@black3dynamite said in Why I Choose LibreOffice:

@jmoore said in Why I Choose LibreOffice:

@scottalanmiller said in Why I Choose LibreOffice:

It's native to, and built into Ubuntu Linux which is our official platform. This means essentially zero IT support needed, it's even in the default install. Even employees opting for Fedora, Pop_OS, Raspberry Pi OS get it by default, too. And our one MacOS user gets it. And anyone playing with Windows gets it from Chocolatey.

This is a very valid point. I do all the installs at our campuses. I spend so much time installing and re-installing because it develops problems for us. While I have mitigated a lot of the install time by putting it in my user image, I still have to reinstall on a regular basis. We have close to 300 non-IT users and it breaks a lot. Too much in my opinion. I have to do 2-3 re-installs a week on average to fix issues it gets on its on.

That’s a lot of reinstalls. Something must messing with the office apps? Antivirus?

Yeah I totally agree but not sure what the problem is. My boss handles such things as antivirus. We run Forefront.

@scottalanmiller said in Why I Choose LibreOffice:

I think that that is most of it. Basically, the things that LO shines at (cost, ease of management, licensing, platform compatibility) affect us a lot. And the things that LO is poor at (extensive features, desktop email app, compatibility with partners) don't affect us much, or at all. And the one big "wish list" item I have is for a better web-based experience (but LO7 should improve that soon.)

I think a lot of organizations could just drop MS office and move to something else and be better for it. I don't think it is just your company. Those things you list that LibreOffice is poor at, are things that most companies probably have little need for themselves if they were really honest with themselves. Think of the money they could be saving. They could pay their people a little better and get better talent because they pay better. Their company would be more efficient as a result. I really just dislike MS office for many of the reasons you suggested. When I voice it as responses I have realized how much I dislike it and why.

@scottalanmiller said in Why I Choose LibreOffice:

No account management. Hooks to online accounts are additional steps to manage that we are very glad that we can avoid.

I think this is huge. My sys admin spends so much time dealing with account issues for one product after another. Management wants everything tied into AD. I understand their reasons but I think it causes them a lot of trouble they just don't admit to. There are constant account level issues that have to be dealt with and some that never go away. This is a huge waste of time that could be spent doing more productive tasks.

@scottalanmiller said in Why I Choose LibreOffice:

In reality, LO handles MSO formatting pretty well. Far better than people give it credit for. Even if we were in a situation where we needed to do it, it would likely not matter.

I use a combination of Zoho and LibreOffice myself. More Zoho to be honest. It's like 60-40. I could use either exclusively though. I can't remember the last time, if ever, that I had trouble with formatting so I totally agree with this as well based on my experiences. There are always exceptions of course as there will be some user that has trouble. However, I have never had an Excel sheet or anything else that LibreOffice did not handle. I see no speed difference either. So maybe in cases where people have trouble there are other circumstances not mentioned or things happening they are not aware of.

@scottalanmiller said in Why I Choose LibreOffice:

We effectively never get documents from outside companies in any office format. Most everything from vendors is text, CSV, or PDF. On the rare occasion that we get an MS Office document, it's almost always Excel and translates flawlessly. Word documents are limited almost entirely to CVs, and exact format doesn't matter.

We get a few office formats but its all just communication stuff. It is things that would just as easily work in LibreOffice or Zoho docs. 90% of our important documents are pdf and pictures. They are things like transcripts and grades. We get very little Excel stuff. Our reporting department just uses PowerBi which is free so I don't care about that.

@scottalanmiller said in Why I Choose LibreOffice:

It's totally free. This is a bigger deal than it seems because it means no time spent dealing with licenses, or counting deployments or deciding which people qualify for tools or not. We just deploy across the board, automatically.

This is a huge deal. Why isn't this more important to everyone? I mean I know LibreOffice and Zoho docs do not have all the features that MS office does, but everyone knows those features are never used, by anyone. Certainly no one with my users. So we and many other organizations are paying for features that are never touched. That is a lot of money paid for nothing year after year.

@scottalanmiller said in Why I Choose LibreOffice:

It's native to, and built into Ubuntu Linux which is our official platform. This means essentially zero IT support needed, it's even in the default install. Even employees opting for Fedora, Pop_OS, Raspberry Pi OS get it by default, too. And our one MacOS user gets it. And anyone playing with Windows gets it from Chocolatey.

This is a very valid point. I do all the installs at our campuses. I spend so much time installing and re-installing because it develops problems for us. While I have mitigated a lot of the install time by putting it in my user image, I still have to reinstall on a regular basis. We have close to 300 non-IT users and it breaks a lot. Too much in my opinion. I have to do 2-3 re-installs a week on average to fix issues it gets on its on.

@scottalanmiller I am sure that a large percentage of organizations that use MS office would get by peachy without it. It might just be a culture thing to expect MS office in a business because no one really evaluates things. I know there are always exceptions.

@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/23/tech/algorithms-bias-inequality-intl-gbr/index.html

Here's my take on it... if you are a university that uses this crap to determine who you admit, you're a crap university to start with.

Yeah that student had it right, its a political problem. I just wonder to what extent systems like that are used everywhere?

@Mario-Jakovina You make some good points and are certainly right that many IT do not try to understand the business aspect. Of course it can also be argued that if you don't understand business, are you really doing IT correctly.

@RojoLoco said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Still trying to deal with the pinched nerve in my back. Legs don't really work, so falling in the shower this morning was pretty shitty. And the medicine I'm taking makes my legs even more rubbery, but it takes away the "want to die" feeling I had before. Fuck you, 2020.

Feel better buddy!

Taking a little break for lunch then on to math for some fun. Working on Algebra, specifically field theory.

For my new Kb setup, thinking this: https://www.duckychannel.com.tw/en/Ducky-Pocket
along with this:
https://en.varmilo.com/keyboardproscenium/subject_product_detailed?subjectid=274
using the Sakura switches.

Oh got my new router, switch, and access poitn setup early this morning. I like EdgeOS.

@scottalanmiller said in When Does It Stop Even Being IT: Buyers vs Doers:

I've never met someone who confused their own job, with say a desktop before. Not even a janitor looks at a laptop and says "that's IT".

I think you give them too much credit lol. That would imply they are intelligent enough to think things through just a little. I'm certainly not too intelligent in my opinion, but some of these people I work with are on the low end of the spectrum if you know what I mean.

@scottalanmiller said in When Does It Stop Even Being IT: Buyers vs Doers:

@jmoore said in When Does It Stop Even Being IT: Buyers vs Doers:

@scottalanmiller Maybe one way to phrase the "buying of IT" is to call it "buying of IT skills" so that it differentiates it from products. That is really what has to be done at time. You fill in gaps in your teams knowledge with this.

How the heck can someone confuse hardware and software for IT? I mean, I guess someone who doesn't know what IT is. But working in IT, it's pretty weird to confuse the job we do, with tools that we buy. I think if we have to explain that, there's no hope to the conversation, lol.

I've never met someone who confused their own job, with say a desktop before. Not even a janitor looks at a laptop and says "that's IT". They know it's a computer and that IT is the people who work on it.

Yeah you have the point right here. People think they are doing IT when they buy software/tools and have those they manage figure them out, deploy them, and support them. Your right though, you can't even have a conversation with people like this. I know, I've tried.

@scottalanmiller said in When Does It Stop Even Being IT: Buyers vs Doers:

How the heck can someone confuse hardware and software for IT?

lol well they must because of the decisions people make all the time. I know, it seems incredulous.

@scottalanmiller In my limited opinion, I think the point where they are just an IT buyer is when they do it 90% or more of the time. When this happens I am confident they lose the ability to participate in discussions and make good decisions.

@scottalanmiller Maybe one way to phrase the "buying of IT" is to call it "buying of IT skills" so that it differentiates it from products. That is really what has to be done at time. You fill in gaps in your teams knowledge with this.

Shopping for a new machanical kb. Thinking hhkb, varmilo, or ducky.