Hey speaking of Microsoft, does anyone have free/cheap alternatives to Microsoft Office?
I have the 2013 Office suite on my PC laptop, which was purchased for $20 under the Home Use Program 10 years ago.
Now that program is gone, and there is zero chance I will pay a monthly subscription.
My guess is that Google’s apps (Sheets, Docs, etc) are perfectly adequate, but I’d love to hear anyone else’s take.
If it is for personal use all of that is fine.
It is very user friendly, the only issu is if you do a lot of sharing with people that don’t use it.
I’ve used WordPefect for the past 30+ years. But that’s just me.
I have also used Open Office (free Office-type suite from Apache) for some time for some specialized tasks and reading docs people send me that were created in Word or Excel. It seems to be a replica of Word. Libre Office has also gotten good reviews, another free office suite.
I used windows for a few decades but now have a MacBook so I can coordinate my iPhone with it. However, I have had stock in Microsoft for a few decades and would like to thank everyone who uses it. 
Jimtoo beat me to it! Both “Open” and “Libre” are great. In my opinion no need to spend money on MS Office.
Yes. Been preaching for years. Maybe you will listen now? There is at least one convert here…
Micro$oft is evil, as is Apple, but Google takes the cake in the evil department. I would run from their products that purport to fill the need.
Yes you can get out of the squirrel cage. No need to pay! For an “office” suite we have Libre Office. There have been various names over the years, but this is Open Source and free. Unless you are an advanced user of one of the office products, go and get it! Put it on your windoze if you have too.
That ain’t the end of the Open Source though! You can dump windoze itself. Linux is no longer the “geek-only” stuff that it once was. Suggestion is to get yourself a 5 or 10 year old computer and load it up to try out. After you learn that you can live with Linux, then migrate.
Jumping to apple is an alternative too, but they have a similar environment of “pay everytime you turn around” like windoze.
FYI, my usage of “office” products is fairly light. Spread sheet for tax records. Word processor for simple letters. The last time I “had” to use power point was around 25 years ago – I refused! Made my presentation with WordPerfect for DOS. Printed it to postscript, converted to PDF, and presented it in acrobat reader.
LIbreoffice. IT’s free. It comes with Linux Mint and is very similar to Office…you can save files in office format
I disagree with tsz on pretty much everything but not this…I’ve been running Linux Mint for about 10 years now. The look and feel is very close to Windows XP. In the past 5 years I have had to use the “geekly” terminal maybe twice. If you play a lot of games, it’s not for you. But for a PC for entertainment or some personal business - it’s very good. YOu can create a bootable USB and start it to run Linux on to see what you think. If you like it, there is an icon on the desktop to install.
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