Microsoft Office
Microsoft's productivity suite including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, sold as subscription or one-time purchase.
HN commenters value it as the strongest suite for work built on documents, spreadsheets and slides,123 and call it fairly priced and familiar enough that staff are easy to hire.456 The most common complaint is lock-in: users say governments, universities and file formats force them onto it,789 with further gripes about the ribbon interface, no native Linux version and weak web apps.1011
Why people recommend it
Heavy document work · 3
Seen as the best option for people whose work revolves around documents, spreadsheets and slide decks.
“there really is no better option out there than Microsoft Office.”
“For my needs Office on Windows is the best”
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“I admit that their Office suite is pretty good.”
Familiarity · 3
Users find it quick to navigate, and many workers already know it.
“Nowadays I can figure out what to do in MS Office very quickly”
I feel they are pushing their own narrative without really having any evidence. We use Microsoft at work because we would either use Microsoft or Google for email. The email service is critical to the choice. We can’t run our own reliably and other vendors just don’t interoperate the same way. Microsoft Office simply isn’t that expensive and it’s very easy to hire people who know how to use it and are comfortable wit
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“I'm invested and familiar with Windows and Office.”
Reasonable cost · 2
Some consider it priced fairly low for its complexity and easy for businesses to justify.
“there really is no better option out there than Microsoft Office.”
I feel they are pushing their own narrative without really having any evidence. We use Microsoft at work because we would either use Microsoft or Google for email. The email service is critical to the choice. We can’t run our own reliably and other vendors just don’t interoperate the same way. Microsoft Office simply isn’t that expensive and it’s very easy to hire people who know how to use it and are comfortable wit
Table editing · 1
One user misses Word's behavior of tabbing from the last table cell into a new row.
“Missed that from MS office.”
Caveats and dissent
Lock-in · 3
Several say people use it because it is mandated or required for file compatibility, not by choice.
“Their Office suite is foisted on governments.”
“it made me quite angry when my university mandated that I use Microsoft Office for writing my bachelor's and master's papers, when LibreOffice is mostly good enough”
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“Office with its horrific file formats keep it around.”
Interface quirks · 2
Critics dislike the mouse-heavy ribbon and Office ignoring Windows conventions such as shift+click scrolling.
“that stupid ribbon interface that forces me to use the mouse”
“Infuriatingly, of all apps Microsoft Office doesn’t implement this!”
No Linux support · 2
There are no native Linux apps, and the Windows apps are described as nearly impossible to run under Wine.
“that stupid ribbon interface that forces me to use the mouse”
“the necessary evil of MS Office/Illustrator”
Weak web apps · 1
One public-sector user says the Office 365 web apps feel like toys and cannot handle complex tasks.
“I admit that their Office suite is pretty good.”
Commodity · 3
Some argue it is replaceable and not particularly good at anything.
“Most of MS Office is a commodity at this point. Not particularly good at anything it does actually.”
“Only morons use microsoft office products willingly.”
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“Some times I needed to use MSOffice for a paper. It was always problematic.”
Often compared with
5 moved from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice
1 moved from Microsoft Office to Google DocsCopilot2 comments mention bothWindows 112 comments mention both
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Danish Government silently drops plan to dump MS Office 2 mentions
- Microsoft degrades functionality of perpetually-licensed offline products 2 mentions
- Open-source Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word replications 1 mention
- A brief history of Windows scroll bar shortcuts 1 mention
- LibreOffice breaks download records after declaring it has no AI features 1 mention
- LibreOffice 26.8 Released with Many Nice Improvements 1 mention
Data: microsoft-office.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 20
“I admit that their Office suite is pretty good.”
“there really is no better option out there than Microsoft Office.”
“that stupid ribbon interface that forces me to use the mouse”
“Infuriatingly, of all apps Microsoft Office doesn’t implement this!”
“Missed that from MS office.”
“I have been extensively using LibreOffice alongside office 2019”
“Their Office suite is foisted on governments.”
“Nowadays I can figure out what to do in MS Office very quickly”
I feel they are pushing their own narrative without really having any evidence. We use Microsoft at work because we would either use Microsoft or Google for email. The email service is critical to the choice. We can’t run our own reliably and other vendors just don’t interoperate the same way. Microsoft Office simply isn’t that expensive and it’s very easy to hire people who know how to use it and are comfortable wit
“Malwarebytes, Microsoft Office. That's the software I'll install when I buy a new device.”
“Some times I needed to use MSOffice for a paper. It was always problematic.”
“Only morons use microsoft office products willingly.”
“the necessary evil of MS Office/Illustrator”
“Microsoft Office has never stopped being available as a one time purchase”
“Most of MS Office is a commodity at this point. Not particularly good at anything it does actually.”
“it made me quite angry when my university mandated that I use Microsoft Office for writing my bachelor's and master's papers, when LibreOffice is mostly good enough”
“For my needs Office on Windows is the best”
“I'm invested and familiar with Windows and Office.”
“I need some proprietary software packages such as Microsoft Office.”
“Office with its horrific file formats keep it around.”