None of the things you listed are suitable replacements for Excel. None.

It has nothing to do with existing files/compatibility. Excel is unparalleled.

hoistbypetard 21 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That depends on your workload. I've been using Excel since 1993, and I find the things I've listed help me get things done just as well as Excel does, unless I have a pile of macros and vbscript I need to interop with.

This is not theoretical; I learned it by needing to get shit done in a context where having an activated copy of Excel wasn't practical. Excel was paralleled and in one case surpassed.

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array_key_first 21 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The solution is actually just not using Excel. If you're essentially using Excel as a LOB backend and database, that should probably not be in Excel.

It's fine if you have a few formulas. As soon as you're busting out macros it's time to sunset the workbook and make an application. There's a lot of God Excel workbooks sitting around on share drives with no audibility or quality control.

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justapassenger 17 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes, there's many many cases that should likely not be using Excel.

But given that Excel is the second-best tool for everything, world runs on it.

And when you try to build systems to replace Excel for a specific task, you quickly learn how extremely powerful Excel is and how hard is to replace it and add value that customers would care about.

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array_key_first 16 hours ago | parent [-]

I've been there, the problem is that replacements are not as versatile or "floppy". But that's also a good thing, because Excel is too versatile to the point where most workbooks are filled with bugs on top of bugs and nobody cares.

	▲	justapassenger 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, bugs in sheets are worst part of excel, by far. But many end users prefer dealing with bugs than with inflexible software that doesn’t understand all the different ways how real world is messy and hard to model. I hate using Excel. But I 100% understand why world runs on it.

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baranul 15 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Have to disagree. It depends on what you are doing. That the alternatives can be replacements, including the open source ones, is relative and should be looked at as a percentage.

If you listed out all the things that Excel can do, we might find that the alternative is at 80% or so (just a number), with some additional things that Excel can't do. That 80% could be good enough to switch. It should not be looked at as "all or nothing", especially for every person or business.

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chris_wot 21 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Can it open Quattro Pro files?