alt Hacker NewsThere’s a lot of features. I think the one I would present is the enormously complex backwards compatibility support. Companies run on .xls / .xlsx files even if developers are offended by how they use and share them.
I think a lot of “just use Libre Office” arguments are much like “just use Linux.” There’s a deep misunderstanding of what the value is with Excel. Being technically equivalent with features scores very few points.
Replies
prmoustache • yesterday at 10:33 PM
I don't know are we sure about that? I remember helping users unable to open a spreadsheet that grew too big in excel. Was working fine on openoffice (libreoffice wasn't yet a thing).
I've never experienced any compatibility issues with XLS(X) in LibreOffice Calc, and I've been Windows-free for over a decade. Sure, some spreadsheets might have unique functions in it, but I doubt that's the case for the majority over people using Excel.
I'd also argue that Excel is holding back businesses. Instead of storing information in CSVs (for R or Python processing) or SQL, people rely on it when they shouldn't. It's not just that developers dislike Excel, it's that using it frequently causes huge errors:
https://theconversation.com/the-reinhart-rogoff-error-or-how...