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LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

computerworld.com

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Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#91

Post by ohgr »

lauritz wrote: post #86

To my surprise, what used to be called iWork has been my main "Office" replacement for years now. It's good enough, and it's free. I have switched over most of the non-technical people in my life to it, and they have no issues using it (except if they email a .pages document to a Windows user). I especially enjoy Numbers and the way you can arrange multiple tables on a page. It's a different paradigm coming from Goog…

I tried using Numbers across my Mac and iPad. It has some show stopping sync bugs there which result in it completely destroying documents. Then when you try and recover previous versions you get a lesson in Apple's commitment to things other than the facade on the front of their stuff: not a lot. The document versions thing sometimes doesn't even work and if it does it's so slow it's unusable. Probably backed with some low tier S3 stuff. Also the formula editor is painful at best.

TeXshop on the Mac is however rather nice.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#92

Post by stringsandchars »

dijksterhuis wrote: post #75
eddythompson80 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You listed software that range between $500-$15k. Last time a “I want the option to pay for my software” posts here I replied to was about Infuse. And people complained that “$80 is an absurd amount for a software” and “Why isn’t there a free version?” A software that costs $500-15k is only feasible for a B2B type business.

> You listed software that range between $500-$15k. i’m confused… all versions of the DAWs they mentioned in the parent comment are as near as makes no difference below £500. > Live 12 Suite: £539 > Live 12 Standard: £259 > Live 12 Intro: £69 (nice) https://www.ableton.com/en/shop/live/ > FL Studio Full: £469 (nice) > FL Studio Signature: £279 > FL Studio Producer: £199 > FL Studio Fruity: £89 https://www.image-line.…

> Photoshop All Creative Cloud £59.99 pcm (£720 pa) > this last one ^ bundles all the proprietary adobe “rented” software they mentioned into one package.

And the worst thing about that 'package' is that if you need (say) just Photoshop + Illustrator - well suddenly the 'cheapest' way to do that is paying for the entire package of garbage that you don't want and will never need.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#93

Post by InsideOutSanta »

lauritz wrote: post #86

To my surprise, what used to be called iWork has been my main "Office" replacement for years now. It's good enough, and it's free. I have switched over most of the non-technical people in my life to it, and they have no issues using it (except if they email a .pages document to a Windows user). I especially enjoy Numbers and the way you can arrange multiple tables on a page. It's a different paradigm coming from Goog…

I sometimes wish Claris Works 5 was still around. It was small and fast, did everything I actually needed when writing documents or letters and nothing I didn't need, and had a clean, uncluttered UI that made sense.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#94

Post by dijit »

tombert wrote: post #38
vunderba wrote: post #2

If I'm evaluating a potential application whose core functionality does not require external resources/servers (Dropbox for example) and they don't at a minimum offer some kind of perpetual fallback license (aka the Jetbrains annual subscription model), then I straight up bounce. Examples of good alternatives - Pixelmator > Photoshop - Davinci Resolve > Premiere - Reaper > Audition I have no interest in renting my to…

I would also like to throw in Lightworks into the “very good Premiere alternatives”. If you are ok with exporting 720p, the free version is pretty capable but if you want higher export resolution it cost money. It has a subscription option, but also a “buy outright” option, and it’s often on sale for half price for the permanent license, ends up costing around ~$200 and it works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. I think it…

I upvote any option that has a “buy outright” baked in.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#95

Post by UncleSlacky »

fodkodrasz wrote: post #63
Shopper0552 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any good alternatives to Photoshop that are open source? And that are not GIMP. Nothing against GIMP, I just found it too hard to learn coming from photoshop. I'm looking for a simple editor that can do color adjustments, crop/resize images, and add text.

Paint.Net on Windows. Though on Windows there is Paint, that is less capable, but still no equivalent is on MacOS OOTB. (Also the drama around Paint is worth its own bashing). I'd be interested in a similar basic tool as paint for mac and Linux (and possibly also for windows, if MS crappifies Paint, after it has tried to kill it earlier)

Pinta (essentially a reimplementation of Paint.NET) exists for MacOS as well as Linux and Windows: https://www.pinta-project.com/releases/

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#96

Post by UncleSlacky »

dokyun wrote: post #69
snielson wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Paint.net for simple tasks like those you listed. I paid $10 for it in the Microsoft store but I think you can get it for free from the website.

Paint.net isn't free software, it's proprietary freeware. It used to be free a long time ago, but the author is a tool and made it closed source because people were creating other versions of it.

Pinta is a free reimplenetation: https://www.pinta-project.com

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#97

Post by nik736 »

lauritz wrote: post #86

To my surprise, what used to be called iWork has been my main "Office" replacement for years now. It's good enough, and it's free. I have switched over most of the non-technical people in my life to it, and they have no issues using it (except if they email a .pages document to a Windows user). I especially enjoy Numbers and the way you can arrange multiple tables on a page. It's a different paradigm coming from Goog…

I agree, but Numbers is sooo slow! When opening a huge file it is unusable.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#98

Post by barotalomey »

dijksterhuis wrote: post #81
jwr wrote: post #25

Earlier 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…

Reaper’s “ i’m going to stop you from using the software for six seconds with a sufficiently obtrusive, non-arrogant, guilt tripping message about being non-free and you should really purchase a license but you can keep using it and download new versions even if you don’t purchase a license ” is absolutely genius and a good sort-of counter example to your covering ongoing costs point. at least it highlights the probl…

I got a reaper license 10 years ago because I too insist on paying for good software, then I never used it.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#100

Post by [deleted] »

jwr wrote: post #57
skydhash wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the software just runs on the constantly updated operating systems and platforms Don't forget that VMs exists. I don't mind paying the upgrade price when I need the newer version, but that should be an informed decision. These day, subscriptions are actual gatekeepers to features where when you cancel it, you lose access to the software "pro" features.

VMs don't solve the problem. I was also a fan of running stuff in VMs (using VMware), and then the Apple Silicon transition happened and my Windows VMs no longer work.

[deleted]
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