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by xyzelement 969 days ago
// Is there really no competitor who gets this right?

Clearly excel has offered value far in excess of this annoyance. The competitors such that they existed aside from google sheets clearly fail to deliver sufficient value even in hypothetical absence of this bug.
2 comments
master-lincoln 969 days ago
You say "clearly" twice, but it's not clear at all to me that this is the case. Can you elaborate what makes it clear that no other competitor exists who can provide similar value?

And isn't LibreOffice Calc closer to Excel than Google Sheets in terms of features?

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A4ET8a8uTh0 969 days ago
I use libre at home and excel at work. Having worked in various departments of a somewhat regulated industry, I can say that the value of Excel comes from familiarity and 'not having to retrain everyone'. It seems silly to people like me, but I personally experienced a person unable to complete their daily routine, because version change moved from one menu to another.

I guess my point it is: it is not features. It is humans. MS cracked the code on that one. Get people familiar with their stuff and the rest will follow.

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eviks 969 days ago
> person unable to complete their daily routine, because version change moved from one menu to another.

> I guess my point it is: it is not features.

Discoverability of commands, customization, as well as the stability of UI are all features. As would be "full UI compatibility with Excel sans stupid bugs like data conversion"

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xyzelement 969 days ago
I am a simple man and I use “people use it” as a proxy for value. LibreOffice is available everywhere excel runs, for free, and yet …
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hyeonwho22 969 days ago
The main reason people continue using it is due to the network effect (xlsx files are considered shareable) and the fact that people are trained on its features and interface. That does make it valuable, but that doesn't mean it is more usable than competitors.
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master-lincoln 968 days ago
The USA got plenty of value from opioids then
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mjhay 969 days ago
All spreadsheets are bad. There are no good spreadsheets.
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gertrunde 969 days ago
I suspect Excel's primary value at this point is its entrenched monopoly position.
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xyzelement 969 days ago
I don't think it has anything of the kind. "Office" is no longer a must for any home user, and most businesses starting today have a clear choice between (at the very least) Office and gSuite.

I haven't had Excel installed on my work laptop for the current or previous job. Though if I didn't have access to Sheets and had to use Libre by default, I'd petition for Excel in a second...

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