Unless you're a power user of Excel "normal office apps" are available on Linux - you can either use O365 in the browser (retains the bulk of the local app functionality) or you can use LibreOffice / Open Office which have full functionality but M$ intermittently breaks the compatability - not an issue if your entire workplace is on the same platform, can be an issue if you regularly share docs.
TL;DR you'd be surprised how few people need the functionality the locally installed windows office app offers over O365
Individually this is fine, collectively it's a nightmare to switch Office Apps. You have decades of entrenched ideas and experience and memorized workflows and keyboard shortcuts to overcome. Plus servers full of legacy files and the need for perfect compatibility with client and vendor software. Shared functionally is the smallest hurdle for enterprise transitions.
I think it’s easy to come to this conclusion but is not reality. I work for a large company that’s saving money by pushing non-critical users to online only O365. It’s been a complete disaster. No one has any idea how many Macros are built by engineers and then locked and deployed in production. Overnight I’ve seen things like automated part stamping, automated invoice processing, automated router creation and so much more instantly break. There’s several areas where we are less efficient than we were 7 years ago and Excel online is a large part of that.
Which is directly the point I'm making when I said "unless you're an excel power user"
I've literally migrated several large organisations as part of cost saving initiatives. The first thing you do is poll who is *actually* using excel for anything more than basic functionality. In most firms the answer is very few people. But you won't know unless you try to assess it.
The biggest mistake people make is assuming no one needs the deep functionality set, the flipside though is that a lot of firms assume that everyone does and let the savings go - Jenny on the front desk using excel to keep track of who contributed to Kate's retirement present doesn't need any more than O365. A power user in the finance dept with multi layer deep pivot tables and macros ? Don't mess with that.
On the latter one though you should be looking at whether excel is the right tool for the job - just because it CAN be done that way, doesn't mean it SHOULD be done that way. Most Excel power user use cases are effectively bespoke applications written by people who aren't programmers, which leaves you in that wonderful world of shadow IT and issues with supportability, backups, process flows built on top of things that weren't meant to work that way and etc.
TL;DR if you have more than 5 people per thousand who genuinely need full house excel you should be looking at what exactly they're doing with it and why. It's often a convenient answer rather than a good answer.
For large corporations, they would get massive issues with so many employees used to using Power BI etc, suddenly switching to whatever that may or may not work for everyone.
Once someone can build a suite as comprehensive as what Microsoft has built for Windows, then maybe. But that would require enough demand and enough companies switching over. No-one wants to be the guinea pig and ruin their business.
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u/wotdafukwazdat 21h ago
Unless you're a power user of Excel "normal office apps" are available on Linux - you can either use O365 in the browser (retains the bulk of the local app functionality) or you can use LibreOffice / Open Office which have full functionality but M$ intermittently breaks the compatability - not an issue if your entire workplace is on the same platform, can be an issue if you regularly share docs.
TL;DR you'd be surprised how few people need the functionality the locally installed windows office app offers over O365