Jump to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

Surly Horns

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

Featured Replies

If there is already a thread about Office subscriptions and viable alternatives please merge this with the existing thread.

Otherwise, I'm fucking done with these leeches.  It's bad enough they lock you into a recurring subscription that for all intensive porpoises you can't do without unless you are up on the tech stuff (I am not).  Now they have jacked up the price 30% with the justification that it's for the added benefits of having Copilot butt into every damn thing you work on.

I don't want / need Copilot for the rudimentary crap I do on my home PC.  I use it at work a little bit, but have not once wished I had access to it at home.  I've looked around and read a little bit about LibreOffice.  Seems it has a decent enough following in the Linux community so was wondering if anyone here uses it. 

Is it worth a shit?  Will I be able to still open all my existing shit?  Will I be able to make new shit, send it to someone with regular Microsoft Office and they can open it?  Or am I and the rest of humanity just fucked over by the bloodsuckers in Redmond?

6 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Is it worth a shit?  Will I be able to still open all my existing shit?  Will I be able to make new shit, send it to someone with regular Microsoft Office and they can open it?  Or am I and the rest of humanity just fucked over by the bloodsuckers in Redmond?

1. It's worth what you paid for it.

2. Yes, it'll even open older Office formats that even Office struggles to do

3. Yes

4. Nope, StarOffice/OpenOffice/LibreOffice was designed just for the purpose of preventing this.

It's not great software but then... neither is MS Office.

If microsoft is the answer, the question was fucking stupid.

 

I use Libre Office on my non-apple machines. It’s fine for the basic shit I do with it.

 

I recently let my Microsoft subscription expire and now use Google docs, sheets, etc... for my basic needs and they more than suffice so far. 

1 hour ago, thunderlounge said:

If microsoft is the answer, the question was fucking stupid.

 

I use Libre Office on my non-apple machines. It’s fine for the basic shit I do with it.

 

I use it all the time on everything.  It's solid for functionality.  There are some small differences between the latest docx and the default odt format, but if your docs aren't highly formatted, it should work fine.  Mine are pretty highly formatted and it works pretty well, but, I send mostly PDFs of my files to clients because I don't want them editing in-document and creating versioning and metadata problems most of the time.

  • Author
1 hour ago, Orale said:

I recently let my Microsoft subscription expire and now use Google docs, sheets, etc... for my basic needs and they more than suffice so far. 

I am considering Google stuff but figure it's just a matter of time before they go full asshole as well.

Edited by Fudge Nuggets

Why not just purchase a 1 time office license? They run deals all the time for like $25 per machine. Would only need to buy again if you upgrade machines.

Are y'all talking about 365 or standard Office? I don't pay very much for standard Office.

  • Author
12 hours ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Why not just purchase a 1 time office license? They run deals all the time for like $25 per machine. Would only need to buy again if you upgrade machines.

I thought those were pirated software keys that get shutdown about a week after you use it.

Yup, volume licenses.  Buy them per computer for the lifetime of the computer.  Easy enough.

I use Open Office. It works for the limited works processing I need it to do and it’s easy to save documents as PDFs. Be sure and save documents as .doc and not an open office file. 

  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/29/2025 at 9:53 AM, immamac said:

Nope. They are volume keys that are legit. 

that's a stretch and iirc they've been banned from /r/buildapcsales because too many BS keys were being sold, even at places like woot.

Why not just purchase a 1 time office license? They run deals all the time for like $25 per machine. Would only need to buy again if you upgrade machines.
Not an option anymore. Everything is subscription.
On 1/28/2025 at 9:17 PM, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Why not just purchase a 1 time office license? They run deals all the time for like $25 per machine. Would only need to buy again if you upgrade machines.

 

On 1/29/2025 at 9:46 AM, Fudge Nuggets said:

I thought those were pirated software keys that get shutdown about a week after you use it.

 

On 1/29/2025 at 9:53 AM, immamac said:

Nope. They are volume keys that are legit. 

 

On 1/29/2025 at 3:26 PM, gsoda3 said:

Yup, volume licenses.  Buy them per computer for the lifetime of the computer.  Easy enough.

This.  After about 5 years on a $25 license, I recently moved from PC to Mac and got a new license for the latest MS Office for about $30.

50 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:
On 1/28/2025 at 9:17 PM, MonkeyDoughnut said:
Why not just purchase a 1 time office license? They run deals all the time for like $25 per machine. Would only need to buy again if you upgrade machines.

Not an option anymore. Everything is subscription.

Not true.  MS Office 2024 is available now.  And, as many have said above, legit keys are often available for as little as $25.

  • Author

Yeah, I went and got one of those keys for ~$25.  I don't give a shit if my Office crap updates or not.  I appreciate the feedback from this thread, wish I had done this earlier.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.