Does anyone use LibreOffice here instead of Microsoft Office?

[Deleted member 356896]

I might give it another try with the staff as I do spend a fair bit on office 365.

Question what do you use as a replacement for mail clients (Outlook) and chat (Microsoft Teams) and storage (One Drive) and Forms (MS Forms).

I get all of these as part of my subscription. Doesn’t make sense to change if the alternative for these bits costs near enough what I already pay.

 

[fisicx]

Thinderbird, zoom, one-drive is built into windows, any online form builder you want.

Teams is a pain if you don’t have it installed. It keeps wanting you to create an MS account.

 

[Deleted member 356896]

Sorry. Forgot to add to that list. Mail hosting. That’s another item I’d need to replace.

 

[Deleted member 356896]

Thinderbird, zoom, one-drive is built into windows, any online form builder you want.

Teams is a pain if you don’t have it installed. It keeps wanting you to create an MS account.

Thanks. Does Thunderbird have a mobile app? The team like to keep the work messages separate from personal so use the default mobile mail app for personal and outlook for work.

 

[fisicx]

I just use the email Client that comes with my hosting. Unlimited accounts and all free.

There are a number of free third party email apps you can install on your phone.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Use Zoho - they have a free level for domain based email, like Gmail, for 5? accounts.

 

[fisicx]

Must admit I use the mail app that comes with my iPhone. You can access all email or by account. It’s not difficult to keep work and personal separate.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Hosting email and clients downside is they are not 'push' but there are more important issues in the world than that!

 

[fisicx]

Hosting email and clients downside is they are not 'push' but there are more important issues in the world than that!

They can be. Thunderbird has a setting for this. I don’t bother, I just pull all the messages when I’m ready to answer emails.

 

[Deleted member 356896]

They can be. Thunderbird has a setting for this. I don’t bother, I just pull all the messages when I’m ready to answer emails.

I’d need to set this as the team are not to technical and are used to messages arriving automatically rather than requesting them.

 

[Deleted member 356896]

Use Zoho - they have a free level for domain based email, like Gmail, for 5? accounts.

Just checked and the free tier doesn’t include imap or pop so im guessing I’d need the paid tier to get email on mobiles.

They charge for this and also for their equivalent of one drive. They also charge for their version of Teams

Im totting these up and it’s not far off what I pay Microsoft.

I pay MS just over £10 per user but that gets me email hosting, teams, one drive for business, desktop versions of office,

If I drop desktop versions of office, outlook and teams it goes down to £4.90 a month. Might be a better option to do that and get Libre Office and Thunderbird mail to replace the desktop apps. I could try the free version of Teams or look at Zoom.

If anyone recommend a supplier for a good replacement for the email hosting and one drive and teams which lands for less than £4.90 a month (per user) I’d be interested.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

No, you use their app or webmail.

If you want IMAP/pop, it's £0.80 pu/pm

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Just checked and the free tier doesn’t include imap or pop so im guessing I’d need the paid tier to get email on mobiles.

They charge for this and also for their equivalent of one drive. They also charge for their version of Teams

Im totting these up and it’s not far off what I pay Microsoft.

I pay MS just over £10 per user but that gets me email hosting, teams, one drive for business, desktop versions of office,

If I drop desktop versions of office, outlook and teams it goes down to £4.90 a month. Might be a better option to do that and get Libre Office and Thunderbird mail to replace the desktop apps. I could try the free version of Teams or look at Zoom.

If anyone recommend a supplier for a good replacement for the email hosting and one drive and teams which lands for less than £4.90 a month (per user) I’d be interested.

How many seats do you have?

 

[eteb3]

If you have anyone using big spreadsheet files I would definitely recommend LibreOffice Calc. It’s tiny, mega fast, better functionality, and far, far better support.

Even outside that use case, MS Office is bloatware across the piece, and only worth it if you need to share docs with particularly impatient outsiders.

And surely anything’s better than T*ams?

 

[Joseph Bartosiewicz]

For those who work with complex and bigger files it makes sense to get an Office license. Libre is for very basic needs.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Most people who use Office only use basic functionality, so MS licensing isn't always necessary.

BTW. If you are prepared to get/use older versions of Office, you can get kosher licenses for £10-20.

 

[Deleted member 356896]

Most people who use Office only use basic functionality, so MS licensing isn't always necessary.

BTW. If you are prepared to get/use older versions of Office, you can get kosher licenses for £10-20.

Interesting. Do you have a link you can share.

 

[eteb3]

Libre is for very basic needs.

If you want AI-enabled Snorepoint presentations then fair enough. If you want spreadsheet functions that will knock Excel out of the park, Libre is definitely not basic. Just one example, it had regex capability from the off, while Excel added it only very recently.

Writer is totally up to the task, too - I grant the UX is not quite as smooth, but on the other hand, you get more control

People also need to factor the £cost of Office licences, of its storage space (it's enormous), its file sizes, and its vulnerability to viruses. And the fact that it's hard to quit once you have the habit, whereas every Libre file can be opened by any other program.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

you can get kosher licenses for £10-20.

You can't neither Microsoft nor any distribute ever sold at that price point. Anything under £100 is for sure not legit for a perpetual Office license. Office 2016 - 2021 sold form £149 onwards to £400 per license.

People also need to factor the £cost of Office licences, of its storage space (it's enormous), its file sizes, and its vulnerability

Office 365 is an absolute steal at £120 a year—it’s practically giving itself away! Seriously, if you need file collaboration through SharePoint, seamless teamwork on Teams, working with outside contractors, automations in SharePoint, enterprise-level email, and airtight data logging, there’s nothing out there that compares. Plus, everything plays together like a well-rehearsed band.

And don’t even get me started on the storage costs. It's 4GB installed, which, at 7 pence per gigabyte, adds up to a mind-boggling 28 pence. Are we really going to lose sleep over 28 pence? Who in the business world gives a damn about that? It’s practically the cost of a gumball!

If your business can’t fork out £10 a month per seat, then honestly, you've probably got bigger fish to fry than worrying about software costs.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Interesting. Do you have a link you can share.

No, for a group I am a part of, following a similar discussion, I asked (small business) people what features they actively used and if they considered themselves basic, intermediate or pro users and, out of about 150 responses, most people responded that they were basic. Whilst people will use things like sum & date, they didn't use vlookup, count, concat & trim.

You can't neither Microsoft nor any distribute ever sold at that price point. Anything under £100 is for sure not legit for a perpetual Office license. Office 2016 - 2021 sold form £149 onwards to £400 per license.

I received a promo email from a reputable group a few days ago offering Office 21 Pro Plus for £12.99 via a registered reseller (third party site). I would post the link, but will not promote that site/offer.

 

[eteb3]

And don’t even get me started on the storage costs. It's 4GB installed, which, at 7 pence per gigabyte, adds up to a mind-boggling 28 pence.

Fair points. I'll own that I don't understand computers "under the hood" much, just what they're like to use.

Maybe its not the storage, but processing speed required?

I've worked with Office in multiple institutions, and it goes like this:
1. Oooh isn't this new hardware great.
2. Oh, a software update? Guess we can't lose on the latest version.
3. Oh, ffs, when are they going to change the hardware so it can run this fancy software.

Rinse, repeat - except that stage 3 lasts for years.

By contrast my FOSS software experience is like this:
1. Wow, how can anything be so fast?
2. Really, how can it do that so fast?
3. Ten years later and it's still that fast?

If your business can’t fork out £10 a month per seat, then honestly, you've probably got bigger fish to fry than worrying about software costs.

If I offered you a chance to save £10/employee/month and never have to upgrade your hardware, you wouldn't take it?

 

[fisicx]

Office 365 is an absolute steal at £120 a year—it’s practically giving itself away! Seriously, if you need file collaboration through SharePoint, seamless teamwork on Teams, working with outside contractors, automations in SharePoint, enterprise-level email, and airtight data logging, there’s nothing out there that compares. Plus, everything plays together like a well-rehearsed band.

If you don't need any of that then LibreOffice does the job.

 

[eteb3]

seamless teamwork on Teams

I missed this bit. I have never, ever done anything on Teams "seamlessly". It's laggy, cobbled together, and has the intuitive feel of one of Mrs McGonagal's classes.

 

[fisicx]

I had a teams call with a client today. They set up the meeting, I clicked the link and had the meeting using my browser. No need for MS anything.

As an aside, I use a Mac and trying to install the Teams App is a fruitless task. It just doesn't work.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

3. Oh, ffs, when are they going to change the hardware so it can run this fancy software.

I am not sure what kind of institutions you worked with but the latest requirements for Office 365 is a dual core 2Ghz CPU and 4GB Ram, intel released the dual core in 2006. That's an 18 year old CPU as recommend specs and 4GB ram. for 365. Your argument for hardware upgrades is not holding up.

 

[Craig Wells]

I made the switch to LibreOffice a while ago, and honestly, it’s been a game changer for me. I love that it’s free and pretty powerful for everyday tasks. I was worried about compatibility, but it opens Microsoft files without any hassle, which is a relief since I often share docs with friends using Office. The interface felt a bit different at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly.

 

[eteb3]

I am not sure what kind of institutions you worked with

Schools and colleges

an 18 year old CPU as recommend specs and 4GB ram. for 365. Your argument for hardware upgrades is not holding up.

And Office will cope just fine when it’s (ahem) not the only program installed? Oh sorry, it’s multiple programs, isn’t it.

Whatever, my experience is that before very long it’s very noticeably slow. And more advanced features have a habit of buggering your work up (eg, in Word: master docs, bibliography, complex use of styles*).

LibreOffice also throws curveballs occasionally, but ime these are always resolvable by asking the support forums: folks there know how it’s built, can explain the logic, and find a permanent fix. Contrast Word, where problems can be entirely random.

Anyways it’s horses for courses as always. Here’s a comparison for folks who’d rather spend £10/mo on coffee:

Comparação de recursos: LibreOffice - Microsoft Office - The Document Foundation Wiki

wiki.documentfoundation.org

*and Arabic text is unreadably hideous, but I’ll concede that’s probably no drawback for most on this forum…

 

[eteb3]

PS (and I realise I'm probably getting boring here; but evangelists do that, sorry)

As grist to my argument that MS Office sucks you into in an upgrade vortex:

	LibreOffice	MS Office
MS Windows	Windows 7 SP1, 8, 8.1, 10, 11, Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019, 2022. LibreOffice 5.4 (still available) supports Windows XP SP3, Vista.	Windows 8.1, 10, 11, Windows Server 2016, 2019
MacOs	10.15+ (Catalina) Intel and Apple Silicon	13+ (Ventura). Intel and Apple Silicon

TL;DR - you can run LibreOffice on really old kit.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

MS Office doesn't suck.

I went to OS apps then went back to MS when some relative simply functions inwanted to use became more complicated. I can't remember what they were, but it was probably vlookup or remove duplicates.....

It was probably more of an ease of use thing rather than relearning the basics.

For 90% of what people will use Office for, the free versions and online versions will probably suffice.

 

[Techonis]

First of all, I am well aware of the fact that Microsoft 365 includes loads of stuff and isn't just Microsoft Office but for the sake of this post I'll take Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to mean Microsoft Office and LibreOffice in comparison.

I've switched over to a Mac and I'm finding that from my brief trial period LibreOffice seems to do most of what I want from an office suite and Microsoft Office supports both native LibreOffice files as well files saved in LibreOffice in Microsoft Office format so I can still work with people using Microsoft Office.

Have you ever considered moving over to LibreOffice?

It is a worth while alternative, free and and as you mention good compatibility with MS Office. However, on the down side, is you do not get any of the services like OneDrive or Teams. OneDrive is good as it will give you Cloud backup and Teams for Meetings, to share and collaborate as part of the service. But if you have workflows that facilitate doing the same outside of MS Office with other tools. May as well continue with that. There are Microsoft 365 package options that can still give you these, without the usual 'Office' products, like Email and Teams as part of it, which are via subscription basis.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

you do not get any of the services like OneDrive or Teams. OneDrive is good as it will give you Cloud backup and Teams for Meetings, to share and collaborate as part of the service.

Already mentioned - many people do not use these so are worthless if you just want the apps!

 

[fisicx]

It is a worth while alternative, free and and as you mention good compatibility with MS Office. However, on the down side, is you do not get any of the services like OneDrive or Teams.

Why do I need these? It’s me on my own. I’ve got my own server and an external SSD for backups and if anyone wants to talk to me they can use their meeting tool of choice.

 

[Karimbo]

I use office 2013. My qualms about using third party officue suits (not libreoffice, but I used open office) is that some documents would appear different. I made an open office document once, exported it to .doc and sent it to an MS office user and the page was formatted all wrong. It was supposed to be form that appear on 1 page. But when the office user opened it, it spilled into page 2.

So I have just decided to stick to an old MS suite just for the sake of harmonising with office 365 users.