't think I could ever go back to storing my docs locally and not being able to access them from all my devices at all times anywhere in the world, easily.
LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs
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Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I have no interest in renting my tools. While I appreciate the sentiment, the world where you could use the same software for many years without updates is gone. These days developers have to invest significant time and effort into making sure the software just runs on the constantly updated operating systems and platforms — which costs money on an ongoing basis. Expecting your software to be updated regularly with…
It's simple. I buy a computer and buy the software. This software is installed on this computer and will will work unless the computer is broken. When you bought a CASIO keyboard you do not expect it to stop working after 3 years because it's installed newest updates. Of course CASIO is not connected to the internet, it won't allow me to steer it with my fancy phone app. So maybe, just maybe, connecting everything to…
Darktable is an excellent lightroom replacement that does exactly what you need it to do for people that open it once every 5 months.
Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's honestly less than I would have expected. I still have an old copy of Microsoft Office 95 though I no longer have the hardware with which to run it. Ditto a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS6 which I believe was the final version before they went full on subscription.
i reckon these software ought to run fine in a VM, perhaps running something like windows xp. Unfortunately, with photoshop, the hardware drivers for the various drawing tablets will probably not function (or remain available).
Also work on a brand new Linux with wine.
Actually come to that, my wife has Windows 10 and runs Photoshop CS2 occasionally.
Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs
#104I started using OpenOffice a couple decades ago when I got tired of pirating the market leader. Not wanting to start any religious wars, but I still haven't made the leap to Libre.
I don't want to start any wars either, but I think people should make informed choices.
By choosing OpenOffice, you should be aware that you are at an increased risk for attacks. One of the consistent problems with OpenOffice over the past years has been that they have often not published security fixes for many months, sometimes critical ones, for vulnerabilities that were publicly known.
(Due to the shared codebase, obviously, many security issues affect both LO/OO, yet, with the difference that LO usually fixes them in a timely manner.)
Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs
#105It's probably also related to the geopolitical context.
The US has threatened war at least against Canada, Europe, Panama and China, while clearly eyeing an alliance with Russia, which would in turn threaten many countries bordering Russia. That's a pretty large number of users who don't feel safe using US products anymore.
Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs
#106I don't think I could ever go back to storing my docs locally and not being able to access them from all my devices at all times anywhere in the world, easily.
I think you can, I believe in you.
Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs
#107I've commented as much before but what do people even use office for these days? Like I hear individuals complain about the prices and I'm just like I have not needed a real office suite in years. Google Docs has been enough to get by with for free for well over a decade. Are you... creating and printing documents? Why? I haven't had a real need for a word processor since email was invented.
Google docs are fine for anything non-private and stuff that can go to the cloud.
I usually use Google docs for stuff like language learning for convenience and libreoffice for financial spreadsheets, work related stuff, and anything I don't want to be snooped by Google systems.
Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs
#108I need a Calc which doesn't suck. I don't necessarily need Excel, but the spreadsheet shouldn't be unusably slow at 100x100 cells with simple calculations and a literal couple of V/XLOOKUPs.
Gnumeric may be the answer for you. It was the answer for me. It's amazing how quickly both excel and libre office documents shit the bed and produce outright wrong behavior once they hit a few MB of data and/or a few dozen plots. Not to mention the fiasco of all the genetic information corrupted by excel's boneheaded auto complete (which they STILL haven't fixed afaik).
I have gnumeric documents with hundreds of plots containing fits etc that I view in 4k without any lag or delays whatsoever. The plotting options can also be made suitable for publication much more easily. All the important functions are there.
My main complaint about spreadsheets in general is the fitting options are still in the stone age compared with software like ROOT using minuit, where you can easily do a proper chi squared minimization with arbitrary functions where error bars of all points are correctly used. However, it seems only the sciences use such features as apparently there is no demand from the business world (or other MS customers) for spreadsheet tools supporting thought or analysis beyond a 5th grade level.
Microsoft has had decades and millions of dollars to make excel usable, and should be embarrassed about how their flagship productivity software is rightfully seen as unfit for purpose by people doing rigorous work. Seeing nontrivial information in a scientific talk rendered in the telltale excel style is visual shorthand for "the real analysis hasn't been done yet" or "I don't know what I'm doing and won't be able to answer questions about uncertainties."
Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs
#109I need a Calc which doesn't suck. I don't necessarily need Excel, but the spreadsheet shouldn't be unusably slow at 100x100 cells with simple calculations and a literal couple of V/XLOOKUPs.
Have you tried Google Sheets? Its not open source, but its free and gets the job done.
Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs
#110It's probably also related to the geopolitical context. The US has threatened war at least against Canada, Europe, Panama and China, while clearly eyeing an alliance with Russia, which would in turn threaten many countries bordering Russia. That's a pretty large number of users who don't feel safe using US products anymore.
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