Marketing & Social Research Association – MSRA

If you ever decide to switch to Linux in 2018, don’t worry about missing out on Microsoft Office. I personally have no issues with MS Office. However, it is a commercial product meaning that it is illegal to use without a license. And if you are not involved in a profitable business operation, purchasing or upgrading MS Office to run on your desktop (not cloud!) can get very expensive.

So why bother feeling guilty about using commercial unlicensed software? There are plenty of free or open source offerings that work perfectly well on OS X, Windows and Linux, too.

I must also admit one positive observation from using a free or open source Office applications like LibreOffice version 6 in 2018: Wow, they look really professional and are extremely reliable.

LibreOffice Calc - version 6

Need perfect MS Office file compatibility?

Most importantly, you’ll notice some really cool and innovative features that you won’t find MS Office unless you buy the most recent versions.

If file compatibility with MS Office documents is of top priority, try WPS Office (previously known as KingSoft Office) which is developed in China with over “1.2 billion installs worldwide.” It can read and save to all the most recent MS Office document formats without any problems. LibreOffice 6 is also very good, but many online reviews cite WPS Office with much better MS Office compatibility.

More info

If you still require info on alternative MS Office software, I urge you to give this FOSS Mint article a good read.

The Best Free Office Suites for Linux in 2018

Happy exploring!