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From: RonB <ronb02NOSPAM@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: The enduring appeal of Microsoft Excel
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2024 07:24:23 -0000 (UTC)
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On 2024-10-28, CrudeSausage <crude@sausa.ge> wrote:
> On 2024-10-28 12:48 p.m., DFS wrote:
>> On 10/28/2024 11:19 AM, CrudeSausage wrote:
>>> On 2024-10-28 10:24 a.m., DFS wrote:
>>>> "‘I grew up with it’: readers on the enduring appeal of Microsoft Excel
>>>>
>>>>  From baby names to wedding planning, fans of the 40-year-old 
>>>> spreadsheet program reveal how it has transformed their lives"
>>>>
>>>> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/oct/28/microsoft-excel-spreadsheet-program-40-years
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> MS is doomed.
>>>
>>> Others will grow up with Calc...
>> 
>> 
>> I pity the fools...
>
> People only think Excel is better if they're aware of its existence. My 
> students' lack of awareness seems to represent the greater society: they 
> don't know what they're using, they just know that it does spreadsheets. 
> If manufacturers were to bundle LibreOffice rather than Microsoft 
> Office, only a few would even notice that it's not the same thing.

In the mid-2000s a regional print shop I worked for moved from Microsoft 
Office to OpenOffice (LibreOffice wasn't around yet). My main use for Excel 
was taking crappy (poorly designed and updated) address spreadsheets and 
converting them to usable dBASE databases for our address correction 
software and our address labeling machine.

There was almost no difference between using Excel vs Calc even back then. 
But why anyone would use a spreadsheet for a job better suited to a database 
is still a mystery to me.

-- 
“Evil is not able to create anything new, it can only distort and destroy 
what has been invented or made by the forces of good.”  —J.R.R. Tolkien