2d ago

Language

https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/115093185284473606

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Megacorps gonna megacorp.
\ Monopolies gonna monopoly.
We can fight these giants by not using their services & products.
It only gets harder to fight them the more we give in.
- I can't even get people to switch to LibreOffice, not cuz they use some advanced MS Office feature but because the interface "looks dated". So they'd rather pay a subscription for life to use software that spies on them than download free software that does what they need but has a 2010s style interface.
  Humans suck so much.
  
  Humans are creatures of habit, and risk averse most of the time. Risk, being change of any sort when things seem "stable."
  All you can do is lead by example and enjoy life and tell those poor souls they're stupid for spending money for something they can change the look like MS Office easily.
  
  Ngl, I installed a few OnlyOffices just because of UI.
  \ It has ribbon UI and about the same placement of buttons as MS Office stuff.
  It's fine.
  (Based in Latvia, but they had a Russian momma, now Singapore.)
  
  because the interface “looks dated”.
  The real issue is M$ intentionally not following standards, so that opening an Office doc may or may not properly render in other suites. Hooray for EEE. Fuckers.
  
  Eh, I haven't had that issue in years. Maybe its a problem for office workers who make extremely complicated documents and spreadsheets, but those aren't the kinds of people I'm talking about.
  EDIT: Not implying you're wrong about M$ fake open standards bullshit, just that I don't think its a huge concern for the average home user.
  
  I get what you are saying but is it really too much to ask for an interface that looks like it belongs there?
  
  I prefer the old school style menus and such. I stopped using MS Word around the time that they came out with the 'ribbon' style menus or whatever it's called, so if they 'update' it I sure hope it's as an option or a fork.
  I can understand people who grew up with it or who have spent years using it might like it better though.
  
  I'm not willing to pay for it, are you? If no then its to much to ask.
  
  I "pay" LibreOffice.
  Why not??
  
  No, it’s too much to demand but simply asking they keep the interface as clean looking as any other free cross platform open source project is not an outlandish request.
  
  They update the ui in most of their patches, theyve made the ui incredibly customisable. They have the classic header or a ribbon header. Its open source software it can't afford a redesign every few years to keep up with Microsoft design trends. The team is like 8 people.
  I might be wrong but i feel like the people complaining about the ui dont really even use it. After a week of using it you get used to it and it looks normal.
  
  For legally free and open software that has to maintain UI consistency across Windows, MacOS, and the plethora of open desktop environments? Yes, yes it is.
  
  No it’s not. There are other free and open software offerings that function cross platform and do it more cleanly.
  
  For a project as big and old and full of legacy code as LibreOffice, I think their interface is pretty great. And its way more customizable than MS Office. Its just not the absolute latest and greatest in styling.
  And, if MS didn't make it so hard to maintain compatibility with their "open" file format, TDF might be able to put more resources into UX. As it is, they have to reverse engineer all the nonconforming BS that Microsoft puts in their OOXML implementation.

267 comments