Have to pay to use Windows 11?

Bill7 said:
I was a long time user of Microsoft Office but I switched to an open source free alternative a few years ago called Libre Office. You can download it for Windows. It works with xlsx files and it has some nice features that Microsoft Office doesn’t. Also Libre Office uses much less memory and CPU and Libre Office seems faster with large complex spreadsheets when doing a recalculate of 900,000 rows.

I don’t think it’s worth paying for Microsoft Office.
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You can get a lifetime license of O365 2021 for less than $40 (one time payment). The $99/year SaaS version is a major ripoff, IMO, unless you really do need some of the features that come with it.

As for LibreOffice/OpenOffice, it works, but there is a learning curve. I gave it an honest try, but gave up trying to figure out where things are. After having used MS Office for decades, I know exactly where to find things and I'm a creature of habit. Didn't feel like having to relearn it all. Just not worth it for $40.
 
Office 2021 is end of life fall of 2026. You don't get the cloud capabilities with the lifetime licenses. Good deal if you don't need that. I use OneDrive. Luckily I have a family member that retired from Microsoft so I am able to get MS365 family for $25 a year. $5 per person per year for 5 users
 
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Quattro Pete said:
You can get a lifetime license of O365 2021 for less than $40 (one time payment). The $99/year SaaS version is a major ripoff, IMO, unless you really do need some of the features that come with it.

As for LibreOffice/OpenOffice, it works, but there is a learning curve. I gave it an honest try, but gave up trying to figure out where things are. After having used MS Office for decades, I know exactly where to find things and I'm a creature of habit. Didn't feel like having to relearn it all. Just not worth it for $40.
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It sounds like you're a fan of Microsoft Office, as I once was. I respect your choice.

It all comes down to what each person actually likes.
I don't like Telemetry, slowness, contacting servers in China, Far East, etc without my permission when I open a private spreadsheet.

Also, I grew up with the File Edit View menu. Once they came out with Microsoft Office 2007 with the Ribbon, I never liked it and still don't like the ribbon. The best thing about Libre Office is it has the File Edit View menu (kind of like a Retro MS Office 2003).

Also, I feel so much safer with open source, as the entire open source community has reviewed the source code of Libre Office,
and it's only doing honest straightforward things. There is a movement across European governments to abandon Microsoft and move 100% to an open source OS and open source Office. It puts the user in control of their own data.
 
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PandaBear said:
Business user who can't mess with a document other people can't open.
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Libre Office is fully compatible with Microsoft docx, xlsx, document formats, and fully supports password protected documents as well.

Bill Gates somehow convinced the world to pay $100+ for Micorost OS and for Microsoft Office back in the 1980's, and got the world addicted to an inferior product, making hundreds of billions off of us.

The free alternatives Linux + Libre office is so superior to Microsoft products in my opinion, that Microsoft OS + Office should be free and Linux + Libre Office should be $100's of dollars.
 
Bill7 said:
Libre Office is fully compatible with Microsoft docx, xlsx, document formats, and fully supports password protected documents as well.

Bill Gates somehow convinced the world to pay $100+ for Micorost OS and for Microsoft Office back in the 1980's, and got the world addicted to an inferior product, making hundreds of billions off of us.

The free alternatives Linux + Libre office is so superior to Microsoft products in my opinion, that Microsoft OS + Office should be free and Linux + Libre Office should be $100's of dollars.
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"Fully compatible" might be a stretch. There are rendering inconsistencies galore in word processing documents and Excel macros don't work; and some of the programmatic syntax in spreadsheet formulae are different. I would not feel responsible telling a business they can seamlessly switch.
 
uc50ic4more said:
"Fully compatible" might be a stretch. There are rendering inconsistencies galore in word processing documents and Excel macros don't work; and some of the programmatic syntax in spreadsheet formulae are different. I would not feel responsible telling a business they can seamlessly switch.
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Like any software migration, it would require analysis, and some changes to existing spreadsheet coding.

Many European governments have already migrated successful to Libre Office and Linux, and no longer need to pay millions of dollars annually to Microsoft.
 
I know this isn’t really an option for an elderly person, but I’ve pretty much dropped Windows entirely.

I now rely on a Mac for serious work and almost exclusively use Linux for hobbyist things and gaming now. I still haven’t had the guts to drop Windows on a secondary PC, but I’m getting close.

Microsoft is an enterprise cloud compute company still moonlighting (poorly) as a consumer software company, and their CEO seems like a charlatan to me.
 
Ideally, but there are options for screens larger than 10".

IMO, They are better off in a closed eco system, like iOS, vs Windows.
 
goingplacesanddoingstuff said:
I know this isn’t really an option for an elderly person, but I’ve pretty much dropped Windows entirely.

I now rely on a Mac for serious work and almost exclusively use Linux for hobbyist things and gaming now. I still haven’t had the guts to drop Windows on a secondary PC, but I’m getting close.

Microsoft is an enterprise cloud compute company still moonlighting (poorly) as a consumer software company, and their CEO seems like a charlatan to me.
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Nice move. Using open source OS, Office, Browser, all packages gives you maximum privacy.
Open source source code is examined by a huge online community and this ensures that there is no hidden activity helping itself
to your data.

I also like that I never have to upgrade hardware due to some new version of something,
and you get lifetime free updates. Also, everything is free.

The open source OS's come in security hardened versions, that make them incredibly secure.
Open source OS's don't require anti-virus software. The build-in firewall is very secure.
But if you are a security fanatic like I am, you can download free packages that do HIPS (Host Intrusion Prevention).
 
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Bill7 said:
Like any software migration, it would require analysis, and some changes to existing spreadsheet coding.

Many European governments have already migrated successful to Libre Office and Linux, and no longer need to pay millions of dollars annually to Microsoft.
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Yes; but at great cost - Munich was the first, I remember. We were all very, very excited about that. Then they abandoned it. But I have seen many regional governments and public institutions - school boards, library systems, etc. switch. There are two MASSIVE considerations:

Can you handle the costs - time, technical, training and monetary in switching? For many, these are simply too great to bear; if even once.
These governments and institutions are still paying for support; just not as much and not to Microsoft. If they're using Red Hat or Ubuntu they are paying for support; and if they're using a non-corporate distro they need to have a small army of very highly paid techs on staff for support.
 
CleanSump said:
No problem. You simply save to Windows format. Been doing it for decades and made many documents that anyone can open. Or not if I chose to lock, encrypt, or PW protect them the same as MS Office docs.
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It almost never works cleanly with layouts that contain multiple text boxes, graphics, and complex formatting. For example, if ComEd creates an invoice in word and we open it LO, there will be multiple formatting issues with the location of text boxes, fillable text, etc to the point where the project managers and accountants will have to waste time reorganizing and fixing the invoice. The employees cannot waste their time fixing things like that because their time is billable to a project. Then if we save it as a docx from LO and ComEd opens it up, the formatting on their end is all screwed up, they push it back to us, and the PM/Accountant has to waste more time trying to fix it.

In a business setting, people just want two things, 1. for it to work and 2. for it to be familiar. If they've used Windows their entire life then they know where certain things are as well as QOL stuff like keybinds. Calc does not have the same keybindings as Excel so a database admin or accountant who is used to the keybinds for Excel will have to relearn; and that's even more of a waste of time considering some users are unable or unwilling to learn the change.

Bill7 said:
There is a movement across European governments to abandon Microsoft and move 100% to an open source OS and open source Office. It puts the user in control of their own data.
Click to expand...

The other 90% of the world is on Windows. If you want a mandated Linux in federal computers, you can move to the EU. Tbh, Europe doesn't like individualism or [seemingly] capitalism very much though like mandating apple to change from the Lightning to USBC

Linux admins are harder to find and cost more than a Windows admin. Windows Server is relatively easy to learn because the GUI makes things simple so a junior admin can learn and set things up themselves. So if your environment is already built upon a Windows domain, you're saving money in licensing while end up losing money in capital expenses. Talking about SMBs though, not enterprises/datacenters as I'm no linux expert and the majroity of experience I have with Linux is vmware and proxmox.

Then there are issues with commonly used programs in various industries that do not support linux. In my case, many popular lawyer or AEC programs do not support Linux and I have absolutely zero intentions of installing a T2 hypervisor so the user can get worse performance on 90% of their programs because Linux and LibreOffice is free.

But most of issues is between the seat and the keyboard or from some bogus third party program like those OEM driver updaters that are installed on every computer. Linux won't save the guy that clicks on "hot single moms in your area" ads.

With that said, I'm not against Linux. Use it if it works for you, that's fine. But assuming it's going to work for everyone is too far fetched a statement to even think that the other 95% of users on Windows around the world will switch over because you like it. However I do need to buy some Linux for dummies books to help me with VMware and proxmox.
 
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Pew said:
With that said, I'm not against Linux. Use it if it works for you, that's fine. But assuming it's going to work for everyone is too far fetched a statement to even think that the other 95% of users on Windows around the world will switch over because you like it.
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Well said. I also love Linux/BSD, but the World's business desktops run on Windows and Microsoft Office. Among the many reasons for that, simplicity is a major factor. It just works.

Edit: This post was typed from Rocky Linux :)
 
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