Fuck AI

Same with Google Workspace. Just got an email last month saying prices are increasing to reflect "new AI features," all of which I have disabled because (A) I don't use them, and (B) they're another privacy nightmare.

At this point we're all just subsidizing the shareholders. The vast majority of generative AI being tacked on to subscriptions is useless, it's just corporations jumping on the hype train to boost their stock price.

Idealized solution

Libreoffice isnt all that

I've mentioned it in another thread about this, bug in case you really want to understand: people sign up for much more than the desktop office applications. It's a full on groupware package that comes with 1TB of cloud storage. Which automatically gives you access to your documents on any machine you use. If you get a new windows device you basically don't need to put in any effort into setting things up because it's already there. And for 80 euros you can do this for five people.

So in short: convenience for a reasonable price. To the point where it's hard to justify running it yourself. Especially because your family will start to ask you how they can get MS office again.

Office alternatives have long existed and have been good enough for a long time. I remember writing my evening class project reports in them 20 ish years ago. Funnily enough on how to integrate Linux servers into a Windows domain and authenticating with domain users on that machine. But if you want to compare M365 to something, compare it to NextCloud.

I get more crashes than I’d like in the Word program (whatever it’s called) so I wish it would stabilize there. But with frequent saving and auto recovery I don’t usually lose anything. Just a nuisance I’ve adapted to in the spirit of open source.

For casual users, sure. For professional users the answer isn't as cut and dried, especially when it comes to Excel users. For one, the last time I checked Libre's Calc version of solver was nowhere near as useful as the version of Solver that plugs into Excel. It also bogs down under more intense spreadsheets. You also can run into some weird formatting issues trying to go between the two, and when you have people with low intelligence or low patience involved, that alone can be a deal breaker.

Albeit It's been awhile since I've used Libreoffice, so I mean they might have solved some of this stuff by now. But that's mainly the reason for my usage of Office. Ain't saying I love office either, it's FULL of bugs that are more historical than Benjamin Franklin, yet they refuse to ever address them or add any real actual innovation to newer products. But like it or hate it, it's long been established as an office staple and we have to live with it.

Familiarity, brand recognition, work place uses it, comes with cloud storage.