What's your favorite office suite?

cereberus said:

Let's be honest - all office suites are near clones of MS Office. These might be ok for a domestic user with limited needs but any serious user, especially for business use, knows it is no contest.

As my dear old gran used to say "you get what you pay for".

Add that most "administrative" jobs require some knowledge of Microsoft Office, especially in the government and corporate world.

I learned Microsoft Office while I was in the military after getting "promoted" off the flightline (was an aircraft mechanic) to "Resource Advisor (budget office) in 98. That's also when I got (built) my first PC, which also had Office 97 installed.

I like LibreOffice which historically has roots in the old Sun Micro or Star Office of the '80s [I think Microsoft Office came a bit later] but I prefer WordPerfect as some things don't take as long as in Microsoft Office. My first computer of '92 came with WordPerfect for Windows 5.2 but I had also taken a community education class at the local college along with MS-DOS 5. Two years later I was building computers. OpenOffice is fair [doesn't support file formats I've needed in the past for cllients], there's others such as WPS and SoftMaker. Lotus AmiPro [replace by their WordPro] was good as was their 1-2-3 spreadsheet program [which I first learned about spreadsheets on].

sygnus21 said:

Add that most "administrative" jobs require some knowledge of Microsoft Office, especially in the government and corporate world.

I learned Microsoft Office while I was in the military after getting "promoted" off the flightline (was an aircraft mechanic) to "Resource Advisor (budget office) in 98. That's also when I got (built) my first PC, which also had Office 97 installed.

Yep, I do not known any (even modest sized) companies that use anything but MS Office.

Most students get get it free from education establishment.

Tools like Libreoffice are only for those who use it entirely for personal use where 100% compatibility with Office does not matter.

If I am ever out and about on a pc that does not have MS Office, I just use Wordpad or Office online but if I really need full power of Office, I just remote into my home pc. In the end, it all comes down to needs.

I wonder what the marketshare of office clones is (at least in developed countries). I would be surprised if it was as high as 3-5%.

cereberus said:

Most students get get it free from education establishment.

Yeah, I was getting Office 365 Enterprise (downloaded to PC) from my school for free, but I no longer wanted to be tethered to them, so I got my own subscription. Free is fine, but I don't want to be at the mercy of my school.

BTW, I've not been enrolled in any classes for over 2 years, but still have a valid .edu email address and full access to the school's Office suite where I can download to my PC. Still rather have my own for peace of mind and freedom.

pparks1 said:

Cost of office365 makes it a no-brainer for me. Can run the full suite on any of my computers that I want, I give 1 of my 6 subs to my dad, and my family of 4 each gets 1TB of cloud space. All this for the cost of about 2 fillups for my car makes it a very simple choice.

If you're a fan of Office (as I am), this is indeed a good deal. Same goes for Adobe's photography plan which includes Photoshop and Lightroom. For others, it may be an expense they can do without by sticking to a perpetual version or looking for free or non-subscription alternatives.

In the end it depends on comfort and use... for me, I've grown so accustomed to using these apps, that I couldn't fathom being without them. There's also the comfort of knowing these are Defacto programs that everyone uses so tons of support

I started out using IBM's PROFS (Professional Office System) on an IBM Mainframe for documents, E-Mail, Calendar, etc... and Lotus 123 (spreadsheet) on a PC in 1984 for a few years then the company I was working for added Lotus Notes which was my "office suite" until about 1996. At that point I moved to a different company that was standardized on MS Office which I quickly picked up. I used MS Office in my work and for my personal computer at home. Over the years I became pretty proficient at using VBA to create complex macros. I used MS Office at all my employers for the next 24 years.

After I retired, I decided I didn't want to spend the money to buy MS Office to install on my newer computers so started using LibreOffice since it was free. It worked fine for my needs but I really didn't like it all that much. I'm sure it was mostly due to my familiarity with MS Office. About a month ago I bit the bullet and purchased 2 copies of MS Office Pro 2016 (cost less than a 1 year subscription for Office365) and couldn't be happier.