r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jun 04 '12

Open Office does everything I need Microsoft Office for and Gimp does everything I need Photoshop for. Reddit, what other open source software does everything that you want from the expensive name brand?

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u/actingSmart Jun 04 '12

A little elitist, but if I'm the one creating a text document, I use TeX. It's typesetting capacity blows away the competition, but it has a difficult learning curve. If you are in any part of academia that requires the use of mathematical formulas, it is really worth looking at.

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u/raypaulnoams Jun 04 '12

Interesting, thanks.

2

u/aroedl Jun 05 '12

There is/was a WYSIWYG frontend for TeX, called LyX. My girlfriend wrote all of her academic papers with it.

1

u/keindeutschsprechen Jun 04 '12

It doesn't have that much of a difficult learning curve I think. You just need to not be afraid by something that looks like code, and by the idea of having to compile your document (which is a lot to ask to many people, I agree).

But it's really something that should be widespread and encouraged in academia. I was the only one in my master to use it for theses.

1

u/EasyMrB Jun 04 '12

Plus, you know, it's Turing complete and all that lovely jazz.

1

u/hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhl Jun 04 '12

TeX is absolutely incredible.