this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2026
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As much as I'd wish otherwise, there's still genuinely no par to Microsoft Excel, the one software almost all businesses and orgs in the world run on. That status has remained despite Microsoft trying their best to enshittify it through forced Onedrive and now Copilot.
For personal use, Libre office does everything I need. For work, Excel is an absolute beast. It doesn’t necessarily scale, but for those one off data comparison, manipulation, or validation often I can do it faster and easier than I can in SQL. VLookup was kinda cool. Index match is definitely powerful.
I still generally avoid the vb macros though I’ve found solutions online occasionally where they’re useful. (Reviewing the code to confirm it’s not malicious first of course.).
I mostly just import the data into PostgreSQL and write queries. Not because excel can't do it, but because I hate it.
I only need simple excel and mostly rely on word processing so I’ve never actually known what exactly ms excel has that libre doesn’t
Is it like actual macro/coding capabilities within excel or just convenience/file compatibility stuff?
I think the main issue I've seen is when people need bug-for-bug (or nearly so) compatibility with VB macros.
For me it's the macros. Simple ones will work in LibreOffice Calc but the more complex ones crash.
Since Google sheets came around I've always found freaking with excel more of a headache so I've not touched it for a loooong time. Only the reader version when someone sends me an xlsx in an email
Fair, I still use Office 2007 via Wine. Even the newest one has the killer features (unless it's the awful web version) but your willingness to use it depends on how strong your aversion towards proprietary OSs and AI is