Why is open source software so shit?

Why is open source software so shit?
>Spend entire night writing in pic related
>Open the document in ms office
>Text is all over the place
>Font is diffrent
>Weird symbols
>Everything is fucked

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardization_of_Office_Open_XML#Complaints_about_the_national_bodies_process
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Why do you use it then?

It's Microsoft's fault.
They're not following their own standards.

Cant afford ms office

>Font is diffrent
your copy of MS pooffice does not have that font

Here is how dumbshit people fall for the popular hype, just like iToddlers:
>Doc written in LO, MSWord can't render it so LO is shit
>Doc written in MSWord, LO can't render it so LO is shit again

Why does microshit gets the short straw?

i had this same problem. almost fucked me for a freelance job

Because you're using an alternative, not a replacement.

LibreOffice offers an alternative to MS Office with limited compatibility, but it's not something that can fully replace the functionality of MS Office.

It's the same way with GIMP and Linux. It also goes both ways. You can't fully replace Linux with Windows in the same way you can't replace Windows with Linux. You pick an alternative and deal with the differences.

If only there were a Format for saving Documents that was more Portable

what would we call such a thing though...

More like LOO

MS Office can't read anything else than iso ooxml transitional

LO is ok for notes or if you stay in that ecosytem.

I'm quite happy with using Lyx but I don't need to share editable documents to be honest.

>Why is open source software so shit?
You're pointing to the wrong culprit and shooting yourself in the foot in the process. MSO format called OOXML was supposedly approved as an ISO standard, an standard is supposed to exist to provide interoperability with multiple programs, the problem is that the approved and well documented standard is not used by default by the program where 99% of OOXML documents are created. To create a document using this standard and not the MS's variant is necessary for the user to specify it but most people doesn't even knows that.

Thanks to this the standard is moot because the actually used format is only well know by microsoft, some people says proposing it as standard was just a PR move:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardization_of_Office_Open_XML#Complaints_about_the_national_bodies_process

The fact is that if you care about you documents being yours forever you should use ODF because it's a well documented format and an ISO standard. Microsoft is already well knows for abusing their dominant position to implement lock-ins which is the case regarding the office formats. By creating documents with their formats you increase your own dependency and indirectly help them to make their lock-in stronger and you're giving them the power to lock you out of your documents if they want.

Use office online if you are that poor. It's OS independent dumbed down version.

...

>Why does microshit gets the short straw?
Most people invested years learning Microsoft tools from a young age so being their comfort zone they probably:
-Already invested a lot of their pride on being the "computer savvy guy" in their social circles, so they cannot accept it can exist something about computers they don't know, it must be someone else's fault.
-They work with those tools and probably fears that if another tools becomes popular their knowledge will be less valuable, that's why a lot of people can thrash-talk even being evident they don't know what they're talking about.

This is a stupid post. While it is likely a post of a story that never happened, I will nonetheless have to refute it.

First of all, this has never happened to me. I write all my documents in LibreOffice Writer and open them on university computers with Microsoft Word 2016.

The only time that I ever have a problem with file formats was with .rtf (which is obsolete), .doc (which is obsolete) and with strict .docx files. The issue with strict .docx files is that Microsoft Office purposely sabotages support for them. But it's all well and fine if you use extended .docx which is available literally on every modern word processor.

TLDR OP is a faggot who made up his story from thin air and can't into lying.

odt is a different format than XML-based docx is, and therefore behaves differently.

Libreoffice is it's own Suite. If you think it's sole purpose is to replace MS office as you please on PC's where you don't have a license then you can fuck off back to your proprietary, corporate, closed down garbage and never come back.

Don't be cocky.

LibreOffice Writer supports docx so your point is MOOT

Sure, but my point was that OP thinks that MS office's compatibility should be a higher priority than Libreoffice's core, which it will never be.

In regards of compatebility, Libreoffice is far better in accepting .docx than MS office is in accepting .odt.

Op here, what should i save my docs as?

>Most people invested years learning Microsoft tools from a young age
I've never understood this. I always hear people going on and on about the massive books you could write about what you can do with word and whatnot. I mean what the fuck, do normies really need courses and books to figure out title indexes, formatting shit, etc? Do they need anything more than a reference manual for formulas in excel? I learned to use php to make my websites from just thinking of a name for the function I needed and looking up that name in the function ref.

Learn LaTeX like a real man.

Proprietary software is usually developed as a product, so there is a paid team of likeminded devs backed by a QA team that want to make something people will pay their hard earned cash for.

In contrast open source software usually only has ego-driven developers, and the QA team is basically the end-users.

>so there is a paid team of likeminded devs backed by a QA team that want to make something people will pay their hard earned cash for.
You've obviously never actually worked in the industry. Neither the devs nor the managers give a flying fuck about how good the program is, how well it performs, how close it stays to conventions and standards, how clean the codebase is, etc. The managers just want to meet their arbitrary deadlines by arbitrary criteria with a nice powerpoint fulll of meme buzzwords, and the devs just want to look busy and get paid. At times I feel like I'm the only one who still feels like committing code anything less than perfect and calling a program /componentanywhere below perfectly built finished is a no-go. It's fucking disgusting how the industry treats programming, everyone does the opposite of what they should do.

Can you really blame them? Every single flaw and limitation means more money down the road. "PajeetProgram2, now 20% faster!"

Yeah I can blame those greedy cunts for being greedy cunts

If you need portability you should be writing on Google docs senpai.

The only thing there is no equivalent alternative for is the excel if you need macros

Office will not only not read LO documents but it will not read its own documents between even one release year.

To properly position things, use tables with invisible or no borders. Works on everything and you don't have to click 35 times to try to access it. Also can put tables inside tables easily.

Columns and tab spacings are fucking shit and never work out properly.

Yeah, I can see that.
I switched to gnu/linux when I was almost completely computer illiterate, and now doing stuff in windows feels pretty uncomfortable.
Likely because it's simply different, though it also it could be because it has so much stuff it feels overburdened.

>open document in ms office

Thats your fault for being a pleb, sorry.

You probably won't believe this, but it's actually Microsoft Office that's broken in this scenario. Seriously.

save as pdf you mong, no need for shitty docx

WPS Office is better, botnet is easy removable (in Windows, at least). It's also lighter and has different UIs, you can make it work like modern or classic MS office. Compatibility was good all the time I used it. Seriously chinks are gods when it comes to copy some one else's work.

>2016
>using proprietary formats

Finish your document then print to pdf?!? At least that's what I do...

we should call it
fdp

Nigga pirate dat shit

save as pdf open as pdf


solved

Have you tried not being mentally retarded?

>LaTeX
Any (real) advantages to using this, out of curiosity?

Street cred.

>Most people invested years learning Microsoft tools from a young age
>spending years learning MS office
Well, that's the problem. It's not LibreOffice that's shit, it's idiots that are stupid.

-Everything looks better
-don't have to worry about formatting
--much more flexible, more features
-you get the feel of being a patrician instead of a plebeian

nope, ur an idiot. that explanation was idiotic.
In OP's case libreoffice should be displaying some kind of very visible error that a font is missing. Adobe does it. Closed source devs do it.
Only open source shitheads cant figure it out

"Format dats portable"?

libreoffice should display an error that the font is missing in ms office? are you a moron or something?

You can use any program you want, most exceed the capabilities of word.
Good documents are ensured by the "if it is a shitty idea, then it is hard to do" mentality.
Good for automation, eg have your analysis write the results in a table or as a lot of figures which then automatically replaces everything in your document.

If you decide to try it out, fight the urge to reinvent the wheel when it comes to documents. I personally spent way too long setting everything up as I wanted it in the beginning.

maybe you will give it another chance once
they add ribbon UI in the next build.

it's like a thousand page standards book for each office format lol

1. You can edit plain text.
2. Source files are portable.
3. Can compile on any machine.
4. Integration with data analysis packages, if that's your thing. Stat packages output TeX tables -> \input{table.tex} -> done
5. It's the only way to typeset mathematics that doesn't look like ass.
6. Automatically aesthetic typesetting
7. You can focus on content rather than form; editing text should be a conceptually different task from formatting text, and TeX allows you to make that distinction
8. Super lightweight, because you're carrying around plain text files rather than bloated Word documents
9. TeX won't choke on big documents. I can typeset a 12,000 page TeX document with figures and tables easily. Can you even open 12,000 page document in Word? Can you edit it without the tables and graphs fucking about?
10. Since you've separated form and content, it's easy to make global changes to the form once you're done.

>>Open the document in ms office
found your problem

but seriously is shit, but is at the same level as shit as M$ , but is free, bad thing is msoffice is broad used, just prepare if you have to edit the document on it save as pdf or just images if powerpoint
>protip online office suits are worst

>In english class
>using open office and writing a paper in mla format
>Need page numbers at the top with name
>write paper everything is fine
>save as .doc or .docx cant remember
>upload to blackboard and look at review
>Page number is a chinese character
>"Oh well hope it doesn't print like that"
>it does, turn it in
>Red circle with WTF?

Pretty cool teach though

Haven't had the issue using Libre Office 5. Not sure why it would screw with you.

As a fiction novel writer, would you say it's practical to write everything in LaTeX? Or is it really only suited for formal documents and such?

Latex really shines when you want to write scientific papers imo, but it's perfectly sited to write novels in as well. It has a step learning curve, but when you get the hang of it you will never go back to ms word or any shit like that.

It will automatically keep track of references, footnotes, chapters, figures, table of content etc. automatic. You'll never have to worry about any of that anymore. It's a document preparation system, not a word processor.

this dude knows his shit
stop being a cuck and join LaTeX masterrace, fags

>Any (real) advantages to using this, out of curiosity?
Math equations. Like the kind that you see in college level publications. I can style integrals in 2-3 declarations in LaTeX while Microsoft Office will turn it into a 10 step process (if I'm lucky).

>english class
>mla format

>mla
>not apa
UNDERAGE B&

>You can't fully replace Linux with Windows in the same way you can't replace Windows with Linux. You pick an alternative and deal with the differences.
based
but this is Sup Forums so most people will just call you faggot for these words

faggot

Hint
>get open office

can't afford free?

MS Office is literally free and available online for anyone to use you stupid fool.

>Mac version of LaTeX is 3gb

but why.

You get what you pay for

>ms office fails to open it properly
So Microsoft Office is shit.

it might be a mess sure, but a more powerful mess compared to the typical resources of your typical OS project.

lol no
LO is 90s looking unusable garbage for literal poorfags

>low IQ mouth breathing Sup Forums toddler with some hot opinions can't accept the simple fact that he's too retarded to read

Shouldn't ever send someone a .doc. Send them a rendered .pdf.

docx

I used Libre Office since I got tired of the MS Office treadmill (same even if you pirate the software). Switched a few small offices to Libre as well since they didn't want to buy MS Office every couple years. Now if I can get them off Quickbooks...

>>Open the document in ms office

there's your problem.
libreoffice is free, you should just always use that.

Yea something nearly universal like a pdf is good as well. Everyone typically has a web browser and those can open pdf's.

>90s looking
Looks identically to ms office.

Think twice.
Bascially MS Word failed, didn't it?

They try everything to make other products "unusable" (think, about that "docx" mess), so you can't really blame their competitors.

>word processors

are you a 45 year old with a degree in business management?

just use latex like everybody else

The one to blame here is Microshit, you can open MS documents just fine using LibreOffice.

> Vim + LaTeX
> Not the god-tier programs in Emacs.
I suppose, whatever casts your goat to a float.

...

In Office 2003, the help functions were pretty fucking boss.

That was the last time I really used MS Office.
Now, in 2016, the headline of every help section in the online manuals (the thing that you get when you press F1), starts with "Statement of not taking any responsibility" because it's all machine translated.
The old versions were translated by humans who actually knew everything about Office.

The program is actively getting worse for new users, so YES they kinda have to these days, because the help that used to come with the program is so shit that it's worthless.

LaTeX does give you mad street cred, though.
I submitted several university assignments using LaTeX, and the lecturer commented on the fact that I used it.
It produces some damn good maths formulas.

The biggest and most real advantages?

- You can write plain text first.
- It's all text, so it works with git and similar for housekeeping and versioning.
- Your documents can consist of several files that gets turned into one file.

The first one means that writing becomes easier. You don't have to even give half a shit about what fonts to use, text sizes or any of that stuff that doesn't actually matter. Just sit down and write.

Then when you're done, you can go back and put that sort of stuff in, and spend about as much time as you want to.

The second and third one makes it very easy to cooperate writing things. You can all work on each your own files, you can branch and merge, have history versioning etc. This is pretty useful if you're working with others who knows how to use git etc. It also means that you can have one file per chapter, which is much easier to keep control over. And to make it all even better, you can have one document that sets up all the preambulatory stuff, like fonts, document types etc. and then have pure text in the document.

It basically changes the way you work for the better. It's not about a better way to insert an image. It's about a better way to write a document.

Even if it had fewer features than Office, I'd still recommend giving it a go.

I thought you guys could just write in fucking notepad and have the publisher worry about that other shit?

It's based on TeXLive full or something?
It comes with a huge amount of extras that people use, so you don't have to download it afterwards. It makes sense if you consider diskspace cheap. If you have a shitty internet connection, or have little diskspace, it makes less sense.

Hell, I just install texlive-full on my ubuntu machine. I have no need for anything else.

Open Document Format

Why the fuck would the lecturer know? It's unacceptable to submit in anything but pdf, so unless LaTeX throws a watermark over everything there shouldn't be any way of knowing what the fuck you used.

>ms office cannot handle completely open .xml document formats
>WHY OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IS SO SHIT
>80 posts and 6 image replies omitted.

this place is beyond redemption

>It's unacceptable to submit in anything but pdf
It was a pdf.
>so unless LaTeX throws a watermark over everything there shouldn't be any way of knowing what the fuck you used.
If you're somewhat experienced with LaTeX, you can tell which documents were written with it most of the time.
You have the deafult LaTeX font to go off of, but even without that, you can tell by how nicely it is laid out, and the quality of the formulas and diagrams.

You can tell because of the standard fonts, the actually decent typography and so on.
It's not even hard bro.

I understand the pains of odt and doc/x compatibility and work around them by exporting everything I write in LO writer to PDF. The software itself is still garbage.

I learnt LaTeX and haven't looked back. It puts a certain "fun" back into crafting documents. I don't feel like I have to wrestle with formatting anymore.

What if I use the superior bch as my serif font?

From what I understand, LaTeX is really good for making manuals. You wouldn't use it for a kiddie booklette on AIDs.

>MS OFFICE IS LITERALLY FREE
NO IT IS NOT
The online version is a purposely defective version that is missing features that literally every other Word Processor that could be considered modern has.

It is missing features that even Google Docs has and that is saying something.

Furthermore: it registration so while you aren't paying money, you are paying information.

sage every chance you get

/thread

>I thought you guys could just write in fucking notepad and have the publisher worry about that other shit?
I'm autistic as fuck, and making sure my formatting comes out right. I've actually been writing recently through Sigil and editing formatting HTML.
Although the story itself is important, so is presentation.

You fucking dumb fuck ! what did you expect ?

Use Ms office.

Fucking this !

You people are all fucking retarded jesus christ if you're not happy just use Ms office with Playonlinux.