2021-2022 How essential is Microsoft Office to you?

Dr_Faustus

Resident Robot Hoarder
Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2021
Messages
680
Trophies
0
Age
34
Location
The Best State on The Best Coast
XP
826
Country
United States
That's part of the problem really, microsoft and google have the productivity apps in schools closed to a monopoly with office 365 or google drive respectively, so if you want to use something else you might be out of luck.

Honestly I wish more School boards would consider alternatives but it is what it is.
Why consider alternatives when MS basically gives away their software for almost free to these institutions? The point is that MS depends on these sectors and gives them licenses for practically nothing because at the end of the day those users who are used to those platforms are going to be most comfortable with them. You used MS office in school or in work? Now you want to use it at home for all your stuff, any alternative will just not feel as comfortable, or you will be too brain dead to know that alternatives exist out there.

That is how that works, Apple did the same thing back in the day with Computers. Its a form of indoctrination, or a drug. You hook them in when they are young and they become paying customers for life.
 
  • Like
Reactions: krakenx

Gep_Etto

Being late since '88
Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2021
Messages
375
Trophies
0
XP
1,153
Country
Brazil
Why consider alternatives when MS basically gives away their software for almost free to these institutions?
The entire rest of your comment is a great answer to this question.

Also, Microsoft has a de facto monopoly with MS Office. Even though there are several alternatives, they're most often evaluated based on compatibility with MS Office first, actual features second. Monopolies stifle innovation, lead to higher prices and lower quality products and services (since there's nobody to show them up) and are generally bad for the consumer. Plus, if you choose an open source alternative like LibreOffice, you get all of the advantages that come with that.
 

TomRiddle

Yare Yare Daze
Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2021
Messages
202
Trophies
0
Location
Hogwarts
XP
537
Country
Canada
Why consider alternatives when MS basically gives away their software for almost free to these institutions? The point is that MS depends on these sectors and gives them licenses for practically nothing because at the end of the day those users who are used to those platforms are going to be most comfortable with them. You used MS office in school or in work? Now you want to use it at home for all your stuff, any alternative will just not feel as comfortable, or you will be too brain dead to know that alternatives exist out there.

That is how that works, Apple did the same thing back in the day with Computers. Its a form of indoctrination, or a drug. You hook them in when they are young and they become paying customers for life.
That last bit you said there really disturbed me at that.

Just the way corporations sink their products into peoples minds early on in life to the point where lack of thought of alternatives in a twisted way of brand loyalty is really unsettling to me.

It seems as though people being too close minded about one thing compared to another, even if said "another" might work better in life for them, and that's how companies have always gotten us.

I feel like the genuine takeaway from all of this is that we need to consider different things in life and not just only a select handful, that and the journey to brand loyalty can be manipulative as well.

But I wonder how the mainstream media and parts of society are going to believe that anyhow, or how they'd take that fact lol.
 

such

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2021
Messages
248
Trophies
0
XP
1,023
Country
Barbados
I use it when jobs pay for it and make me use it. That's about it.
Yeah, if I needed Office - specifically - outside of work it'd probably indicate I've failed somewhere along the road, and that I need to think long and hard about where my life is heading.

The relatively rare time I need to update my CV etc. something like LibreOffice is perfectly fine. Or that Google suite thing that I'm basically paying for with my existence.

What a screwed-up, insidious hellscape we live in, come to think of it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TomRiddle

TomRiddle

Yare Yare Daze
Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2021
Messages
202
Trophies
0
Location
Hogwarts
XP
537
Country
Canada
The entire rest of your comment is a great answer to this question.

Also, Microsoft has a de facto monopoly with MS Office. Even though there are several alternatives, they're most often evaluated based on compatibility with MS Office first, actual features second. Monopolies stifle innovation, lead to higher prices and lower quality products and services (since there's nobody to show them up) and are generally bad for the consumer. Plus, if you choose an open source alternative like LibreOffice, you get all of the advantages that come with that.

I agree, monopoly's are generally dog shit and not really great for the consumer.

I think in order for monopolies to be healthily maintained 2 things need to happen first.

1) There needs to be some good, healthy and fair competition, granted the latter is not always likely within society at large but regardless if we still had some decent competition, that could rival corporations then the market would be in a better state for consumers.

2) Brand loyalty needs to be fucked away, although brand loyalty is typically good for business themselves to achieve it is the very worst thing for consumers.

If people at large are brand loyal then they are doomed to hurt themselves in the long run, when it comes to defending companies, lack of options, shit services and I could go on.

My overall point is that if there are enough people to speak out against corporation's bullcrap and other people to not make them rule over with an iron fist, the better.

I just genuinely wonder on how the solutions are achievable with both not really being so easy to pull off.
 

Dr_Faustus

Resident Robot Hoarder
Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2021
Messages
680
Trophies
0
Age
34
Location
The Best State on The Best Coast
XP
826
Country
United States
That last bit you said there really disturbed me at that.

Just the way corporations sink their products into peoples minds early on in life to the point where lack of thought of alternatives in a twisted way of brand loyalty is really unsettling to me.

It seems as though people being too close minded about one thing compared to another, even if said "another" might work better in life for them, and that's how companies have always gotten us.

I feel like the genuine takeaway from all of this is that we need to consider different things in life and not just only a select handful, that and the journey to brand loyalty can be manipulative as well.

But I wonder how the mainstream media and parts of society are going to believe that anyhow, or how they'd take that fact lol.

Its the way things are unfortunately when it comes to human nature. When you get older you really do not have much time to explore the free market of options out there or relearn how to use something when the thing you grew up with is the most familiar to you. You just rather stick with what works with you over dealing with something new and frustrating. Hell that's why Photoshop is still a thing when GIMP exists.

Why bother trying something new you might not like and waste time when you can just use what works? That is what goes through peoples minds when this proposition happens.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TomRiddle

Gep_Etto

Being late since '88
Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2021
Messages
375
Trophies
0
XP
1,153
Country
Brazil
Hell that's why Photoshop is still a thing when GIMP exists.
That and the billion things Photoshop does with the right plugins that GIMP simply can't...

I love GIMP, I've been using it for years, but eventually I'll have a project that simply requires Photoshop. And true to what I said about Office in a previous comment, I know several young people who do have the time and patience to explore other options and who end up choosing to pirate Photoshop instead of legally using GIMP, because they're expected to use Photoshop. It's the same with Photoshop Lightroom and Darktable, though Darktable is a lot closer to feature parity with Lightroom than GIMP is with regular Photoshop.

Heck, I had a teacher in college who threw a hissy fit when some of us asked him if we could use SciLab instead of MatLab...
 

krakenx

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2006
Messages
131
Trophies
1
XP
1,081
Country
Office 2007 was the first modern version of Office, with the ribbon and the new file formats. It does 99% of what the average person would need, despite being 25 years old. libreoffice, even from around that time also does 95% of what the average person would need.

Since then, I've been forced to use the latest office for work. 2010 was a modest improvement with UI improvements and new templates. 2013 was the worst. Hope you like gray, cause color was banned from the UI. 2016 was a slight improvement, but not as good as 2010 or 2007. 365 wasn't the worst on release, but it is now. They moved so much crap into the title bar, it basically doesn't even allow you to move windows around, the search in outlook basically doesn't work because the "AI" chooses the results, and OneNote doesn't even work on a network drive anymore, which is intentional to force you into OneDrive.

The worst part is that there is no drive to make a better product. My work is forced to use the latest Office regardless of whether it is better because the license fees are higher for older versions. You can't decline an update, or refuse to buy the new version because it sucks with "software as a a service". You can't even choose to use the superior older version. Whatever this is is not whatever "free market" people claim it is.
 
Last edited by krakenx,
  • Like
Reactions: TomRiddle

Marc_LFD

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2021
Messages
5,328
Trophies
1
Age
34
XP
8,493
Country
United States
I still use Office 2007 as I've been using for years and years, plus, I like its UI and it's somewhat lightweight.

Have Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and some extra tools or whatever installed. I mainly just use Word and Excel when I need.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    Sicklyboy @ Sicklyboy: *teleports behind you* "Nothing personnel, kiddo" +1