Posted: August 13th, 2022

LibreOffice Computer Sciences and Information Technology

LibreOffice Computer Sciences and Information Technology
In Week 1, we explored the Google applications as alternatives for Microsoft Office. A different alternative we will explore this week is open-source software. The four most commonly used options are OpenOffice, LibreOffice, NeoOffice, and KOffice. Select one of these to research and discuss how they compare to the Microsoft Office products, benefits to using them vs. Microsoft Office, and potential downsides to the user.
LibreOffice
LibreOffice is an open-source and free product that has a clean user interface and feature-rich tools capable of supporting multiple document formats such as .doc, .docx, .xls, and .ppt. LibreOffice has various similarities and differences with Microsoft Office. The key difference between the two is that Microsoft Office product requires user purchase, while LibreOffice is free and open-source (Ellis, 2019). Although both LibreOffice and Microsoft Office runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac, it becomes complicated to run Microsoft Office on Linux. The program comparison is that they both offer similar programs except LibreOffice offers Math and Draw programs offered by Microsoft Office but does not come with an email program as in Microsoft Office. The other difference is that Microsoft Office includes an inbuilt cloud service which is not included in LibreOffice.
Using LibreOffice offers various benefits over Microsoft Office, including saving costs related purchase as LibreOffice is completely free while Microsoft Office is purchased. The other benefit is that LibreOffice’s installation process is much easier and consumes less space on the computer (545 MB) compared to Microsoft Office that requires up to 3000 MB. Since Microsoft Office 2007 was introduced, the simple fixed menu that had been in place was replaced with an every changing ribbon making it difficult to use compared to the traditional menu used in LibreOffice that is easier to use (Spring & Hanson, n.d.). The other benefit of LibreOffice over Microsoft Office is its compatibility, which allows it to convert and open different file formats, including Microsoft Word, Excel, Publisher, Adobe PDF, and HTML formatting. However, LibreOffice has various potential downsides to the user, including lack of technical support as part of the package, is slower than Microsoft Office, and uses a lot of memory.
References
Ellis, C. (2019). Microsoft Office vs LibreOffice. TechRadar. Retrieved from https://www.techradar.com/news/microsoft-office-vs-libreoffice
Spring, D. & Hanson, E. (n.d.). Benefits of LibreOffice Homework help – Writer. Learn Linux and Libre Office. Retrieved from https://learnlinuxandlibreoffice.org/5-benefits-of-libreoffice-writer#:~:text=There%20are%20at%20least%20five,less%20space%20on%20your%20computer.

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