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by whateveruser 2837 days ago
It doesn't matter how much value Word delivers when Libreoffice Writer delivers more, for less (zero) cost. For most people, Writer is enough, and so they won't buy Word. Its just free market and competition working the way it should.
3 comments

Libre can't even reliably update Word documents, which is literally the only thing I ever asked if it. I don't think MS is threatened by it, and I have no idea why you're going off on a free market tangent.
Yes, this is a damning indictment of Microsoft's file formats.
Somehow the openess of graphic formats does not make Gimp a better proposition than Photoshop, specially when handling color workflows on digital agencies.
An image format mostly stores the end result of what you made.

An office document format is basically source code.

That's why the openness of a graphic format doesn't matter, but clear specifications on how to interpret an office document make an enormous difference.

Somehow you missed the point that openness of graphic formats has not helped to make Gimp better than Photoshop, likewise even if Office formats were 100% open, Libre Office features wouldn't match Word.
I didn't miss the point. I'm arguing that the two kinds of format are completely different. A graphics format is a side-effect of the actual editing, an afterthought. With an office document, the format itself is the core of the experience.
No, but it would allow LibreOffice to work with them cleanly which was the criticism I replied to (and probably allow Word to break itself less often or have 3-4 fewer implementations embedded in itself).
็Really? I have had more OpenOffice crash/freeze on me in 2 years of using it (on Linux) than MS Office for over 10 years (including 2 years running in VM)

I would seriously fork money over if MS would ever build Linux version.

People have different experiences, right?

I have never lost a document in LibreOffice, Vim/gvim, AbiWord, WordPerfect (long time ago), or OOO.

I lost a ton of documents, sometimes to the cost of many thousands of dollars, in Word. (Disclaimer: haven't used word since like 2010 or so)

People get burned, and thus jaded, by lots of different, sometimes opposing or contradictory, experiences.

Ah the lack of experience with Word features...
The last MS Office I paid for was 2007. The last time I used Word 2007 was 2010 or 2011 maybe. I am 100% lacking in any experience in Word features, at least since then, and I hardly remember anything from Word 2007.

As a lawyer, I deal with other people's Word products all day every day. What Word features am I missing out on? I am genuinely curious and not trying to be snarky in any way.

> What Word features am I missing out on?

All those pesky macros that would allow your computer to be infected

You mean like those curl url | sh advices?
You can choose to install malware on any system you control, or be tricked into doing so.
Since around 2007 that those pesky macros only run if the user takes the same effort as typing curl | sh.