I'm not GP but I do know it's rare to open an existing .docx in LibreOffice and have it look right; who knows what it looks like in Word after I've edited and saved it. It's fine creating new documents, and Excel/Calc is better than Word (inherent in being more structured I suppose), but it's not a drop-in replacement. I've used web Office365 when necessary though, not Windows.

> I do know it's rare to open an existing .docx in LibreOffice and have it look right; who knows what it looks like in Word after I've edited and saved it.

This is not true except as hyperbole. Most docx open and let themselves edit quite well in LibreOffice Writer, and they look right.

However, you still have a point. There are always some cases when the compatibility is not good, and the only way to use said docx files would be in MS Word.

Maybe you've had better luck, I'm just describing my recent experience of using Linux at an O365 org until early 2025.

I submit most people had better luck than you and stayed silent. The fringe cases are the most vocal ones in their complaints. Of course, this is not implying that your experience is not true or less valid.

For me, some complex Excel usage was not replicable in either Sheets or LibreOffice.

Excel I'd argue is the primary reason for most in the business world.

What LibreOffice misses, and sheets to a lesser extent, is that Excel isn't just a spreadsheet app. It's a general-purpose programming environment for non-devs (although, at a certain point, you could argue they are effectively programming even if they don't see it that way).

Yeah, there are better solutions. At a certain level of complexity, you probably shouldn't be using Excel and should switch to Python+some SQL database, but there's something to be said about the visual environment Excel provides.

Excel is Microsoft's killer app

It’s the world’s most popular low-code platform.

> It's a general-purpose programming environment for non-devs

Google sheets's programmability is way better (than the last time I used) Excel, with direct support for python, which Gemini can write just fine. It's a bit fiddly in places, I'll admit, but Google sheets is definitely a programming environment.