Newer business software all runs on the web. Old business software may not even run on current windows machines.

Office web is fine for day to day use, but not appropriate for anyone in finance/accounting/project management who will need to use Excel heavily

I use excel heavily, librecalc is as good or better than excel. It has near 1:1 function compatibility. The exception are macros but MS seem to be slowly phasing them out.

It is not just VBA. LO Calc is still missing Excel Tables functionality, which is a biggie. It was added to Excel 15 years ago! It also doesn't have equivalent of PowerQuery/PowerPivot/PowerMap equivalent, which appeared in Excel in 2010-2013 timeframe.

So LO Calc is OK for basic spreadsheets, but any power user will gravitate to Excel due to functionalities.

Good news, Pivot tables were added in v6.2. And there's an extension that provides similar support for PowerQuery. Tables do exist in LO calc.

I was talking PowerPivot, not pivot tables. LO Calc pivot tables are at Excel 2003 level. Well, there's a reason why it was redone in 2007.

If by extension that provides similar support for PowerQuery you mean QueryConnector, then no. QueryConnector is similar to the MS Query, not to the PowerQuery. And MS Query was Excel built-in, not extension...

Tables do not exist in LO calc. Dataranges do (and imported excel files with tables are converted to dataranges). Dataranges do not have functionality like Tables do. You cannot even create above mentioned pivot table from a datarange, only from named range or selection.

I even had to google how to create them (the build-in help didn't... help), after I've seen that the import did create something, and not just convert to named ranges as it used to. So much for discoverability.

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This is not to put down LibreOffice Calc or anything. It is about being honest where the weaknesses are, and how to address them. Sweeping problems under the carpet won't address them, and Calc won't become better.

Also, Excel is the crown jewel of MS Office. Not Word, not Powerpoint, but Excel. Of course it is best of the best that money can buy and competing with it is not easy. But 15 years? Come on.

Yes I see now what you mean. The Power* family of tools is quiet powerful.

I'm now reconsidering if I'm a power user of spreadsheets! For these extra features I'll use R as it's more powerful and reproducible.

You can use Python macros with libreoffice, right?

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Macros/Python_Guide/Intr...

That’s nice, but not very helpful if you’re trying to use an existing sheet that has VBA macros.

>It has near 1:1 function compatibility.

You're kidding, right? LibreOffice Calc does not have:

- tables

- powerquery

- dynamic array formulae

- XLOOKUP, LET, FILTER, and the rest of the extremely useful new formulae

These four things completely dominate my Excel workflow. Opening Calc is like stepping back into the dark ages.

I often think people suggesting things like Libreoffice just open csv files and scroll through then tell everyone else they can do everything in libreoffice.

When you’re a heavy user of excel, almost nothing else compares. Tho Google sheets does give excel a run for its money, because it has scripts (javascript) to do everything else.

LO Calc has python scripting. I think you mean power user, I can accept that LO calc is not up to speed for powerusers of Excel.

I'm a heavy user of LO calc, but my usage is of course different from yours. For true data wrangling I use R so this statement. I can't imagine the data wrangling and transformations that I perform in R being done in Excel. Its a nightmare waiting to happen!

Three out of those 4 things aren't functions. I do agree newer functions are missing (such as XLOOKUP) but for most people calc/excel is a high powered calculator and they use it as such. So Calc is perfect replacement. It's not the dark ages, that's an exaggeration.

No it's not. It doesn't even support tables and named columns.

It definitely supports named columns and I am pretty sure 'tables' as well.

the reverse exists as well, a lot of jobs can't be done on windows.

Which is why windows ships WSL, to keep people who can't work on windows using it. Better yet, to allow their managers to force them to use windows even though they need linux.

Do you mean Google luck or Microsoft Azure luck?

Nothing cloud. Regular software like Office, Adobe stuff, accounting software, industrial related software, and many more.

You use all of these?

Yes, I have Office (excel heavily), adobe (rush, photoshop, premiere, audition), QuickBooks and Sage 50, some automation software for manufacturing. There are many more that wouldn't work on anything but windows. I am sure many people are the same as me because I see other computer users with their software stack very often.

In that case you probably want a Mac. Its basically the same as ubuntu, but Apple paid the Microsoft taxes.

Mac is not enough although I have a MacBook Pro on my desk sitting and collecting dust. I only use it to test sites with Safari because emulators never give the same result.

I install ubuntu on old laptops to utilize them and as VM on my current windows machine.

Macbook is sluggish (mouse moves) and very limited customizations/options. None of the communication software I use work all at the same time on either on ubuntu nor macos. For example, I use Skype, RingCentral, WhatsApp, Teams, Discord open in one 32" monitor. I must communicate with multiple people everyday for business purposes. I can't fanboy and go for Mac or Ubuntu and ruin my businesses. (I have 4 x 32")

Another monitor has KeePass, putty, and winscp running. If a client sends me an excel file for a reason and it has macros in it, office is the only way to open it. OpenOffice or Libre sucks. I also occasionally update company blogs and must edit photos and videos. Adobe works flawlessly on Windows and has many advantages using it on Windows compared to MacOs edition.

For my security cameras, I use the camera system's only supported windows software. There is no other platform supported. SonicWall VPN sucks on mac and unsupported. I won't spend 2 hours each time VPN fails on Ubuntu. Windows works flawlessly and I tried on Ubuntu. Can't connect to client servers remotely with Ubuntu or crappy mac vpn software called MobileConnect.

I use FreeCad but tried AutoCad in the past, only works on Windows properly. FreeCad sucks on Ubuntu, AutoCad is not supported. This is for my another business unrelated to the other software.

I have more computers than I can count but I am always ending up using Windows for work. To make everything work on one computer, I must use windows. If something new comes up, I won't spend hours and days to try to make it work on Ubuntu or feel sad for not even having it for MacOs.

Office Mac is pretty awful, I really wouldn’t recommend it for anyone who needs to use the full feature set

Ive had the complete opposite experience.

Office on my M1 macbook air is noticeably more stable and responsive than the dell xps13 bought in January, and the mackbook was like half the price. That XPS is probably the last windows machine we buy ever.

Also most of our employees have fully migrated to libreoffice now.

The GP meant features. Office Mac is missing a great deal of them, like all the Power*/DAX functionality. And even if it has them, they might be half-baked; just to connect to pgsql, you need a paid odbc driver that costs about the half the price of the Office, you cannot use the open source one.

Oh dear lord

Have you tried CrossOver or Wine?

Yes, that's the kinda software that most office workers use. Programmers are the exception.

Any software developer business founder/entrepreneur uses more than Vim or notepad++. To support a bootstrapped business, the owners end up doing everything, this involves blogging, video editing, even photography if the product is physical. Just-one-software-using developers usually work for a company rather than being independent.

There are open source options that work fine on Linux for most of those though and things like Proton do a pretty amazing job now too. But people have set/complex workflows or existing familiarity that is not so easy to just flick over and that's reasonable.

It's not a "Linux can't do it" problem though.

Business founders/entrepreneurs are not exactly a large part of the userbase either...

It takes an unnecessary amount of time for to run things on linux that are working comfortably on windows without weird modifications to the operating system. That's the reason why people choose windows.

Regular software while doing "Business" !

Runs perfectly fine.

Win10 VMs?