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Comment by Borg3 | Hacker News Reader

Really? People still like those Microsoft bloated products? How come. I remember Office 2000. Nice and small, quick and easy to use. 2003 wasnt bad either, but you start to feel the direction. 2007 was last usable office for me. Anything later is just downhill ride.

Luicky, I can avoid all those tools mostly. I feel sad for those who cannot.

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Tell me you don't scratch the surface of what Excel is capable of without saying it directly.

Use PowerQuery and PowerPivot for a few months and then try to go to Google Sheets, LibreOffice, Gnumeric, or any of the other supposed replacements.

It's like comparing the Gimp to Photoshop, except that I might be being unfair to the Gimp in this situation.

Agreed. I'm a Data Analyst and as much as I use numpy/pandas/matplotlib for a lot of my work. When it comes to sharing the data that my work is based on I usually need to export it to Excel with the calculations.

There is just a need to use the more complex features to do things and that can also show how changing a variable affects the overall analysis. I can't give people a python script or jupyter notebook and tell them to do x or y or z.

I can recreate all my calculations in excel, using python, with the same graphs and visuals, and give them instructions on what cells relate to what variables that affect the analysis so they can experiment for themselves.

With Google sheets, LibreOffice, etc., I haven't seen that kind of functionality.

Get out of your cave. 1.2 billion people use Office.

But do they want to, or are they forced to by the companies they work in? I mean, I have to use Powerpoint for collaboration on presentations, but I’d be very happy to never touch it again.

Many (most?) don't have an option. Their employer pays the office 365 bill and won't pay for an alternative. You're also stuck with file compatibility problemsif you use a potentially superior product.

You know while I would mostly agree with you, Excel is still amazing. There is nothing like it in the market. Google Sheets look like a child's toy in comparison.

Excel as a spreedsheet is good tool, no doubt about it. The problem is the bloat that Microsoft brings with new versions.

Personally, I use Gnumeric for Win32. Its old, but it does the job for me.

If it's all you need, it's all you need. But comparing Gnumeric to Excel is a bit like comparing nano to emacs.

You're right and you should say it!

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