[tombert]

Excel is the biggest blocker for my dad, and why I keep losing the argument to get my parents to move to Linux or Mac.

Pretty much all their other stuff is stuff that either works fine on Linux or is just in the browser anyway, but the only thing that I don't really have a rebuttal to is when my dad points out that he uses the full-fat excel and a lot of the more modern features.

I would so rather they move to Linux, and just put Excel inside Winboat or something, but they won't have it. Annoying since I'm still expected to play tech support for them and Microsoft's recovery tools do not work, and as far as I can tell have literally never worked for anyone in human history, and I'm not entirely convinced that the people at Microsoft have ever tested them.

[bombcar]

What do they do with Excel for Windows that they can't do with Excel for Mac?

[major505]

This is exactly what I do with my personal computing. I would prefer to be on linux, but a lot of people still sends me data in excel spreadsheets for processing, and lets be honest: apple hardware is fucking awesome.

The feeling of being able to work away from my desk and dont care about battery, is so goooooooood.

And I have to admit. Even if I dont like macos, my macbook with m1 and 16gb ram is probably the fastest laptop I ever own.

[e12e]

Excel for Mac has gotten a lot better - but I'm not surprised if it is still its own thing - with edge cases in format, macros, visual basic, linking to databases and data sources etc. I imagine excel under wine is better than the port to Mac in some respects.

[tombert]

If you can even get Excel working under Wine. Older ones work fine, but AFAIK there's no way to get the modern Excel working on Wine.

[bombcar]

The edge cases are where it can break, but they're getting smaller and smaller as Excel slowly turns into a web-based app.

[joseda-hg]

I'd guess PowerPivot and PowerQuery

You'd think it's third party the way it locks up a file or makes it so you can't basic things like interacting with filters

[tombert]

I'm honestly not sure. I'm sure my dad Googled something to use it as an excuse to not change.

As I said in a sibling comment, I think they really just don't want to change and they are looking for excuses; I suspect even if I could prove that there's absolute feature parity between the two versions they'd just find another reason.

[hiciu]

> just put Excel inside Winboat or something, but they won't have it

Just curious, is it about different tools / workflow / the new thing to learn (and those are valid reasons!) or are there some technical issues with for example Winboat?

[tombert]

They've never used Winboat (or anything Linuxey really), so it's definitely not a fault with Winboat itself.

Honestly I think they really just don't want to change and they're trying to look for ways out because they know that "I don't want to!" isn't going to fly with me if I'm expected to be tech support.