Microsoft Office Alturnitive

[broken ed]

Disclosure: There might be a thread on this from 2014, I ran a search and thread came up but could find any on LibreOffice. Also I make no money and have no association with LibreOffice.

I own a license for Microsoft Office 2000 but I haven't used MS Office in more then a decade. Now days it looks like MS Office is a yearly subscription. I changed to LibreOffice. The software is free for personal use, doesn't require an account and doesn't have any nag screens. In fact I've used LibreOffice for years before I ever realized they accepted donations.

LibreOffice is available for Windows and Ubuntu, I run both operating systems and made donations for both but it's not required. If you don't want to spend the money for MS Office or don't have the money for MS Office you might give LibreOffice a try. If down the road you like it and find you have a couple dollars you might make a donation, that's how it works.

 

[John61CT]

Yes, been using for decades, back to BDS Unix, then Sun open sourced it as Open Office. Big panic when Oracle came along, even more predatory corp than MS.

Bill Joy also wrote the original "vi" editor.

Eric Schmidt landed at Novell, then of course Google.

 

[brucedevauxone]

Disclosure: There might be a thread on this from 2014, I ran a search and thread came up but could find any on LibreOffice. Also I make no money and have no association with LibreOffice.

I own a license for Microsoft Office 2000 but I haven't used MS Office in more then a decade. Now days it looks like MS Office is a yearly subscription. I changed to LibreOffice. The software is free for personal use, doesn't require an account and doesn't have any nag screens. In fact I've used LibreOffice for years before I ever realized they accepted donations.

LibreOffice is available for Windows and Ubuntu, I run both operating systems and made donations for both but it's not required. If you don't want to spend the money for MS Office or don't have the money for MS Office you might give LibreOffice a try. If down the road you like it and find you have a couple dollars you might make a donation, that's how it works.

same here when comes to MS-off- i have Open Office for many years and love it- has all the benefits like spread sheet and data base etc

 

[tav-2020]

also google docs, free with your gmail account...

 

[Plant]

LibreOffice is also available for MacOS. I use it along with the Apple office tools. The biggest problem I have with LIbre is that it does not use the MacOS function of holding down a letter while typing to choose international characters, which I use for French writing. Other than that, it's good. I've used it for years.

 

[John61CT]

Because Bill's Java (why Oracle bought Sun) is like a virtual OS running between the MacOS or Windows or Linux, and the app.

Best solution is to buy the hardware and install the OS version for the most difficult target language.

Everything can handle boring old English as an option.

But meantime look for Java-based keymapper designed for Mac, or maybe google based on keywords from posts like this

https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/57945/how-do-i-add-french-accent-marks-a-a-e-e-u-u-etc/

 

[Weight]

For most common stuff, the alternatives work well enough. But none compare fully with MS Office. The world runs on MS and I need the program for business uses. 360 prescription is for me.

 

[broken ed]

For most common stuff, the alternatives work well enough. But none compare fully with MS Office. The world runs on MS and I need the program for business uses. 360 prescription is for me.

I agree, fortunately I don't need MS Office or the expense. But even when using LibreOffice I still save all my files and documents in MS Office 97-2003 format rather then using LibreOffice native format. MS Office seems to have become almost a universal format.

Likewise, I still like having a Windows computer even though I mainly use a Ubuntu computer for everything. Happily this is now the best Windows ever,,, and I go back to Windows 3.1 running on top of DOS. I would still rather use Windows to trouble-shoot, like scanning and repairing a USB drive.

 

[maki2]

Apache Open Office is another good choice. It is a full suite of products and it can open MS files. I have been using it for the last 10 years or so. As indicated it is software that was developed by open contributions. openoffice.org is the website for it

 

[John61CT]

LibreOffice was a fork of OpenOffice when Oracle bought Sun. Oracle later released to FOSS via Apache's licensing.

 

[frater secessus]

LibreOffice is my go-to, and OpenOffice before that.AbiWord on micro installs like Puppy linux. Drive sometimes in browser-only contexts.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[John61CT]

Drive sometimes in browser-only contexts.

Sorry frater, could you please re-word / explain that bit?

 

[Weight]

John. Google is your friend.

 

[frater secessus]

Yeah, that sentence was a trainwreck. I meant "when I am restricted to a browser (as in a kiosk, library, etc) I use Google Drive for documents I might otherwise open in Open/LibreOffice."

 

[John61CT]

Aha.

I used to get very enthusiastic about PortableApps format when in an environment of locked down PCs

 

[frater secessus]

I have PortableApps (and bootable linux) on my keyfob for just such emergencies...