It’s time to use LibreOffice
I’ll use Windows 10 and pay for the updates for years while using old versions of office. Fuck Windows 11.
So, an abundance of software companies come and go while they stand tallest for decades. Then, now, at this moment just when shit is going down, they decide to try the business model all other failing companies used. God it must be such a different world for these decision makers that can’t see how actual people think and act. It’s a baffling phenomenon to me.
Me, still using a site licensed copy of Office 2007 from a job I had over a decade ago.
Switch to Linux Mint and Libreoffice. You will thank me later!
Former burned out core LM developer here, the grass is not always greener (but maybe is if you don’t know how the sausage is cooked).
Manjaro and SoftMaker Office works just as well
I’ve been using LibreOffice and before that OpenOffice for as long as I’ve known about them being options. It’s honestly baffling to me that any home user would ever pay for MS Office. What on Earth does it offer that any home user could conceivably need?
Familiarity, I suppose.
This is the way. Any Linux and FOSS alternatives really.
They have always categorized the 365 apps, and 365 software as 2 distinct platforms. The apps are the website based versions, while the actual 365 installs were still considered a traditional install.
This could have changed in the years I worked for them, but this could be just impacting the website versions.
Edit -Rereading the article, this does sound like all 365 software will be impacted since they used the word applications. Keep in mind though, any office prior to 2013 is officially incompatible with 10/11, but they still run in most cases without problems.
That’s when Windows 10 stops getting security updates. Expect most software vendors to drop support for Windows 10 this year if they haven’t already. That doesn’t necessarily mean things will stop working, but it will not be tested and they won’t spend time fixing Win10-specific problems.
In enterprise, you can get an additional three years of “extended security updates”. That’s your grace period to get everyone in your org upgraded.
While I strongly relate to anyone who hates Windows 11, “continue using Windows 10 forever” was never a viable long-term strategy.
Windows 10 was released in 2015. Ten years of support for an OS is industry-leading, on par with Red Hat or Ubuntu’s enterprise offerings and far ahead of any competing consumer OS. Apple generally only offers three years of security updates. Google provides 3-4 years of security updates. Debian gets 5 years.
There has never been a time in the history of personal computing when using an OS for over 10 years without a major upgrade was realistic. That would be like using Windows 3.1 after XP was released. Windows 10 is dead, and it’s been a long time coming.
Now go download Fedora.
Windows was doing an Ubuntu-like release cycle on 10 with standard releases every 6 months and LTS releases every 2 years. There was no need for them to release Windows 11 other than branding. They could have simply kept up their scheduled release cadence like every linux distro does.
“continue using Windows 10 forever” was never a viable long-term strategy.
https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/7/8568473/windows-10-last-version-of-windows
LOL, I forgot about that. Fair point.
So sad for Microsoft that as soon as they decided to copy another one of Apple’s worst ideas, Apple moved up to 11 instead of 10.16.
losing money in the general population so gotta turn the screws on the businesses.
That is pretty rough, even for Micor$oft.
No thanks, it takes excel 2-3 seconds to load a blank document, which pisses me off every time.
It’s like 5 seconds for me to open a file from Outlook at work.
Absolute garbage.
For those about to switch, welcome to Linux! If you have AMD hardware give Linux Mint a shot. If you have NVIDIA, Pop!_OS is worth your first install.
If I am the average computer user with very little literacy when it comes to operating software, how do I go about switching from Windows to Linux? Is there a tutorial anyone recommends?
Zorin OS will be the most seamless transition to Linux based operating system.
It offers a user-friendly and familiar interface, especially for Win users with customizable layouts, pre-installed software, and tools like Zorin Connect for seamless device integration. It’s optimized for performance on both modern and older hardware, provides strong security features, and delivers a polished, visually appealing experience with minimal learning required.
You can try it via live USB, compare to Mint before deciding and installing one. Start from 2:28.
there isn’t one everyone agrees on, but the explainingcomputers channel is great to learn about linux.
Me, with an AMD CPU and Nvidia GPU, who is expecting to maybe upgrade to an Intel GPU this year and swap to Linux: visible confusion
We truly do live in the weirdest timeline.
I would just worry about GPU drivers honestly, Intel seems to be doing fine on Linux for the most part.
Yeah, it’s really the fact that I am even saying that I might have a system with an AMD CPU and an Intel GPU running Linux that throws me for a loop. I’m pretty sure I can learn to handle any of that, but that is certainly not a sentence I would’ve expected myself to say 10 years ago.
Love to, I’ve been running Fedora on my laptop for ages. Unfortunately my gaming rig still needs windows for VR stuff. Pimax has yet to add Linux support.
Either way, I’ve pirated a copy of LTSC. By the time that dies, I’ll probably have replaced the Pimax with a Deckard headset.I long for rock solid VR support in Linux like the rest of my gaming in Steam. I dual boot windows for the sole purpose of VR experience right now :(
Why the recommendation of different distros for different GPU?
Mint is super old and the nvidia drivers on mint are terrible.
That’s just my guess: Linux mint may be easier to get into and more popular, however it doesn’t come with pre installed proprietary drivers. Pop OS is based on the same distro so should be similar enough, but it comes with pre packaged drivers
Nailed it. The transition to Linux should be as smooth as possible for newcomers.
Bit of a weird reason to recommend a distro for me though? Isn’t installing drivers (even Nvidia) basically just the same as Windows these days?
The difference with Pop OS in particular is that they offer installation ISOs with the proprietary NVIDIA drivers preinstalled, meaning you don’t have to fuss with installing them at all.
Yea I get that. But installing them is far from the troublesome experience it used to be, isn’t it? It’s just a one-click installer that generally “just works” these days?
Depends. On Ubuntu? Sure. On Wayland Arch? Good luck.
Pop_OS is a good alternative. I still believe that most non-gaming adults would be happy with Firefox and LibreOffice on Linux.
I switched about two weeks ago to PopOS on my gaming PC. Everything works smoothly now, but I am also highly knowledgeable with computers and work as a sysadmin. Even PopOS isn’t plug and play for someone who just turn on their PC and launches Steam to play some games. Whilst all my games work now, almost every game requires a small tuning, some small fix, some config changing to work properly. I wouldn’t recommend Linux gaming to those who aren’t technically capable enough to know how to install an OS or research distros without following a tutorial.
There’s another reason to stay on 10!
Was already planning to switching to Linux but thanks for the deadline ✌️
LibreOffice, rise!
Seriously, why people feel attached to office in 2025.
Unfortunately, it’s the corporate standard. With that said, it’s actually kind of surprising how little I use the Office suite on my work computer (other than Outlook I guess). More and more things are becoming web based.
It’s vendor lockin. Office file formats are not properly open. There is a “temporary” closed bit that they promised to open to get through ISO, but then never did. The whole ISO thing was a massive exercise in corruption. Let alone the fact the reference implementation is closed. Shame Groklaw isn’t as easy to search and link now.
I just realized. Windows 10 is being shelved but there is only one version ahead of it.
I remember xp still being considered good when i had win 8 installed.
How is that not understood as as a blatant attempt to maximize user control?
Actually looking at the numbers xp and 8.1 retired within 2 years of eachother. And 10 first got retired in 2020 a year before win 11 was released to make way of windows as a service updates which is actually what is getting retired later this year.
Microsoft kindly please get your shit together… or dont and strengthen my work requests to migrate systems to Linux.
Microsoft is a lot more aggressive with EoLing it’s Windows versions now exactly because XP lived so long. It was an absolute pain for them to maintain and support that for so long and they’ve made very sure they don’t repeat that experience.
