this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
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The breaking point for me was when I was showered with Copilot+ pop-ups on every single hover. Let me fucking copy/cut/paste/format in peace. I never asked for any of this, and neither did any user of any level of expertise.
Switched to OnlyOffice as it felt to perfectly answer my needs. There are still some quirks with non-UTF-8 documents, but you know what, I'd rather iron those issues out than be shoved a product I didn't request nor need at every single interaction I have.
I highly encourage anyone that hasn't done already to explore alternatives to the M*crosoft Suite, if they haven't done it by now. Every update is just the worst form of enshittification known to humankind. Can't wait to have an intrusive slop AI agent tell me how to do my Maths in the Calculator app next.
Let apps be just apps again π£οΈπ£οΈπ’
Apps? It's programs and applications!
Jesus christ. So glad I ditched MS. It's like getting out of a cult - once you see it looking in from the outside, you finally realize how terrible it is.
Some executive noticed that they can't sell you larger cloud storage if you haven't used it up.
Then someone on the office copilot team said they wished they had access to more comprehensive data about what people write with office apps and the rest is history.
This made my blood boil, and then I remembered I switched to Linux a month ago... all good.
I switched earlier this year. No ragrets.
Holy fucking shit, what absolute trash
Theyβre prepared to do anything to get real user data for AI training. This little change gives them easily millions of files per day accidentally saved to cloud.
Microsoft is recognizing that their biggest threat to MS Word is Google Docs, a product they underestimated in the beginning as being a serious choice for word processing.
Saving in the cloud means automatic backups and access from all your devices. Increasingly, people are willing to choose that over the real privacy benefits of local storage.
Why I use libreoffice.
I would love to switch to LibreOffice (or similar) but I havenβt been able to find a way to get tables to work in the same way they do in Excel, and thatβs a deal breaker for me. None of the suggested approaches come close to being able to select a range, press ctrl+t and immediately be able to filter/sort/lookup using column names from anywhere in the document. I use that feature dozens of times a day, and so does everyone in my circles that deals with financial data.
What about OnlyOffice?
You can purchase the Microsoft apps , word, excel, PowerPoint, as a package that you own. There are no upgrades. You own them.
I am in the process of moving to Linux and Libreoffice at the moment. I'm working at getting myself off of Onedrive.
Once complete I will start the process of getting off Google. I've been using Proton for years and I am going to remove any other online support.
If you mind that Word documents are stored in the cloud by default, you need to modify the default setting
...or just use some other app for your private documents and Word only for work-related stuff or such. I use Word/Office at work and have absolutely no issue with all the documentation being saved in the cloud. But for private stuff I would have to think twice if I want this.
I switched to OnlyOffice for my work files. I have had no compatibility issues with my coworkers
At this point thatβs almost like ransomware.
At this point, why even have desktop apps at all?
Teams and Outlook are basically busy glorified web browsers that load the online version... Now word is going to send your shit to the cloud whether you like it or not?
Google docs does this, but they don't have a desktop app to deceive you with. You create the doc, and edit it where it is, on the cloud, using a web interface that's vaguely "word"-like.
The only people this will "help" is all the inept business people that can't figure out where to put their data so it's not lost. There's lots of those.
Itβs way better than a web app! it ships with a separate browser the user has zero control over and with more permissions to abuse. /s
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See ya Ms Products! I hope you all like that cloud of yours!
This might be when I finally jump ship and go to Linux. I should do Mint, right?
Yes. You may distro hop eventually, but you will not go wrong starting there from Windows.
I stuck with it. I am OK that somebody else did a really nice configuration out of the box for me. It's still an open Linux system. I make embedded computers do the right thing all day at work, and at home I've been getting more outside work done than ever. So any projects like setting up an Arch install to learn more about linux will at minimum have to wait for winter.
The most important choice from the beginner is not even the distro, but what window manager to use, that will be your first interface and you need to be comfortable with it first.
Having switched many relatives to Linux recently too, Mint will be your best jumping off point for a familiar feel and pain free experience as someone new to Linux. If you love that and find yourself wanting more, then the world is your oyster! I started on Mint and ultimately settled on Fedora Plasma after trying out a half dozen different options.
Remember that most major distros now offer live ISOs, which means you can easily try them out before committing to an install.
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You have to click through to a third save dialogue just to choose βBrowse my filesβ¦β.
This creates a circus act to protect documents. Thank goodness for great alternatives. I use a mix of LibreOffice and Cryptpad. Suits me perfectly.
To anyone thinking "LibreOffice still has issues", here's the LibreOffice donation page to help them fix it up and be rid of MS Office forever.
Libre office does the job for me! Auto save on cloud sucks. At least you can turn it off! For now.
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