I came across it recently while researching office options for my wife. I can use just about anything, but, like many people, when it comes to spreadsheets, she has to have Excel.
Apparently it is an older program, not exactly the same as MS Office 365, but it looks pretty similar from what I can tell.
I’ve always had reservations about having a MS Account, which is necessary. I also wonder about the security, since it is a web-based app.
Thanks for replying, Rubi. Adjusting to non-Microsoft apps is my preference also, but I have tried her on Libre and Soft Office, and there must be something about Excel that, for many users, is just not replaceable.
Not to bore you with the details, but all this came about when I purchased Office 2019 for her. A single machine use. But I didn’t know that to download it, you need to have a MS account. Against my better judgment, I opened one, only for this purpose. You don’t have to sign in to your account to use it, I just needed the account to download it. But of course it only works on Windows.
I have us both using Linux for most things. I only use Windows for my music composition. I tried Linux, and made a good go of it, but the final straw was having to have some of my VSTi licenses on the cloud, rather than a dongle. That forced me back to Windows.
But the “gold standard” would be to be able to use Excel on Linux, and the article describes a way to do it, that’s not based on Wine or a VM. Your point about it being old software is well-taken. Guess I need to do more research, but there doesn’t seem to be much out there on this. I guess it never really caught on.
For the sake of marital harmony why not give your wife what she wants?
Microsoft offers the Excel desktop web application free to use. I do not know if it is free to use for a trial period or free to use for always. Certainly each of the Office 365 applications are offered separately.
What are you concerned about? Do you or your wife have a smartphone? Millions of people use smartphones. They put their whole lives in the cloud.
I do not have a smartphone or tablet for the reason I do not need them. Why pay an additional cost? I use email. All the incoming and outgoing emails are stored on a company’s computers called servers. In other words - the cloud. Deleted emails are not immediately deleted. UK law requires the ISP to store emails in case the authorities need to investigate some criminal activity.
Libreoffice is the way to go for 90% + of users except … If you are an excel user and use macros then Libreoffice is out. Libreoffice uses a different language - yes, there are ‘ways around this’ but it can get very messy when using complex macros. For end users who just want to use the spreadsheet and do not have time to re-write code libreoffice is not really the tool at the practical level for non-tech users. Obviously my opinion only.
graymech, I don’t have a smartphone either. I don’t have any kind of cell phone (I admit to having Luddite tendencies). She has 2 or 3. Yes, I may be a bit paranoid when it comes to the cloud, but that tendency is starting to moderate as I get older. So I am willing to give Office 365 a try at least. But Eric states that it’s just a trial. I don’t know if that applies to the Ubuntu versions, or only to the Windows one. I would imagine it’s to both.
But the best solution is the Office 2019, which I have installed on Windows 10. It is very similar to her beloved 2010 version. No need to even be online using it, or even have the computer connected at all. The Linux versions of Office in the article, which of course are just ways to use Office 365 on Linux without Wine or a VM, are appealing though, since you don’t have to be on Windows at all. You avoid all the hassles of updates and the general bonkiness of Windows.
I’m going to encourage her to use Office 2019 on Windows, and leave it up to her about the online versions. Everyone has a different workflow, different preferences, etc. In the end she will decide what she wants to do, I’m just trying to give her some options, while hopefully keeping us safe in an increasingly complex and dangerous world.
quarkrad, personally, I’ll use anything. My needs are simple. An occasional letter, tying up my old poetry, etc. The only time I use a spreadsheet is to make charts of the various settings of the instruments and plugins in my music compositions. But I have found at times that there are compatibility issues between Libre and Office. My preference is Free Office, as that seems to be more compatible. You have to give credit where it is due: Microsoft can be criticized in many ways, but they sure did create one heck of an Office suite. That was in their youth, when they still cared about quality. Now…well we could go on a long way about that, but that’s another topic.
But it does have limitations, which I think will be a show-stopper. for one, you have to save your work to One Drive. I personally won’t use that. I use Box, Proton Drive, and of course Mega is available if you really need the gigabytes.
For her, it lacks customizability. Anything that messes with your workflow is a no go. So, Office 2019 looks like a winner.
RE: alternatives: I have tried many of them, such as Open Office, Only Office, WPS and some others. Again, for me any of them will do, unless compatibility issues arise. I still say Soft Office/Free Office is the best. But the real deal, MS Office, is still the gold standard.
Wow, I just discovered that Proton Mail now has document and spreadsheet apps on their drive (Proton Drive). Their xcel app opens Excel files perfectly. It is being hailed as a real alternative to the Microsoft and Google online apps.
I’m hoping this will be the solution for my wife. The documents get saved automatically to their drive, which has end-to-end encryption. She can access the files on any computer, and if the free tier isn’t enough space, we can simply upgrade and get all the space we need. I have been using PM for years and love it. It’s very secure and easy to use, and has great support.
I’ll let you know how it goes. Hopefully their xcel is sufficient for her needs!
