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Comment by master-lincoln | Hacker News Reader

You say "clearly" twice, but it's not clear at all to me that this is the case. Can you elaborate what makes it clear that no other competitor exists who can provide similar value?

And isn't LibreOffice Calc closer to Excel than Google Sheets in terms of features?

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I use libre at home and excel at work. Having worked in various departments of a somewhat regulated industry, I can say that the value of Excel comes from familiarity and 'not having to retrain everyone'. It seems silly to people like me, but I personally experienced a person unable to complete their daily routine, because version change moved from one menu to another.

I guess my point it is: it is not features. It is humans. MS cracked the code on that one. Get people familiar with their stuff and the rest will follow.

> person unable to complete their daily routine, because version change moved from one menu to another.

> I guess my point it is: it is not features.

Discoverability of commands, customization, as well as the stability of UI are all features. As would be "full UI compatibility with Excel sans stupid bugs like data conversion"

I am a simple man and I use “people use it” as a proxy for value. LibreOffice is available everywhere excel runs, for free, and yet …

The main reason people continue using it is due to the network effect (xlsx files are considered shareable) and the fact that people are trained on its features and interface. That does make it valuable, but that doesn't mean it is more usable than competitors.

The USA got plenty of value from opioids then

All spreadsheets are bad. There are no good spreadsheets.

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