LPT: You don’t need to pay for an office suite, there are free open source options

Submitted by a0st t3_z64u4m in LifeProTips

A lot of people are not aware that there are free and open source options to popular non-free software such as Microsoft Office, and pay for software they rarely use. The most popular open source office suite is LibreOffice which replaces Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. For home users this software is almost always adequate. Open source means that the software is developed by a global community of users.

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keepthetips t1_ixzcj4l wrote

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Tribblehappy t1_ixzcq29 wrote

Is libre office more popular than Open Office? I've never heard of it.

Regardless, yes, there are great free options. Even google is mostly compatible though I've had a few printing format issues with Google sheets.

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a0st OP t1_ixzgeve wrote

Replying to Tribblehappy (#709,155)

LibreOffice is based on OpenOffice (a fork), and it's the default office suite included in many Linux distributions. But LibreOffice is these days being more actively developed. You could say its the successor of OpenOffice. It's estimated that around 200 million people uses LibreOffice.

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_Nightrider121200_ t1_ixzpnwb wrote

There is an important note to be made. Microsoft is a supporter of these open source software products. The have a say about what is included in it.

Some of the most useful functionality is not included or severe limitations have been added. Finally, the placement of the tools is done in a really chaotic manner.

If you have been MS office user you will lose a significant amount of time due to productivity losses which means LibreOffice is good if you are not using it professionally.

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steveblobby t1_ixzrrvf wrote

Alternatively, I bought a key for Microsoft Office 2021 for £9.95 off Ebay. They give you the download link and a key. Simple. Works fine too, just hasn't got cloud storage like 365, but I own it, and don't pay a subscription.

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slobs_burgers t1_iy188xd wrote

I usually just use Google drive for basic stuff like word processor and basic tables. If you need a more complex spreadsheet you’ll probably need to bump up to something else

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JayElecAintConv_Me t1_iy253o0 wrote

I own a couple copies of MS Office. Still use the open source option.

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