best free MS Office type of software

[markstanco 12631]

WPS Office or Open Office?  

Its for an older home PC I will use to do email and spreadsheets and I dont want to spend the $200ish on MMS Office.

Word and Excel only, no PP or Outlook needed. 

[TwiceHorn 31584]

Libre Office I think is the "best."

It's a fork of the Star/Open Office software, but is now developed more and a bit more refined.

I'm not an Excel power user, but it's opened every .xl or .xls or .xlsx file I've gotten in usable fashion.  I am a Word power user and it's a solid substitute without many of the annoying "features" of the latest versions.

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

I've tried many of the open source office software from years of also being a cheap ass.  But lately Google docs has done it all for me.   I use it 100% at home and 50% at work.

[CooterBrown 18034]

If you work for a company that has a Microsoft enterprise license, as an employee you most likely have access to a home license of Office for $15 or so.

[idigTexas 2292]

8 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

If you work for a company that has a Microsoft enterprise license, as an employee you most likely have access to a home license of Office for $15 or so.

There is no cost; you can install it for free.  I have no idea what happens when you leave the company, as I have only ever installed it with my current one.  

If that's not available to you, I second the recommendation for Google Docs, especially if you don't want to install anything.  If you need something more refined, Libre Office is the best of the open source options, as already mentioned. 

 

[Gator Dave 14]

Office.com gets you free online versions of all the MS Office apps. They are slimmed down versions, but should be all you need to do basic work.

[crash_davis 23115]

ebay is your friend.  ms office licenses can be had for about $10.  i have/had ms office on 10 difference computers and laptops using this.  i've only ever had one issue where the license was already in use.  the dude gave me a diff code and all was resolved.

for a desktop and 2 laptops, i've had ms office for about 8 years with no issues.  

[dcbc 14539]

Google Docs.  Follow with a chromebook. 

[DoobieWah 1467]

Yeah, you should absolutely give Google access to all of your documents because they don't have nearly enough info on you yet. 

 

🙄

[SimonBolivar 10961]

LibreOffice or GoogleDocs will get it done.

[crash_davis 23115]

1 hour ago, DoobieWah said:

Yeah, you should absolutely give Google access to all of your documents because they don't have nearly enough info on you yet. 

 

🙄

Your credit card and bank companies know what you buy and when and where you travel. Your cell providers always know where you are and your apps and internet usage. Your ISP knows where you surf on the net. Your browser company also knows your internet interest. If you have a newer car, your car company also knows your location. Your social media platforms know a whole hell of a lot about you, with Facebook being the absolute worst.

Yes Google specifically deals in data as their source of revenue but there are many companies who aren't vilified which know a shitton about you. I'm not defending google but are most people as diligent keeping the other companies in the dark as much as they try to keep Google in the dark.

Edited October 15, 2019 by crash_davis

[DoobieWah 1467]

Your car isn't going to be able to access every business proposal you write, or every spreadsheet you create. 

But by all means, suit yourself. Just remember that gathering info on "you" is literally Google's business model and they apparently have no boundaries.

 

[TwiceHorn 31584]

2 hours ago, crash_davis said:

Your credit card and bank companies know what you buy and when and where you travel. Your cell providers always know where you are and your apps and internet usage. Your ISP knows where you surf on the net. Your browser company also knows your internet interest. If you have a newer car, your car company also knows your location. Your social media platforms know a whole hell of a lot about you, with Facebook being the absolute worst.

Yes Google specifically deals in data as their source of revenue but there are many companies who aren't vilified which know a shitton about you. I'm not defending google but are most people as diligent keeping the other companies in the dark as much as they try to keep Google in the dark.

Very true, but if you aren't careful, Google knows all that shit.  All in one place.

[crash_davis 23115]

1 hour ago, DoobieWah said:

Your car isn't going to be able to access every business proposal you write, or every spreadsheet you create. 

But by all means, suit yourself. Just remember that gathering info on "you" is literally Google's business model and they apparently have no boundaries.

 

if by no boundaries means that i get targeted ads, then i agree with you.  other than that, i have seen no real world implications of google having access to my email or location.

here's the deal.  you have no idea what any of these companies are doing with your data.  AT&T was busted for selling customer locations to bounty hunters.  i worked for another big telecom.  you would be amazed at the amount of personal customer data that we have access to.  apple and amazon have issues with employees and contractors listening to people's siri and alexa recordings.  google, apple, alexa are all constantly listening via smart speakers or your phone.  ALWAYS listening. credit card companies have been building customer profiles and selling consumer data long before the internet was ever created, long before google every existed.  

it's easy to vilify google.  every company is in the business of mining your personal data and monetizing it.  you and i have no idea how.

someone suggested office.com.  are you ok with microsoft having access to every business proposal or spreadsheet but not google?  if you are so worried about google, do you use VPN for all of your internet surfing, do you only pay in cash, do you have an old flip phone pre-paid with cash only?  to what level are you hiding your activities from other companies who mine your data?  do you have a facebook account?  do you know that most all apps in IOS ping servers with your location every night?  

privacy is a myth unless you are willing to go ted kaczynski and totally unplug from society.  there are steps that you can take to mitigate privacy concerns but everyone makes tradeoffs.  i just find it funny when people denounce google but have smart phones, internet, and facebook.

[Horn_Spanker 524]

JFC!  Google Docs.  Trying to help the wife who brought this shitshow home on her laptop.  My background is full blown Office products loaded on a very fast PC (finance world).  After a weekend of Google Docs, I assume it was programmed by some Apple fanboy, and like Apple, sucks cock by choice.

[Parliament 14344]

On 10/10/2019 at 9:34 PM, dcbc said:

Google Docs.  Follow with a chromebook. 

1234

[ROFL BOX 6649]

I have been using Open Office (Apache) for probably 18 years now & only in this last 2 to 3 years - Since Windows 10 - have I had problems.  Constant crashing & most of that is when doing spreadsheets.

I have to save every 15 to 20 moves or so & especially if I do something that I guess could be considered a "hard" move, such as import a pic into a spreadsheet or word document.

 

Would Libre pick up all of my Apache O.O. docs without any hassles & potentially stop my crashing issues?

[crash_davis 23115]

you can get Ultra Office for free. It's based on code for Libre office.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/ultra-office-for-free-word-spreadsheet-slide-pdf-compatible/9n161bjrlc1d?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

 

[TwiceHorn 31584]

15 hours ago, ROFL BOX said:

I have been using Open Office (Apache) for probably 18 years now & only in this last 2 to 3 years - Since Windows 10 - have I had problems.  Constant crashing & most of that is when doing spreadsheets.

I have to save every 15 to 20 moves or so & especially if I do something that I guess could be considered a "hard" move, such as import a pic into a spreadsheet or word document.

 

Would Libre pick up all of my Apache O.O. docs without any hassles & potentially stop my crashing issues?

I believe so.

It has occasional glitches with the latest Office docs (docx and xlsx) if they are highly formatted or have sort of "extreme" features like footnotes, graphics, or tables of contents or authorities, but it's a pretty solid program.  I've been using it for a long time, and used OO before it.

I would, however, stick with the stable version as opposed to the latest.