In the past, most software I used was paid and proprietary and would have some sort of limitation that I would try to get around by any means possible. Sometimes that would be resetting the clock on my computer, disabling the internet, and other times downloading a patch.
But in the past few years I’ve stopped using those things and have focused only on free and open source software (FOSS) to fulfill my needs. I hardly have to worry about privacy problems or trying to lock down a program that calls home. I might be missing out on some things that commercial software delivers, but I’m hardly aware of what they are anymore. It seems like the trend is for commercial software providers to migrate toward online or service models that have the company doing all the computing. I’m opposed to that, since they can take away your service at any time.
What do you do?
About 20 years ago, I saw this exact same discussion on mozillazine. Everyone was raving about FOSS being nicer, friendlier, and more convenient, and how piracy is bothersome.
Then this guy posted a reply, to the tune of “Yeah, and now imagine your entire OS was like that… you should try it.”
A little later I did, and never looked back. For me, FOSS is convenience.
I use Arch btw.
Edit: I don’t pirate the mentioned software.
I’d love to use FOSS exclusively, but it’s frankly impossible under certain conditions.
Acrobat is a must. Alternatives such as Evince or their back-end library can’t handle the following situations:
- Formulars, such as calculating a sum based on the preceding fields.
- Field formatting, such as appending .00 to a currency amount conditionally upon field unfocus.
- Everything related to government forms due to the above.
- Large password protected PDF files.
Besides, if anything is wrong, you’re on the hook for not using Acrobat.
Microsoft Office is a must.
- OnlyOffice, WPS free as in free beer, and especially LibreOffice can’t handle anything beyond intermediate documents.
- OnlyOffice and WPS struggle with more advanced features, such as forms.
- LibreOffice notoriously renders Microsoft Office documents incorrectly in my experience.
- Everything in LibreOffice except LibreOffice Writer feels unpolished to me, particularly LibreOffice Calc.
- OnlyOffice supports only few fields.
- OnlyOffice permits free form input for fields that aren’t.
Adobe is a must.
- Alternatives don’t integrate as well with each other as Adobe apps.
- Rendering whatever you have to import that into another app is a slow workflow, compared to Adobe Premiere that embeds Adobe After Effects sequences, for example.
- Alternatives don’t support scripting sometimes. Scripting is necessary to speed up slow and error-prone manual processes.
- Adobe has a rich plugin ecosystem, whereas alternatives don’t support plugins at all, or don’t have any notable plugins.
- Alternatives don’t support Adobe file formats as well as Adobe.
You face similar problems to Adobe with alternatives, such as:
- Inconsistent keyboard shortcuts.
- Inconsistent file format support.
Overall, I’d love to, but can’t. FOSS isn’t good enough.
Formulars, such as calculating a sum based on the preceding fields.
- Field formatting, such as appending .00 to a currency amount
You’re doing it wrong. PDF with embedded javascript is a nightmare and it still doesn’t make PDF equal to excel.
Better generate your documents with your favourite HTML templating engine from your DB and convert them to simple PDF in the last step.
LibreOffice notoriously renders Microsoft Office documents incorrectly in my experience.
Only had that experience with badly designed, macro ridden documents which there’s no excuse for anyway nowadays. I use a lot of print templates (various label printers) and it works flawlessly.
Also, exporting a non MS file format usually imports fine in LibreOffice, even with complex documents.
The ability to quickly edit PDF makes it the office suite of my choice.
Yeah, but if your boss or client sends you a document that doesn’t work you’re not going to tell them “Uh well this is a badly formed document and you shouldn’t embed scripts and it’s your fault that my FOSS alternative application can’t work with this”. At least I hope you’re not.
At least I hope you’re not.
Of course I do and I expect my employees to report such incidents to IT. Such documents are common attack vectors.
In my experience, customers are not aware of failing interoperability or possible security threats and often grateful for such hints.
There’s a reason why libreoffice (and I guess other office suits aswell), evince or antivirus show a big, fat warning when opening such documents. Surely there are cases were macros are useful or necessary, but if they have to leave the company, you’re doing it wrong.
This talk might be interesting for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F2xMw3987I
The accounting department loves you. I’m sure the government will bow down to your demands, respect your security concerns, and adopt a more secure approach swiftly.
If you must deal with an organization that doesn’t give a shit about security, then you’re SOL. We live in the real world. If you don’t submit the government forms how they want you to, they shrug and fine the shit out of you. They couldn’t care less about the security risks their workflow poses on you.
You can mitigate the risks, but you never have absolute control. While Acrobat poses a security risk, not having Acrobat poses a business risk.
We live in the real world. If you don’t submit the government forms how they want you to, they shrug and fine the shit out of you.
Then you just don’t know the law. There is no legislation that enforces Acrobat in any civilized country without alternative.
Quite the opposite: Send macroridden documents to any decently secure infrastructure and you get a big fat warning in the subject if it’s not filtered entirely. Officials LOVE to do that extra call ensuring that this document is really from you before opening it and no phishing attempt…not.
Source: working >25 years in IT, >15 years for government IT
It’s a mix of both. On my windows gaming rig I have ms office, photoshop sketchup and fl studio pirated. I haven’t found a good foss alternative for photoshop, sketchup or flstudio (using gimp is worse than being an actuall gimp ). On my Linux laptop I’ve been using more and more foss. I’m getting use to Libre office but it doesn’t do everything I need. Switched chrome for Firefox, vscodium as a code editor, waydroid for Android apps
