The BEST OFFICE SUITES for Linux

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Subscribe to Extended Lifecycle Support Services for CentOS 8: tuxcare.org/eol-linux-support

[@augcampospt]

Hi there from Portugal Do you plan to test the macro edition or the "VBA" tools in this office suites? Obrigado(Thanks)

[@FengLengshun]

(blinks at 2d ago) Ah, I guess you posted this before making the video public? It confused me because the video was only 6h old.

[@montecorbit8280]

It would have been nice if, for fun, you had mentioned WordPerfect 5.1 and WordPerfect 6.0 for Linux. Back in the day, those were ported from DOS and Windows by Caldera....

[@bagajohny1673]

@The Linux Experiment can you please do a video about best video players on Linux? I am yet to find a video player on Linux which is as good as PotPlayer or MPC on Windows.

[@JoaoSantos-jb7ul]

Hi, Nick! Many years ago, Brazil's public revenue office (where I work) decided to use LibreOffice instead of MS Office for economic reasons (imagine the amount of economy not having to buy licenses for thousands of computers, in which the whole majority of people simply wrote common texts without complexity). But I discovered how to create macros in LibreOffice, first by using the macro recorder, then editing the macros. I've developed some 'standard texts' which were modifiable by macros according to my needs [finding and replacing parts of the text, using InputBoxes to demand me informations, adding variables to the text which are replaced by the text written in InputBoxes, using conditions If-Then-Else, repetitions, and so on]. That's how I've learned to use LibreOffice and why I still use it today even at home.

[@biomorphic]

It is tedious, it's something I have done as well. OnlyOffice as well doesn't support VBA, so you have to convert your macro. For me this is a no go, I prefer to use Microsoft Office because of the macros, and any Excel power user would still prefer Microsoft Office for the same reason. I didn't use OnlyOffice but PowerPoint is also much better than the equivalent LibreOffice program. And, by the way, JavaScript sucks more than VBA.

[@lain7758]

O serviço público é todo Libre já kkkkkk apesar de que, onde eu estagiei, as máquinas e os programas eram feios e disfuncionais pra porra, e precisava de permissão do TI pra instalar qualquer coisa, então eu me virava é com o Google Docs kkkkkkk

[@theluga7363]

Where I work in brazil (also a public office) We still use windows and microsoft office etc. But we use linux on our server for computing and modelling. So we have clients (windows) that connects to linux by ssh and putty and winscp, to run every computational program.... Windows is just a client pc and office suit. The TI wanted to transition to linux but office compatibilitty is a must! (ministries, ccee, ons, ana etc. always send their documents on office sigh...)

[@NofarahTech]

The only reason I use libreoffice exclusively is its support of Arabic language. All the others programs you mentioned Nick are far behind libreoffice when it comes to write from right to left

[@xeriab]

I agree! OnlyOffice seems a good option if it supported RTL languages.

[@NofarahTech]

@@xeriab I want to integrate it with my nextcloud server to edit documents everywhere, but the lack of good support of RTL holds me back

[@dntbther9298]

@@NofarahTech RTL is a feature requested since 2016 but the onlyoffice team found out that their rendering engine is hard coded to LTR, so they'd have to partially or even fully rewrite it, but if after 6 years they couldn't figure it out i seriously doubt they'll fix it anytime soon.

[@kmmmsyr9883]

I'm not even Arabian and my country uses Latin script, but I hate how Arabic isn't supported by most software, despite having hundreds of millions of native speakers and being used in many other non-Arab countries.

[@xeriab]

@@kmmmsyr9883 Supporting RTL languages is a pain in the butt.. specially cursive scripts like Arabic/Persian because handling BiDi is a hit and miss. so most non Arabs (as an example) will not invest time and resources in doing so. I'm a developer and Arabic is my native Language but I find it hard to support Arabic in some of the projects I worked on. but I may take a look at OnlyOffice's source code and give it a try in spare time =)

[@postnick]

Big user of excel and access at work. Pivot tables are not quite what I need in Libre office but for my personal use it’s great!

[@AdamDymitruk]

I use pivot tables in libre office all the time. What's missing?

[@marcello4258]

Pivot tables in excel? Uff. use a different tool. Pivot tables are so damn limiting and time consuming compare to alternatives

[@marcello4258]

@Dakota Keeler I personally would encourage to use R here. It is damn easy if you spent like 3 hours to look at it. R Studio is for the non-nerds good it has a easy GUI if you don't like the command line.. there are also other solutions but for excel users R is the way to go.

[@marcello4258]

@@nemod.8310 exactly especially when we are talking about repetitive tasks like reporting. You'd wonder how many people still use Spreadsheets for reports, because they never learned how to do proper data analysis.

[@talkysassis]

@@marcello4258 And they don't want to learn. You gain users providing what they want, not what they need.

[@NordicFrog]

OnlyOffice is amazing. The support for MS-Word documents of OnlyOffice is in my experience better than in any other office package.

[@xrafter]

The language support should be considered when choosing a Office suit too. Since I had many problem with arabic in libre office

[@kquote03]

maybe it's the font, Arabic didn't give me any issues with Libreoffice, however, it did on onlyoffice (RTL support issue has been open for years now)

[@xrafter]

@@kquote03 I have a problem where if I open a document in arabic, and then going saving and existing, then entering again. The text become missy and some letters are not aligned probably.

[@TazerXI]

For me it is slightly more nuanced with autocorrect. I use UK English, not US English. So I don't notice until half way through when I type "realise" and realise it thinks it should be "realize". So I change it to UK English, then change it in the default language. But then it acts like bold/font size, etc. where only part of the text is in UK and not US. Who asked to spell check one sentence to a different language?

[@mahdil4426]

for me it works fine but i always change the default arabic font

[@marcopeterson805]

@@mahdil4426 lemme guess, Kufi ?

[@ozrencupac]

I use freeoffice because its extremely lightweight Opens in less than 5 secnods on my 13 year old core 2 duo

[@kuhluhOG]

6:35 Yeah, about Calc. I once opened a spreadsheet at work in Excel, it was pretty laggy, but workable (but barely). Then I asked the co-worker with the department Linux laptop (pilot project) to open it with Calc. Although the Laptop had more CPU power, everything (including the Desktop) started the lag and the fans went into lift-off mode. After examining the spreadsheet closer, I can understand why. It had so many formulas, that if you change one cell it can have a domino effect to about few THOUSAND other cells. So, apparently Excel is better optimized for such spreadsheets.

[@navjotsingh2251]

I would recommend using an sql database to store the data, use power query to import/manipulate and analyse, then use use dax for analysis (you can also mix in excel formulas if absolutely necessary). I find using sql and using power query I can handle more complex problems with lots of formulas/dax/sql code whilst reducing the intensity on my laptop and loading times. Only problem is dax and power query are not available on Linux, so you stuck with windows I guess.

[@navjotsingh2251]

And one thing I’ve recently started doing is rather than nesting lots of complicated formulas together, I have used python with excel to create more optimised algorithms. Formulas aren’t necessarily the most optimised thing, which is why they cough up when you start nesting them and use really big data. Python has also hElped resolve this, by allowing me to call formulas and manage memory better and also define my own formulas.

[@navjotsingh2251]

Something all spreadsheets software suffer with is memory, you just got to find ways to optimise your work and make it better. I hope my comments help you.

[@stephenanthony5923]

Nick, I just want to say that your content brings a huge value to ALL computer users, not just Linux users. Thanks so very much for the quality teaching you deliver to the technology and Linux spaces.

[@TazerXI]

I find onlyoffice being the best (at least for me). I like the familiarity to MS office, meaning I don't need to re-learn as much as I did when I used libre office. I like tabs, and it being a self contained application, which I have found I want everything to have since now using tabs in my file explorer. I wish it did integrate more with your desktop theme, but I find it to work extremely well for my uses, and any normal uses for anyone else who just needs to use office apps. My main issue is that the save as doesn't let me go to a USB drive, but you can go to /run/media if the drive has already been mounted, so it isn't an issue if you can live past that/

[@clemradio]

Have you tried to bookmark that drive?

[@schwingedeshaehers]

Open Office didn't get real updates for years, while libre developed more features...

[@rigen97]

@@schwingedeshaehers OnlyOffice isnt OpenOffice lol.

[@aronkvh]

OnlyOffice can completely replaces o365 for me, tough I still prefer PowerPoint over it. and I haven't found a good replacement for Acces yet, Base is just too different and Kexi crashes way too often

[@danielberglv259]

I have been out of the Microsoft game for a very long time. I was surprised to learn, that Access is still a thing. I used it long ago with ASP programming back when the web was starting out for real. What's the use case for it these days? Could it not be replaced with something like SQLite or similar?

[@aronkvh]

@@danielberglv259 Acces/Base is part of my ~A-Levels exam. (but I should probably just get comfortable with writing SQL instead )

[@prgnify]

@@aronkvh It won't help you with your A-Levels, but to ease into SQL you could use DB Browser + SQLite. As far as I know it probably won't do everything you need, but then you can write it without the GUI

[@mys31f70]

@@aronkvh i studied Access outside of my A Levels IT also, and it was a suffering to see that a string isnt considered a string in Access, but instead simplified by 20000 times.

[@wclifton968gameplaystutorials]

@@danielberglv259 When I was at College in SW London, GB last year, we learnt how to use most of the features of Microsoft Office Excel, Access Database and the year before I also learnt how to use all the features of Word & Powerpoint alongside Excel and Access DB all of which are only still used in the education sector because it's easy to use, still updated and comes for free with an Office 365 Education subscription that so many Schools, Colleges and Universities buy due to the email, OneDrive and support that is included in the subscription for a near unlimited number of students, staff using the service. Access also lets you use some SQL commands when making things like tables but I only had ~1-2 lessons on SQL since it wasn't required on my course as a thing to use by Pearson Edexcel... You can also use SQL in LibreOffice Base / OpenOffice Base since the backend of LibreOffice Base uses SQL instead of some proprietory DB engine used by MS Access and there's also a plugin to import Access DB files into LibreOffice but I've never gotten it to work and you can't do the same thing the other way around (i.e. import LibreOffice Base into MS Access)...

[@tanmaygemini]

Libre Office Draw is an amazing application and I wish more people knew about it.

[@norgeball3971]

I‘m an org-mode user (with LaTeX export for nice PDFs). But every now and then, you need an office suite, even if it‘s just to take a quick look at some documents someone sent you. I‘ve tried Onlyoffice and Libreoffice, as well as WPS, but for me, Libreoffice is the winner in this contest!👍

[@DTechDive]

These type of videos requires a lottttt of effort! Comparing each small detail with one another is really hard Thankyou for this!

[@jerome96114]

With the Softmaker office solutions there are two things to be noted majorly in their favour: - It has Zotero implementation directly in the program, hence it makes citation etc a lot easier in papers for uni. - The paid German version has full DUDEN orthography correction (THE German standard) and even can do stuff like style and complex grammar corrections in the subscription, so for German users it is the way to go.

[@ScutoidStudios]

The Granddaddy is OpenOffice... but Grandparent's aren't known for their good word processing skills in the modern day. I use libreoffice mostly, it is the best one that integrates with Unity desktop (yes - i am still on unity on 21.04, it's very modern with the new Yaru Dark theme, try it sometime! most of the skeumorphism is removed and it just feels polished and faster than GNOME) and the Unity HUD.

[@ProfAMuniz]

Well, after one wild KZbin algorithm recommendation, I discover LaTeX (don't ask why KZbin recommend me) but Michelle Krummel's tutorial of LaTeX change my mind about Suite Offices. I only care about Calc(spreadsheets) and that's that. Even plans and notes I do the fancy way of LaTeX now.

[@Fabio53443]

@@ProfAMuniz do you use overleaf or local only solutions?

[@Fabio53443]

how did you get libreoffice to integrate decently with your gtk theme? mine's broken as hell

[@ProfAMuniz]

@@Fabio53443 Both. Overleaf when I work with editing existing templates and Texmaker/TexStudio when I just need something simple done.

[@schwingedeshaehers]

​@@ProfAMuniz(sorry for the ping) Also it can be used, if you have a template, and it only changes a few values I have a discord bot, that can a yaml file with a Protokoll, that generates a latex file, which than generates a pdf. (and you could even use latex comannds in there, so should be careful, who can upload these thinks, easiest fix would be to double \ to prevent comannds, an escaping & and _, which should solve the most problems

[@walking_on_earth]

OnlyOffice for me! I used LibreOffice for a long time but its old school UI and lack of features out of the box (spell check for example) drive me to OnlyOffice, which I had been using as part of my NextCloud setup for a while. LibreOffice is nice in how it blends with the desktop and is highly configurable, but for me I ended up wanting to stop fiddling with my office suite and just get work done. OnlyOffice is a very good drop-in solution that gives you what you’d expect out of the box. Haven’t really tried the others.

[@sifatullah7568]

Why no one made a video of this earlier? It's so useful.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Thanks :)

[@MIInDsEthiopia]

I think I am going to grab LibreOffice, I use Markdown then convert it to DOCX using Pandoc but this couple days I have been experiencing some issues with tables .... and from what I hear I think I will grab LibreOffice. Thank you for such a helpful video ;)

[@arnezbridges93]

Oh dear im late on this one. If you have to transfer files back and forth, you can change libre offices default to .docx and i almost never have issues with alignment. Of course that kinda defeats FOSS

[@talkysassis]

Libreoffice is the only one that uses the system theme. So the only one that I would use

[@chrismitchell6478]

I wanna thank you for bringing Only Office to my attention. I have been loving it for my personal use. At work I've received training for MS Office Excel and it has transferred perfectly for the Only Office suite that I started using in my personal life thanks to this video. When I have some money to burn, it'll go to you for this. Thank you.

[@marvinmep.extraoficial]

Perhaps I'm not a power user or my needs are too basic, but the fact is LibreOffice (or OpenOffice in 2000's) has never let me down.

[@tomsmansvards]

ODF support is something very important for me when I'm choosing an office suite, therefore LibreOffice wins every year. OnlyOffice might not be a bad option, but it lacks customization, for example, not being able to set default fonts, default formats etc. Speaking of OOXML, I only care about importing it once (fixing if necessary) and exporting it once. I use office suits a lot and usually work with people who use MS Office.

[@SocialMaster762]

Since I'm stuck with Office 2016 for Mac, I'll have to take a look at these programs. Thanks for the inspiration 👍

[@joandrade]

Have been using the LibreOffice family since it as StarOffice in 1996. I never had a use case where it has let me down.

[@thatguyalex2835]

Wow, you are an old guy, using software since the mid '90s. Just kidding bro. ツ

[@joandrade]

@@thatguyalex2835 I'm, actually. I am 50 yo. I have to change this profile picture some of these days. It's the same since 2008.

[@thatguyalex2835]

@@joandrade Well, you look young still. :)

[@jeanpol1836]

While I understand that many Linux users are mostly for using Free and Open Source Software and prefer not to use proprietary software or software from major companies, I have found Google Docs to be very efficient for doing pretty much everything I need for my college classes and for work, they have Google Docs (basically word), Google Slides (basically powerpoint), Google Sheets (basically excel) and many others. Also they are used within the browser with a Google Account for free, so no need to pay or install anything into your computer. I understand that Google basically uses our information and things like that, but for those who don't mind using some proprietary or freeware, it's a really efficient office suite.

[@mcosta3810]

I have been using OnlyOffice on Linux and overall I'm 75% satisfied with it. I do absolutely need an office program installed, as I've found any web-based office software is missing key features I've come to rely upon, especially now that I'm going back to school again. I do quite like OnlyOffice's math equation editor; it's nearly just as functional as MS Office's math equations, although I find MS Office's ribbon interface to work a little more efficiently. The OnlyOffice spreadsheet editor was missing some of the features I needed for my Numerical Methods class previously; I had no choice but to reboot into Windows and use Excel. Also the online version of Office is lacking those features and more. You ran into one interface scaling issue with a dual-monitor setup. I ran into one more issue with a dual-monitor setup; Its PowerPoint presentations will not project to the secondary display, it only wants to project to the main display. And also if you run two displays of different resolutions (as I do) and try to project a presentation from the secondary display, it will project to the primary display at the wrong resolution. So overall I like it but it has a ways to go before I can get away from Office completely.

[@mini_bomba]

Libreoffice does integrate with your desktop environment really nicely. I saw it myself when moving from an Ubuntu system (using GNOME) to an Arch Linux install with KDE. The icons between the desktop environments change completly to fit with your system theme, i love it.

[@rodrigof.5956]

I use libreoffice and I think you missed a thing about libreoffice, the extensions. Personally I use a lot the TexMath extension because of my studies, it is an extension that integrates the latex math to write equations and if you need to write math symbols that aren't that common it is great. Although it does have a bit of a steep learning curve

[@mizhimo]

My problem with office suits on Linux is handling Zotero references and changing formats between odt and docx. Besides that, I'm delighted with LibreOffice.

[@Sandeepan]

Isn't there a configuration option to do just that on the fly ?

[@deafrabbit88]

What's the problem with Zotero? The libreoffice plugin works well for me...

[@schnitzelsemmel]

same. had to install fucking windows in the end just to have zotero work properly for my research papers. zotero works well within libreoffice/.odt but it breaks every time a colleague uses ms word.

[@mizhimo]

@@deafrabbit88 Exactly what Simon says.

[@justahumanwithamask4089]

Changing formats from odt to docx always results in my document being unreadable.

[@larshoving234]

I use office 2007. It works without problems with Wine.

[@glenby2u]

Good re-visit - thanks. LibreOffice seems to cover most of my wants. Graphs are a bit basic but most other stuff I can do ok (once you get used to some options on the right of screen). I run it on windows and linux. Much of my work is data driven, so connections to data and pivot tables are a key driver for me.

[@adityapatil1328]

Oh my God! I was searching for this topic only, and didn't get satisfied. But when I opened KZbin I saw you uploaded the very same video! Thank you very much Nick!

[@uroboloss]

One feature from Microsoft Office that is vital for me is the "tell me" feature. With how many tabs and buttons you find in office suits it becomes super hard to remember where everything is and with that feature I can just type whatever I'm looking for and it will bring it up even if I can't find it in the UI. It's so helpful that I honestly can't see myself using anything else without that feature.

[@FengLengshun]

As a heavy user of Word and Excel at work, WPS creates the least breakages in my testing (spreadsheets especially, able to preserve even pivot tables) and most feature complete. Unfortunately WPS itself is very buggy - I have this copy paste bug unless I use a version from Flatpak last year (around 2-3 releases back). I don't like it, but for work, I have to use it. Edit: Clipboard bug finally fixed. Seems like it's mostly alright with the latest version, so macro compatibility is the only real limit now.

[@sammo7017]

Today I switched from Windows to Linux Lite (I'm a Linux Mint fan but my laptop is old and has only 2G of RAM).. I'm happy that it brought it back to life... And I use Libre Office on it and Collabora Office on my phone (sometimes WPS and Microsoft Office).. I also used Apache, I cam tell from my experience that free and open source office suites are highly competitive and you can safely replace Microsoft office with Libre office

[@claudio.corona]

Functionality and interoperability is more important than looks in my opinion, so I will always install OnlyOffice in Linux and Windows. For editing PDF and Publishing, LibreOffice Draw is more than enough.

[@echuidor]

Happy Birthday! For 4 years you have taught us how to make Linux our Science Lab with only fun and no boredom, an achievement only some can accomplish!

[@TRDTYukiTV]

my favourite way of doing office on linux is using chromes "run in a window feature" and linking to the online office programs over the web

[@tia6otia6o14]

My go to is by far only office. It's slower than libre (specially during file saving), but has the most comparability, better UI and less bugs. I still can't understand the lack of certain usability in libre (although I still donate every now and then to the project). Only office just feel more professional.

[@mirkolantieri1341]

Certainly it depends on ones use case as Nick fairly mentioned: if you use office editors for yourself go with what are your preferences, if compatibility is the main issue and you are working in a team, then obviously you need to edit documents with the online suit ms-office or google docs !

[@steeltormentors]

this is one of the most comprehensive yet compact review of free office alternatives for Linux I've ever seen! Well done Sir! you got a sub!

[@jan-lukas]

The amount of people taking about OpenOffice is astounding. It's been dead for years, but it looks like nobody noticed

[@mrjoy013]

People still use older versions of MS Office, is there anything that needs update?

[@harshraojr]

Totally agree with Libre Office's Word, I struggled massively while using images.

[@seiginohogosha]

I have been using Free Office since the Manjaro controversy with it. I have thrown complex spreadsheets at it with pivot tables and such and it always worked fine.

[@hotsauwz]

what manjaro controversy? havent heard of it.

[@seiginohogosha]

@@hotsauwz They added free office as a default office suite even though it is not open source. This was not accepted by a lot of people. They decided to split the difference and ask which suite you want on install

[@JpgSilent]

wps office and google docs were pretty much my go-to when doing assignments during college.

[@drPeidos]

I use LibreOffice since the beginning (I used OpenOffice before there was the LibreOffice). I don't like the ribbon. Before that I used MS Office XP or 2003. My thesis was written in OpenOffice.

[@mikestrickland2755]

I've been using Softmaker "Free Office" for years & years. Back when I was still using Windows 7, possibly longer. I love Softmaker "Free Office."

[@darthkielbasa]

Only office is my suite of choice. I prefer the tabbed layout. Meshes well with my workflow. I actually use it exclusively on the big three of Linux, macOS and Windows.

[@firstlast5350]

You can buy the full version of the excellent softmaker office with a one off payment which is very reasonable.

[@sickmind33]

For story writing, I bounce around from program to program, but LibreOffice is still my go to.

[@andromydous]

A fun endeavor that took me about 20 minutes in terminal work, 5-10 minutes in virt-manager gui settings, and about 20 minutes in physical labor (my wire management is atrocious. All said and done, I now have a Windows vm with full use of a gpu (mine's a 1060, but you can use a 1030). Which means that I can play the games that work really well in Linux and the ones that don't on Windows without ever rebooting. It also means that I can still use MS Office or other software that I can't just substitute with a Linux version. With all my bills, online ordering, or anything else using personal information being done in Linux, the Windows VM has little to no access to my personal information. I know there's some people who are hardcore Linux users, but for those of us who have 300+ games in just Steam alone, I still want the ability to play any game. Besides, my philosophy is why settle for one (Linux) or the other (Windows) when I use them as the tools that they are for the purpose that I need them for.

[@encrypt3d587]

I'd love to do this, the trick is getting my hands on a second GPU in this market :p To say that it was painful to use software rendering with even basic CAD software would be a gross understatement.

[@andromydous]

@@encrypt3d587 It's not for everyone and not everyone can do it. I'm using the GTX 1060 that I've been using for a long time, but recently got replaced. However, if you have a CPU with integrated graphics, then you can use the IG for your Linux host and the discrete GPU for the VM. Downside is that gaming in the Linux host wouldn't be near what you could do with 2 discrete GPU's. There's other hardware considerations that you would have to look into as well, but it would be easier to research it online. I don't want to sway anyone from just using Linux. I'm just giving one more option in the list of options.

[@encrypt3d587]

@@andromydous Yeah, that's all pretty much the conclusion I've come to. I've actually been daily driving Linux for around two years, using a combination of VMs, Wine, Proton, and dual boot to do my Windows-exclusive stuff. These are all typically less-than-optimal solutions, hence my looking at VFIO. Using my shitty Intel's graphics for the Linux host isn't really feasible for me, so I'm pretty much forced to get a new GPU. I've been rocking a 1060 6GB since it came out, so I'll probably grab a high-end card when prices go down (eventually, maybe in 50 years) and use that as the guest card.

[@andromydous]

@@encrypt3d587 I have a Windows dual boot, but I got tired of having to restart my PC every time I wanted to do something in either OS. Yeah, I don't know when GPU prices are going to be reasonable again. I'm the same way with my 1060 and, while I try to keep it maintained, I worry that it will hit its end of life soon. So, against everyone's suggestions, I broke down and got the RX 6500xt for $270. I couldn't afford the $400+ range and I couldn't afford to wait it out. TBH, other than being a 4gb card (compared to the 1060 6b), it's not a bad card. Using same settings with both GPU's, I get about 20fps more in SoTR with the 6500xt than I did with the 1060. It either has a little better performance or is on par. Which is fine, because I only play @ 1080p. I thought cooling was going to be a factor, but as long as I'm gaming with both, or rendering on one and gaming in the other, temps are roughly the same.

[@vitoru1000]

Hi, just a correction. Soft maker have a one time price for the office (that's what I own) and you can set up to 5 computers.

[@matthewsjardine]

So far, the biggest issue I have come across is with Excel macros. As much as they are a horrible security vulnerability, they are loved by finance departments, data science and process engineers. If macros are written in JavaScript, they may be able to port over, but conventional macros live and die on Excel.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Yeah, nothing has that compatibility, I think 🤔

[@balazsh2]

I'd like to rectify that statement, data science people can't stand working in Excel, let alone using macros for automation

[@matthewsjardine]

@@balazsh2 That is refreshing to hear. I hope so. The folks I deal with are obsessed with Excel.

[@balazsh2]

@@matthewsjardine of course it depends on what you consider data science, this buzzword recently has been put on anything that has to do anything with data. It's usable for some basic visual data exploration but when is comes to data wrangling, analysis and modeling I haven't met anyone who uses it

[@Psychx_]

I have been using Freeoffice and LibreOffice for a while. When one of them has trouble correctly displaying a docx, xlsx or pptx, the other one usually works fine. This way I have "full compatibility". Notably, LibreOffice has achieved massive improvements regarding compatibility over the last few releases. I refrain from using WPS as it has a reputation to be "chinese spyware". Onlyoffice has support for highDPI displays now, which is great!

[@a9udn9u]

Do you have any proof of WPS spying? If you don't have problem using American software I don't see why you care about being spied.

[@hermannschaefer4777]

Softmakers license is cross platform for Linux, Mac or Windows. The paid version for non commercial use can also be installed on 5 machines of your family. Main difference to the free version: dictionaries.

[@nikitavetrov]

I prefer the menu bar/tool bar combo simply because of familiarity. I came from Microsoft Office 2007 to Openoffice a long time ago and just used the classic Interface. Then about 3 years ago I switched to LibreOffice and on my System the menu bar/tool bar combo was the default setting (on Windows 10 by the way; I'm planning to switch to Linux either this or next year). I'm happy with the feeling of the classic.

[@oneofthesixbillion]

Thanks, that's a well done overview. I appreciate knowing what's available that I never knew about, even if it turns out I'm not missing anything. I appreciate continuity in my desktop theme. Between Calligra and Libre office I couldn't be happier and I have everything functional that I need. Libre Office has most everything, and Calligra has a wonderful UI that is simplified/not overwhelming and looks absolutely wonderful on KDE. I appreciate UI and visual aesthetics. Programs that look like windows conversions don't cut it for me.

[@DeirdreYoung1]

LibreOffice doesn't have an outline mode, and the devs have refused to add one for over a decade. I was pleasantly surprised to find that FreeOffice does have outline. I will definitely give it a look, thank you.

[@laletemanolete]

As a teacher, I use WPS Slides for compatibilty and cool presentations, which LibreOffice Impress does not accomplish yet. For everything else I use LibreOffice.

[@tmhchacham]

I hate the ribbon with a passion.. 1) Time invested. I have been using menus for decades and know where options are and hot to use hotkeys to get to them quickly. The ribbon changes that with a different categorization. 2) Space. The ribbon takes up a lot of space. Menus overlay, taking up almost no space. 3) Menus can be gotten to via accelerator keys. No mouse required. Need something, less than a second later it is done. With the ribbon, you need to use the mouse and click on clunky buttons. This takes forever. 4) Menus have submenus teaching things that could be used in similar situations. The ribbon hides most of this leaving most user ignorant of similar features. 5) Menus stay in place. The option you want is always in the same place. Ribbons change. This both causes a drop in focus when it changes, and makes it harder to find something when what you want is on a different ribbon. (Even recognizing that you are on the wrong ribbon takes a moment or two.) There are probably others reasons. These are the first few off the top of my head from frustrations i have come across.

[@tewald]

I agree 100% with this. Ribbons are a plague.

[@julienc3786]

I think ribbon is one of the first thing that pushed me to the floss world. (Everything else make me stay ;) )

[@jeffsadowski]

Love libreoffice. I use it to convert a self generated CSV into an xml where I add some colors using a patch then export it again as xmlx doc for my users. Then I do the reverse when they give it back so I can extract the info I needed from them.

[@jeffsadowski]

I generate the color in a key and they select colors on lines. I use libreoffice to output an html where I can grep for the colors. and extract the info.

[@li_anova]

I use Softmaker Office :) I love it. The full versions it's way better that the Free one. It's great. But. Not very comfortable. It sucks on managing tables (you can't select one, adjust one...), search button behavior is janky, working with images it's painful or poor (positioning, center, be on paragraph, editing transparency), and lacks of touchscreen support (rezising, navigate, drawing, etc., it only makes buttons bigger). It's feels great, but not pulished. But overall, it's a very great one, and I hope future versions to be more pulished. Not 100% compatible with MSOffice, but very close. Despite this, from time to time I miss MSOffice "pragmatic" workflow (and I say this, even if I hate MSOffice). Libreoffice it's great but ugly af., and can be somewhat confusing. It seriously needs a design refresh. As well as more functions and better performance (and yes, progress in compatibility).

[@HickoryDickory86]

LibreOffice definitely needs a thorough face-lift by some professional UI designers, that's for sure. Maybe even a professional UX designer, too, to help make the controls and layout more intuitive.

[@t74devkw]

My only problem with LibreOffice is math equations support. Using any other font than the default becomes difficult very quickly

[@sagmilling]

I actually prefer the TeX way of writing equations, I can copy and paste modules when I'm doing algebra. All the mouse-clicking in MS Office equations is annoying.

[@joschafinger126]

OnlyOffice is easier to use for those -while extolling the virtues of FOSS to a colleague of mine, a math teacher who uses MS Office on Mac, I saw that it has a graphical interface for that which he found strikingly familiar.

[@joschafinger126]

@@sagmilling...as long as you know LaTeX well enough, which is a hurdle for pretty much all math teachers I know. Best way would be to be able to use use either interchangeably, I think, and to have the option of copying the LaTeX version of a graphically compiled formula. Me, I teach English and have only ever used LaTeX for text formatting in interactive materials, but my math colleagues do keep saying that they can't live without MS Office because of that point-and-click way, and that they find the LaTeX support in my favourite tool for making didactic games, eXeLearning, kind of useless because they'd have to learn LaTeX first.

[@ProfAMuniz]

Since I am an enthusiast LaTeX learner, I don't need much of Office Suite on Linux, only the "Excel" (spreadsheet app). Recently I found the org-mode on Emacs, and this give me options to work with LaTeX as well. Speaking the truth, I already forgot how to make simple .odt files and format my text like I do with .tex files. I got spoiled by LaTeX commands and forgot how to do it manually lol Nick, I watch your video on the Diolinux Brazilian channel, I am Brazilian, and I admire your work here on KZbin.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Nice! I loved collaborating with Diolinux!

[@encrypt3d587]

LaTeX is fantastic, but it feels like there's so much unnecessary boilerplate for most things. For large papers, you really can't get any better, but I had a hard time justifying its use over something like Markdown.

[@ProfAMuniz]

​@@encrypt3d587 You are correct here, but I suck it up all LaTeX cons because I want to be like the wizards that make stunning figures with TikZ with only commands. TikZ is art my friend!

[@tombert512]

Going to have an unpopular opinion: the best word processor is Pandoc + LaTeX. Fully open source, creates beautiful documents, worked with easy to read markdown, allows you to use any text editor you want, and has better equation support than any GUI word processor that I've used. There's a reason that academia has basically converged on LaTeX: it's simply the best at what it does.

[@USFrozen]

OnlyOffice was able to open and preserve the formatting and tables in a old .doc single page document i needed to print for work with only minor misalignment. LibreOffice left it as blank space and Google's online editor turned into 3 pages of nonsense. Your video popped up at just the right time because i was about to start re-creating it from scratch in LibreOffice.

[@RadikAlice]

Thought I saw this one before, so I almost skipped it but glad I didn't. Didn't know I could change the UI in LibreOffice like that, so thanks Nick!

[@alejandro6070]

I mainly use LibreOffice and OnlyOffice, but I had to use WPS to open a government dataset and sort it. Both Libre and OnlyOffice didn't like it and hung. WPS worked well. Also, my main problem with LibreOffice is how bad it looks with Adwaita-dark. Colibre is nice but it doesn't have a dark version. The SVG's often look wonky and there is no way in the settings to at least change it to light mode instead (I know I know, environment flags but still).

[@feryardiant]

For the compatibility stand point OnlyOffice is indeed the best one, but only because its UI is bother me too much let alone the UI scaling, I rather go with WPS Office for years now. I am not a heavy Office Suit user but here's some catches I found on WPS Office: - If your locale number format is using coma (,) as decimal separator and dot (.) as thousand separator, you'll see some hiccups at certain point across the suite. - WPS Writer : The "Tab Stops" is simply horrible. - WPS Spreadsheet : The "Page Setup" is the worse. - WPS Cloud : Their Web UI and Android App is not quite compatible with their Desktop App. The Tab Stop on Writer : - No matter what you set as default measurement unit, it always be "char" as its unit. - You can Set a Tab Stop anywhere you like just by clicking directly from your Ruler, indeed. - Once you need to edit it, double-clicking your Tab Stop (like you do on MSO) you won't see the Tab Stop manager, instead you'll see the Page Setup window. You have to go to "Settings > Paragraph > Tabs" to manage it. - If you type of person who liked to use Tabs Manager to set all your tab stop instead of using Ruler, you'll noticed that once you set your tabs from Tab Manager, you won't see it again in the Tab Manager. Only Tabs that set through Ruler are appears on the Tab Manager. The Page Setup on Spreadsheet : - All you can do to configure your page margins is by using "Print Preview > Show Margin" then slide the margins as you likes. Don't use Page Setup to do this. - Say you need to precisely set your margins through Page Setup, even you only need to change 1 side (e.g. the left one) you have to re-type all the other 3 sides with the same value otherwise you'll see those 3 sides messed up. - If your decimal separator is a coma (,) and your Page Setup shows that your left side is 1,2 cm, once try to change it to 1,3 cm (or any other decimal number) it will tell you that "The number format is invalid" Compatibility with Web, Mobile and Desktop : - Say you have Spreadsheet file that you create from Desktop App and you store it in WPS Cloud so you can share it to your friends via a link. Don't you dare to edit it on Mobile or Web UI, otherwise you might find you file is ruined, even you only editing a single cell.

[@andrewstombaugh9318]

Nick, time to make a 2024 version of this video. Most of these suites have come a long way and I'd be very interested in another comprehensive review.

[@peteryates308]

WordPerfect 8.1 is still my favourite, but the time I spend in office programs reduces year on year.

[@HickoryDickory86]

WordPerfect would live up to its name if it had Unicode and OpenType font support. Because it has neither, I can't use it. I would love to, and I love its "reveal code" function, but it fails me in those two crucial, fundamental areas.

[@DylanMatthewTurner]

I used to love using WPS office. The only issue I ever had with it was that it didn't support ligatures which was a problem for me for a conlang I was working on. Well, that and the proprietary nature of it. It had seemingly perfect compatibility, and the UI was more or less 1:1 with word which was nice. Now that I'm not in college anymore I don't need word anymore tho. I just use markdown in VS Code with the better preview extension for everything now. Also I just wanted to say - Libreoffice UI is garbo, so let's not recommend it to people

[@TheLinuxEXP]

LibreOffice UI is great

[@kkppelot6270]

@@TheLinuxEXP XD

[@varantavers]

It looks okay. I hope that guy will implement that libadwaita concept for it because it looked so good.

[@laletemanolete]

You can customize LibreOffice UI to look like MS office

[@wclifton968gameplaystutorials]

I prefer the UI of LibreOffice to Microsoft Office & it's copycat variants such as OnlyOffice, WPS Office etc. and this is coming from someone who learnt how to use most features of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access DB at 6th form College for ~3 years total in SW London, GB although I think AbiWord & the Calligra suite integrate better with the Linux Desktop but at least with LibreOffice, I know that it has >30 years of Strong development behind it (StarOffice, it's indirect predecessor was released in 1987) I'm kinda suprised that Nick/TLE didn't mention NeoOffice

[@Blueeeeeee]

Ribbon hater here, I have hated the ribbon UI ever since it was introduced in Microsoft office. The main thing that I dislike with the ribbon is the amount of time you have to spend switching between tabs as soon as you want to do something that's isn't confined to one tab, plus they're just as messy as the old menubars, just in a more fashionable coat. On the other hand, the toolbar allows me to freely show or hide the item that I want, so I can always have the tools I need at my fingertips without the rest in my face.

[@Jekubman]

I don't like the ribbon either. Mostly because it is much easier to see what a menu item is used for if it is in text. Figuring out what an icon stands for is often a guessing game, especially if it is in programs you don't use often.

[@w01dnick]

I prefer sidebar, as on wide screens it took space which is empty anyway. Ribbon is visual and nice but took more space than any other solution.

[@Blueeeeeee]

@@w01dnick Sidebar sure is a nice solution !

[@orcbloodtech422]

OMG, I was just googling for this morning since last night I had an assignment due and witched over to my linux boot (Manjaro KDE) and wanted to finish it off there. Can't wait to watch and see if we drew the same conclusions. Scary how you release this hours later after I was wondering what the best one was lol.

[@orcbloodtech422]

Watched! Wow very good review. FreeOffice didn't have word count built in (Had to use a plugin but couldn't figure it out even with the instructions it wouldn't work) really needed that last night or I wouldn't have had to use Libre. Also surprised to see WPS office being mentioned. Used to install that on my family's computer (Formally Kingsoft Office) as it was and I think still is the closest thing to MS Office, but yeah to bad it's Chinese owned and closed source. Which is why I have been avoiding it since. Also I think it's UI ribbon has gotten ugly but maybe that's cause it's the Linux version you were showing. Used to look more like MS Word.

[@rey6253]

I use WPS and I am very happy with it, unlike Libreoffice which does not work most of the time.

[@r735g3]

I used to use LibreOfiice a lot, but it is really buggy and I am tired of it hanging or crashing. I have used Gdocs for most of my work recently, but I will try Only office now. Thanks for the video!

[@billgross3579]

I love OnlyOffice's integration with Nextcloud!

[@nashorn9745]

@The Linux Experiment any other office suite other than MS office doesn`t have shared document so only MS Office is good in my opinion

[@TheLinuxEXP]

That's not true. All the alternatives I mentioned here have that, apart from LibreOffice.

[@nashorn9745]

@@TheLinuxEXP but not to the extent of MS Office

[@knutblaise9437]

0:35 Consider why a product you promote, TuxCare, exists and ask yourself which Linux distros you should choose. You really need a video highlighting how a lack of distro maintenance can result in security holes allowing user systems to be compromised. Along with this a video highlighting more secure methods of updating the OS and applications should be made - e.g. grabbing the latest version is not always the best option. Guidance to choose any Linux distro could certainly lead potential Linux users into situations that TuxCare is trying to prevent.

[@gregcampwriter]

I prefer a menu/toolbar. Alphabetic writing was an improvement on pictograms.

[@adrianstephens56]

I run both LibreOffice and Free Office. When I take a document file from Word, there's a 50:50 chance which of these will work with it - even with short aparently simple docs. And I run Microsoft Office in a VM for Microsoft Access - because unlike LibreOffice support for Word documents, there is no LibreOffice support for Microsoft Access documents - i.e., the LibreBase attempts to do some of the things Access does, but provides no binary file compatibility.

[@gabrielmarianbalan8215]

Hello I had to replace MS Office when I done the transition to Linux. My choice was and still is WPS Office .Very similar with MS Office and very stabile. It also offers cloud storage and online version. Is very compatible with MS Office. The WPS office doesn't support macros. But if you are just a normal home user of MS Office you will find WPS very good and easy to learn.

[@soham7510]

13:40 exacctly majority of people really use like 10% of the popular options in a lot of apps. Like my friend was complaining that linux dosent have profess video editors meanwhile the most features hell use from his "professional video editor" is like adding text, crop, trim and change/add music.

[@WyvernDotRed]

I will politely tell you why I prefer the menubar over the ribbons here in the comments. It requires less mouse movements and the menu is compacter, making it easier for me to find the option I look for. I switched from the ribbon on Microsoft Office and knowing my way in it to the standard LibreOffice interface. Multiple times I have tried the ribbon mode. I can't find what I look for as fast and it slows me down. I just process compact lists of text faster than icons or spacious layouts. Goes against modern interface trends, I don't know why it works this way for me but I have tested the difference and picked what works best for me.

[@w_shakes_]

I mostly move in between libreoffice and onlyoffice, cause libre has more features like double underline and word count (I think you can get word count on onlyoffice, with a plugin but I wasn't successful) and use onlyoffice, for compatibility in some cases.

[@jc_lima]

You can see a word count in OnlyOffice if you go to the FILE menu - and a few more statistics (pages, paragraphs and symbols). No plugin needed.

[@ashadanver2274]

I've tried Libre Office, Only Office and WPS exclusively for almost a year... In general, you review of WPS was spot on.. Libre Office does work, but there are enough small quirks and compatibility issues that make it very problematic when you're collaborating with co workers who use MS office. Also, it doesn't seem to integrate with Mendeley citations. And It's more heavy on resource use...

[@CZpersi]

Zotero works great in LibreOffice, though.

[@enadasa]

I recently switched to Linux, yesterday to be precise. Finding your channel was a coincidence, a good one.

[@blackchristiangeek]

Useful information and thanks for reminding me about WPS, it's been a long time since I looked at that suite.

[@Sean_neaS]

abiword and gnumeric. Both small, fast and reliable. I've been using them for probably 20 years without any problems and they are fast on any computer.

[@gregcampwriter]

I switched to OpenOffice years ago and migrated to LibreOffice thereafter. When I need to set up manuscripts for publication, I then move the text into Scribus--which is a much less intuitive program than LibreOffice's Writer, but it does what I need eventually.

[@SethPinnock]

Thanks for the information on Only Office. I will try it.

[@andrewstombaugh9318]

Hey Nick! Its been a year already, and about time to re-review these office suites again. Check out these test documents in the updated versions of the various office packages again. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!

[@jesse7631]

Great video, thank you for the breakdown of each office suite!

[@reoencarcelado5904]

No offense to StarOffice and the other Free-as-in-“Free-Beer”__and/or__Free-as-in-“ ‘Free’ as-in ‘Freedom’ “ software Office-suites, but I’m using LibreOffice 🙂 and I’m sticking to it 🙂.

[@naughtywizard]

What

[@osamaanees8406]

After a lot of experimenting with this I just choice LaTeX to write down every thing. For PowerPoint presentation, Excel and to view Ms office stuff just use libre office.

[@mandrael]

Yes, menu is better on the Mac I always have the choice and I’m more effective with the classic menu. In the ribbon I always have to search and do several clicks till I find the desired option.

[@3gsahil]

10:44 what KZbin Downloader is that . ( 1st item on the 1st row ) . Icon looks similar to Vanced . 🙂

[@ukasznosal5336]

WPS on Windows works great. It has nice dark theme and great PDF editor. From what I know newest version on Linux is from 2019 and it's not that polished. OnlyOffice is great alternative but doesn't have that many features.

[@stephenkrus]

Thanks for the OnlyOffice suggestion... 💎✨👍