It's interesting how aggresively enthusiastic HN are about Excel when it comes to discussions about Excel vs. open-source alternatives. Any mention of alternatives are quickly and aggresively shot down, ocassionally to the point of personal attacks (if you're satisfied with LibreOffice you don't have real job, etc.).
On the meanwhile, just a few threads ago there was a (quite fair) browser benchmark where Chrome comes up on top on almost every test. People in the comments instantly rushes in proclaiming how proud they are for using Firefox even if it is technically inferior, solely because it is not owned by Google.
I think it comes from users being deceived by the product UX. My impression is that using Firefox, I often don’t miss other browsers. Using Libre Office makes me miss Excel, Keynote et al. I can’t pinpoint it to a single thing, it just feels dated and inferior. Open source in general seems to work better for infrastructure than applications, even if I have my own favorites. It partly has to do with the lack of product teams like designers, but also that an app is a single endpoint that makes a hard business to sell multiple flavors.
On the meanwhile, just a few threads ago there was a (quite fair) browser benchmark where Chrome comes up on top on almost every test. People in the comments instantly rushes in proclaiming how proud they are for using Firefox even if it is technically inferior, solely because it is not owned by Google.
What's up with this divide? Firefox user, btw.