Item: LibreOffice
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with LibreOffice

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use LibreOffice through out the entire organization. It's mostly used for spreadsheets, data tracking, exporting and importing inventory via user-created .csv files and it's occasionally used for word processing and making signs in the retail store. The vast majority of users do very well with the minor differences from office, and not having to use the official licensing is a huge plus, especially when you have a front end that opens a document to merge with other data.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Basic spreadsheet functionality
Word processing
Creating CSVs for importing

Cons

Some Excel created spreadsheets have formatting issues.
Some of the more advanced Excel functions take some extra effort to achieve.

Return on Investment

ROI is much better
Ease of deployment
Ease of maintenance
The only really negative is that sometimes when a user receives a file from an MS Office user there is formatting work to be done.

Alternatives Considered

I used to use Open Office prior to 2010, and we have some Office365 machines. LibreOffice is the clear winner almost every time due to the cost and licensing issues with Office 365 aside from the small number of cases where we need to use MS Excel for ease of compatibility with people outside the organization.

Other Software Used

ConnectWise Control (formerly ScreenConnect), Acronis Backup Cloud, Untangle NG Firewall

Likelihood to Recommend

Anyone who needs word processing and basic spreadsheet functionality is much better off with LibreOffice. If you need to create docs that are importable into a database like SQL, Tomcat, etc. there's no issue. If you are tired of the licensing with office 365, this is a great choice. Some areas where it might be less appropriate are with personnel that have used MS Office for a very long time and have difficulty with making that switch, or when you are collaborating with people using MS Office and working with some of the more advanced Excel features.

Comments

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LibreOffice is a great low investment option for the vast majority of users.