open source alternative to MS Office

LibreOffice

Open Office is what I've used for years.

Open Office

See if she can double check the company license, since she is in IT. I can get the full professional version for $9 thru work...MS throws it in when the company buys MS Office.

Libre Office. Unless you have complex spreadsheets with pivot tables or lots of formulas, for most home users it's easily compatible with MS Office.

valhalla360 wrote:
See if she can double check the company license, since she is in IT. I can get the full professional version for $9 thru work...MS throws it in when the company buys MS Office.

That depends. They must be a volume license customer and they also must be paying for SA (Software Assurance). Even then many IT depts opt not to make it available to the company staff because they end up becoming support for the staff's home machines.

Here's a link to an article that compares OpenOffice to LibreOffice:

https://www.lifewire.com/libreoffice-vs-openoffice-who-wins-2512178

valhalla360 wrote:
See if she can double check the company license, since she is in IT. I can get the full professional version for $9 thru work...MS throws it in when the company buys MS Office.

Not exactly.

MS DOES have a "Home Use Program" or HUP which IF your place of business is using ENTERPRISE VERSIONS AND PAYING FOR ENTERPRISE LEVELS OF SUPPORT of MS products, so you MIGHT be eligible for this program and your company may not even know that this program exists.

Cost is currently $15 for digital download of Office Professional Plus 2019 or Office Home and Business 2019 and it IS NOT A SUBSCRIPTION (IE you never pay a monthly fee).

You do have the option of also USB flash drive for an additional charge, I would highly recommend paying for the USB flash drive. Gives you a backup method to reinstall if needed..

It DOES however have a few caveats, it IS supposed to be legal to use as long as your company is paying for ENTERPRISE LEVEL SUPPORT AND YOU ARE STILL WORKING AT THE COMPANY.

Granted, I suspect it will most likely still work even if you left the company but that is something you would have to consider once you left the company..

You can go to the MS HUP PROGRAM WEBSITE HERE, enter your COMPANY EMAIL ADDRESS and it will tell you if you are eligible for the HUP Program.

I got Office 2016 that way from my company and it works fine.

I have also used Open OFFICE, it generally works well, but it is a bit dated as far as the GUI so if you are used to Office 2011 or newer you will find Open office looks a lot more like Office 2000 or older and might take some time to figure things out if you never worked with older MS Office.

tyoungs wrote:
Just got new laptop and previously wife's work IT folks loaded MS Office to our home computer. They can't do that this time (new owners) and so I am looking for suggestions on alternative to paying full boat for MS Office. We have files for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Publisher. What do you suggest for alternative.
Thanks in advance,

It seems you are talking about personal use instead of doing work related work. Google apps (Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.) are free, can open MS documents, and have a similar (or easily used) interface. I've been using them for years, not paying for MS apps.

AsheGuy wrote:

tyoungs wrote:
Just got new laptop and previously wife's work IT folks loaded MS Office to our home computer. They can't do that this time (new owners) and so I am looking for suggestions on alternative to paying full boat for MS Office. We have files for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Publisher. What do you suggest for alternative.
Thanks in advance,

It seems you are talking about personal use instead of doing work related work. Google apps (Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.) are free, can open MS documents, and have a similar (or easily used) interface. I've been using them for years, not paying for MS apps.

Just be aware, Google docs only works if you are online, no Internet connection and you have nothing, no word processor and no files..

Google docs also has a lot of short comings like saving (doesn't like to save to your PC), printing (has to "create" a temporary PDF on your PC, then you can print the PDF) and on and on.. Retrieving files from this poor excuse of software is often a frustrating of a nightmare undertaking of epic proportions.

Yes, I have been dealing with this with my DD who got used to this stupidity of Google docs because of the stupid High school teachers which INSISTED that ALL students HAD to use Google docs :M for all of their work :S , spent many hrs last week helping my DD retrieve vital documents she needed to physically turn in to her Profs for finals..

Yeah, had to copy text and photos, then paste those into MS Word docs one page at a time then print them, much cleaner results than using the PDF print version of Google docs.

Now it leaves me to FIX this bad habit because in the real world of business no one in their right mind is going to use it for business..

Friends, don't let friends use Google docs..

Go with Open office or Libre office before messing around with Google docs, you WILL thank yourself many times over the years..

Gdetrailer wrote:

Just be aware, Google docs only works if you are online, no Internet connection and you have nothing, no word processor and no files..

Google docs also has a lot of short comings like saving (doesn't like to save to your PC), printing (has to "create" a temporary PDF on your PC, then you can print the PDF) and on and on.. Retrieving files from this poor excuse of software is often a frustrating of a nightmare undertaking of epic proportions.

Yes, I have been dealing with this with my DD who got used to this stupidity of Google docs because of the stupid High school teachers which INSISTED that ALL students HAD to use Google docs :M for all of their work :S , spent many hrs last week helping my DD retrieve vital documents she needed to physically turn in to her Profs for finals..

Yeah, had to copy text and photos, then paste those into MS Word docs one page at a time then print them, much cleaner results than using the PDF print version of Google docs.

Now it leaves me to FIX this bad habit because in the real world of business no one in their right mind is going to use it for business..

Friends, don't let friends use Google docs..

Go with Open office or Libre office before messing around with Google docs, you WILL thank yourself many times over the years..

Respectfully, you live in a different world than I do. I just disconnected from the Internet just to verify that I can still access documents, etc. You are correct, Google is a cloud based world but you can do a lot of things offline like create documents, access "favorite" documents that are mirrored on your PC, etc. Printing is no problem, the problems you describe with printing are a mystery to me.

Schools have converted to Google because it is cheaper, has better backup and sharing capabilities, etc., etc. We have two granddaughters who each have a Chromebook to interact with their school. No problems whatsoever.

You are free to use whichever platform you are familiar with, but should not bad mouth those that you do not understand. I use Google products extensively and travel a lot with rare instances where lack of Internet access is an issue.

As far as the state of mind in the business world ("Now it leaves me to FIX this bad habit because in the real world of business no one in their right mind is going to use it for business.."), you might want to read this article