Excerpt
For a long time, Microsoft Office has been the reigning champ of office suites, but that doesn't mean the free alternative, LibreOffice, isn't worth considering. Let's take a look at how the two compare, and if it's finally possible to ditch the paid option for the free one.
You might not think it's really fair to compare the free LibreOffice and the paid Microsoft Office, but the two are a lot closer in features than you might think. For one, LibreOffice is compatible with a lot more systems, including Windows, OS X, and Linux, while Microsoft Office's newest version is restricted to just Windows 7 and Windows 8. Besides: it’s not about which one is “better” or “more feature filled.” It’s about whether your work requires what Microsoft has to offer, or if you can get by with something free and save a bit of money. Now, with LibreOffice reaching 4.1, we've decided it's time to give it an in-depth comparison with Microsoft Office.
While we certainly can't go through each feature one-by-one, we'll attempt to get a good look at how they compare. If you're interested in looking for a specific feature, head to this page and search for it on the table. It should give you a pretty good idea of exactly which features are in which suite. In this post, we're going to talk in more general terms.
The full article has comparison screenshots and explanations and a "The Bottom Line" for each common application (word processing, spreadsheets, database, presentation). Also note the link above to the comparison table.
I use LibreOffice at home.
