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Re:"LibreOffice works 365 days a year. Just saying." by hk__2 on Friday November 13, 2026 @12:33PM (#50486809)
I have LibreOffice installed but it’s so ugly and non-intuitive that I prefer to import my documents in Google Docs.
Re:"LibreOffice works 365 days a year. Just saying." by jon128 on Friday November 13, 2026 @12:39PM (#50486916)
What do you think of Collabora and OnlyOffice? Collabora is a fork of LibreOffice. OnlyOffice is optionally self-hosted and has multiplayer like Google Docs.

  https://www.collaboraonline.com/
  https://www.onlyoffice.com/
Even if you hate these too, that's fine. I'm curious how you react to them.
Re:"LibreOffice works 365 days a year. Just saying." by kev009 on Friday November 13, 2026 @12:41PM (#50486969)
google docs isn't ugly?
Re:"LibreOffice works 365 days a year. Just saying." by mtswish on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:59PM (#50488107)
Not particularly! LibreOffice is, in my opinion, quite a bit uglier.
Re:"LibreOffice works 365 days a year. Just saying." by wingworks on Friday November 13, 2026 @05:26PM (#50490915)
It's also clearly not been optimized (UI) for Mac, it sticks out like a sore thumb. And some things, like settings is like 10fps when moving the window.

I'd love to like LibreOffice, but they need some Mac UI/UX people if they ever want mainstream Mac users.

Re:"LibreOffice works 365 days a year. Just saying." by chris_wot on Friday November 13, 2026 @12:48PM (#50487074)
What specifically is ugly?
Re:"LibreOffice works 365 days a year. Just saying." by OJFord on Friday November 13, 2026 @12:51PM (#50487117)
Depending on your system gtk/Qt/whatever it is icon/font/etc. setup you and GP may have very different aesthetic experiences.
Re:"LibreOffice works 365 days a year. Just saying." by speedgoose on Friday November 13, 2026 @12:54PM (#50487170)
The graphical user interface.
Re:"LibreOffice works 365 days a year. Just saying." by birksherty on Friday November 13, 2026 @03:40PM (#50489336)
1. Many icons are low res on windows 10, 150% scale, 1440p monitor. https://[email protected]/N90OJc?forgery....

2. The yellow help information appears directly behind cursor which makes it hard to see.

3. In print popup, "print current page" option is not available, we have to provide page numbers instead every time.

Just a few observations.

Re:"LibreOffice works 365 days a year. Just saying." by nightski on Friday November 13, 2026 @12:53PM (#50487144)
If I am honest that sounds like a perfect task for AI. Fork it and modernize the user interface.
Re:"LibreOffice works 365 days a year. Just saying." by cvhc on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:15PM (#50487486)
I don't think MS Word is more intuitive. It's a trade-off between functionality and usability.

As a Linux user I (have to) use both Google Docs and LibreOffice.

Aside from collaborative editing, Google Docs is like an online version of Windows WordPad (not Notepad). It supports only a subset of MS Word but just enough for daily use. It refuses to open docs with advanced formatting -- my most recent example is a legal pleading.

LibreOffice supports more MS Word features, but is less polished and buggy. I occasionally find certain operations break the layout and a Ctrl-Z doesn't restore it.

Re:"LibreOffice works 365 days a year. Just saying." by singingfish on Friday November 13, 2026 @05:29PM (#50490956)
I'm a developer, and I use computers in a way that gives normal people (including developers) the heebeejeebies. However my use of office stuff is relatively rare and extraordinarily basic - I would say pretty close to the majority of users' usage. There are no problems with libreoffice for that kind of usage. In some respects for people not hunting pointless features it's usability is better.

I have some legal and administrative issues at the moment that require me to share office docs fairly regularly, as well as editing PDFs for filling in forms. I have had no collaboration problems at all with either of these activities exclusively using libreoffice. At one point I tried out the online versions (google docs / office 365 online) and it was a disaster.

Re:"LibreOffice works 365 days a year. Just saying." by Evidlo on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:24PM (#50487629)
If Libreoffice looks weirdly ugly and you're on a debian-based distro, try installing `libreoffice-gtk3`.

    sudo apt purge libreoffice*
    sudo apt install libreoffice-gtk3

Often people will somehow get the generic `vcl` backend installed.