EtherCalc is a real-time collaborative spreadsheet available from a browser with no sign-up, available also at no cost.
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LibreOffice
Score 8.9 out of 10
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LibreOffice is a free and open-source Office Suite from The Document Foundation, presented as the successor to OpenOffice.org. The suite includes Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts), Base (databases), and Math (formula editing).
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free and open source under the Mozilla Public License v2.0
Ethercalc is very well suited for developing modern-day enterprise (smaller-mid size), finance and healthcare applications as it can do Real-time data pull from a variety of third-party apps, and has interoperability with CSV, Microsoft Excel and JSON files; It's available on all on all public clouds including AWS, GCP and Microsoft Azure and can be used as a Low code and no code development tool. Further, we can Develop applications on the go with good integration and visualization libraries and we can also do Tabulation and graphing along with ability to use it as an npm module, do Real time collaboration and editing. It is a very good tool for startups and government institutions. There is a considerable scope of improvement for using it in bigger enterprises as it needs key integration and interoperability functionalities. It can evolve in a variety of directions depending upon its integration with a variety of third party apps services and tools. As an analytics tool, for example, it needs integration with R, Scipy, Numpy and keras libraries. Availability within Ionic, NativeScript or Appgyer as an extension or a plugin will be very useful for it being used as a large enterprise low code/no code tool.
If you're working with numbers, LibreOffice doesn't get in your way and try to make changes as it sees fit, forcing you to repeatedly go back and undo processes you didn't want, didn't ask for, and that have no place in the document you are trying to produce. All I want to do is assemble the data, process it for the task at hand, and then print it for distribution. LibreOffice allows me to do that.
We use it consistently and have a lot of documents in the OpenDocument format so it will be necessary to use LibreOffice or a compatible product such as Openoffice in the future to be able to open these files. Because the license fee for Libreoffice is zero it is not very costly to keep using it - the costs are mostly for keeping it installed on the office PCs and regularly updated, and solving employee issues with the user support.
For all of the reasons in the foregoing evaluation. Its menus are clean, intuitive and straightforward. Any function I need to use can be accessed via keystrokes, without having to stop, move my hand to the mouse, deal with it, and then get back to the keyboard to proceed. It helps me keep my mind on my work and not worry about dealing with the mouse all the time.
Libreoffice is a desktop app not requiring any server part so it is always available when the PC is working normally. Installing it on another machine if one PC fails is very quick and easy. This is a non-issue.
For big/imported tables or text documents with images loaded from the internet it is sometimes getting very slow, RAM and CPU intensive, and sometimes even hangs due to some memory leaks or other bugs. This is a long-term problem and is still not resolved perfectly.
Support is not officially offered. However, you can find answers to any usage questions or trouble-shooting online easily, typically starting with a Google search. (I believe that all forums / tips for OpenOffice apply equally to LibreOffice, and vice versa.) While Microsoft Office, for example, officially includes support, I find that typically you end up going to a Google search in any case. So, this is not really a downside. However, in all these cases, you end up doing a lot of figuring things out for yourself.
Generally easy to perform, issues are how to ensure regular automatic updates on Mac OS X. Fortunatly we have only a few machines with OS X run by management and we can do these updates manually occasionally. Windows updates are quite easy with the support of third party software such as Ninite or Chocolatey, and Linux updates are super-easy thanks to the package manager (apt-get).
EtherCalc has a low barrier to entry on training and end-user development. It is very easy for startups with considerable time pressure to deliver to use EtherCalc as a tool for tabulation, organization, collaboration and computation. It is also very useful for use cases in government institutions where there is a strong push for open source software-based ERP solutions or app development. These are the key reasons for the selection of Ethercalc.
If you are looking for a well-rounded, GNU-licensed product that will encompass word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and database then LibreOffice is probably all you need.
For online collaboration, links with cloud storage, and more robust support, Microsoft Office 365 and Google Docs are probably what you or your organization needs.
LibreOffice is at its best for regular document creation and spreadsheet management. It is more cumbersome when it comes to fonts but also when it comes to linkages with cloud-based services. It is there, but you need some more computer knowledge to make it work.
There are other free alternatives, most notably Apache Open Office, which is also a very good alternative if you do not like LibreOffice.
Having said that, I honestly think off-line computers or laptops used off-site can certainly benefit from having LibreOffice installed.
With more users using it in the company there are more cases when a simultaneous editing of the same document is needed and this feature is lacking in Libreoffice even though the files concerned are shared and synced by some solution (we use ownCloud). Google Docs or MS Office365 via Sharepoint/Onedrive offer a better function for this.
Very good opportunities on using it as a low code, no code tool with ionic open source platform. Able to meet needs of our customers and do real time deployment quickly
Very productive and useful for developing web APIs and PWAs on the cloud, tablet, mobile and a variety of surface devices (touch functions can be customized according to needs)
Spreadsheet for the next 100-150 years as it integrates well with React, Angular and Jquery libraries. Maintainable and readable code of spreadsheet
Low barrier to entry on training and end user development
Good analytics and accounting tool for startups
What you see is what you get interface
The ability to integrate with firebase and Dropbox is neat.
I am able to quickly create and edit word processing documents and spreadsheets which are for all intents and purposes equivalent to documents I could create and edit in other tools such as Microsoft Office and Google Docs/Sheets.
Lack of an online portal for sharing documents necessitates the use of Google Sheets for automation/integration. Ideal would be an all-in-one solution.
Having open-source software that provides common functionality eliminates the need for expensive licenses.
Lack of dedicated support is negligible. Most issues can be resolved using online search.
