I typically use libreoffice, but if I ever have the time to learn latex I’ll switch, I’ve heard nothing but good things aside from the learning curve
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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The learning curve is actually pretty manageable. Took me an afternoon to be good enough to create lab reports for Uni. Creating your first template takes a bit but isn't super hard. Afterwards you can reuse that and only need to tweak.
This is the Tutorial I used. For an editor I'd suggest VSCode with LaTeX Workshop. (There's also LTeX which is a great grammar and spelling checker)
I just wrote a book in Latex and it's really easy. You just learn as you go. The only problem was when a publisher required a docx-document. It was possible using pandex, but my end notes were all screwed up.
I use Markdown (very rarely LaTeX too) in Neovim, and LibreOffice for anything I can't do in Markdown.
Sometimes I'll start up the MarkdownPreview plugin I have, but typically I don't.
If I need to share it, I'll typically convert to PDF with pandoc or a random tool online if I can't get pandoc to work the way I want it.
Markdown for myself, Google Docs when I'm collaborating with others, and OnlyOffice after puking a little in my mouth for having received a docx or pptx by email.
Libreoffice usually, but I was a dedicated Google docs user for years and I do miss the auto-syncing since it meant I could never really lose my work but I've been trying to reduce my Google usage. I'm travelling at the moment (months long trip) so haven't been able to set up some sort of alternative system without access to all my devices.
I mostly use Libre Office, and sometimes Gnome Office
LibreOffice, I came for Linux support and PDF export... and stayed for the only Office that I know how to use 😄
Libre Office user for over a decade, recently moved to OnlyOffice and liking it a lot so far. Seems to do better with MS formats than LibreOffice, snappy and responsive. UI is cleaner IMO.
Libre is still good though.
Depends on the use case. For my own stuff I usually use LibreOffice, for docx compability I use OnlyOffice and for presentations I use Latex with TexStudio.
TexStudio is a brilliant LaTeX editor! I used it almost exclusively during my studies.
OnlyOffice, I think it has the most polished UI and the LanguageTool plugin is really handy
If I am forced to use word documents, then Onlyoffice.
Otherwise Latex for text and presentation (beamer).
For tables I use the terminal program sc-im, which also works with excel files.
I use Rstudio with Quarto (really nice) and libreoffice
I'd say 95% Markdown + Pandoc for when I make documents. The other 5% is LibreOffice.
When it comes time to make graphs and charts I really like wasting my time so I always try out something new (or old) to get the job done. Last time I used Pygal.
When it comes to dealing with docs from colleagues, it is all LibreOffice and Zathura.
LibreOffice and avoid MS trap&trash formats as much as I can
LibreOffice, as I've been using it from soon after it was forked from OpenOffice and I'm used to it, and I don't think it's worth it to learn how to use another office suite when the one I use works fine for everything I need to do. I had tried OnlyOffice on another computer and I was positively impressed, but not quite enough to feel I should switch; in the end I only even use a small subset of the features LO has.
I work mostly with texts, but if I need something office-y, I go old school: gnumeric for spreadsheets and abiword for documents
I'm using LibreOffice at the moment.
Me too. It is obnoxious as hell but it just works when you have to read and edit a doc your colleagues have sent you.
I’m getting into Linux which ones would guys recommend?
LibreOffice and OpenOffice are the two most popular I believe. One will usually come preinstalled on your distro (for me in Fedora it's LibreOffice.)
While I agree with LibreOffice as an option, no one should recommend OpenOffice anymore. Its just not well maintained.
Most people don't know this, but OpenOffice is pretty much dead. It hasn't been getting any real updates for quite a while. LibreOffice is pretty active and is the one you'd want to go with.
Source: check their repositories and also https://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Features/LibreOffice-vs-OpenOffice
as the answers reflect: markdown for simple stuff (sou can convert with pandoc) and libreoffice for the more complex stuff and sheets especially (its preinstalled with most linux distros nowadays). documents of formal nature that exceed ~10 pages might work best in latex.
You could try OnlyOffice, I believe it has better compatibility with .docx files in comparison to LibreOffice.
I’ve been using OnlyOffice and, as an M365 subscriber, would definitely recommend. The UI is also very similar to MS Office which can help new Linux users.
Anecdotally I’ve also found it snappier than Libre. But then I’m not a heavy office suite user so I’m sure others mileage may vary but it’s a perfect fit for my needs.
99.9% of customers use Microsoft Office, so I have QEMU windows for this purpose.
For own work/at home I find I mostly get by with textfiles/markdown and odd LibreOffice spreadsheet.
Why QEMU? I've found it's performance an compatibility quite lacking compared to VirtualBox, or since you're using it anyway to run nonfree software: commercial products like VMware Player/Workstation
Usually OnlyOffice though I keep LibreOffice installed as a backup as sometimes I've had weird compatibility issues with the former (very few and far between but still)
Mostly LibreOffice, although sometimes also Google Docs (for Collab)
I don't know if it counts but I've been using pandoc for the entirety of my college life so far which includes creating presentations and writing papers. For collaboration with other students, we would usually use Google Docs. It's pretty much the standard nowadays.
I use LibreOffice. I was using office 365 on my laptop and I just got sick of microsoft (especially after that incident where it took them six months to give me back access to my outlook account essentially rendering many services on my old PC useless) so I started looking up alternitives to Word.
My family had been using KingSoft which is a hot buggy mess so I chose LibreOffice instead. It was one of the first open source apps I chose after leaving Microsoft and I haven't looked back. If I had to pick a problem it's that 365 was way better at correcting mispelled words but other than I love LibreOffice!
Usually a Harvie&Hudson. I just go for a more casual Sexton on Fridays.
Latex on VSCode for personal things or otherwise Overleaf for collab. Otherwise default to google docs/Librr Office
I'm quite happy with libreoffice.
It can be a piece of crap sometimes but less so than MS Office.
With LO I have a passionate love-hate relationship.
The main problem for me is writing in RTL languages (right to left) I have a windows vm only for that use case
When I'm working on local files: LibreOffice
When I'm collaborating: OnlyOffice
Always used and will be using LibreOffice. It just works for me.
LibreOffice, since I'm a light user and it's usually available.
OnlyOffice. FOSS, great MS compatibility, more modern than LibreOffice, local apps and runs in web with Nextcloud with great document collaboration options.
OnlyOffice coupled with a Nextcloud instance. I can't stand the dated UI of LibreOffice/OpenOffice.
there are different libreoffice UIs in the View menu fyi
I was using LibreOffice on everything but for some unknown reason it just flat out stopped working on my machine so I installed OnlyOffice and honestly I much prefer it.
What makes you prefer OnlyOffice over LibreOffice? I like how OnlyOffice seems to decrease possible format errors, so I tend to open docs in it after putting them together in Libre.
The main thing for me is that it actually works still :P
Other than that I think I've just got so accustomed to the MS Office ribbon interface now that I start to get lost in the interface a little (95% of the time I use office type products it is at work where we don't have a choice - at home I mostly just use markdown for my own notes and documents).
MS Office 2007 inside a Windows XP virtual machine.
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