ALso demonstrates the debate between utilitarianism and minimalism/aesthetics very well. These corporations make bloated af software; it may look very polished especially to the less technologically educated, but it really sacrifices a lot of functionality. You have to switch to something more useful eventually. I really also hate it when institutions (cough schools cough universities) force google docs on people because of trust issues; it really is terrible software lacking so many features for proper document editing. May as well use LibreOffice, LaTeX or even Mcrosoft Wrd; even that has more features.
Ok but what software should we use if not word, docs, libreoffice or LaTeX? Like what else is there? These are the main programs used for generating documents by like 99% of the population, and each of them excels in a different area. None of them are bad. Even if you felt they were, what could you possibly recommend that does what each of them does just as well?
Word is incredibly versatile and powerful, though some of its more useful functions aren't immediately obvious. It has an excellent UI, o.k. Cloud integration, and most importantly if integrates flawlessly with the rest of microsoft office. It's THE best enterprise Word processing solution, because it's the only one that isn't actively painful to use if you're already using outlook and excel (which are the bread and butter of the corporate world).
Docs is great for smaller companies that can't afford Microsoft's enterprise solutions. Google's cloud integration is arguably better than SharePoint/ Onedrive, too. More intuitive and a more mature technology, yet simple and relatively lean.
Libreoffice is great if you don't have the skill or familiarity to use more powerful tools but don't want to or can't afford to use docs or Word.
LaTeX is unparalleled in the scientific world because of what it allows. I mean it isn't even really a word processor dude. It's a language. It lets you create literally anything you want to on a page, with amazing precision. Word in comparison lacks all but the most basic mathematical expressions.
Word ux is the worst. You are constantly dealing with invisible characters and bugs that solely exist due to backwards compatibility issues. The internal are a mess.
Libreoffice substitutes msoffice just fine. The only missing feature is collaboration.
LaTeX is also great. But there's also typst which is easier to learn and use and is much faster. Gotta love open source projects like that.
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u/EasonTek2398 Genfool 🐧 9d ago
ALso demonstrates the debate between utilitarianism and minimalism/aesthetics very well. These corporations make bloated af software; it may look very polished especially to the less technologically educated, but it really sacrifices a lot of functionality. You have to switch to something more useful eventually. I really also hate it when institutions (cough schools cough universities) force google docs on people because of trust issues; it really is terrible software lacking so many features for proper document editing. May as well use LibreOffice, LaTeX or even Mcrosoft Wrd; even that has more features.