Alternatives to Microsoft Office 365
Discussion
shtu said:
Arnold Cunningham said:
OpenOffice.
It s functional, but you ll be a bit disappointed.
LibreOffice would be a better choice.It s functional, but you ll be a bit disappointed.
Alternatively, a licence for one of the older offline versions of MS Office, £30 buys you a perpetual licence for Office Pro 2021.
t Mr E said:
Libreoffice - as above
For very basic spreadsheet/document work, Google webapps are fine
This. Libre Office is pretty damned good these days. Long gone are the days where it chokes on complex formatting in word docs. For very basic spreadsheet/document work, Google webapps are fine
Biggest issue is learning a new interface after 30+ years of Office.
Where do you get that sort of deal? I'm currently paying £70 but only until November when my current sub expires. I've had a sub for years but the email/credentials used to set up the original MS account are no longer available to me (queue problems trying to validate Office 365 on a new M4 Mac Mini!). I did manage to get MS to validate but only until the year expires in November then I have to take a new sub using my current credentials and the new price is waaay more expensive than a simple renewal. I too will look at an older version as I don't need any current updates, I've tried the Libre Office options and the Apple versions but still feel more comfortable with the MS offering which I've used since their inception.
WyrleyD said:
Where do you get that sort of deal?
Usually available at Argos / Amazon and bundled with Norton or McAfee AV software (which you don’t have to install), you can find it on offer at various times of the year. The price is higher now as MS have started charging for CoPilot, not sure if the package without CoPilot is available outside MS but I understand if your persistent you can find a renewal without CoPilot on the MS subscription page, though as I don’t need to renew until February I haven’t looked yet.
I use Libre Office in my main Linux build and is typically my goto. I believe the Austrian military are moving across to it as are the Danes, Germans and Italians possibly too so as a software it will only get better and it's already very good. I do as others have suggested and also have an old Office key and install for the 0.000001% of the time I do need Office, however if/when that breaks I won't bother with a new one and will stick with free and open source software (with a small donation of course).
One thing to be aware of with MS is that you can buy a subscription whenever you see a good deal and it just tags onto the end of your existing expiry date. I've seen them below £50 on Argos and Amazon on occasions.
As I've said, I really hate subscription software but when it includes a terabyte of cloud access for what amounts to less than £5/month, I consider the software to be free.
I would love the liberation of using Linux and Libre Office but it's that terabyte of cloud and the fact that I use OneDrive with family, friends and colleagues that keeps me tied to MS.
As I've said, I really hate subscription software but when it includes a terabyte of cloud access for what amounts to less than £5/month, I consider the software to be free.
I would love the liberation of using Linux and Libre Office but it's that terabyte of cloud and the fact that I use OneDrive with family, friends and colleagues that keeps me tied to MS.
WyrleyD said:
Where do you get that sort of deal? I'm currently paying £70 but only until November when my current sub expires. I've had a sub for years but the email/credentials used to set up the original MS account are no longer available to me (queue problems trying to validate Office 365 on a new M4 Mac Mini!). I did manage to get MS to validate but only until the year expires in November then I have to take a new sub using my current credentials and the new price is waaay more expensive than a simple renewal. I too will look at an older version as I don't need any current updates, I've tried the Libre Office options and the Apple versions but still feel more comfortable with the MS offering which I've used since their inception.
After an entire tech career with Microsh!t products generally causing me endless pain, I went with a 15 month deal I found for about £55 as I slunk into retirement.…..but after that I couldn’t find any, so we’ve made the move & pretty well dumped it in favour of the ‘free’ Google set.
Well, I always tell our kids it’s the monthlies that’ll kill ya!
Docs & sheets work fine for my purposes. Some things slightly clunky (eg, I use floating text boxes on one sheet - can’t copy & paste the equivalent in sheets), but generally fine. & VERY easily accessible from laptop, tablet and phone: Microsoft got to a point of taking bloody ages to “log in”.
Also tried LibreOffice for a bit: it was okay, but not so portable between platforms (no easy phone equivalent).
Oh, & I say ‘free’ in quotes - I pay about £80pa for the storage I consume, but since most of that is a large photo collection that I frequently access, I find that money well spent.
mikeiow said:
Oh, & I say free in quotes - I pay about £80pa for the storage I consume, but since most of that is a large photo collection that I frequently access, I find that money well spent.
So you're spending more than I do for my storage.I understand the dislike of MS products, I just don't understand why I dislike MS products.
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